Jianhua Sun Shandong University
The reason why traditional Chinese animation can attract the attention of the whole world and receive international praise is because it has a distinct national style and a strong cultural heritage. This all stems from the nutrients drawn from folk art by China's animation pioneers, which adds more forms of expression to traditional animation and enhances the decorative nature of the picture. At the same time, the application of folk art in traditional animation also has a certain limit, how to take its strengths, innovative application of folk art in animation, for the development of today's domestic animation is still of great practical significance.
Folk art is similar to folk art, folk art, etc., compared with the two, folk art emphasizes inheritance and cultural value. From this line of thinking, it is not difficult for us to explain the connotation of folk art. The so-called folk art refers to the part of popular art that has inheritance and pattern, or refers to the part of folk art that is integrated into traditional customs. It is often used as an artistic symbol of cultural inheritance, and is widely used in the aspects of the seasons of the year, life etiquette, folk beliefs, and daily life. "Inheritance", "tradition" and "groupness" are the characteristics of folk art, which give it a deep cultural background and a solid social foundation [1]. Folk art includes a variety of songs, dances, rituals, creations and languages with aesthetic tastes and cultural values, such as paper-cutting, origami, New Year paintings, clay sculptures, shadow puppetry, puppet shows, proverbs, folklore and other art forms.
Compared with folk art, although animation art is a young art, China's animation pioneers have applied folk art to the creation of animation art through continuous exploration and practice, thus opening up a nationalized road for Chinese animation. The 1950s to the 1980s were the most glorious period of Chinese animation, and the "Chinese traditional animation" mentioned in this article also refers to the works of this period. After the 1990s, with the acceleration of the process of globalization and the continuous development of computer network information technology, traditional animation has been affected as never before. The author believes that the slogan of "exploring the road of national style" put forward by Te Wei should still become our conscious pursuit at present, and the ideas and successful experiences of folk art in the creation of animation art are worth studying and drawing on, but they cannot be completely taken, nor can they be blinded by the fame gained by traditional Chinese animation.
Folk art in traditional Chinese animation
Folk art makes its creations more diverse
The national exploration of animation is reflected in the reference to folk art, which makes animation not only based on the single fine art form of traditional painting art, but also enriches the expression of animation art, such as paper-cutting, origami, shadow puppetry, puppetry, clay sculpture, woodblock new year painting, etc.
The innovation of the animation art form began with paper-cut animation, "Pig Eight Commandments Eat Watermelon" is the first paper-cut animation in the history of Chinese animation, it draws elements from Chinese folk paper-cutting, window flowers, shadow puppetry and other folk art forms, through the production of paper puppets, and in the animation using the method of grid-by-frame shooting, repeated trial shooting of new types of films, this form of animation not only enhances the national style, but also reduces the investment of manpower and financial resources, improves work efficiency, this is a successful attempt to explore the national nature of animation. Another paper-cut animation work that must be mentioned is "Golden Conch", which borrows more from shadow puppetry in the form of art, and also integrates painting and paper-cutting, in order to better combine these art forms, animation artists have adopted folk engraving techniques to cross, making the style more unified and coordinated. In addition to paper-cut animation, puppet animation also made Chinese animation shine. It is the same as the shooting principle of paper-cut animation, but it is more three-dimensional than paper-cut animation, and it has a three-dimensional solid shape and scene space. "Mr. Dongguo", "Divine Pen", "Avanti's Story" and so on are all works with distinct national characteristics, whether it is the background design or the characters, clothing, props, etc., all of which are integrated into folk art and expressed in a brilliant and colorful way.
In addition, with the maturity of various forms of animation works, animation masters keep up with the pace of the times, learn from the strengths of each family, constantly innovate and integrate different forms of creation. "Sandpiper-Mussel Competition" integrates paper-cutting with ink form, it breaks through the cutting technique, combined with the form of ink brushing, and produces an ink effect that can be faked and real. In the past, the character image of the paper-cut piece consisted of straight and powerful lines, with clear edges and contours, and paid attention to the "taste of knives". The brushing technique is to process a special paper, tear off the designed image, so that its edges produce a furry texture, and then render it with color, which is similar to an ink painting on rice paper, but its production process is simpler than ink animation [2]. "Fire Boy" integrates Dunhuang murals, paper-cutting, painting and other expression techniques, giving people a refreshing visual effect.
Folk art makes its pictorial expression more decorative
Folk art, especially plastic folk art, has an innate decorative and beautifying effect [3]. Just as Gombrich said, "No tribe or culture lacks decorative traditions," Chinese culture has a long history, and a wide variety of colorful folk arts are brilliantly presented in this fertile land. The creative application of folk art to the creation of animation art naturally enhances the decorative nature of its picture performance, which is more visually attractive and gives people a pleasant and harmonious psychological experience.
"The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" is China's first color animated feature film and a model of decorative style animation. The French newspaper Le Monde pointed out that "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" not only has the beauty of ordinary American Disney works, but also the art of creation is something that Disney art cannot do, and it perfectly expresses the traditional Chinese artistic style [4]. When designing the image of the protagonist Sun Wukong, he based on the "Journey to the West" and the sun wukong shape in the face props of the children playing in the old Spring Festival, and drew on folk prints, and later revised it many times by Yan Dingxian, then the leader of the animation creation group at the time, and finally designed the image of Sun Wukong, who was radiant, brave and vigorous, and with decorative meanings; Other small-area color patches achieve visual balance and harmony by turning down other colors of brightness and purity, as well as appropriate blacks. The shape of the Jade Emperor borrows from Buddha statues, folk gods (gods, sacred horses), woodcuts, New Year paintings, etc. and changes them[5]; the color is mainly based on the colors of yellow and orange-red that symbolize power, and at the same time, the use of light tones is also comfortable, coupled with highly decorative headdresses and costumes, which have a particularly strong style of national folk modeling and art. The Celestial Soldiers and Celestial Generals are close to the clay statues of Kongo, Green Dragon, White Tiger and other gods and figures in temples and Taoist temples,[6] and the use of color highlights the main characters by reducing contrast. The background of the film is designed by the decorative painter Mr. Zhang Zhengyu, who draws on elements such as folk New Year paintings and temple murals, and adds a regular treatment of lines and colors in a blended way to achieve the effect of complementing the characters, and also makes it more layered, coordinated and decorative. "Nezha Noisy Sea" is China's first color widescreen animation film, and it is also a very decorative style of the highlight. Its modeling design draws on the useful materials of folk art such as New Year paintings, prints, Dunhuang, yongle Palace murals, etc., and the background refers to the architecture, interior decoration, and character costumes of the Tang and Song Dynasties, whether it is color contrast, line outline, or scene processing, all of which make the whole picture have a balanced decorative beauty.
Folk art in traditional Chinese animation
Folk art has important reference significance for the development of animation art in China, but with the continuous progress of technology and the change of people's viewing requirements, its limitations have gradually emerged.
First of all, folk art, such as paper-cutting, shadow puppetry, and so on, is itself a static, visually static art form, coupled with more complex decorations such as clothing and headdresses, making it almost impossible for characters to have fine movements and performances; and animation is a kind of "moving art," which makes its characters completely present the characteristics of plane and side, and the form is relatively monotonous. As an art short film, it can be well accepted by the public, but as a narrative-based medium-length piece, the audience will have aesthetic fatigue.
Secondly, animation as a comprehensive art, but also consider its language expression as a film and television art, due to the producer's pursuit of art form and excessive attention to the effect of art, the lens language is often relatively single, the narrative rhythm is slower, most of the stories are flat and direct, will not overemphasize the narrative conflict. In today's fast-paced world, this obviously can't adapt to people's needs for watching movies.
Traditional Chinese animation draws nourishment from folk art and forms a distinct national style and cultural connotation, which is worthy of recognition, but it also has limitations. We should face up to the inadequacies in traditional Chinese animation and innovate the application of folk art in animation art, rather than completely denying it, imitating or even converging with foreign countries.
In terms of content, traditional Chinese animation cannot just be a simple rewrite of folk legends, fairy tales, and mythological stories, but should refine stories that can be applied to the aesthetics, concepts, and value orientations of the current era, pay attention to the ups and downs of the plot and the performance of conflicts, have more sense of humor and entertainment, and have less didactic colors. Formally speaking, traditional Chinese animation should serve the content, and computerized production can be combined with art forms such as painting, paper cutting, shadow puppetry, and ink painting to make up for its monotony and overcome its shortcomings. In addition, the producers should make breakthroughs in the lens language and expression methods, compare and change more, enhance the grasp of the rhythm, and make domestic animation truly become a "strange, interesting, and beautiful" art.
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[5] Li Tie, History of Chinese Animation (Part 1)[M].Beijing: Publishing House, Beijing Jiaotong University, 2017:153.
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