With the body of a lion, burn the soul of a teenager
------------------
If you let domestic animation not dream or myth, and then throw away the classic IP images of Nezha, Wukong, and White Lady, can there be a future?
Yes. Because on that day, after seeing the recent hit animation "Lion Boy", he could answer without hesitation: "Yes".
Douban open score 8.3, the new domestic animation "ceiling"
Recently, you must have heard about the animation of "Lion Boy", which has just been released for a long time. On-demand screenings received 17 million box office, douban opened a score of 8.3.
From the star blog recommendation to the crazy Amway of the friends around, almost everyone is praising this animation as the "ceiling" of the new domestic anime!
In fact, to talk about the plot, the story of "Lion Boy" is not complicated, it tells the story of A Juan, a left-behind teenager in rural Guangzhou, in order to learn the lion dance, formed a lion dance team with her friends A cat and dog around her.
But there's still a long way to go from owning a lion dance team to actually dancing lions.
From learning from a teacher, to her father's sudden accident and bedridden, to being forced to work in the city, to briefly giving up the dream of lion dance, to finally insisting on training to complete her dreams, etc., what we see during this period is that Ah Juan has become strong from weakness.
In the final lion dance final, Ah Juan created a miracle on the field and became a real "male lion", the plot exploded the whole audience, and the line in the film "As long as the drum can still sound in the heart, we are the male lion" is even more boiling!
Although it seems that the story of "Lion Boy" is indeed simple in context and completed in one go, the so-called "one minute on stage, ten years offstage", about the design aesthetics and production story behind the movie, it needs to go through thousands of hammers.
Then, let's take a look at the design aesthetics and production stories behind "Lion Boy" with Hinata Jun.
The design aesthetics of Lion Boy
· The poster was unanimously praised by the whole network ·
As a design blogger, the first thing to notice is the poster part.
From before the first release to now, "The Lion Boy" has produced several versions of posters that have made the whole network praise.
First of all, these two heavy color ink posters full of Chinese style, the bold collision of red and black, the large male lion head and the small three protagonists form a sharp contrast, and the handwritten "Male Lion Boy" further emphasizes the youthful enthusiasm of the whole poster.
And the phrase "the sick cat rises, the mud shines" and "as long as the drum can still sound in the heart, we are the male lion", but also poked in the heart of each of us "male lion".
And this version of the poster only has black and gold, compared to the above is a little more calm and calm, the middle lion's firm eyes directly point out the climax of the entire animation, but also highlight the theme of the animation.
If you ask, as an excellent folk art in China, what kind of painting techniques are most correct to express the lion dance? Then the following version of the poster, with a freehand technique, can be said to be very perfect for us to see the teenager who "does not recognize".
Of course, the 3D modeling version of the poster must not be less, and the male lion who has only half of the head left to be stepped on by others, pieced together the other half of the face of the protagonist Ah Juan, and cleverly formed a perfect male lion.
Seeing this, I can't help but sigh, the poster of "Lion Boy" this time can really be described as a fairy fight, and even the rare sketches used in the big IP of film and television are really amazing this time.
The next group is more unwilling to show weakness, from Weibo @ has a circle of light on the head of the hand.
"Strong", "Ying" and other handwritten brush words are dashing and atmospheric, with the teenager who is dancing the lion, just looking at the poster is enough to ignite the blood in the heart!
It is this group of posters that has been praised by netizens one after another, and said: "This is the Yazi that domestic animation should have."
Compared with the above surging blood, the next group of posters completely changed a painting style.
It is full of relaxed, entertaining, and childlike atmosphere, and if you taste carefully, you will find that the words under each person's feet have different variations according to different character settings, which can be described as well-intentioned.
What do you think? It is absolutely not an exaggeration to say that the poster of "Lion Boy" is wonderful this time.
· Scene Design: Recreating Real Rural Life ·
Along with the poster, which was praised by everyone, there was also the scene design. Lush trees, permeated with sunlight, depict the good and slow times in the village.
The camera follows the trajectory of the bicycle, shuttling between the city, and suddenly there is a smell.
The reflection in the water and the blooming flowers are the real mountain scenery in our hearts.
· Light and Shadow Aesthetics: Let Light Guide Teenagers ·
In addition to the scene design, "The Lion Boy" also likes to use "light and shadow" to present the effect. For example, the light of the setting sun appears several times in the film.
The light from the mountains and forests through the trees.
There is also the light that shines through the reinforced concrete urban forest.
It can be said that "Lion Boy" is not only a bloody animation itself, but also a different flavor in visual presentation. Makoto Shinkai had to give a thumbs up when he saw it.
Behind the production story: Spend 10 hours for a frame of animation
Of course, in addition to the design aesthetics, the production story behind "The Lion Boy" is also very moving, whether it is the character setting or the development direction of the story, let us see the seriousness and care of director Sun Haipeng and the production team behind it.
· The story is set in 2005 and intentionally ·
At the director's request, the story was set in 2005 on his own.
He once said in an interview: "2005 was a more representative year, when there were both mobile phones and some nostalgic elements."
Therefore, the year 05 is a superposition of the old era and the new era, which further increases the many possibilities of plot development.
· Director and team learn lion dance together ·
The time of the development of the story is determined, and then the "lion dance" theme is established.
Since the lion dance is to be held, the production team must study it in all directions. So it's not just the directors who have been learning for three days, but also their animation team, special effects team and music team.
As the director said, "If we don't figure out the characteristics of the lion dance, the feeling of our production is not right." Including when playing drums, how they hold the drumsticks, where they hold them, and what the jewelry and patterns on the lion's head are, we have to study clearly. ”
· For a frame of animation, 10 hours of ambush ·
So how to dance the lion is on the one hand, how to accurately depict the color and hair of the lion dance itself is another problem.
Everyone should feel that in such animation production, hair production is an extremely difficult point.
Especially in the scene of the final lion final, there are 130 lion dances in one shot, more than 1800 spectators in the stands, and countless characters on the roadside and bridge outside.
So the production team behind it, for that 7 or 8 minute final, spent three months, and the hardest frame took 10 hours to complete.
· For authenticity, visiting villages ·
In addition, there are production problems on the scene, and director Sun Haipeng mentioned in the interview that he wants to make a more grounded story.
Therefore, the main place of the film is set in the countryside. But the problem is that the village created by the team is like a park, with trees, rivers and houses, but there is no fireworks.
To this end, the team dispatched all the staff to visit Baizhang Village and Beishui Village in Shunde City, Foshan, to feel the changes in the village's vegetation throughout the year.
But it is easy to forget after visiting, such as the kapok forest in the anime, which was developed after they failed several times and moved the special effects supervisor's desk and computer together to the kapok tree.
Makoto Shinkai looked at it and had to give it a thumbs up.
· Character Setting: Normal ·
Let's talk about the character setting, which is the only bad review about "Lion Boy" that Ri ZhanJun has received in recent days, and some netizens say that its character setting is too ugly.
It is true that with the mainstream aesthetic and compared with conventional anime, there is no doubt that the characters are not so good-looking, but this also highlights the director's intention: ordinary.
Including the characters around him, A cat and dog, it is also unassuming, and even if it is thrown into the crowd, it will disappear.
But it is also in response to the words on the poster, ah, the rise of the sick cat, the mud shines.
· Hong Kong-style humor: A Tribute to Stephen Chow ·
Finally, there is a little bit of the director's elaborate easter egg, for example, there is a line in the film: Tomorrow people will have to go to work.
Do you feel very familiar, yes, this is a tribute to Stephen Chow's movie "Kung Fu".
And there are many such similar Easter eggs, the day station Jun here will not do spoilers, everyone go to the theater to feel it for themselves.
"Lion Boy": The rise of the sick cat, the mud shines!
Generally speaking, the domestic animation of the mythological series we often see, the character setting is often like this, the protagonist is born with divine power, but for various reasons, he has been bullied since childhood, but most of them will experience some tribulations, awaken to become strong, and thus change the trajectory of life.
But "The Lion Boy" is different in that there is only one or more ordinary people from beginning to end.
And most of the time in our lives are ordinary people Ajuan, or other people's lives of cats and dogs, not as wonderful as the protagonists in myths and TV series, and they will not experience pain and suffering to be strong enough to open a copy of life and change the trajectory of destiny.
Just like Ah Juan after the lion dance final created a miracle at the end of the film, life did not become so, but returned to reality again and continued to work and live.
But don't forget, love is enough to give us courage. Just as the lion gave Ah Juan courage - although it cannot change the trajectory of his life, it can make him strong.
Yes, being strong is enough, and whenever the drums can still ring in our hearts, we are lions!
bibliography:
"Lion Boy" hit in the director revealed the behind-the-scenes production process China News Network
Station B @ Movie Channel Rong Media Center "Lion Boy" Director Sun Haipeng: Ordinary teenagers also have highlight moments Hong Kong-style humor tribute to Zhou Xing
Weibo @ Movie Lion Boy, @ Has an Aperture on The Head
Image Material:
Some of the image material comes from the Internet