My Animation Era

In Jiangchuan in April, it rains continuously.

Jiang Keke was in a bad mood after not seeing the sun for a week and staying in the room all day long.

Maybe after a woman is pregnant, she will always become emotionally unstable for no apparent reason, and may have random thoughts to cure herself of depression.

Gu Miao understood her mood.

So he said that when the rain ends and the weather clears up, he will take time to go out with his family and walk around Jiangchuan.

When I said this, the animation "Yu-Gi-Oh!" project had just been officially announced, and the production team had not yet gathered the manpower.

It happened that during that time in the company, there were no important things that required him to keep an eye on and deal with them all the time, so he was very confident in his commitment.

Unfortunately, the plan could not keep up with the changes.

The rain finally stopped, and I finally saw the long-lost Father-in-law Sun. When Jiang Keke took the map of Jiangchuan and figured out where to go, Gu Miao broke her promise.

It’s approaching May.

With the May Day holiday approaching, Wolfsburg Studio, a subsidiary of Wanbao Animation, has also begun a "sprint" rush on the animation "Legend of Seven Swords" project.

The so-called sprint work refers to completing the production as much as possible and submitting it for review before the holidays.

otherwise……

The official review department is all on holiday! How many days will have passed by the time they return to work after taking leave?

This is not okay!

The May Day holiday is too long.

After the staff in the review department return to work after their vacation, they will definitely have to deal with the mountain of unprocessed applications that accumulated during the vacation.

In other words, if I go to submit for review at that time, I estimate that the queue will last until the end of May.

Under this premise, the production team worked overtime to submit the film for review before the May Day holiday, which was much more convenient than submitting it for review after the holiday.

Then you have to work overtime!

Since "Legend of Seven Swords" is the second TV animation directed by his apprentice Xiao Guo, and has a special nature, it is also a long-form "original martial arts" animation with huge investment.

As a boss, as a master, and as a producer, of course Gu Miao must always pay attention to and keep an eye on the progress of the project.

So he broke his promise.

He originally agreed to go out with Coco, but ended up having to stay at the company because of the "Legend of Seven Swords" project.

This directly caused the relationship between Gu Miao and his fiancée to fall to a freezing point instantly. For several days, Jiang Keke didn't give him a good look.

"I sleep in the study, I sleep on the sofa..."

"Who is this all for? My dear apprentice, your master has made such a big sacrifice for you, why don't you show it?" Gu Miao put her arm around Xiao Guo's shoulders and threatened.

Gudu!

Guo Hongwei couldn't help but swallowed. Under the hint of the master's eyes, he nodded hastily and said: "Don't worry, master! Master, I will explain it for you!"

"Okay, okay!"

Hearing this answer, Gu Miao said with great relief: "As expected of my disciple, his ideological consciousness is so high!"

The stupid apprentice Xiao Guo came forward to explain and take the blame. He shouldn't have to continue sleeping on the sofa, right?

"Master You, don't tell me in advance."

Gu Miao, who was solving a problem on his mind, glanced at the special effects artist who was doing 3D rendering in the distance, and couldn't help but ask: "Is it really reliable for you to do 3D fighting in 2D animation?"

"It's pretty reliable..."

Speaking of this, Guo Hongwei couldn't help but laugh: "Master, don't you know? This is the method taught to me by President Seto of the Neon Branch."

"He told me that this combination of 2D literary drama + 3D action drama is very popular recently, and many animations are in this mode."

Is it?

Gu Miao, who hadn't paid attention to industry news for a long time, although he knew about the existence of this model, he still didn't quite understand how this kind of thing became popular?

"2D painting focuses on depicting character expressions and eye changes, which is very useful in promoting the plot and characterizing the characters."

Guo Hongwei explained: "As for 3D animation, due to the use of skeletal modeling and motion capture, the fighting is extremely smooth and smooth, which is an advantage that 2D animation cannot match."

Gu Miao nodded.

In terms of fighting, 3D does have advantages over 2D. The main reason is also very simple. The movement of 3D character modeling has a trajectory to follow, and the storyboard is more free and changeable.

And, the main thing is “saving money”!

When it comes to 2D painting, how much effort does it take to make the fighting part as silky and smooth as 3D modeling? How many keyframes do you draw?

This is not the same concept at all in terms of cost.

certainly!

The Wanbao family has a great cause, and as Gu Miao's chief disciple, Guo Hongwei is not short of production funds. The reason why he uses 3D to create fights is not to "save money".

Instead, I took a fancy to the advantages of 3D animation in fighting scenes!

"It's really good."

Gu Miao took a look at the 3D effect that had just been rendered, and felt that it was indeed worthy of Guo Hongwei's praise. The fight created in this way was much smoother and smoother than 2D.

Why do you say that?

As we all know, there is the concept of "combinations" in combat design.

Combo moves, as the name suggests, must be connected and released to be interesting. And in the process of combos, the smoother and smoother it is, the better it looks!

This is like the change in game frame rate when playing a game...

Can the visual effects of combos produced at 20 or 30 frames be comparable to those at 60 or even 120 frames?

Not on the same level at all!

In the animation "Legend of the Seven Swords", all seven of the protagonists are sword masters, and the use and release of different sword moves have become extremely smooth and smooth after 3D rendering.

The look and feel is simply great!

According to Guo Hongwei, the cost of 3D animation effects used in the fighting part is actually no lower than that of 2D painting. Even including post-production special effects production, motion capture and rendering, the cost will only be higher.

But it's money well spent.

"Martial arts, first of all, the first word is martial arts! There is no doubt that fighting scenes are the essence of this animation."

Gu Miao praised: "If you finish the fighting scenes well, and then put some effort into the literary and drama plot, it will be an excellent martial arts animation."

From this point of view.

Although it is Guo Hongwei's first time to produce and come into contact with martial arts animation, his understanding is indeed unique and has very personal characteristics and style.

A combination of 2D literary drama + 3D fighting drama.

At first glance, it looks weird, and one wonders if the production team is too poor to make a good fight scene, so they can only make do with spicy 3D.

But actually took a look.

Gu Miao feels that this combination of 2D + 3D has been used by his apprentice to its upper limit.

Especially the transition shot from 2D to 3D, he handled it very well and proposed the concept of a 2.5D transition animation.

The opening scene where the protagonist and the villain talk trash is in 2D. The villain is enraged and his men draw their swords and glare at the protagonist. This part is in 2.5D, which is pseudo-3D.

The villain went completely crazy and led his men to surround the protagonist. The moment the battle began, the screen was upgraded to 3D.

Transitions are extremely natural and smooth.

Although it is 2D turned into 3D, it does not give people a very stiff and abrupt feeling. On the contrary, it feels...

This is how it should be!

I recommend the animation "Black Summoner". The fighting part is also 3D. The plot is toilet paper level but I can watch it...