On the eve of the closing of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee licensed animated film "Our Winter Olympics" was released. Shangmei Film, which has created many classic IPs, participated in the creation of the chapter story of "Fat Sage Borrowing Ice", and made bold ideas to make Dasheng "fat".
At the same time, in the project team of "Sun Wukong's Flame Mountain", the young core technical forces and the art and director team are creating a new Sun Wukong in three-dimensional space. In the era of the rise of national comics, under the background of Chinese animation after a hundred years, Shangmeiying once again chose Sun Wukong. Why Sun Wukong again? How will Shangmeiying create new brilliance? With questions, the oriental network reporter came to Shangmei Film.
The Fat Sage must also have the feeling of "king"
At the Shanghai premiere of "Our Winter Olympics" on February 18, a pair of lovely twin sisters were experienced by the new image of "Fat Sage". At that time, Qu Qiang, the director of the chapter story of shangmei film "Fat Saint Borrowing Ice", was on the scene, and on the day of the release, it was also his own birthday.
"When I received the task, I felt particularly excited and stressed", recalling the early days of creation, Qu Qiang said that everyone made many versions of the story, and also modified it many times, and finally chose this version of the story of fat sage, the reason is that "there is no image of fat sage in other stories". In the team's view, the image of the fat sage has a great contrast with the cognition of Sun Wukong in everyone's memory in the past, which can bring freshness, and secondly, this image can also be associated with the movement to promote the plot.
And fat dasheng "partner" is the young people are more familiar with the map, when can represent an era of classic characters and a young well-known IP walk together, the story tension has. Qu Qiang analyzed: "The two images have a fusion of time and space, and then the fat sage has a prominent in the form, and the two have the feeling of an old and a small one together. A lot of interesting things can happen when one old and one small collide together.
It is not easy to make Dasheng a fat man, which is also a big problem encountered by the main creative team. The fine deformation of fat sage must be like the original image, but also cannot lose the beauty of the appearance. Directly fattening on the original version will lead to the loss of the sense of art design, while too much obesity will easily lead to a sense of bloat, the image "does not have that feeling of the king", there is no spirit. Qu Qiang said that the current version has made some trade-offs, compared to the original version, the legs of the Great Sage are slightly shortened, the chin is also rounded, and it looks more harmonious.
At the end of the story, the creators chose to let more than 20 IPs such as Sun Wukong, Tutu, Huluwa, Black Cat Sheriff, and Egg Sheng appear together, and in the previously released ice and snow expansion promotional film, this scene has attracted the attention of many netizens. Qu Qiang also revealed to reporters that the creators buried small Easter eggs, such as brainless and unhappy, "Our generation is very familiar, the personality of these two people is not going to go together, this time we designed them to jump to an ice and snow village, slide in one direction, and use our way to reconcile them."
For the upcoming film, Qu Qiang said that there is pressure, but also confidence, "we are 100% committed to doing it." This Winter Olympics is of great significance to the whole of China, and it happens to be the Spring Festival, which is equivalent to extending the Spring Festival holiday, and everyone is still in a happy atmosphere. The release of the movie is also a continuation of the joy of the Winter Olympics, and I look forward to everyone being in the joy of the Winter Olympics all the time."
A concept map attracted a technical team
It is not only Qu Qiang who feels pressure and excitement for Sun Wukong, but also Wang Ming, the technical team leader of "The Flame Mountain of Sun Wukong". The technical team of "Sun Wukong's Flame Mountain" is a very young force of Shangmei Film, many members have worked in famous film companies, participated in the production of "Kung Fu Panda", "Venom" and other projects, and is a team with rich experience and international vision.
"When I first stepped into Shangmei Film, I felt particularly proud, because I watched these animations since I was a child, and now I have come to the place where animation is produced", Sun Wukong has a special significance for Wang Ming's group of young people. And most of them come here because of an important opportunity. "As soon as I saw the concept draft of Shangmei Film, I felt that the art style was very good, higher than the artistic level of all the animated films I had seen before", which made Wang Ming feel a creative impulse, "At that time, I thought I wanted to join this team" The technical team was like this, "We want to achieve it on the big screen".
The sun wukong modeling diagram that was previously published
The art style determines the temperament of a film, and Shangmei Film obviously has a deep accumulation in the art style. Wang Ming introduced that the project team is divided into a director team, an art team and a technical team, the director team discusses the script and storyboard, etc., the art team explores the art style, the concept design of the role and the scene, and the technical team carries out three-dimensional design and presentation. Wang Ming said, "We must achieve a certain degree of fit with the art team to be able to combine their art with our capabilities, so the technical team is also 100% involved in the pre-design."
The way in which Shanghai Meiying works is obviously very different from that of a purely commercial company. "Commercial companies will let you complete a lot of things in a short period of time, that is, passive acceptance", but in Shangmeiying, these young people have a relaxed creative atmosphere, "seeing what you want to do, you can apply to do it, not from top to bottom". Wang Ming said that this is very important for creators, and everyone thinks that we are going to make a three-dimensional fine work, reaching the dual height of technology and art, "just like the ink animation that used to be."
"Our Sun Wukong is different from other films in terms of styling style or character temperament", Wang Ming said, Sun Wukong's previous image has always been very powerful, able to break all the shackles of the feeling, "Sun Wukong's Flame Mountain" will explore human nature more. "For example, he and the Bull Devil King are very good brothers, and later there were some conflicts and emotional disputes, we will explore more about the human part and shape a fuller Sun Wukong."
Wang Ming revealed that the current project is still in production, and the trailer circulated on the Internet before is a short film of the effect test conducted by the technical team with the preliminary work, and the final effect is worth looking forward to.
"Everyone has a Sun Wukong in their heart"
"I believe that as a Chinese, everyone has a Sun Wukong in their hearts," said Li Zhao, deputy director of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, with a smile. Shangmeiying continues to choose Sun Wukong as the creative theme, on the one hand, because this image is very important to Shangmeiying, on the other hand, because the creative team is very interested in this subject, and sun wukong's character image still has places to dig deeper.
In the past 60 years, the predecessors of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio have bravely explored the road of national style, created the "Chinese Animation School", and formed animation production forms with Chinese characteristics such as ink painting, paper cutting, puppetry, origami. Today, Shangmei Film still inherits the creative concept of "not imitating others and not repeating itself" to innovate and try, and has layout and research in different technical means. For example, in terms of ink animation, the "Impala Flying Ferry" that is being produced will be released in 2023, which is the first ink animation feature film; in terms of three-dimensional animation, there is "The Flame Mountain of Sun Wukong", and the main creative team has concentrated the core technical strength of Shangmei Film.
A test sample of "The Flame Mountain of Sun Wukong", which has been released before
"In fact, in the past, Meiying was used to try in terms of technology and art form expression, and now we are still carrying out such exploration." Li Zhao introduced that the use of three-dimensional technology to try is to explore in the development of science and technology, with new means to express the content of "truth, goodness and beauty" and the art style of "strange rhyme", and combine CG technology with the style and charm of Chinese art. However, Li Zhao also stressed that technology is to serve artistic expression, and more importantly, to present the story you want to tell and the artistic style of expression to the audience.
"In the past, Meiying Studio was in a state of blooming flowers, but these different styles of works have one thing in common - to draw strength from traditional Chinese culture." Li Zhao said, "We hope that more creative talents can join the ranks of animation creation and create various works, so that everyone can see the beauty and growth of Chinese animation." Li Zhao also revealed that the concept trailer has attracted the attention of netizens, the original animated short film collection "China Qitan" will meet with the audience within this year.
Source: Orient Net