What kind of topic can you talk about, from the parents of ancestors and children? I think it's animation. In the 1970s and 1980s, the many ink-style domestic animations launched by Shanghai Art Film Studio became the "enlightenment" of many Chinese people. With the in-depth exch

What kind of topic can you talk about from ancestors and parents to children and young people? I think it is the animation.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the many ink-style domestic animations launched by Shanghai Art Film Studio became the "enlightenment" of many Chinese people. With the in-depth exchange and integration of culture, the new generation of Chinese people has also ushered in a broader animation world.

Today is "World Animation Day". Cangjietong Culture Cooperative Animation Artist Huang Ziting is here to share with you the little-known things about animation.

Huang Ziting

■ Animation artist, independent animation director

■ Graduated from the Department of Oil Painting of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts , and later went to Germany to study, studied animation production and digital media art creation at Cologne Institute of Media Arts , and obtained a master's degree

■ returned to China to establish the "Zitushan" public account and serialized its animation works, which was well received. Recently, it joined hands with Cangjietong Culture to carefully create the "Manzhen Detective" animation short series

"Manzhen Detective" jointly produced by Cangjietong Culture and Zitushan Studio How wide is the use range of

animation? What is the true or false of animation? ... Let me tell you the story -

01 Animation and technology

Time flies, and the rapid changes in animation technology have brought us a drastic change in our feelings. At that time, people were so excited when they first saw " Toy Story " in the theater, but now, it is difficult to have such enthusiasm when facing its derivative movie " Light Years of the True Story ".

"Light Years" (video screenshot)

Why is this happening? What problems arise in this, which makes people no longer feel the same excitement and pursuit of more perfect technology and more refined and vivid images?

In fact, whether is advanced in evaluating an art work is often one of the important factors. It is hard to imagine that if there were no high-level painting and production that has always been around, would the animation movies of Disney, Miyazaki and others have the current reputation?

When people appreciate animation, the fineness of the picture, the smooth movement and the simulation are all the focus of attention. Therefore, when the first full 3D animation "Toy Story" emerged, the world saw a new image future, a fantasy world that was originally only retained on the plane, it suddenly rose up and entered the real future.

"Toy Story" 3D animation

Because of this outlook, "more real", "replace reality" , and even "become reality" , has become a pursuit for the development of animation technology.

02 Animation and special effects

This "pursuit" is very effective in the evolution of technology. Compared with the animation movie itself, the first thing we see is the amazing synthetic special effects in live-action movies.

Science fiction movies such as "The Matrix" at the end of the last century have once again refreshed the cognition of movie fans. After that, not only science fiction movies and fantasy movies are inseparable from the help of animation, but even relatively realistic themes have begun to rely on 3D special effects.

"The Matrix" Synthetic special effects

Speaking of this, some people may feel that they have seen the prosperous road of animation development. If they can rely on the film industry, animation has infinite prospects. It seems to lead to such a future -

high-cost field scenes will gradually become unnecessary. in the film and television production process, image search and pick up The field inspections and animation studios replaced the set art. Even real actors may be replaced by animations supported by motion capture and expression capture technology. Deceased actors can continue to play unfinished works, and old actors can change their youth again... The prosperity of

seems to be very perfect. "Environmental" and "efficiency" seem to be the ideal destination for animation.

03 From pursuit to rejecting animation

Looking in this direction, we should have seen a scene where everyone likes, but the fact is that some movie directors have begun to try to reject animation synthesis. " Creed " filmed by

Christopher Nolan minimizes the production of animation special effects, and instead hand over the responsibility for shooting shocking scenes to running mirror and scenes. The shot of the plane bursting specially chose a real (but abandoned) airport to complete it;

"creed" The same choice also appeared in some shootings of " Inception ". Nolan even made scene models and mechanical devices of equal size to complete the shooting, rather than throwing it to animators and computers;

"Inception" (video screenshot)

2014 movie "Mad Max 4-Rampant Road" also used full-scene shooting, completing this wonderful apocalyptic action blockbuster in a large number of real cars, models and explosions, and gaining a high reputation. Apart from the extremely high quality of the film itself, rejecting animation has undoubtedly become part of its honor.

"Mad Max 4-Raging Road" (stills)

Why does such a difference occur?

animation is becoming more and more simulated, why hasn’t it been sought after all, but has been treated coldly in the production of high-quality works?

This also brings us back to the initial question of this article. Why is "Light Years" with more refined picture quality and stronger sentiment, a derivative work of "Toy Story", which brings beautiful memories to many people, not only does not attract people's popularity because of its superior technological progress, but it makes people feel uninteresting?

's answer is not because its simulation quality is poor, but because in the increasingly advanced technological progress of , animation is no longer the magic kingdom that can be recognized by just "making fakes real".

04 What is the original intention of animation creation?

3d animators, special effects artists, and game makers can indeed see that in the development of more powerful engines, more refined modeling, real-time rendering of , and light-chasing technology, animation is far from coming to an end on the road of "more real", but they also clearly know that just making the picture detailed and real does not constitute the whole of a work.

As for animation videos, among the "Love, Death, Robot" series of animation short films that have been launched in recent years, the one with the best reputation is by no means those films that only make the picture fine, but also excellent works with wonderful and creative ideas in the plot and picture style. And the problem of "Light Years" may be here.

"Love, Death and Robot" Season 3 (video screenshot)

This makes us have to think again, what was the original intention of animation creation?

The first dynamic images displayed in the rotation of the Fenagi mirror. Where is their charm and what attracts people to flock to it?

1835 A Fenachi Mirror Work

At first glance, all this is indeed like a road to pursuing "simulation" - moving images are obviously closer to reality than a static picture. Mickey Mouse dancing on the TV is also closer to reality than a whole cartoon painting;

However, when we see the lion singing, the little mermaid, and even see the toys carnival in groups... all this scene reminds us that although the animation is coming towards us in a direction that is approaching the reality, its original appearance is "non-realistic".

05 Animation, where can we go? The reason why

animation is fascinating is because it has the ability to "visualize" fantasy. With the advancement of technology, this ability is becoming more and more fake and real, but it is precisely this non-realistic nature, and this "real" process is its charm.

"like real", the reason why it is more amazing than "true" itself is that it is "not real". The 3D animation version of Huang Renxun President performed in the video released by NVIDIA with fake performance. If there is no post-production behind-the-scenes revealing its "fake" nature, it will not reflect its highly simulated value.

is true or false Huang Renxun?

is also like this. Adding animation special effects to movies is just one of many expressions of film and television. In the eyes of those filmmakers with extremely high requirements, animation has been abandoned in scenes where "reality" is strictly required.

In general, the "simulation" of animation is not its only development direction. We should indeed praise the simulation ability brought by image technology. Animation can achieve unprecedented image creation by relying on increasingly advanced technology, but in the end, just like the game has no good gameplay, you are only satisfied with the exquisiteness of your own images and the novelty of use technology;

If the animation does not have a good plot and does not have wonderful image creativity, it is like a fake craftsman with a strong handle and accurate measurement ruler. He holds the tools firmly in his pocket and has no other strengths except to show off his excellent tools to others. Tools are just tools, and we should never be complacent about it.

Animation Zi Ting said that at this point, the editor suddenly remembered the metaphor of the three realms of life in traditional Chinese culture:

The first level: look at the mountains and see the water as water; the second level: look at the mountains not the mountains, see the water as water; the third level: look at the mountains or the mountains, see the water as water as water.

Think about it, is the animation we need to pursue "a wonderful pen and a flower", or a parallel world that "has fake it out of the real"? Sometimes we hope that the body can be released and the soul can travel unscrupulously through the past and present, but sometimes we hope that we can peek at me in the mirror and the soul can be relaxed.

Listen to Ziting’s words, do you have the answer?

· The end ·

Some pictures are from the Internet, if infringement, delete