Yuan Gong in the Heavenly Palace stole the Heavenly Book, carved it in a stone cave, and was later stolen by three foxes. Egg born from a swan egg in human form, after learning spells, he and Yuan Gong together to destroy the fox demon... 38 years ago, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio produced the classic animation "Tianshu Qitan". Yesterday, the restored "Tianshu Qitan 4K Commemorative Edition" debuted on the big screen, and the film will be officially released nationwide on November 5 this year. At the same time, the "Rehaul the Old" classic Video 4K restoration plan organized by Watermelon Video and Volcano Engine was launched in Beijing, and the 100 classic animations are expected to be renewed, and the treasures of more classic images will be reopened.
Adhering to the aesthetic of "Qiqumei", it is of landmark significance in the history of Chinese animation
"Tianshu Qitan" adopts the way that the public likes to hear, conveys the main purpose of punishing evil and promoting good, and has the reputation of "the master of China's excellent traditional culture", which is a milestone in the history of Chinese animation. In the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, there was a saying that animation should uphold the aesthetic of "strange and beautiful" - that is, wonderful, interesting and beautiful, and the reason why "Tianshu Qitan" reached this high level was inseparable from the efforts of the creators. In order to draw the mouth shape of the corresponding character, the painters used the stopwatch to determine the time required for the line, working overtime day and night for three years; after the staff drew lines and colored on the celluloid, the director Qian Yunda silently dubbed himself one by one, fully devoted; Cao Lei, the actor who voiced the role of "Little Emperor", learned to "speak with half a mouthful of water, closer to the role"... Artists of the older generation have created classics with such ingenuity.
"Tianshu Qitan 4K Commemorative Edition" was restored by Migu Company, a subsidiary of China Mobile, in 4K ultra-high definition. While greatly improving the clarity of the picture, the restoration team successfully retained the original brushstrokes of the animation and the grain of the film from decades ago. In order to solve the problem of excessive color on the pink edges of some pictures, color suppression treatment is also done for these pictures alone, so that the whole film maintains harmony and unity in color. When processing the picture, the restoration team used different AI network models to analyze the picture characteristics of different scenes, targeted model training, integration of compression distortion, denoising, detracering, color enhancement, super-resolution and other tasks, continuous testing, repeated tuning, effectively remove screen noise, sharpen edges, improve color saturation.
4K restoration is a classic inheritance and a cultural innovation
In 2014, after the Shanghai International Film Festival created the first "4K Restoration" unit, "4K Restoration" entered the public eye. Subsequently, professional institutions such as the China Film Archive and the China Film Digital Base successively launched 4K restoration plans. In recent years, video platforms such as iQiyi and Youku have also joined the restoration team.
4K fixes are not easy. Public information shows that many old cartoons use film as a storage medium, which will fade, scratch, noise and other problems due to the passage of time, and the restoration process is complicated and trivial. Wu Yunyue, a restorer at Shanghai Film Studio, once said: "The resolution of 4K is as high as 4096×3112, which is equivalent to 4 times that of 2K restoration."
According to Zhao Shijie, a researcher at the Volcano Engine Multimedia Laboratory, through technical means such as super resolution and intelligent interpolation, the video resolution and fluency of old films can be improved. In addition, the volcano engine has an independent video quality evaluation system, customizing the restoration plan for each old film to achieve the best restoration effect.
With the continuous iterative update of 4K restorations, the treasures of classic Chinese images have been reopened. The 4K restored version of six classic animation works, such as "The Legend of Nezha", "Hulu Brothers" and "Black Cat Sheriff", has been launched on Watermelon Video. In the coming year, 4K restored versions of 100 cartoons such as "Haha Mirror Flower Edge" and "Shuk and Beta" will also be launched on Watermelon Video. Ren Lifeng, president of Watermelon Video, said that repairing classics is inheritance, and it is also the use of new technologies to maximize the restoration of works, bringing new feelings and new cognition. In addition, Watermelon Video will also open the repair entrance and provide free AI repair support for ordinary users.
It is worth mentioning that the watermelon video will focus on the medium video content that is between 1 minute and 30 minutes long. Compared with short videos, most of the medium videos are horizontal screens, which require creators to invest more energy in special production. According to public information, since the establishment of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, more than 80% of the more than 500 animation films produced within 30 minutes have accounted for more than 80%, which are the most classic Chinese videos.
Author: Wang Licheng
EDIT: Wei Zhong