Costumes, history, fantasy and other types of works should not only have a classical background in the modeling design, but also have a new one that fits the character. The self-developed makeup model of Ali Da Entertainment was born in time, giving creators a new idea - the creativity that cannot be exhausted by manpower may be able to find new inspiration through AI.
Author | Pineapple Bun (Beijing)
How many images of ladies with the Tang Dynasty as the background in film and television works can land? Large AI models can give thousands of answers.
In the AI-generated makeup drawings, the ladies are in different shapes, standing or dancing in vivid and realistic postures, and the Tang Hanfu with crimson and green as the main colors is elegant and full of details.
Tang lady makeup drawing
Military attachés and generals also have a variety of modeling designs, down to helmets, armor, and cloaks, and the overall look and feel has both the charm of ancient paintings and the freshness that makes people shine.
Tang armor makeup drawing
This is the real effect of the first makeup model in the film and television industry. On June 29th, Ali Entertainment released a self-developed film and television makeup model - Shenli Ni Dress, specializing in the creative design of makeup for costume dramas, including modeling design, makeup and hair design and pattern design. At present, it has been applied in the costume drama series "Palm" and other works.
The construction of a film and television art system begins with reference and imagination, especially in ancient costumes. Tim Yip, who is deeply involved in art design, said when communicating with "New Sound Pro" that film and television works can have an aesthetic system, but it is impossible for everything to have a reference source, and about 70% of the designs cannot be referred to at all.
In the traditional process, the pursuit of creative richness relies on a large amount of manpower and time costs. The artist spends a lot of time drawing by hand or with drawing software to produce the atmosphere map, and then continues to implement it after adjusting and filtering.
It is difficult for limited manpower to reach unlimited creativity, but AI provides new possibilities, and more and more practitioners have begun to use new technologies to set the artistic tone of their works.
In the creation of the first AI-assisted animation "Demon Travel", Red Dragon Culture used AI to quickly generate a large number of pre-art atmosphere maps. In their opinion, the advantage of AI taking on the pre-art work is that it "can control variables, make different solutions, and inspire creators through many different directions."
As another case of Ali Entertainment opening up the "last mile" of technology application, the launch of Shenli Nishang can not only solve the time-consuming and labor-intensive need of modeling design for film and television practitioners, but also help creators find new aesthetic possibilities in traditional Chinese aesthetics and optimize the process framework of film and television creation.
The costume drama "Palm" is the beginning of a bold attempt, and with the upgrading and change of the divine power of Nishang, this new AI model may be able to help more creators seek new and change in costume works in the future.
1. Where do new ideas come from
"It took half a year to prepare, and it took two or three months to produce renderings." According to senior styling director Fang Sizhe, this is the approximate cycle of the pre-styling design of a costume drama.
Fang Sizhe has a team of nearly 20 people, more than 10 people are responsible for clothing design, four or five people focus on headwear, and the actual production of clothing is even more than 3,000 sets. The modeling design of costume film and television works under the traditional process is undoubtedly both mental and physical work. The process of setting the tone for an art style requires a lot of creative ideas to select the best of the best, and the cost of manpower and time is infinitely magnified.
Compared with the practicality of realistic themes and fashion works, creators of ancient costumes, historical themes, and fairy tales and fantasy works need to combine "imagination and reality", and in the process of communicating with practitioners, the latter has a deeper understanding of the pain points of makeup creativity.
The art of "Fengshen", which is regarded as an industry benchmark, spends far more energy on makeup design than other works. Tim Yip led the team to visit museums in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and other provinces, and finally fell into the tone of "Yuan Ming Taoist Water and Land Painting", the biggest challenge was to retain the classical charm while catering to the aesthetic preferences of ordinary audiences. This also means that art design should not be too much to worry about, and should be free to design, "Successful art must be very bold."
So where does bold art come from? With the development of AI, it is time to improve its technical capabilities in more vertical and subdivided fields. It was at such a fitting time that the Divine Power Nishang came into being. Creativity that cannot be exhausted by human power may be able to seek innovation and change through AI.
In the view of Li Lian, the founder of Bocai Media, the original designer had to draw a lot of drafts, and after using AI auxiliary tools, he only needed to describe them, and the more accurate the description, the closer the picture would be to the desired direction, and the designer only needed to do a second creation in the approaching direction. And the accumulation of AI is far greater than that of people, "AI participation in creation will provide some visual references in another dimension to a certain extent. It can't do it for you, but it can give you new inspiration."
In recent years, the high-quality content in the film and television market has been constantly changing itself, and the public's expectations for the makeup of costume works have long been beyond the simple accumulation of traditional elements that can be satisfied.
The relevant person in charge of Alida Entertainment said, "The Wenshengtu AI model developed abroad has a mixed style, and the understanding of ancient Chinese clothing is not accurate enough. This is also the original intention of the development of Shenli Ni Shang - to better present the traditional Chinese aesthetics to the audience, so that the excellent styling creativity can be traced."
According to the Shenli Nishang team, it is necessary to polish the model together with professional stylists during research and development, so that AI can learn in strict accordance with the archaeological system and truly understand history and aesthetics. meticulous to the evolution of the collar and round neck; the difference in hat system for officials of different ranks; The differences in the costumes of officials and ordinary people should be enough to meet the needs of film and television creation.
2. Seek oriental aesthetics with AI
The emergence of any technological tool should be used to assist, not replace, the subjective initiative of creators. In the practice of "Palm", Shenli Nishang has verified this very well.
Gao Qiuwan, the styling director of "Palm", revealed that after the style, color, character posture and other requirements were given to the makeup model, multiple modeling drawings could be obtained in 2 minutes. If it is a traditional painter who paints by hand, this process can take several hours.
Divine Power Nishang also shows a strong ability to learn. In the design process, Gao Qiuwan wants to integrate the Dunhuang pattern to make a unique oriental aesthetic shape, the large model initially received the instruction after a more mechanical processing, the layout of the pattern is slightly rigid and rigid, after the communication between the large model team and the stylist, after consulting a large number of works and studying the knowledge of the pattern, Shenli Nishang has a deeper perception of classical art design, and has been able to generate elegant color matching and artistic makeup drawings later, and these have only taken less than a month.
At this stage, the Shenli Ni Dress has established a relatively complete clothing and makeup system in the Tang Dynasty, which is subdivided into the early, middle and late Tang Dynasty. Gao Qiuwan said that there will be more room for makeup models to play in Xianxia's works, and the abstract oriental aesthetic requirements can allow AI to release more creativity. In her opinion, the "future is promising".
Imagine that with the update and iteration of Shenli Nishang, perhaps it will be adapted to generate makeup photos and scene-based modeling photos with one click, which will further help the art team expand their thinking and improve their creative level.
As domestic film and television works go to overseas markets, traditional culture and art are also imperceptibly spreading. This is also the vision of Ali to develop the Divine Power Nishang - it is not only a tool to improve quality and efficiency, but also to preserve a library of infinite possibilities for the combination of traditional culture and modern aesthetics.
There is no doubt that the exploration of new technologies such as the application of AI large models and virtual shooting is ultimately to provide nutrients for high-quality content. Technology is not only a simple way to improve quality and efficiency, but also to help the industry explore oriental aesthetics and carry forward traditional culture. The improvement of content value and the breakthrough of new technologies are being carried out in an orderly manner and simultaneously with Alida Entertainment.