Author: Voice Recorder/Anitama Cover Source: Kung Fu Chef
Wolf Smoke Studio, founded in Shanghai in 2006 by Human Wolf and Speechless, has gone through ten years. The studio takes the original high-quality two-dimensional hand-drawn animated short films and samples as the main production direction, and has produced some high-level works with distinctive styles during these years, which have been unanimously praised at home and abroad and affirmed by the industry. Today we will walk into Wolf Smoke Studio and get a closer look at some of the most special animation studios in China, how they have persevered over the years.
<h5>Human Wolf (CLOUD YANG</h5>).
In 2001, he began to study painting, first studied and participated in the production of paper cuts at the American Film Studio, and then entered the Japanese animation company to start the original painting study. He has successively entered Shanghai Hongguang Animation, Wuxi Far East Animation and other companies to engage in design drafts and original paintings, and has also done FLASH animation director and film and television advertising storyboard design. After establishing Wolf Smoke Animation Studio with Wordless in 2006, he has concentrated on creating original animation. Mainly responsible for the director, storyboarding, original painting and other parts.
<h5>CLOVER XIE</h5>
Influenced by his family, he has loved painting since he was a child and has long been engaged in the creation of illustrations and comics. The graduation project "On the Road" is the first complete original animation work and won the Golden Dragon Award for Best Styling Design. After working with the human wolf, he began to draw and assign the animation background, as well as comic creation, animation script, planning and coordination, and art design.
Although many people know your name, there are still some people who do not know how Wolf Smoke Studios was formed?
Speechless: When I first started in 2006, I was at a game company, and Man-Wolf was mainly doing animation processing, outsourcing films in Japan and the United States. Soon after we met, we once mentioned in the chat, whether to try to do some original animation, at that time there were very few domestic original animations, not as mature as the current market, it is difficult to do original animation, especially the entire industry is somewhat depressed, many people are preparing to change careers, from the animation industry out. It's a pity that we see these people who have changed careers, and many of them are people with many years of experience, so they give up. So I wanted to do something, decided to set up an animation studio, in fact, there are only two people, wolf smoke This name is also named with the ID of the two of us, Wordless and Human Wolf, and so it has come all the way to the present. In fact, I didn't think too much at the beginning, and there was no particularly big goal, that is, I just wanted to make the work first.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST WORK YOU DID?
Wordless: The first work we did was called "Little Cactus", and now I look at some rudimentary works, about a minute. Basically, the two of us did it, and the later part was to turn over the book while doing it, and sell it now, so that this work could be made.
——Remember that you graduated from the Animation Department of the Communication University of China, so you two are doing animation, how to divide the work?
Speechless: Although I graduated from the animation department, when I graduated from college to do graduate animation, I knew that I was still good at manga, mainly static, so I was responsible for some character settings and scenes, art, and scripts. The human wolf is a wild animator, not an animation graduate, but has been drawing outsourced animation exercises, so he is better at storyboarding, original painting, animation and action design. This is also the way the two of us divide our work.
- How did you maintain the studio in the early days?
Speechless: In the early days, there was no money, and the human wolf alone did not have any cooperation in doing it, so the production speed was also a little slow. At that time, it was mainly supported by the income of the wordless job, and it was not until 2008 that I had a commercial job, that is, "Shushan" commissioned by Xiamen Tianxi Cultural Communication Co., Ltd.
- There was a gap of two years.
Speechless: More than a year, after all, there was no profit in doing original short film animation at that time, and everyone who worked hard to make it was gone after watching it, so we still did more of the staff as the main. At that time, the human wolf also went to work in the game company for a while, and later he felt that this kind of nine-to-five, drawing according to the requirements of others was not suitable for him, and then he came back to continue to develop wolf smoke animation.
——So is this "Shu Mountain" a list that you have contacted yourself? How long did it take?
Speechless: "Shushan" was introduced by a friend, when the company said that it needed to make a short film, a friend knew about it and recommended us, because it was the first time to take this kind of commercial order, and I also felt that the subject matter was interested, just next. In terms of production, it was about 7 months, and although the film was quite short, we did spend a lot of energy.
Screenshot of the Shushan animation.
- For such a long time, is it mainly done by two people? Didn't you do recruitment at that time?
Speechless: There have always been recruits, but it is not easy to meet the right, and the requirements of the human wolf have always been relatively high, it is difficult to find someone who can match his ideas, and some people can't help but stay for a long time. For us, we still hope to be able to recruit people who can sit still and work for a long time, and this aspect still depends on fate.
- Do you value enthusiasm and technology?
Wordless: In fact, the technology can be achieved on the line, for the enthusiasm in fact, we do not attach great importance to it, after all, doing animation is a relatively boring job, pure enthusiasm is more difficult to last, which is also the reason why some people can't stay before. We pay more attention to the technical aspect, and it is still relatively rare to find a better painter, especially in China.
——I feel that various animation companies in China have also encountered such problems.
Speechless: After all, animation is a lonely industry, maybe you have worked hard to make a film for a year, people will watch it in ten minutes, and it is difficult to persevere without patience. And excellent talents are to go through years of training, no accumulation is difficult to exercise good technology, in this regard, the domestic animation companies are short of good talents, so it has also caused a lot of ability to jump ship.
——"Shushan" is your first commercial order, why didn't you continue to take on new commercial orders later?
Speechless: In fact, after doing "Shushan", we felt that we still had to continue to pick up our original goals, and at that time, we made a decision, it would take a year, not to take orders, and to do our original works well.
- So how do you make ends meet? Why not continue to take commercial orders?
Wordless: Rely on your previous savings to maintain it, after all, there is no money to do original works this time. As for the commercial list, mainly there is still no time to pick up, all our energy and time are focused on the original works, this time or three works to do together, these three works are each different style of "Cat Heaven and Cat Land", "Little War", "Kung Fu Lady", the length of time is different, but basically completed in the same year, these three works are also used as our advertising, showing the production ability of the work. And when we made "Shushan", we felt that the commercial list would be more restrictive, and the other party would sometimes have various requirements, such as meeting some of their requirements, but not necessarily what we were good at. In this regard, in fact, we prefer to be an equal docking. It's not that we don't like business, but we want to achieve a balance between business and art, even if it is a commercial list, we also hope that the other party chooses because of our style, rather than becoming the style he needs. In this regard, it is also a major reason why our commercial works are so small.
The most important food in Kung Fu Cook.
——After that, "Shanghai Batman" is a very obvious commercial list.
Speechless: Well, this is the role of the "tap water" propaganda. At that time, "Kung Fu Cook Girl" was liked by many people at home and abroad, and there was an animation website called Catsuka in France, which would display different animations from all over the world, and they put our "Kung Fu Cook Girl" on the home page and did a special interview, which attracted the attention of a management person in Warner in the United States. They were working on a project called DC Nation, which was broadcast on the Carton Network, and when they saw our work and thought the style was appropriate, they came to us.
——How did you think about taking this business order in the first place?
Speechless: When Warner came to the door, we were also surprised and did not expect such an opportunity. And Warner's request is very simple, it is three stories, there are no restrictions on other aspects, we considered the next and then came. On the one hand, it is relatively free, on the other hand, I hope that with the help of batman, I can get more display opportunities. Later, when this "Shanghai Batman" was played, many people knew about this work, and when we participated in the exhibition in the United States and put it here, many people came over and said, It turns out that you are the author, and said that they especially liked it.
Promotional poster for "Kung Fu Cook Lady".
——It is all the credit of "Kung Fu Lady", not only abroad, but also many domestic audiences also know wolf smoke animation through this film.
Speechless: In 2011, we launched three works at the same time, using three styles, which is also an exploration of the commercial style that we can accept, of which "Kung Fu Chef Lady" is done by the two of us and another animator, it takes time and energy, "Little War" and "Cat Heaven and Earth" We are mainly responsible for the pre-production and supervision, and the other is done by some employees and friends at that time. For example, "Cat Heaven and Cat Land" looks interesting and cute on the surface, and the design of the animal is biased towards the Q version, but the core is ironic reality. Among them, the more impressive one is "Kung Fu Chef Lady", probably because of the unique style and more action scenes.
——How did you think about doing this in the first place?
Speechless: The cause is a bit funny, some of our friends were doing FLASH animation, and they felt that using FLASH to make animations was more difficult to achieve the smoothness of the fight of hand-drawn animation. We thought we could try it, so I considered this kung fu plus food setting, and then added commercial elements such as Lolita, Royal Sister, and finally pieced it together, which is a smorgasbord of "Kung Fu Cook Lady".
Screenshot of the Kung Fu Cook Lady animation.
——So the production was all made of FLASH, especially the original part?
Speechless: In fact, this is the case, at the beginning there was a plan to use FLASH, and then found that it was very convenient to draw on FLASH when drafting and storyboarding, but when it came to the later draft, it was a bit troublesome, and then I simply turned the details of the later stage back to hand-drawn.
——How long did it take for such a 10-minute work to be completed?
Speechless: From the beginning of the idea, writing the script, drawing the storyboard and then to the final completion of the whole, about 8 or 9 months, there are still two other works in between.
- It's going to be hard for the two of you to start work at the same time, right?
Speechless: In fact, there is another one, responsible for the animation of some action parts in the middle, which is actually three people, but mainly the two of us are responsible for more. The original painting and animation parts are basically human wolves, he spends more time there, my side is more time-consuming in the early stage, and it is relatively less to start production. As for the synchronization of other works, it is a bit hard, but because we are only responsible for the early stage, it is good to calculate it, and more pressure is other people in charge of the later stage.
Screenshot of the Kung Fu Cook Lady animation
- So you're a bit like Motoko in Japanese anime?
Speechless: The original animation was basically wolf smoke studio, such as the two who did the "Little War", who were just graduated students at the time, and after exercising in our area for more than half a year, we planned to give them a chance to exercise, in addition to some settings in the early stage, other aspects were free to play by them, and we were more in the end to make a correction, adjust some problematic places, and help them modify.
——Did you go to participate in animation exhibitions at home and abroad after the completion of "Kung Fu Chef Lady"?
Speechless: In fact, there are quite a lot, and some of them are not our initiative to vote, it is the other party who sees our works, and then takes the initiative to invite us, in 2011, there are more, in fact, until now, these years have received some invitations.
- Remember when you also made a book about "Kung Fu Cook Lady"?
Wordless: That is the production process set, which introduces the production of various parts of the whole film, and most of them are original paintings, at the beginning we just saw someone asking for such a collection, printed 1,000 copies of it, originally thought that this kind of too professional book will not have too much attention, but did not expect that it will not be long before it will all be sold out. Well-known overseas painters bought 100 copies at a time, and I heard that they were used as demonstration materials for students.
"Kouo Ryoko" production and original art book sealing surface.
——This is considered to be unintentional willow insertion, and it also earns a small subsidy for the family.
Speechless: We really did not expect to sell well, at that time it was also limited to do, now there is none, I heard that now the price is still speculated in some places, the United States is also, anyway, we will not consider re-publishing, the price is high and has nothing to do with us.
To be continued
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Original: m.anitama.cn/article/d1b741c13e1a4138?utm_source=toutiao