Seeing the vivid lines on the A4, Fu Nengke knew that the coordinates of his life should be fixed here, and the spark of life should shine here. He has been working in animation post-production since 2007 and has been in the industry for a full decade. On April 26, the reporter met with Fu Nengke, a "model worker and advanced worker in Chongqing" at Chongqing Xianghong Co., Ltd.
Ten years from "layman" to technical backbone
Fu Nengke, 30, is currently the director of the editing and synthesis department of Chongqing Xianghong Co., Ltd.
"It was my first job and it will be my lifelong career!" Fu Nengke had just graduated from college when he said these words with confidence.
For him majoring in educational technology, the animation industry can be said to be a completely unfamiliar field. "In fact, when I graduated, my family had already helped me arrange for me to work as a teacher at the school. A big reason why I entered the animation production industry is that I want to come to Chongqing with my girlfriend, she is doing the animation industry. ”
Unexpectedly, the "layman" who was led into the industry by his girlfriend unexpectedly fell in love with this profession. At that time, Fu Nengke suffered a lot in order to quickly gain a foothold. "Doing this job requires a deep heart, because we often sit for a day, and we can't even drink water when we rush to the task." Fu Nengke said with a smile.
In order to rush the construction period, it is common to work overtime and stay up late. "For the longest time, I worked overtime every day for four months. Because I didn't come from this major, I was still making up for the technology after I went home, and I didn't rest until 1 or 2 a.m. almost every day," Fu Nengke recalled: "From the initial animation synthesis, editing to animation special effects production, all of them were repeatedly practiced. In just one year, I was able to master it. ”
In 2013, my father's serious illness and hospitalization coincided with the key moment of the production of the film "Happy Bear Fantasy Tracking". Fu Nengke Hospital, who was already a technical supervisor, ran at both ends of the company, and after taking care of his father's bedside, he hurried back to the office to continue working.
In the past ten years, he has participated in 7 major themes and 3 series of original high-quality animation films, including "Magic Box and Song", "Lele Bear Strange Travels", "Colorful Notes of Lele Bear", "Lele Bear Toy Kingdom", "Mira Adventure", "Dream Boat", as well as animated films "Today tomorrow", "Le Le Bear Fantasy Tracking", "Leaping to the Heart of the Earth", "Le Le Bear Fantasy Tracking 2", "Le Le Bear Treasure Hunting Adventure", etc., totaling more than 800 episodes and 15,000 minutes of original animation works and stage plays. His works have been broadcast on more than 100 provincial and municipal television stations in China, such as China Film Digital Cinema Line, CCTV, Children's Channel, Beijing Kaku, Shanghai Xuandong, etc., and successfully exported to more than 50 countries and regions in the Middle East, North America, South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe and so on.
In August 2015, at the Fifth National Vocational Skills Competition for Employees, Fu Nengke won the second prize for animation painters in the Chongqing Selection Competition.
A one-minute shot takes 2 months to make
An animation production process is often more complicated than we think, Fu Nengke told reporters, in general, the animation production process to go through the text script, modeling design (including accessories, props), screen script (storyboard), and then the screen script is divided into pre-production and post-production, the director intervenes. The later stage is background production, the early stage is composition, original painting, original painting transcription, animation, motion inspection, line shooting, the early completion; then the animation line drawing draft is scanned, colored, synthesized with the background, and the sample is completed; the final sample is edited after dubbing, soundtrack, and then sound synthesis, plus subtitles before entering the market.
The production of an animation film is like the assembly line of the factory, but there is no so-called standardization, each animator has his own way of thinking, and the work will also present different effects. Sometimes there are problems with the previous links, which will cause the progress of the later stages to be affected. It can be said that their work is "slow work out of small work".
"Animation post-production is the work of the entire post-animation stage, because the problems that have arisen in many previous steps will be reflected in the last link. Animation post-production is the hardest hit area for problem concentration. Funengke said: "Our job is to use the existing material at hand to solve all the problems through the method of composite editing." ”
For example, if a sub-shot is missing from the early stage of the process, if the original picture group is supplemented at this time, it means that the production process needs to be re-rotated for this one sub-shot, which will inevitably lead to an extension of the production cycle. "As a qualified animation post-production staff, I will skillfully use various editing techniques to make the film natural and flawless."
Early technicians were hand-drawn, mainly putting these paintings together and then flipping them quickly, and the composition of post-production was very limited. In tom and Jerry, for example, a 7-minute episode requires 15,000 interludes and takes 18 months.
Fu Nengke opened the After Effects software interface to the reporter live demonstration, "Now the technology has advanced a lot, 15 minutes of an episode of animation, a week can be completed, but this is also the result of the joint efforts of hundreds of people." Post-production actually takes a lot of time, just take this animation sample that is currently being produced, and the one-minute animation post-production takes about 2 months. ”
The opposite is true, challenging traditional hand-drawn drawing to create three-dimensional effects
How to save production costs and ensure the quality of animation? For this problem, Fu Nengke has a lot of experience.
According to industry analysts, the production cost of 3D animation is much higher than that of 2D animation. Generally speaking, the cost of making a 10-minute 3D animation is about 2 million, while a 10-minute 2D animation is only about 300,000-400,000.
In order to save production costs, Fu Nengke and his team members pondered for a long time, until they accidentally saw Disney animator Sergio Pablos and his team's three-dimensional animation work "Klaus" using traditional hand-drawn effects, which made Fu Nengke's eyes light up, "This is simply amazing!"
Through continuous learning, he combines the respective advantages of traditional hand-drawn animation and three-dimensional animation in his work, and uses software technology to overcome some technical limitations of hand-drawn animation. When Disney and other animation companies are exploring the use of 3D technology to make animations that simulate 2D hand-drawn effects faster and more conveniently, Fu Nengke has done the opposite, making CG-like effects with hand-drawn animations, which has been unanimously recognized by leaders and customers.
During the reporter's interview, staff members kept coming to inquire about related work matters. It turned out that Fu Nengke's group was recruiting new employees. This can't help but arouse the curiosity of reporters: "What basic qualities do you pay more attention to in selecting talents?" ”
Fu Nengke smiled and replied: "Interest and persistence!" That's it for two. He then explained that first of all, I will first measure whether the candidate really loves animation, and it should be said that interest is the driving force. The other is to see if the candidate can stick to it. To be honest, although we are in the animation industry, we work overtime all year round, and the work of thinking about technology is really boring. It's not easy to stick to it.
"Just that kid, he has the drive, is eager to learn, and is willing to study." Fu Nengke pointed to his colleague on the right hand side of the seat and said, "I can often see the shadow of myself in these young people." ”
"Some time ago, the domestic animation "The Return of the Great Sage" did a great job, which made our animators more confident in making good animation works. In the future, I hope to create better animations. "Fu Nengke is full of confidence, the current domestic animation industry has great prospects for development, as long as you sink your heart to do animation, you will be able to make animation that can really win word-of-mouth."
(Reporter Shen Linna)