Animation creation encounters a shortage of artistic talents."Big Animation View" urgently needs to be realized

China's animation art has experienced ups and downs, from emphasizing artistic nature to being blindly technical, from criticizing current shortcomings to being superficial. Some experts pointed out that behind this is a gap in the inheritance of artistic talents, resulting in the lack of truly master animation artists in the contemporary era, which has become an important reason that has plagued the development of animation.

Original title: Animation creation encounters a shortage of artistic talents

Recently, the Zhang Guangyu Comic Exhibition, the founder of China animation, was held in Wuzhen. Classic animation images such as the Monkey King and the Magic Brush Ma Liang have once again evoked the memories of generations of China through exquisite manuscripts. Compared with the brilliance created by the older generation of artists, current art practitioners have few original works that can be produced. Over the years, China's animation art has experienced ups and downs, from emphasizing artistic nature to being blindly technical, from criticizing current shortcomings to being superficial, from strong national color to imitating the nondescript nature of Europe, America and Japan. A series of changes have made contemporary works gradually lose their national and artistic nature. Some experts pointed out that behind this is a gap in the inheritance of artistic talents, resulting in the lack of truly master animation artists in the contemporary era, which has become an important reason that has plagued the development of animation.

Current situation:

Since July, many domestic animations such as "Big Ears Tutu's Food Rhapsody","The Legend of Bean Fortune", and "The Great Dharma" have appeared in major theaters, taking advantage of the summer boom., trying to recreate the box office miracle. The reporter found that except for "The Great Law of the Buddha", which has an acceptable reputation of 8 points, the rest of the works have had mediocre responses, only about 5-6 points. Affected by the dual impact of filming rates and word-of-mouth, domestic animated films have not performed well at the box office. In particular,"Doufu Zhuan" produced by Shenzhen real estate enterprise Jingji Group with a cost of 200 million yuan, claims to have been in preparation for eight years. The cumulative box office of only more than 14 million yuan in six days of release.

In this year's scorching heat, domestic animation practitioners have experienced a deep chill. Since "Return of the Great Sage" won 957 million yuan in the box office in 2015, capital giants have rushed to enter the game, and major websites have also piled up to invest in domestic animation projects. However, with both technology and capital, there are very few works with good reputation and box office exceeding 100 million yuan. Most animated films cannot escape the bad luck of losing money. The media has also issued a sound that "domestic animation's high box office is accidental."

At the moment when domestic animation art is in a dilemma, people in the industry have fallen into nostalgia and reflection. Coinciding with the recent opening of the "Zhang Guangyu Comic Exhibition, Founder of China Animation" in Wuzhen. More than 100 classic animation works handed down from generation to generation show Zhang Guangyu's contribution to China's animation art, and also allow viewers to recall the glory of domestic animation art in the past. It can be said that China animation art is the earliest film genre in China to go global. Around the 1960s, China's animation art, with frequent excellent works, became internationally famous and was praised as the "China School"(also known as the China Animation School).

Looking at the history of films-"The Great Troubles in Heaven" won the Outstanding Film Award of the Year at the London International Film Festival in the UK,"Little Tadpole Finding His Mother" won the Honorary Award at the 17th Cannes International Film Festival in France, and "Mudi" won the third prize in Denmark. The gold medal of the Odense Fairy Tales Film Festival... almost every film has been highly praised by international industry insiders. France's Le Monde once pointed out that "" The Troubles in Heaven "not only has the beauty of Disney's works, but also has plastic arts that Disney cannot achieve, perfectly expressing China's traditional artistic style."

Bu Xiting, deputy dean of the Institute of Cultural Development of Communication University of China, pointed out in an interview with reporters: "Compared with the golden period of the 1950s and 1960s, China animation is not in a critical position in the context of globalization." Looking at the domestic animation art since the new century, from the well-known "Treasure Lotus Lantern" to "Return of the Great Sage", or the well-known "Battle of Luo Xiaohei","Kuiba","Painting the Bad People in the Jianghu", or "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" and "Bear Infested", which have a low audience, none of them have won important international awards and have international influence comparable to "The Troubles in Heaven".

Cause: There is a fault in artistic inheritance.

Reflecting on the present through the golden age of domestic animation art, its difficult crux can be clearly presented. Bu Xiting pointed out: "Animation workers in the 1950s and 1960s were all well-known artists at that time, and master figures participated in animation art. They have a high status in the art industry itself. They are in the context of traditional China culture and have a deep understanding and understanding of China culture. The creations of the masters enable domestic animation art to retain China characteristics in the world context, so it can occupy a prominent position in the world's animation forest." Zhang Guangyu, the artist of the art style of "The Troubles in Heaven", is an artist who has made achievements in various artistic fields. According to Tang Wei, author of "Pursuing Zhang Guangyu","He is too unique. It is not enough to call him an artist. Calling him a cartoonist is not enough. Designers, publishers, decorative artists, film artists, illustrators, social activists, modern art promoters... all seemed not enough, so some people called him a miscellaneous painter."

In addition, the glory of China's animation art is inseparable from the contributions of art giants Qi Baishi and Li Keran: China's first ink animation,"Little Tadpole Looking for Mother", realized the idea of "moving Qi Baishi's paintings"; the shape of the water buffalo in the 1963 ink animation "Mudi" came from Li Keran's handwriting. At that time, the animation artists such as Te Wei, Jin Xi, Wang Shuchen, and Duan Xiaoxuan from Shanghai Art Studio had high artistic literacy and were influenced by profound China classical culture, or they had studied abroad to receive new ideas on Western art education, which undoubtedly greatly promoted the rapid development of China cartoons.

In Bu Xiting's view, the transition from glory to gloom in China's animation art is related to the fault of inheritance. At that time, China's animation artists did not form a professional and sustainable creative team. Compared with the animation production models in the United States, Japan and South Korea, China does not have a mature "master studio model." "Nowadays, we have a lot of animation college and professional students, but in fact there are not many people who can be named." There is also a huge gap between the calligraphy and painting industry and the animation industry. The situation where there are no masters participating and few masters are produced makes China animation lose a lot of artistic and national character, is not internationally recognized and can easily become a vassal of technology. Mr. Wei, who has ten years of experience in game animation research and development, pointed out the industry's problems in an interview with reporters: "The so-called China style in game animation is mainly based on the traditional themes of martial arts and Xianxia. In terms of expression, it is actually similar to the image of Japan, Europe and the United States. As a company that relies on projects to survive, it will basically cater to the requirements of Party A, such as directors and game developers. Design knowledge may not be recognized at all in the face of Party A's will. This environment kills some practitioners."

Future: The crux of the "grand animation concept" urgently needs to be realized in

the current China animation art is not an isolated case in film history. Domestic animation before the golden age of the 1950s and 1960s also went through the stumbling road. In 1955,"Why Are Crows Black" caused an award-winning mistake in the international arena: due to its complete imitation of content and form, it was mistakenly regarded by the judges as a Soviet work. Since then, China animators have begun to reflect on their creative path. Under the influence of Te Wei, then head of the animation group of the Shanghai Film Studio, that China cartoons "follow the path of national style", classic masterpieces with China charm such as "Troubles in Heaven" and "Nezha Troubles in the Sea" came into being.

For the currently confused animation art, emphasizing the true national character of the work's core and outer core requires the development of a professional and industrialized production model belonging to China's animation at the source. According to statistics from the Ministry of Culture, as of last year, the total number of recognized animation companies in China has reached 730, and most of them are still operating in small workshops. A reporter from the Beijing Business Daily asked a number of animation companies that their profit methods are mainly project OEM, and IP originality is basically at the conception stage. Looking forward to the development prospects of China's animation art, Bu Xiting, as an industry expert, gave constructive opinions: "First of all, we must deeply explore the stories of our own nation and local regions, remove inappropriate foreign expressions, and create an IP animation network that suits the tastes of China. Secondly, we must form a China model industrial animation industry operating mechanism as soon as possible. Form a master training model and studio system, create high-quality IP and develop the entire industry chain. Third, there must be a 'big anime view'. Not only must we get rid of the low-income model and take into account different groups, we must not just learn and do animation for animation, but we must treat animation art from the perspective of the country's new strategic industrial situation. Combine animation art with the country's traditional industries and strategic emerging industries, and position it as cultural consumption content that will affect everyone in the future."

Editor: Mary