Animation Study Abroad - Artistic Features of Chinese Animation

"Jiyuantai No. 7"

3D to 2D

Representing the country - China


"Jiyuantai No. 7", as the first Chinese-language animated film to be shortlisted for the competition at the Venice Film Festival, swept the first place after winning the Venice Best Screenplay Award The 93rd Oscar competition was successfully shortlisted! What's so special about this cartoon, which cost 50 million yuan, to be meticulously carved?





"Jiyuantai No. 7" as a "big production" two-dimensional animation film, the film took 5 years to complete by a number of art staff, a lot of effort. Taking Hong Kong in 1967 as the background, it describes a series of emotional stories about a mother and daughter (Yu Tai and Mei Ling) in a turbulent period, they drifted from Taiwan to Hong Kong, and then had an English teacher Zi Ming.


The content outline is adapted from the short stories "Youth Dreamer", "Night in the Spring Breeze" and "Golden House Tears".



"Jiyuantai No. 7" poster



"Jiyuantai No. 7" has a unique style of painting, and the plausible expression method raises the film to a "three-dimensional" animation. 2D animation hand drawn. On the basis of realism, the overall style of the film further abstracts the impression of the background of the era.



Screenshot of "Jiyuantai No. 7"


In addition, the distinctive art scene design, character picture books, and dynamic structure are all based on artistic concepts, which makes Hong Kong in the 1960s more precise.



Screenshot of "Jiyuantai No. 7"



Realistic style is difficult for animation, so many forms that are different from traditional animation are used in production, such as one shot to show soothing and smooth character movements and delicate and realistic animation Emoji animation, etc. Combining the realistic + freehand shooting style, it presents an aesthetic expansion in the visual effect.





The expressions and images of some animated characters are finalized screen, causing the jittering effect. Therefore, the team used the "3+2" technique to determine a standard line, and then hand-painted it to ensure the stability of the picture.



Large-scale shots



From an artistic point of view, the film uses a character-making style without light sources and shadows to express the temperament of the characters in the ink painting with single-line flat painting, thereby highlighting the dramatic aesthetics presented by the entire picture under the strong visual contrast.





In addition, there is a fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetic elements, so in terms of vision, the whole film appears softer and warmer.



"Jiyuantai No. 7" screenshot



Although the speed at which this picture is presented may give some viewers the illusion of "stuttering", this is actually the personalized needs of old-school filmmakers in terms of narrative. This is an emotional film, not an ordinary one. Commercial film narrative logic.





The reason why "Jiyuantai No. 7" has been highly recognized by international film art activities is precisely because he has shown the public a more diverse artistic value on the road of animation, and also showed the world more possibilities of Chinese animation films .