"Sword Comes" has been widely praised for its national style aesthetics of "sword qi and ink style" and the grand world view that integrates oriental philosophy; "Slaying the Gods: The Mortal Dust Divine Domain" skillfully integrates Eastern and Western mythological elements to build a mysterious and fantastic world; "Hundred Demon Spectrum · Sifu Chapter" has led the new list of station B animation since its launch with a beautiful and detailed painting style and a touching story; "Cangyuan Tu" condenses a large number of national style elements, and the number of related short videos has exceeded 5 billion times, and dozens of times on the main list of Douyin......

In the context of the Internet era, online animation has risen rapidly, constantly unleashing its creative potential. According to data from the State Administration of Radio and Television, in 2023, 507 new online cartoons will be launched on the whole network, with a total duration of 54,400 minutes, and the number and duration of works will increase by 12% and 31% year-on-year, respectively. The number of online cartoons that passed the online filing of key online film and television dramas was 508 throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 128.8%. Since the beginning of this year, online animation has continued to show a vigorous development trend, with diversified content to meet the viewing needs of audiences of different ages.

IP adaptation has become a trend for long-term development

It can be seen from the 2024 animation list announced by major platforms that IP adaptation occupies half of the online animation market. Among them, the number of adaptations of online novels and literary novels is the largest, and comics and games are also important sources of content.

The industry generally believes that the reason why IP adapted animations are favored is mainly because of the fan superposition effect. Many online animations are adapted from popular works on online text platforms, and the original works have a relatively complete world view and story line, which is easy to attract and maintain the audience's interest. Many big IPs have become the core assets of the platform, and are expected to operate for a long time through annual and multi-dimensional derivative development. Many platforms have even formed a development link from dramas, annual dramas to theatrical versions. At the same time, more and more platforms are using online animation as the origin to develop the whole chain of IP, online and offline linkage, and explore the multiple value of IP.

However, IP adaptation is not a panacea, and how to effectively innovate without destroying the essence of the original work, while taking into account the needs of fans of the original work and ordinary audiences, tests the imagination and creativity of the production team. Yang Xiaoxuan, vice president of iQIYI, said that when doing IP adaptation projects, it is necessary to grasp the scale of inheritance and innovation, and for big IP, it is necessary to pay more attention to the emotional resonance and connection of original fans, but it cannot completely copy the original work, and it must be adapted in a market-oriented manner, but it cannot be "magically changed". The market urgently needs works with diverse themes, and the selection of IP should focus on innovation, differentiation, and uniqueness, and the presentation of painting styles should also be diverse. In addition,Changfan has formed the mainstream trend of the market,The future will also be a long-term trend of online animation,The planning of long-term content should be forward-looking,In the long-term development process, innovative expression needs to be injected,Lead the common growth of basic disk users。

"Sword Come" is adapted from the online novel of the same name by the princes of Beacon Opera, and since its launch on Tencent Video on August 15, it has performed brilliantly, with a current Douban score of 8.9 points. Although the work is adapted from an online novel, the original work has the temperament of classical Chinese literature, with many foreshadowings, events, foreshadowing, and group portrait perspectives, involving many characters. Qu Yizhang, the animation screenwriter of "Sword Come", lamented that the adaptation process was "extremely difficult", and the main challenges were in the shaping of group portraits, multi-perspective narratives, literary and martial arts choreography, and length and rhythm control, "It is necessary to make the context of the events clear, the motivations of the characters clear, the conflicts and contradictions and the rhythm distribution rational, while taking into account the classical narrative tone in the novel, showing the national rhyme temperament at the audio-visual level, and enhancing the attractiveness of the work." "After straightening out the relationship between the characters, the work of screenwriters, directors, and artists still needs to be systematically promoted, and how to retain and sublimate the essence of the original work is a major challenge. ”

Original animations are constantly emerging, and script writing is key

The exploration of original Chinese animation has never stopped. Among the top ten online animations scored on Douban in 2023, 5 are original works, including "The Five Elements of the Foggy Mountains· Xichuan Fantasy Purple Forest", "Chinese Strange Tan", "You Beast", "You Beast Yan Season 2", "Pillow Knife Song Season 2". In March this year, the figure of "China Strange Tan Season 2" appeared at the 2023-2024 national animation works press conference of station B, in addition, the "Time Agent" series is one of the representative works of station B dedicated to China's original "going to sea", with the highest score of 8.9 points in the first season of IMDb.

This summer, a collection of original animated short films created by 12 local young talents and overseas celebrity directors was launched on Tencent Video. This collection of short films includes a total of 12 original short stories, almost all of which incorporate elements of traditional culture, covering themes such as ancient mythology, martial arts, and oriental fantasy. In addition, original animated series such as "My Classmate is a Mermaid", "Left Hand Layup" and "The Legend of Taisu" are also on the Tencent Video incubation list.

In September this year, the State Administration of Radio and Television issued a notice on organizing and carrying out the first "New 'Kinetic Force' - China Original Animation Support Program", which plans to use the method of open solicitation to launch a number of excellent animated short films, animation IP designs and animation scripts with exquisite artistic standards, novel and diverse styles, resonance and leading the trend of the times. The program will further promote the creation of original animation in China and promote the high-quality development of animation in the new era.

Gu Song, the founder, animation writer and director of Chitu Animation, has been committed to the development of original works. He said that at present, many online novel adaptation animation works have problems such as uneven text quality and serious homogenization, and some creators rely too much on IP adaptation and ignore the importance of originality, resulting in online animation creation once falling into a closed cycle of only focusing on immortal cultivation and fantasy themes. "In fact, for most creative teams, the original work is the ultimate goal. However, due to factors such as funding, cycle and resources, it is difficult for many original projects to land. I look forward to the emergence of more excellent original animation works like "Luo Xiaohei's War" and "Chinese Strange Tan" in China. ”

Chen Liaoyu, a professor at the School of Animation of Beijing Film Academy and the chief director of "Chinese Strange Tan", also said that the mainstream animation in the current market is mainly based on IP adaptation, and original content is relatively scarce. The "Strange Tales of China" series is composed of 8 original independent stories rooted in traditional Chinese culture, and its creative concept is to focus on imagination and language expression, rather than showing off skills, "creators should try to return to the origin of creation, and think about the roots of life, culture and values of the works." Yu Shui, director of "Chinese Strange Tales: Summer of Little Monsters", shared his experience in creating original animation. He believes that in order for original animation to impress the audience within a limited time, the most important thing is the script, and the connection with reality is crucial. "Creators should always ask themselves questions, but don't overcalculate, otherwise it will constrain their creation. It is necessary to start from the characters and empathize. Only by in-depth substitution can we smoothly conceive a good context and clarify the basic framework and prototype of the work. ”

The subject matter is becoming richer and richer, and traditional culture has become a creative bonanza

Over the years, the competent authorities have continued to strengthen the planning and guidance of animation themes, leading the direction of animation creation through the implementation of important activities such as the animation creation project of Chinese classic folk tales and the selection of key animation projects, and promoting the theme of animation works from the original relatively single to increasingly rich, from mainly focusing on fairy tales and puzzles to the diversified development of reality, science fiction, ecological and environmental protection, revolution, traditional culture, humanities and history, sports and other themes. The presentation of online animation has become more diverse, including series of works with strong continuity and animated short films with innovative forms.

It is worth noting that more and more online animations focus on the integration of traditional cultural elements. For example, "Chinese Strange Tales: Xiaoman" "reproduces" the children in the traditional New Year painting "Hundred Sons", the old cow in the famous Tang Dynasty painting "Five Oxes", and the tea drinking scene in the famous Yuan Dynasty painting "Tea Fight" into the animation, and completes the interesting folk collage in the form of paper-cut animation, showing the unique charm of traditional Chinese folk customs; The scene design of "Covering the Sky" draws on traditional Chinese garden design, and its character costumes adopt the design concepts and details of Tang Dynasty costumes; "Rufu Guard" is inspired by the roof beast on the ancient building, and the painting style has both the essence of traditional aesthetics and the international animation style; "Sword Comes" combines traditional ink painting elements with modern special effects techniques, using a unique ink particle painting style to interpret the "chivalrous" culture, and the action moves that appear in the animation are also based on traditional Chinese martial arts, for example, in the fight between the moving ape and Mrs. Xu, Mrs. Xu's moves are turned into Taijiquan.

Lin Tianxiao, animation art director of "Sword Come", shared the origin of "Sword Qi Ink Style", "From an artistic point of view, the original work belongs to the theme of national style cultivation of immortals and martial arts, and it has two needs: realism and logic. This not only requires us to have sufficient logical support when doing art design, but also requires us to do further consciousness excavation to show the attitudes of the characters in the story and the artistic conception of the scene. Based on these two needs, the team determined the tone of 'national style ink'. ”

In the view of Shen Danting, the producer of "Sword Come", "Sword Come" can finally be released with a creative style based on traditional Chinese culture such as "Sword Qi Ink Style", which can only be realized when online animation has developed to a mature stage. At this stage, the audience's aesthetic ability is constantly rising, and there is a need for more works with sufficiently complex stories, containing Chinese literary philosophies, highlighting the temperament of Chinese art style, and having localized characteristics. How to draw creative nutrients from the huge and brilliant treasure house of traditional Chinese culture requires animation creators to constantly think and try.

Cui Chao, general manager of Tencent's online video platform operation department, said that excellent traditional culture is an inexhaustible rich resource and unique heritage for telling Chinese stories well. In recent years, Tencent Video has integrated traditional cultural elements into the narrative on the one hand, and built the core of the work with oriental philosophy; On the other hand, it uses the characteristics of oriental aesthetics to provide aesthetic support for artistic expression, and guides young people to strengthen their cultural and aesthetic self-confidence by creating works such as "Fox Peach and Old Fairy", "Sword Come" and "Dart Man".

Sun Min, general manager of Youku Animation Center, said that since the concept of "new national style" was proposed in 2020, Youku Animation has been focusing on the core of national style elements, constantly developing new themes, new stories, and new painting styles, and is committed to improving young users' awareness and understanding of the new national style culture. In addition, Youku Animation constructs an ecological industrial chain through IP industrialization, integrating traditional culture into the development of original works and industrial derivation.

Technology empowers AIGC to inspire unlimited creativity

In today's ever-changing technology, various new technologies are constantly integrated into the animation production process, empowering all aspects of animation production and significantly improving production efficiency and work quality.

In the process of animation design and production, AIGC technology has gradually changed from the initial auxiliary tool to the core force leading innovation. In terms of character design, AI can analyze massive amounts of data and learn aesthetic elements from different cultures and styles, so as to create character images that are both in line with traditional aesthetics and full of new ideas. At the same time, AI can also automatically adjust expressions and movements according to the character's personality and emotional changes, making the character more vivid and three-dimensional. In terms of scene construction, AIGC technology shows amazing creativity, which can simulate natural light and shadow, weather changes, and even create fantasy scenes that exceed reality. Not only are these scenes visually stunning, but they are also closely connected to the storyline, creating an immersive viewing experience for the audience.

Gu Song believes that the application of AIGC technology has greatly improved the efficiency and quality of animation production. In the process of traditional animation production, many links need to be manually adjusted and optimized, which is time-consuming and laborious. AI can complete a lot of repetitive tasks in a short period of time, such as style exploration, character design, background drawing, color correction, etc., which gives creators more time to focus on the story itself, and also inspires more creative ideas. "Technology and techniques are just tools, they all serve content, and they also need human intervention. What really makes the work stand out is the imagination and creativity of the creators. ”

Sun Min said that with the emergence of technologies such as Wensheng pictures and Wensheng videos, artificial intelligence is increasingly affecting the animation industry, "Online animation will be more diversified, personalized and intelligent, bringing more rich and profound visual experience and cultural enjoyment to the audience." At the same time, the animation industry will also use the power of science and technology to achieve rapid, efficient and sustainable development. ”

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