What role does artistic animation play in the development of animation?

In recent years, while actively learning from the West, the animation industry in China has also begun to explore the traditional artistic style, hoping to make an animated film with the traditional characteristics of China. Especially when the Mulan movie Kung Fu Panda, which is based on the traditional themes of China and China, has achieved great success in the world animated film market, we can't help asking ourselves: Why didn't these films come into being in China? In the early days when animated films were born, China animation was famous for its unique connotation and style. Ink-wash animation, paper-cut animation and unique mural style, which originated from China's traditional artistic style, combined with China's traditional humanistic thought and educational concept, exudes extraordinary unique charm. The current world animation film market is a situation where vassal states and vassal states are divided. American and Japanese animation is popular with its mature commercial animation mode and smooth painting style, supported by its unique humanistic concept. European animation began to enter the world stage with its unique cultural heritage and extraordinary imagination and creativity. China animation started again and developed rapidly. If it wants to occupy a place in the world animation stage, it needs to absorb more nutrients from the national soil. In the following, the author takes the application of traditional artistic style in early animated films as an example, and makes relevant analysis to explore the reasons for the success of traditional animation in China, so as to provide reference for the development of modern animation.

First, the application of ink painting in animated films

China's unique artistic expression, ink painting, gave birth to ink animation.

(1) Ink animation inherits the humanistic essence of ink painting.

China's traditional ink painting inherits the aesthetics of Laozi and Zhuangzi in temperament and artistic conception, and holds that the beauty of heaven and earth (nature) is great and supreme. Pay attention to the realm of Taoism being close to nature and harmony between man and nature. People think that if people live in harmony with everything in nature, they can achieve an open mind, noble taste and spiritual clarity and peace. Ink animation also inherits this feature in conception and conception. For example, "Mountain View" is magnificent, and the guzheng is melodious and passionate between mountains and rivers. People are integrated with nature in music, and people's emotions are integrated between music and mountains and rivers. A film of less than 20 minutes vividly shows China's view of humanity and nature in ink and wash. Another example is Moody (figure 1), which is full of hearty ink and wash landscapes. Focusing on the clue of herding cattle, whether it is the Woods in the early morning, towering peaks, pouring waterfalls, frolicking butterflies, flying birds, strong deer and so on. All of them reflect the vividness and magnificence of nature in the melodious flute sound. These exquisite pictures of ink and wash styles have subtly cultivated people's sentiments, washed people's hearts and made people love and get close to nature. These cartoons bring the advantages of ink painting style to the extreme and give full play to the aesthetic educational function. In the story, the shepherd boy's dream begins with a butterfly and a leaf, which potentially shows Zhuang Zhou's view of human nature and nature. The humanistic feelings and artistic conception expressed by China's unique painting tools have been passed down in ink-wash animated films, creating excellent animated films with unique styles.

(B) Ink animation inherited the artistic style of ink painting.

Ink animation is a great creation of China's animation. It introduces China traditional ink painting into animation production, creating an ethereal and distant artistic conception in the picture of alternating reality and ink dripping, and at the same time, with the traditional musical elements of linear style, the audience can enjoy the most perfect enjoyment both visually and audibly. This style comes from China's traditional Chinese painting techniques, which is not only the product of China under certain historical conditions and humanistic environment, but also the expression of China's unique outlook on life and artistic concept. Using this style in the production of cartoons is not only the inheritance and promotion of traditional painting style, but also has its unique advantages. Different from ordinary comics, ink animation has no outline, and ink is naturally rendered on rice paper. A natural ink painting is a scene within reach. The characters in his works are graceful and agile, and all the soft brushstrokes are full of poetic artistic conception, which fully shows the aesthetic artistic conception of China's ink painting, which does not seek form but seeks God. Appreciating a good ink cartoon is like experiencing a spiritual wash in nature. The development of ink animation has made a major breakthrough in the artistic style of animation.

Under the backward technical conditions, it is complicated and difficult to create the artistic effect of ink painting style on the movie screen. In order to create a hearty ink painting effect, layers of coloring are needed. In addition to the background production, each picture should be divided into multiple layers, painted on different celluloid films, and repeatedly shot by animation photographers. Finally, all the films are combined and processed into ink rendering effect through photography. The time it takes to shoot one ink cartoon alone is enough to make four or five ordinary cartoons of the same length. Because of this, although many countries know its production method, they dare not try it easily. China people's perseverance and patience created the miracle of ink animation.

(C) the unique advantages of ink animation

1. Ink-and-wash cartoons originated from traditional paintings unique to China in style, so they are unique in visual effects and inherit the unique humanistic feelings of the Chinese nation.

2. Ink-wash style animation has realistic images, especially with ink-wash landscape as the background, which has its unique advantages in creating atmosphere and artistic conception. Although ink painting uses less colors, it is rich in layers and smooth in brushwork. Its style comes from China traditional painters' perception of nature, so it has unique advantages in depicting nature and expressing emotional images.

3. In the representation of characters and roles, ink animation mostly adopts the traditional painting style of China which combines realism with freehand brushwork. This style of brushwork is concise and the lines are smooth and free, which brings vitality and character between pen and ink. For example, moody's buffalo and shepherd boy, the cow did not move, its god came out; The shepherd boy didn't say anything, but his meaning has come.

China's unique ink and wash cartoons have been brilliant on the stage of history, and they are still shining. 1960, Shanghai Meiying Factory filmed a short film called "Ink Comic Fragments", including three short films of fish, shrimp, frog and chicken as experiments, with a total duration of 10 minute. In the same year, the first ink-and-wash cartoon "Little Tadpole Looking for Mom" was born, in which animal models were taken from the works of master Qi Baishi, and the film became a sensation all over the world. Later, he made many excellent films, such as Moody and Mountain Scenery, which won many awards in the world. Since then, there has been a period of silence in China's traditional ink animation. Nowadays, with the intervention of computers, many short films that imitate the effect of ink animation through three-dimensional animation have appeared one after another, such as Summer, which is popular on the Internet recently, which can be regarded as a continuation of the traditional ink animation style.

Second, the application of folk paper-cutting in animated films

Paper-cutting is a wonderful flower in China folk art, and this well-known traditional art form also radiates unique light in China's animated films. As one of the unique folk art forms in China, as early as the Han and Tang Dynasties, folk women had the fashion of cutting square towels, flowers and birds with gold and silver foils and colored silks, and adorning their temples. Then it gradually developed. In festivals, colored paper is cut into stories of flowers, animals or people, and pasted on windows (called "window grilles") and lintels (called "door stickers") as decoration, and also used as gift decoration or embroidery patterns. Paper-cutting tools generally only use a pair of scissors, and some professional artists use special carving knives to carve them. The application of this artistic style called "paper carving" in animation film creation can be traced back to its origin. Its founder is Wan Guchan, the second child of Wan Brothers. After many experiments, he successfully shot the first color clipping in 1958. In later films such as Fisherman, Jigong Fighting Cricket, and Golden Conch, the skills became more and more mature. Wan Guchan and his creative partners absorbed the artistic features of Chinese shadow play and folk window grilles, allowing various types of paper-cut figures or animals to convey their joys and sorrows on the screen, some antique and some lively. This form combines many traditional story themes, fully demonstrates the characteristics of local visual art in the spread of animated films, creates a precedent of national animation style, and makes outstanding contributions to the early animation industry in China.

(A) Paper-cut animation inherits the folk culture in paper-cut art..

Paper-cut animation was independently created by China, and its unique artistic form came from shadow play and folk window grilles in China folk culture.

Paper-cut art itself comes from the daily life of working people in China, has a wide historical origin and mass base, and is not influenced by utilitarian thoughts. In the long process of historical evolution, it has always lost its simplicity and freshness, and has distinctive artistic characteristics and life interest. The choice of themes is mostly auspicious things seen in daily life or folklore, and the theme of praising life and expressing good wishes is an important part of China folk culture. The early paper-cut animation also continued this tradition in content and theme, punishing evil and promoting good with folklore, fable and other themes, and its strong artistic style became the representative of China folk local culture. For example, the story of New Year's Eve (Figure 2) is taken from folk stories in theme, and a young hero cartoon with "year" divided by "night" adopts paper-cutting shooting technique in form. The whole film is lively and festive, red and purple, full of composition and strong sense of decoration; He is witty and humorous in the setting of various characters and plots, and vividly interprets the traditional festival New Year's Eve in China. The characteristics of festive, lively and auspicious in folk culture are highlighted. Some young people recognize "foreign festivals" more than traditional festivals. This art form from folk culture is also a good medicine to popularize traditional culture. Today, when foreign cultures are rampant, this art form is precious.

(B) the application of paper-cut art style in animated films

Paper-cut animation refers to folk paper-cut in art form, and also absorbs the characteristics of shadow play in movement and modeling, which has local characteristics. It comes from folk culture and the industrious, brave and cheerful character of China people. Modeling, smooth lines, with the characteristics of continuous cutting and pen-to-pen connection in folk paper-cutting; Most of the characters are sideways when they move, and there is no perspective change, which is very decorative; In terms of color, colors are bright and saturated, and festive and auspicious colors are often used. At the same time, we also pay attention to absorbing the characteristics of folk art such as New Year pictures and decorative pictures, which are very ethnic.

In the production of paper-cut animation, the joints of paper-cut characters (animals) are connected by thin copper wires or small sticky particles, and then they are shot one by one in front of the camera. There are also some very flexible movements and clips, all of which are made by animation drawing of cartoons. The production cost of paper-cutting is lower than that of comics. The disadvantage is that the expression changes, face changes and paper-cut flips are not as flexible as comics, and the movements are limited. When there are large-scale action clips, you need to cut, draw and shoot constantly. A short paper clip, the same character has to be cut many times, so it is difficult to avoid the character's movements keeping the same angle for a long time. These limitations, of course, have also become one of its artistic features. In the process of making modern animation, we can complete this animation form on the virtual platform of computer, which can not only avoid its shortcomings, but also give full play to its characteristics and advantages in modeling and color.

(C) the unique advantages of paper-cut animation

1. Paper-cut animation originated from the folk culture of China, is the crystallization of the wisdom of the broad masses of people, and embodies the unique local characteristics of China.

2. The artistic style of paper-cut animation is simple and decorative, which is deeply loved by children.

3. The characteristics of plane modeling and plane coloring of paper-cut animation are both its shortcomings and its characteristics. Based on traditional folk culture, it has been inherited and developed in modern animated films, which has increased the artistic style of animated films.

Thirdly, the application of traditional murals in animated films.

In the 5,000-year history of China, mural painting is one of the important artistic types. Since the Zhou Dynasty, there has been a system of decorating murals in palaces and mausoleums. With the prosperity of religion, murals are widely used in temples and grottoes. In the cave murals in the late Northern Wei Dynasty, mural statues with Taoist myths as the theme appeared. Because they are painted on the walls or ceilings of buildings, mural art has its unique procedural characteristics. For example, in composition processing, parallel, radial and central divergence are the main methods; In plane modeling, the lines are concise, the scenery is expressive, and the characters mostly use curves; The colors are bright and simple. The above decorative art features of China murals have been passed down to this day, becoming a part of China traditional culture and being used for reference by early animated films. Especially the murals originated from religion, in which the scenes and characters can be used for reference and application by animated films with mythical themes. For example, an animated film with a mythical theme, Things Change, draws lessons from the artistic style of traditional murals in terms of characters and scene modeling. Figure 3 shows the picture of the Heavenly Palace in "The Passage of the Sea". In the performance of the Heavenly Palace, the film adopts a top-down way of expression, which means nine palaces. At the same time, the traditional symmetrical composition is used to reflect the majesty and style of the royal family, and the divergent Buddha light modeling commonly used in Buddhism is used to reflect the residence of God. In the scene of the Heavenly Palace, a flying performance was added. Comparing the flying sky in Dunhuang murals in Figure 4, it is not difficult to see its origin. This kind of reference and change is the inheritance and development of tradition in the new era, which makes the film have a strong Chinese flavor and distinctive China logo under the smooth lines.

The above mainly introduces the reference and application of China's early animated films to the art of ink painting, paper-cutting and mural painting. It is precisely because of the application of these arts that these early animated films have a strong China background. China's humanistic spirit, folk culture and traditional modeling style are integrated into it, which shines a unique light in the history of world animation. In today's fierce competition in the global market, while technology is changing with each passing day, inheriting the advantages and characteristics of traditional animation and integrating into contemporary aesthetic taste will determine how far our animated films can go. The eternal proposition of inheritance and development is still before us.