Wuhu feature
Cute and innocent black beanie
Slightly wiggling ears when sniffing gently
The furry-looking, soft-bodied body fell together
Who can say no to such a cute little cute?
Gluttony has also become a cute spot on them
The occasional "confused" expression makes people can't help but be funny
But what bad thoughts can the little guinea pig have?
Timid ones tremble when frightened
Tears were already swirling in the eye sockets
Who is willing to bully this group of little cuties?
In the highly anticipated January new fan that can already be called "fairy fight", there is such an "unpopular" stop-motion animation that stands out! Within a month of broadcasting, the official Twitter increased by nearly 400,000 fans!
"PUI PUI Guinea Pig Car" is 2 minutes and 40 seconds per episode, and it is broadcast every Tuesday, and there is no dialogue in the whole film, but the little guinea pig bark that appears from time to time is not too cute! (PUI PUI refers to the call of a guinea pig)
The little guinea pig made of wool felt is transformed into a vehicle in the story, solving one puzzle after another with its own wisdom, and each episode teaches the audience a very educational truth in a light and humorous way.
For example, in the first episode of "Whose Fault it is that the traffic jam", the ambulance encounters the villain who dominates the road, and the guinea pig not only helps the patient to reach the hospital as soon as possible, but also teaches the selfish driver a small lesson.
The second episode, "Catch the Bank Robber", although it tells the story of the robbery of the bank, but also tells us how to deal with the crisis situation.
The third episode, "Rescue the Cat Battle", tells the story of the guinea pigs who rescue the cats locked in the car by their owners in the hot summer. Although they are afraid of cats, they rack their brains to rescue each other.
Although the little guinea pigs are used as a means of transportation, they will be afraid, worried, a little greedy, and will look for a place to shade in the hot summer, so who will not like the cute little ones?
No wonder some netizens expressed their willingness to set an alarm clock waiting for the update!
Some people think that "children only watch "Ghost Blade", and adults love to watch "PUI PUI Guinea Pig Car""
At the same time, a large number of second-hand creations and fan-made peripherals have emerged, and various linkages have also fully expressed people's love for guinea pig cars.
"PUIPUI Guinea Pig Cart" is linked to the Osaka Shoko Chain Store "道とん"
Vermicelli homemade the same food
*"PUIPUI Guinea Piggy Cart" two creations, picture transferred from Twitter
Why is it so appealing?
Who came up with such a lovely story?
The protagonist of today's wuhu feature is the director of "PUI PUI Guinea Pig Car" see Rishi Asahi!
But everyone better be mentally prepared, the director of this super cute stop-motion animation has a very amazing style of work in the past!
The first time you see it, you will definitely have this question in your mind: from the dark horror wind to the super cute and cute wind, what did he go through?
(Maybe this can be seen from his profile picture on social platforms, which is a smile but looks a bit maddening.) ）
See Rizhaohi
Rishi was born in Tokyo in 1992 and is 29 years old.
He graduated from the Department of Visual Communication Design, Faculty of Form-Making, Musashino University of Fine Arts in 2016, and ended his graduate career in 2018, specializing in animation at the Graduate School of Imaging, Tokyo University of the Arts.
He produced a number of stop-motion animations during his time at school, including "Look at me only" in 2016 and "Candy.zip" in 2017, which brought him back many awards.
"Look at me only" concept art
「Candy.zip」
As a graduate student, "My Little Sheep" not only won the Excellence Award in the Japanese division of the "2019 Japan Asian Short Film Festival", but also won the Grand Prize at the "Paris International Fantasy Film Festival", and in 2020, he was selected for the International Award "Young Guns" for young creators!
"My Lamb"
For commercial works, he directed the closing animation of "Hairball Tsuyoshiro" (2019 / TV Tokyo), and his unique style has been praised by many Japanese audiences.
Screenshot of "Hairball Gangjiro" ED
This work, "PUIPUI Guinea Pig Car", is the first TV anime series produced by Asahi as a director.
Next, let's take a look at the growth path of the big guy!
In 2010, Mori collaborated with his classmates in his preparatory class to produce his first hand-drawn animation.
The teacher requires that there is no limit to the middle content, but it must start with a square and end with a square. Same square, but everyone has different ideas. He later recalled that he was very eager to draw his first animation work, and did not consider issues such as movement speed.
Next up is a practice animation that Miri completed in 2011, in which he uses both images to show dogs and monkeys throwing food at each other.
Miri says he wants to use sound to express a sense of space so that viewers have a feeling of food being thrown next to them by the animated characters.
"Dog monkey relations"
In March 2013, Miri's first independently produced animated short film, "Natural Wave", was released, in which he used his daily life as inspiration to tell the various inconveniences of natural curls, such as the fact that even if you trim your hair, it will immediately become fluffy again.
(Do you remember the photo of the director himself released above?) Really a natural volume! ）
「Natural Wave」
Taking inspiration from everyday life is one of the hallmarks of Miri, as evidenced by a practice animation also made in 2013.
He uses the production method of live action + animation to show the charm of this culture through okinawan cuisine made by his family.
"Nanukuru-chanpuru"
The list of production staff at the end of the short film can be seen that almost Mizato took on the production task, but in addition to him, there is another person named "Mizuho Mizuho" who appears on the list.
Mizuho Mizuho is the older sister of Miri Asahi and is an actress by profession. The two have a good relationship, and see Rizuho in the first episode of "PUI PUI Guinea Pig Car", and also made a cameo appearance as a driver in a traffic jam.
See Rizuho
What's even more interesting is that in fact, the prototype of the protagonist in "PUIPUI Guinea Pig Car" and the guinea pig call that appears in the film are taken from the poodle "potato" of the same name raised by Mizuho Mizuho! It can be said that seeing Mizuho is of great significance to the successful launch of the "PUIPUI Guinea Pig Car"!
Prototype of the "potato"
If the above two animated short films show Miri's careful observation of life, then another practice animation he made in late 2013 hints at his future abrupt painting style.
「Jelly legs」
A bug with many legs stretches and stretches its legs in various color patches, and there seems to be no plot other than that, he named the short film "Jelly Legs".
Soon after, the short film "MUSACINE★is Monster" directed by Miri was unveiled to everyone.
The girls watch horror movies with their friends, but the actors' acting skills are boring, the werewolves are not terrible at all, and the girls are bland.
When this boredom swells to the extreme, all the viewers transform into monsters and personally go out on TV to intimidate werewolves and girls.
Amazingly, as the werewolf and the maiden dodged the monster, the two gradually became intimate...
At the end of the film, the audience laughs happily at the "satisfying" ending, but the lights in the room shine on them, and the sofa behind them reflects the outline of the monster.
Behind-the-scenes storyboards
This can be regarded as the first dark fantasy style story short film in the see, but it is not a "sudden change in style" on a whim, but "premeditated". After his later explanation in the interview, the audience learned that in fact, Rishi had already been obsessed with the black style when he was a freshman.
He watched Ghost Mama, directed by Henry Schellick, which not only made him fall in love with the black style, but was also the key to inspiring him to make stop-motion animation.
*Henry Schellick is very good at using stop-motion animation to discuss social issues. He spent seven years making Ghost Mother, in which the protagonist Caroline enters a parallel world through a mysterious door, and the seemingly well-intentioned ghost mother behind the door is like the lies, temptations and deceptions that children may encounter in real life. Through this dark fairy tale, Shellik mirrors some of the realities that parents neglect to care about their children.
Although Miri had been attracted by stop-motion animation at this time, the photographic equipment, lighting equipment, etc. that needed to be purchased to make stop-motion animation were too expensive, so he chose to start with two-dimensional animation to express his black style inspired by "Ghost Mother".
In 2014, Miri's new film "Love is an Elevator" was completed, and he likened the two neighboring elevators to lovers, but even if they were close, they were difficult to talk to each other face to face because they were elevators, and most of the time they could only pass by.
"Love is the elevator"
"The two elevators move vertically up and down, and are staggered by the will of others. It's like a person's love, which will not go smoothly because of the influence of the surrounding environment. ”
Behind-the-scenes design
2014 was a very meaningful year for Miri, as he finally completed his first stop-motion animated short film, あぶない! クルレリーナちゃん (英文:Look out! Kurullerina)", and won the Excellence Award at the 11th AC Japan CM Student Awards for this short film.
"Abu no!
In this film, Miri uses a wool felt doll as his own actor, and specially invites his mother to choreograph for it.
The familiar wool felt doll makes people see the shadow of the "PUI PUI Guinea Pig Car" in this film, and later someone specifically asked why Miri used dolls to make stop-motion animation.
He explains that he likes the feeling of injecting his soul into a doll, and that the hands-on process is very fun.
"It's a warm feeling that can be touched, and when I make dolls, I 'find' a lot of attractive angles and poses, and then I like them more and more. When I first saw the finished action, the doll seemed to come to life and gave a great sense of accomplishment. Of course, it's also possible that because I've been playing with stuffed toys and various dolls since I was very young, I think the way I touch dolls directly with my hands is a good fit for me. ”
Behind-the-scenes design and doll-making process
As his first stop-motion short film, Seeri sensed the unique charm of this expression during the production process.
"When I switched from hand-drawing to freeze-frame, I felt the shortcomings of hand-painting. When stop-motion animation is made, the dolls have skeletons, and everything is done under the influence of gravity, and the picture that can only be expressed by hand seems to be limited. ”
After the completion of the first stop-motion animation, Seeari's love for stop-motion was so overwhelming that the two-dimensional animation he had planned to make by hand was completed, and finally changed to the form of stop-motion animation.
In 2016, Seeri concluded his undergraduate studies with a short film called "Look at Me Only".
A man is impatient with his girlfriend's chatter, and he only cares about his pet guinea pig all day. On a date, the man meets an empathetic woman who is equally fond of guinea pigs, and he fantasizes about beautiful encounters with each other who know and love each other.
However, when she woke up, her girlfriend angrily threw the guinea pig that had bitten her finger to the ground, and the man fled into the bathroom with his pet in a hurry, isolating the chasing girlfriend from the door.
But when he looked down, the guinea pig at this time turned into a mobile phone. The photos on his phone helped him recall that he had indeed spent romantic time with a beautiful woman, but that person was his girlfriend.
Since when did he stop looking at her?
The man regrets it and he tries to remedy the relationship between the two... Fortunately, it's not too late.
The seven-and-a-half-minute short film continues Miri's usual style, telling everyone through this story that ignoring the idea of a lover may lead to the end of a relationship.
The quality and significance of this short film are higher than previous works, so Miri has gained more production experience under pressure. For example, in the creation of scripts and storyboards, he will invite people around him to read and watch, including but not limited to teachers, classmates and family. Because it is inevitable that there will be a situation of "black under the lights" when he creates by himself, but through the suggestions of others, he can better express this story.
Behind-the-scenes manuscripts
For the production of stop-motion animation, it is mentioned that the shooting is carried out at a standard of 24 frames, and the doll is moved little by little each time. But repeating such work for a long time can be "lost", and you can only understand what the whole picture looks like when you see the final presentation. In short, though, this sense of accomplishment that pays off through hard work is very attractive.
In March 2016, "Look at Me Only" was selected by Musashino Art University and screened at the Tokyo Anime Festival that same year, which means that it will receive attention from overseas animation producers, perhaps praise, but also criticism.
A producer at the time pointed out a key question: "Why do you use wool felt?" ”
Wool felt is an easy-to-use material that can be expressed more efficiently, but it does not mean that it is irreplaceable. If wool felt is used, it is necessary to pursue an expression that fits the characteristics of the wool felt itself, and the same material must be selected on the set.
It seems like a pour of cold water, but this sincere suggestion made Asahi Miri realize more possibilities of stop-motion animation.
So in his first year of graduate animation at Tokyo University of the Arts, he began working on a work called "Candy.zip," which was mainly made of plastic.
Behind the scenes
The short film tells the story of a working girl. It's a world where files in computers are likened to candy, and girls who are highly productive have never been able to get the favor of leaders.
One day, she was cramming into a computer to make candy when she bumped into a female colleague stealing her work.
But with the help of the ants, she later recovered smoothly and got the treatment she deserved.
The production cycle of this short film lasted for a full year, of which the shooting part took about four months. See Rishi mentioned that if he could take 96 photos a day, that is, four seconds in the work, it would already be a great day.
He also revealed that the scenes in the second half of the film are very difficult for him, because not only the doll but also the camera is moving during the shooting, and the fixation of the ants is also a problem. If something goes wrong in the middle, everything will be a mess and very troublesome.
By the way, I don't know if you have noticed that like "Look at Me Only", "Candy .zip" also has guinea pigs - the girl's computer desktop is a photo of "potato", it seems that Miri really likes this cute little animal~
Time flies, and in 2018, Miri's graduate school career is coming to an end. This time, he also used a stop-motion short film to show his learning results.
The black fairy tale full of personal characteristics and the thought-provoking story metaphor made this "My Lamb" win numerous awards that year, and it seems to be a very memorable masterpiece now.
Set against the backdrop of the fairy tale "The Wolf and the Seven Lambs", Miri reinterprets the story in a thrilling and curious way.
The story proceeds in flashbacks, and we can begin by seeing the mother sheep rescue the scaly lambs from the wolf's belly.
But after rescuing the lambs, she found that she could never find her eldest son, Berg, so she brought a child in a wool cape home.
After the mother sheep went out, the human child Xia Xi, whom she identified as "Berg", was questioned by the lambs. Because Berg was the first to be swallowed, it was impossible to have such a beautiful and complete hair.
Shahi tried to escape, but he accidentally bumped into a mirror, allowing the lambs to see their scarred bodies.
The lamb was very upset, and Xia Xi gave up running away when he saw this, and went over to put on his wool cape to the most scarred lamb, and the lamb also saw the scar that Xia Xi had hidden under the cape.
At this time, the picture turns, and the wolf comes! The lambs hid around, and Shahi froze in place in fright, but later found that the person who came was Xia Xi's father.
I thought it was a warm moment for father and son to reunite, but the father suddenly suppressed Xia Xi and transformed into a wolf to tear at Xia Xi's clothes.
The lambs hiding in various corners want to save Xia Xi, but they are still unable to defeat Xia Xi's father, and finally the mother sheep who happened to rush home was electrocuted from behind before he rescued Xia Xi.
Similar to the scene at the beginning of the film, the mother sheep once again shaved open the belly of the "wolf", but this time she put a lot of stones into it.
At the end of the story, in the small river in front of xiaoyang's house, one of Xia Xi's father's shoes surfaced.
It can be seen that Miri attaches great importance to color expression.
The beginning of the mother sheep to save the lamb used a dark green background.
From the time Shahi was captured by the mother sheep to the time he confronted the lambs, he used red to render a sense of horror about the unknown.
After Shahi and the lambs began to improve, the background tone turned blue.
When it's all over, the vibrant green makes people get a little out of the story just now.
The white and soft lambs, the horror atmosphere, and the horror reversal make the audience feel strong sensory stimulation, but after understanding the director's deep meaning, perhaps you can feel the gentle heart hidden under the horror black fairy tale.
Seeri has personally interpreted the story, and he mentions that the main idea of the film is to discuss "excessive parental love". Mother sheep are metaphorically imprisoned, and human fathers suggest sexual abuse, and they inflict harm on their children in different ways. As a director, Miri wants to point out a series of family problems in reality due to overprotectiveness through this film.
At the end of the story, although the mother sheep rescued Xia Xi, the multiple protections on the doors and windows hinted that he would not be able to go out of the house in captivity in the future.
In addition, at the end we can hear the sound of helicopters, which means that there are people outside who are looking for Shahi and his father. By doing so, the director hopes to bring the audience back to the real world and make everyone realize that this kind of thing may be "happening" somewhere in the world.
Whether it is the sudden realization of the man in "Look at me only", the girl in "Candy .zip" who wins with the help of ants, or the protection of Xia Xi by the lamb in "My Lamb", it is all the beautiful expectations of Ri Chaoxi for this world.
Sharply pointing out these darknesses through his own works is precisely the means by which Miri "saves the world" as an animator.
Many people have learned about Miri because of the "PUI PUI Guinea Pig Car", but this is not the first time his work has appeared on television.
After graduating from graduate school, Miri worked as the director of the ending ED and participated in the production of the Japanese sub-supply animation "Hairball Gangjiro".
"Tsuyoshiro Hairball" is an animation project cooperated by Sony and Kokukan, and the main film is two-dimensional, but the stop-motion animation form of ED has also surprised many people.
Then there is the "PUIPUI Guinea Pig Car" that we are all familiar with! Since in his previous creations, in addition to sound related, it was all done by Miri, so this is the first time he has worked with so many people, and it is also his first work to produce episodes.
In terms of production, Miri said that in fact, including himself, there are only four animators. Although at the beginning everyone will be assigned their own tasks, in fact, everything is done at the same time, and everyone is busy. When you are in good shape, you can shoot 4-5 seconds a day, that is, about 96-120 shots, and if it is difficult to compare, you may not even be able to shoot a second a day.
For Miri, the hardest part is making the subject, but that's the charm of stop-motion animation. Like making the texture of the surface of wood with clay, making clouds out of cotton... The "playing mind" during production is the greatest pleasure of stop-motion animation, and he hopes that the audience can see from the work that the producer enjoys the process.
Guinea pigs' bodies are made of wool felt and are supported by wire inside, so they can be pinched to change their expression. Miri thinks this soft material is a good place to express the realism of breathing or sniffing.
Miri also shared his experience in an interview: because the animation is not long, attracting children's attention has become a big problem. He thinks the only important thing is not to get bored with the audience, and the right sense of rhythm is what he often reminds himself. Humans can only concentrate on looking at something for three seconds, so he will definitely let the characters make the next animation in three seconds, and within six seconds, the story will definitely unfold further.
"PUIPUI Guinea Pig Car" has a total of 12 episodes, and Miri revealed that the hardest-working picture is the helicopter crash in the eighth episode.
Not wanting to use CG to deal with the explosion scene, he used a flashlight and cotton to shoot — using the shutter delay and then waving the flashlight would have a visual sense similar to the explosion of fire. And the helicopter in this episode is not synthetic, but after filming, it uses digital processing to make it float.
While watching this super cute animation, let's not forget to think about the various life or social problems that the director wants to express through the guinea pigs.
In the plot of "PUIPUI Guinea Pig Car", the malice of the simple and cute little guinea pigs and humans is particularly obvious. But Miri once said: "The audience may sometimes feel that the little guinea pigs who are being used are very pitiful, but they are definitely not easy to bully, and they will still act according to their own ideas." When disaster strikes them, it's like the protagonist in a normal anime is forced into a corner, and the result is the fun of the game. ”
Combined with the style of Seeari's previous works, many people are looking forward to the development of this sub-supply animation into an adult animation like "Ghost Mother". In response, he said, "I want to try it. I have a little bit of a feel right now, but Ghost Mom took seven years, so I think it's a project that takes a lot of time. I do have the idea of making a long film, but I also need to do a corresponding awareness before making it. ”
epilogue
Someone once asked Miri what path he wanted to take in the future.
He replied, "I want to continue making animation, but honestly, I'm also thinking about what kind of person I want to be." But at the moment I still have a lot of work to do, maybe not just animated shorts, but also episodes, movies, games, VR, etc., and I also appreciate some overseas animation studios. I want to be a creator recognized by the world. ”
Across the screen, you can feel the young animator's infinite expectations for the future, and that day must be not far away!
Maybe it's time to ask yourself!
What about you? What kind of path do you want to take in the future?
* The guinea pig in reality is not a guinea pig car, so be cautious about raising pets