Qu Jianfang, a well-known animation artist, the general director of the series "The Story of Avanti" and the art design, died in Shanghai on March 19, 2021 at the age of 86 due to ineffective medical treatment. Qu Jianfang's family followed his will and funeral, so he released the news to friends in the industry a few months after his death.
Qu Jianfang has successively served as a landscape painter in the animation group of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, an art designer and director of the puppet film group, and his representative works include "Genius Acrobat", "This is a Song" and "The Story of Avanti". "Avanti - Planting Gold" won the 1980 Ministry of Culture Outstanding Film Award, the Popular Film Hundred Flowers Award, and the 1980 American Oscar Film Festival Honorary Certificate. His series "The Story of Avanti - The Divine Doctor" won the first prize for animated short film at the 1989 Chicago International Children's Film Festival.
On July 30, 2016, Qu Jianfang said in an interview with Fu Guangchao that he talked about the creation of the image of Avanti.
My feelings for the animated image of Avanti are like that of my own children
(Excerpt from "I am willing to be a friend of Avanti" - Qu Jianfang interview)
Fu Guangchao: The material of the doll in "Watermelon Cannon" is not exactly the same as the later "Avanti (Planting Gold)", but we feel that the comic-style modeling style should be the same.
Qu Jianfang: Yes, I was still an art designer when Director Jin Xi made "Avanti (Planting Gold)", which is one of the gift films created by the factory to welcome the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. At that time, we had to go deep into life to make films, and only with a basis could we create, so we went to Kashgar, Xinjiang, to go out on location and live. I took Chen Shaoyuan and Cheng Zhongyue, who designed the sets and props, to the first batch, and the action design also went together. Jin Xi and Liu Huiyi, the two directors, arrived in the second batch and stayed for a short time. Because Jin Xi fell ill with a leg when he joined the army, we asked the director to go back first, don't stay up here, we continue to stay and collect materials.
When I got there, I felt that my eyes were full of earth yellow, the small mud houses were earth yellow, the slopes and canyons were also earth yellow, and the camel caravans and horses were all dust. In fact, the sky is blue, but as an artist, this environment gives me the impression of being yellow, so I designed the sky in Avanti to be yellow. In this way, the whole tone is unified and the character image is highlighted. Through the local Han Chinese, we found an Uighur "old master" as an interpreter, visited mosques and various buildings, learned their language, etiquette and customs, and interviewed their hometowns.
Once we went to a big house, they heard that we were going to shoot "Avanti", they were very polite, and the hostess invited us to eat pilaf. Their action of eating pilaf is very distinctive, after grabbing the rice and putting it in their mouths, they have to rub their mouths, and we also learned it, and later the action design was also used when shooting. There is a family owner who looks fat and very plump, and when I look at it, I think that the image of Mr. Bayi and Bayi Po is them, so I will draw their portraits for reference. I asked my assistant Chen Shaoyuan to draw all the props that might be used, and the reference materials for plates, bowls, and various patterns were available.
I listened to the locals tell all kinds of Avanti stories and read all kinds of material about Avanti. "Avanti" has the meaning of "sir" in the Uyghur language, in fact, his name is Nassertin, Nassertin Avanti is Mr. Nassertin, later referred to as "sir", so we all call him Avanti. I saw that the Avanti painted by Turkey and other countries was basically the image of a white-bearded old man, so I asked the locals, what do you imagine Xinjiang Avanti look like? They said they were young adults in their thirties and forties. Later, I stood on the side of the road with an oil painting box on my back and looked at it to see if I could find a good prototype. At this time a line of camels came, and one of them was a young man of about thirty years old, leading a camel, very energetic, with a goatee. I thought Avanti was him, so I asked the translator to consult with him, went to my hometown and painted an oil portrait of him, and after the painting was finished, I asked him to sign a name on it, and I stayed.
The realistic image is there, what style is used in the modeling in the film? How to create? I saw a group of Tang Sancai in one of the corridors of their museum, and those Sancai figures were all riding camels, and the images were all round, very general, very refined. This inspired me a lot, if I design a general two-dimensional animation shape, then it is difficult to make a puppet, and it is too realistic and not good-looking, as an even, the shape must be refined. Therefore, Avanti's form absorbed the characteristics of Tang Sancai, but the whole body was too round, too symmetrical, not good-looking, and had no sense of humor, what to do? I designed him to be long in the upper body, short in the lower body, and the arms and torso were thin and thick, flattened and rounded, so that the deformation was good and witty. Uighur characters often decorate the shape of leaf petals, and I painted Avanti's eyebrows into three leaf petals.
In the film, Avanti also hangs a gourd on his waist, what is going on? I saw that the gourd carried by the locals of Kashgar contained something called "Nas", which they said was a stimulant, like the Han Yindan, used to refresh the mind. In fact, in our film, Avanti never eats this, but if I design the gourd, the Uighurs can understand it when they see it. Uyghur men generally wear a white veil on their heads, called "Saran", and when I designed Avanti, I especially let him wear Saran crookedly, which seemed humorous, and there was a streamer dragged behind him, so it was very dynamic. Avanti's relationship with the donkey is also very important, I let him ride the donkey with a branch in his hand, why didn't he take the whip? Because the donkey was his old companion, he took the branch and shook it, and the donkey understood what he meant.
Fu Guangchao: He sometimes rides a donkey backwards.
Qu Jianfang: Riding a donkey upside down is also available, but I don't use much. Why? The former murderer was to ride a donkey backwards after sentencing, so you see Avanti riding backwards for a while and then turn back, which is a feeling of humor, and the old upside-down ride is troublesome. Therefore, these details have no life background, and they cannot be done without investigation. With these details, it is also necessary to extract from them, and summarize the character characteristics and image characteristics of Avanti from the essence.
Fu Guangchao: What links do you need to go through to make a flat art model into a stereoscopic doll?
Qu Jianfang: In addition to drawing modeling design drawings, art design also has to draw production drawings and determine production materials, and the production team also thinks of ways together, and the last person responsible for puppet production is Sun Daheng. The skeleton I designed is to use silver wire to string the arms and fingers together, we have tried and found that the flexibility of the silver wire is the best, the movement of the upper limbs can be done very delicately, and the silver wire can be refined after it is used up. Later, we went to the school to teach the use of copper wire, because the school conditions are limited, but the effect of copper wire is not as good as silver wire.
Before the "Watermelon Cannon" character head shape is mainly made of plaster, the disadvantage of plaster is that the surface is not slippery, and the pull is also very heavy. Therefore, the doll head of the character in "Avanti" is made of plastic bubble film, and the outside is wrapped with stockings, which looks like a rag doll texture. This method of wrapping stockings I have tried since the beginning of "New Things on the Side of the Road", which is equivalent to telling the audience that this thing is fake, but it has vitality and character when it moves.
The eyes of the characters are cut into small petals with ping-pong ball skin, painted black, and pasted on the face of the doll. Because the skin of the table tennis ball is thin, various types can be cut out. When the character needs to blink his eyes, he still uses the stockings to cut out various large and small eyelids to paste, and change the eyelids one by one. Sometimes the characters in the film want to shed tears, so we first draw the animation of the teardrops, and then let the production team turn them into glass beads, and then replace them one by one when shooting. Different mouth shapes are made of small iron sheets, and the mouth of the even head is equipped with iron absorbing stones, so that the mouth shape is also rich.
To make clothing, we must think of ways, such as making shoes for Avanti to choose the right thin skin. The most thoughtful thing is to choose the fabric. Because the fabric sold outside is measured one by one, but we can't actually use it, isn't that wasteful? I took the production team to the cloth store in the wholesale market to buy all kinds of cloth patterns, and the cloth pattern was as big as a handkerchief, and it was enough to make a puppet costume. Because when shooting, four or five stalls start shooting at the same time, Avanti's idol should do six, and Avanti has more white cloth, so the white cloth can be pulled one or two inches.
Fu Guangchao: Can you talk about the Oscar nomination of "Avanti (Kind of Gold)"?
Qu Jianfang: At that time, our country sent "Avanti (planting gold)" to participate in the Academy Awards for animated short films, and actress Lu Yan was one of the oscar judges, and she said that the judges all thought "Avanti (planting gold)" was good, but our film was longer than the film festival's short film length. Because we made four small films in this scene, they wanted us to cut it to 25 minutes or 30 minutes. As a result, we didn't cut it and sent it, so we didn't comment on it. But then they gave a certificate saying that the entire jury appreciated the film. We are also very happy that they recognize our work.
Interview, filming: Fu Guangchao
Interview location: Shanghai Huating Hotel Cafe
Interview transcript collation, proofreading, editor: Fu Guangchao
Edit: Jiang Fang