Interior Cartoon Design Concept

Similar to general film and television production, the Disney feature-length animation production process generally has three parts:

●"Pre-production", which is mainly creative design.

●"Production" means actual hands-on execution.

●"Post-production" is the work of sorting, synthesizing, revising all elements and aftermath.

1. Idea

Animation production starts with the idea. Taking Disney as an example, if the proposer is not an internal Disney employee, he must first find an agent to help handle legal issues, because the negotiation process may cause many legal disputes. Take "Mulan" as an example. The pseudonym "FaPing" used by Mulan when she disguised herself as a man in the army happened to be similar to the name "Ping" of an American golf company. This company took advantage of this They accused Disney of misappropriating their store name and wanted to make money from the lawsuit. Therefore, large companies like Disney are extremely careful about legal issues and do not easily accept proposals from outside individuals. Sending the script to the company through an agent is beneficial to both parties. It can protect the legal safety of the company and protect the author's own rights and interests at the same time.

In addition, within the Disney Company, there are three ways for ideas to come from:

●Executive decisions are issued by executives: for example, "The Lion King" (The Lion King) was The president gave an order and thought that a movie like "Bambi" should be made now. The production team used "Bambi" as a springboard and added the story structure of Shakespeare's "Hamlet": the protagonist Simba, the lion, rediscovered himself after losing his father and going into self-exile.

●The company's annual "Gong Show" (GongShow): The company holds it once a year. It arranges an occasion to invite company dignitaries, including the president, chairman and other senior officials, to sit in a row, and then let everyone Anyone who wants to introduce their own ideas can use the posters or sketches they have designed to introduce the outline of their story within five minutes. There is a big gong in the field. When five minutes is up, the next person will be replaced with a sound of "匡~~". This is how Hercules was chosen.

●Imagined by the company's internal "Creative Executive" department: This is what happens most often. The Creative Executive Department, composed of about seven people, collects fairy tales, legends, and folktales from all over the world. , or study children's books published in the market, and scripts sent in from outside. Every once in a while, I report to the company executives and introduce ideas worthy of being made into animation. That's how "Mulan" came about.

The above channels operate and intersect with each other, and it is often difficult to define which specific channel a film was conceived from.

2. Story Outline

After having an idea, the company will ask the playwright to first write a "Story Outline" or "Treatment". Like "Mulan", the reason was that the company's senior executives wanted to make a story with an Oriental background. Because it is a theme that Disney has never explored, and for Westerners, the East is full of dazzling and mysterious colors, which will be very attractive. So the creative executives started looking. They initially considered a story called "China Doll", but the content was nothing more than white male chauvinism that Hollywood has burnt out, such as "Miss Saigon" and "Madama Butterfly". There was nothing new about it, so it was abandoned later; at this time, a creative executive happened to know a writer who was editing world folk tales, and the company accepted his suggestion and adopted "Mulan". Because the story of "Mulan" is interesting, and the heroine's character is of contemporary significance, it breaks away from the traditional stereotype of Eastern women as weak and submissive, and is more in line with Disney's attempt to grasp the trend of the times in selecting themes in recent years.

3. Script

The next division of labor is to draft the "Script" first. Disney animation is different from live-action movies. It inherits the profound tradition of comedy and mime and emphasizes the visual performance of body language. Therefore, it is not suitable for scripts with a lot of dialogue. The character relationships and plot of the animation should be expressed visually as much as possible, rather than spoken. For example, describing an angry character and making him beat his chest, bare his teeth and claws is more vivid and interesting than saying "I'm so angry!" This is how animation can take full advantage of its strengths. A good animation script must be written from a visual perspective, and frequent interaction between the animation scriptwriter and the story artist is even more important.

4. Storyboard

The thing most closely related to the script is the "storyboard". In the past, there was no storyboard when making movies or animations. Everyone just picked up the camera and shot. Storyboards were first invented by Disney and are like a series of "comic strips." Each grid in a comic book is roughly a storyboard. Before it is officially produced, you can see the direction of the entire story. There are many "Story Sketches" on the storyboard, and the dialogue is written underneath the sketches.

StoryArtists are like rap artists. They use their voices and expressions to pitch the story based on the storyboard. They hope that the audience can feel the drama in the storyboard and further convince the directors and producers in the audience. Made with its ideas in mind. The same scene will often go through the hands of two or three painters, and sometimes there will be several different versions. After thorough discussions among the director, producer, and painters, a final version will be finalized. Disney pays attention to division of labor and cooperation. A film requires the efforts of everyone to complete. The production structure of animated feature films is huge and requires a lot of brainstorming. Making storyboards can facilitate everyone's research and discussion. Finding the flaws in the story at this time can avoid unnecessary waste of time and money during production. For general TV animation, as long as the director has read the storyboard and thinks it is okay.

The most important job of a story artist is to fully understand the personality of each character and the emotional relationship between the characters, and then use this as motivation to lay out the plot. Take "Mulan" as an example. If the plot follows the general theory: Hua Mulan disguised herself as a man and appeared in front of her father. After deceiving him, her father asked her to join the army to fight. This kind of plot layout is just scripted, lacking character depth, no emotion, and no consideration of the character's reaction to this situation from the heart. The story of Hua Mulan is based on human reasoning. A weak woman disguises herself as a man and goes to the battlefield. Unless her parents don't care about her life or death, they will definitely be very nervous and will try their best to stop her from going to the battlefield. Story painters must be able to empathize with others and think about the story situation. Only in this way can human reactions be profoundly depicted, and such plot deductions only be reasonable. Therefore, Disney's Mulan leaves without saying goodbye in the middle of the night, which is different from the commonly circulated story.

The key to the charm of Disney animation is not only the presentation of the plot, but more importantly, the "character creation" (). All characters come from the heart, which is why Disney characters look real, like living people, not pictures. In the film "Mulan", what everyone sees is a naughty, cute, lively and temperamental girl next door, not a cartoon. Disney animation has been successful in this way for a long time, and this is also the consistent approach of Hollywood movies, which is to create "star" characters with personality and charm.

In order to see the direction of the story more comprehensively, you can also arrange the written "plot highlights" (StoryBeats) in order on a board, or draw a curve of emotional ups and downs and climax positions on it, so that you can Helps story artists understand the relative tension of a scene.

5. Visual Development

In addition to storyboards, the most important part of making the story concrete is "Visual Development", which is what Chinese people generally call "art development". "Design", but Disney pays more attention to the freedom and tolerance of the design process, emphasizing diversity, change, and development, hence the name. This part of the work is to interpret all the visual images in the script during the pre-production planning stage. From the overall style, character design, modeling and color matching, props and set design, atmosphere creation to color planning, it is all the work of visual design. content.

Video design is very conceptual at the beginning, and this is when the artist is happiest when creating. Because the story has not been completely finalized at this time and the plot is still very vague, each visual designer has a lot of freedom and can give full play to their personal feelings and imagination. The scope of the work is not clearly defined. Characters, scenes, and colors are all included. Everyone is like an illustrator in a picture storybook, "illustrating" the key points of the story in the way he or she likes. Let a hundred flowers bloom, providing a variety of different possibility. During this development process, the director finally chooses an art direction and decides on the leadership of each department. He gradually divides the work and narrows the scope of work, so that everyone works in the same general direction.

Character Design

The author’s job in the production of "Mulan" was the character design part. I was the "Artistic Supervisoron Character Design" of the film and was responsible for the styling design. . In order to let five or six hundred people draw like me in the future, I must imagine a set of art style principles for character design for everyone to follow. Taking "Mulan" as an example, the "S arc" is the key to the entire style, such as the "gossamer drawing" in ancient figure painting. This is a method I discovered from ancient Chinese paintings that can be used in animation. Elements; ancient Chinese sculptures of gods and Buddhas, especially Buddha’s hands, are my source of inspiration. This S-curve has an elegant and flowing beauty, which is particularly suitable for describing the costumes of ancient Chinese characters. The S arc is the benchmark for line processing in "Mulan", and the plane space between the lines is regulated by the tangent "triangular wedge". I won't go into details about the character art principles of "Mulan" here. As for the overall style of the movie, the department designers' first awareness is to be "concise and poetic." Therefore, from the characters to the scene design, they try to use the most concise shapes and colors to accurately capture the white space and white space in Oriental paintings. The artistic essence of the contrast between line density and density.

After the designs of all the main characters are roughly figured out, the designer and the animator responsible for each character go back and forth to modify the shapes to make the shapes easier for the animators to personalize without losing the flavor of the original design. master.

In the final stage of character design, "ModelSheets" must be made. There are various angles, expressions and postures of the characters on the modeling sheet, which helps to unify the animators' drawings. Once the styling sheet is finalized and approved by the director, no changes will be made as much as possible.

After this, the styling and color matching will be carried out. The designer, art director and "Color Stylist" will conceive and execute the color concept based on the character's personality. For example, Mulan's pink clothes are used to contrast with the late-blooming pink magnolia in the back garden; the three sworn brothers, Lao Yao, Xiao Lin, and Jin Bao, use red, yellow, and blue primary colors according to their personalities. Become.

After the character modeling is established, the main characters must be arranged side by side to let everyone know their "height and short size ratio" (SizeComparison or Line.up). The composition artist especially needs this information. From the proportion diagram, we can also see the design changes in shapes (shapes) that are very particular in Disney animation modeling; taking "Mulan" as an example, for example, Jin Bao is a circle, Lao Yao is a square, Xiao Lin is a triangle, etc. Each figure should have its own unique shape, and the shape should have obvious and contrasting differences while reflecting the character's personality. A successful styling design, even if the characters are all blackened into silhouettes, it should still be possible to tell who is who.

Next, the sculptor will create a three-dimensional "Maquette" with the same shape based on the two-dimensional modeling table. Its main function is to help the animator in painting. Because the modeling chart is flat, sometimes you may not know how to draw it from some special angles, such as the face looking from the chin up, or you may be unsure of how to draw it. With this clay figurine, it is as if there is a model by the side at all times. The animator can face the clay figurine and draw difficult angles, which is of great help to the animators. After these clay figurines are painted, they are also popular collectibles. ●Scene design

The style and design of the scene must match the characters. The "Art Designer" (ProctionDesigner) will roughly draw and set it according to the location where the plot and story takes place, and then work with the "Art Director" ( ArtDirector), "Composition Team Leader" (Head of Layout) and "Background Team Leader" (Head of Background) *** jointly supervise the execution. The art designer must imagine a set of art style principles for the composition artist and background artist to follow; every plant, tree, brick, and space treatment in each scene is painted according to this principle. For example, in "Mulan", in order to capture the style of white space and contrast between reality and reality in traditional Chinese painting, the scenery uses a large number of simple color blocks. Except for the details at the focus, which are clearly defined, most other parts of the picture are marked out. The hazy freehand colors leave space for the audience to make their own associations.

Disney artists like to make some jokes or leave some footprints in the design drawings. For example, at the end of "Aladdin", after the bad guys gain power, the palace is filled with gold, silver and jewelry. If the audience stops to pay attention, If you look, you'll find a toaster, a Mickey Mouse watch, a pelota ball, and other things that shouldn't be there. And we used seal script to put the names of the planning colleagues on the inscription on the stone tablet of the family temple of "Mulan". This really gave me the opportunity to make our names immortal like the Disney movies.

●Color Script

Scripts include text scripts, and in visual design there is the so-called "ColorScript". ColorScript is a series of color scene drawings, composed of " The "art director" or "background team leader" selects a series of key "story sketches" from the entire play's storyboard, shrinks them, and sets the color combination for scene switching based on the mood and atmosphere of the plot. For example, in the scene where Hua Mulan is dressing up before going on a blind date, in order to give people a fresh feeling, the art director specified a pinker color, and the background artist painted accordingly. In addition, for example, in the scene where Mulan is training, the background turns orange in the end, just to give people a feeling of rushing blood. There is also the scene where the village is burned down. In order to highlight the drama, two strong colors, red and black, were used to create a murderous and bloody color contrast.

According to the color script, you can also decide whether the tones when switching from one scene to another should be strongly contrasting or smooth and harmonious. Color controls the changes in the audience's subconscious emotions. Using color scripts, you can fully grasp its ups and downs.

6. Sound

This part is responsible for the "Sound Department" of the studio. The work includes character dubbing, sound effects, songs and soundtracks.

●Dubbing

The "Voice Casting Director" (Voice Casting Director) in the dubbing department is responsible for finding dubbing actors and singers suitable for the story characters. This part must be closely coordinated with the character's styling design and personality. For example, pairing a cute little girl with an innocent and sweet voice to make it sound like the person she is; or pairing a big fat man with a kind personality who is uncharacteristically A high-pitched voice to create counter-effects; or like in "Mulan", the three-sworn "Old Yao" looks like Zhang Fei, paired with the movie actor Harvey. Harvey Fierstein's hoarse and rough voice fits Lao Yao's personality very well and is a very successful example.

In terms of character dubbing, Disney adopts a "pre-recording" method, which is different from the "post-dubbing" method of Taiwanese or Japanese animation. In Disney, after the sound is recorded first, the animators then animate according to the sound track, so that the characters and the voices can match their mouths, and the expressions are easier to grasp. If it is like Japanese animation, they draw it first and then find a voice actor to dub it. Such an approach often has flaws in the connection of emotions. For example, if the duration of a character's words is not controlled well, the character's mouth may still be moving but the words have been finished. Therefore, the dubbing actor is forced to come up with additional lines that do not fit the situation.

In "Preliminary Recording", after the dubbing is recorded, the "SoundReader" decomposes the sound syllables and weights of the lines on the tape on the machine, and marks them on a sheet called "Rhythm Table". "Exposure Sheet" or "Exposure Sheet" (X-Sheet for short) paper. The vertical lines on the rhythm table represent levels, and each horizontal bar represents a frame of the film. Every eight frames is a paragraph, two paragraphs is one paragraph (35mm film), and three paragraphs are one second, twenty-four frames. After breaking down each syllable, the animator draws the mouth shape according to the syllable. This is why Disney characters speak absolutely vividly lip-synced. The director and animator must be present during the recording. They must communicate with the dubbing actors and tell them what kind of emotions they want. For example, a simple "No!" will have different expressions depending on the mood, it all depends on the director's requirements.

●Songs

Songs are another powerful tool for expressing inner emotions in dramas, especially good songs that are unforgettable and catchy. In the past decade or so, Disney cartoons have emerged as Broadway "musicals", and songs are everywhere. However, the song must fit into the plot naturally, be unobtrusive, and advance the plot; the lyrics must fit the character’s situation, and cannot be just for the sake of singing, otherwise the entire plot will stagnate and become a “concert.” Destroys dramatic tension. If the voice actor and the singer are not the same person, then it is even more important to find a singer with a similar voice to match. Disney usually looks for well-known composers and lyricists to write songs.

●Sound effects and soundtrack

In the pre-production stage, only music and sound effects materials that can be found in the market are temporarily used. Of course, the "sound department" is also actively looking for suitable film score composers at this time. Character dubbing, sound effects, songs and soundtracks are simply mixed at this time for use in story videos.

7. Story Video

At this stage, we have entered a very important step in animation production. Generally, the domestic animation industry often omits or does not make good use of the part - "Story" StoryReel. Story tapes are actually the same as what is commonly called "Leica tapes" (Animatic or Leica Reel) in the industry. The "Pre-production Editorial Department" (Development Editorial) scans the story sketches from the storyboard into the computer one by one, and adds dialogue (sometimes the painters are temporarily hired to do background character dubbing) and simple sound effects and soundtracks to complete the video. Or edit it into a story video in the form of a videotape; that is, adding the element of "time" to the storyboard. The previous two-dimensional concept was used through the story video to further and more accurately grasp the timing and ups and downs of the plot in the film.

When the production team watches the story tape together, they can clearly see if there are any flaws in the story. Especially when it is shown to non-production audiences, because their standpoint is objective and fresh, they can more faithfully reflect the quality of the film. If no one laughs at a place in the film that is intended to create a joke, then you know something is wrong. You need to consider whether the joke is not enough, or it happened at an inappropriate time, or it needs to be cut and redone. Through story tapes, story problems can be found and solved during pre-production, which can avoid a lot of waste of manpower and financial resources in future production. This part is especially important for cartoons.

The story sketches in the story tape will gradually be replaced by sketch animations one scene at a time as the production progresses, and then the animations will gradually be replaced by the completed scenes, step by step. evolved into the final animated film. The vocal part also evolved into the final result.

8. Workbook

Another important part of feature film production is the "Workbook", which is a further imagined storyboard. Previously, the storyboards were all sketches, with no clear camera movements or background details, only the characters’ expressions (actions and expressions). At this stage of the work, the visual language of the film, such as changes in camera movements and camera angles, will be added to enhance the dramatic tension. In TV animation production, storyboards and workbooks are the same thing, there is no difference.

"Pre-production" is the most interesting part of the job. The planning department is full of laughter, music, and reading. If it is quiet, you know that the film has hit a bottleneck or is out of order. question.

At this point, the "pre-production" part comes to an end. We have the final set colors, styling sheets, and workbooks. These are the blueprints for future production. All the following "production" operations are based on this. shall prevail.