Yang Xiaolin Xiangman
Transformers (the Transformers) is the general term for a series of toys and a series of cartoons and films jointly developed by the American Hasbro Company and the Japanese TAKARA (タカラ) Company since 1984. Some media pointed out that the predecessor of "Transformers" was a commercial film made by an American company in 1984 to promote its unsalable toys. It was once criticized as a superficial theme, propaganda of belligerent ideas, and toxic effects on young people. Nonetheless, the TV animation Transformers was a hit in the 80s. Twenty years later, on July 11, 2007, the film version premiered in the mainland. In just 5 days, the mainland box office exceeded 100 million, breaking the box office record of foreign blockbusters in the mainland at a fabulous speed. Why the film has enduring influence is a question worthy of our pondering.
At present, under the influence of foreign countries, some types of mechanical animations have also emerged in China, such as "The Adventures of Luoluo of the Variety Machine Beasts", "Shen Beast King Kong", "Space Adventures" and "Armored Warriors". Although it has also been recognized to a certain extent by animation fans, it is still necessary to learn from the success of "Transformers" and learn from each other. I think its enlightenment to Chinese mechanical animation mainly has the following aspects.
The first is the modernity of the story. " Transformers" tries to show us the events that may happen in the future, symbolizing human beings' worries about their own destiny and their exploration of the unknown areas of the vast universe. In the contradictory and complex relationship between humans and robots, what we see is the flash of human intelligence. It can be said, " The robot is a 'mirror' of human beings, which illuminates the brilliance and insignificance, goodness and evil, self-control and greed, etc. of human nature." At the same time, it also adds themes such as counter-terrorism, interstellar colonization, violence against violence, and harmonious symbiosis, which are closely related to the survival and development of various countries and nations of mankind. There are quite a few masterpieces in Hollywood that stick to these themes of modernity. Here, "The story fully demonstrates the mental state of modern people, that is, the spiritual predicament of people in modern society, and transcends it, thinking rationally about human beings and the universe itself, so as to re-establish the action and thinking intention of human value pursuit, It embodies the spirit of mankind's unremitting struggle for lofty goals."[ 2]
Obviously, my country's mechanical cartoons lack the recognition and understanding of the characteristics of modernity to a large extent, too much pursuit of the prototype of myths and legends in the selection of topics, ignoring the spiritual core of them. Renovation and innovation, lack of realistic lighting. Art without realistic meaning is difficult to resonate with contemporary people, so we should not only learn mechanical animation in form, but more importantly, learn its current theme and inner meaning.
The second is rich imagination. Chinese animation works, like film and television works, mostly face the past in terms of materials, because we have a long history and a splendid culture, but this has shrunk our imagination to a certain extent, and sci-fi film and television animation works are almost lacking. With the growing strength of China's science and technology and the accumulation of experience and knowledge in space exploration, our sci-fi animations have emerged and developed vigorously. And the success of "Transformers" in the imagination of interstellar mechanical life is very meaningful. "Transformers" shows us a future world that is very different from reality. The imaginative depiction of the vast universe and planets with different modalities, and the thinking on how to get along between machines and humans, etc., are full of unrestrained creativity and artistic exploration spirit. The fantasy world comes from real life. The realistic shapes such as planes and cars in the film and the magical transformation ability make the film obtain both real and fantasy aesthetic effects. Based on the possibility of modern science and technology, these incredible innovative designs The audience was amazed and sighed, all of which can be imitated by domestic mechanical animations.
The third is the sense of technology in modeling. The sense of technology is the enjoyment and pleasure brought to us in the process of using technology. "Transformers" is meticulous in terms of complex mechanical production, whether it is scene design or character modeling, and reflects the sense of technology everywhere, which is worthy of our speculation and learning. "Transformers" is a joint filming operation with the most participation by the US Navy, Land and Air Forces. The weapon system of Transformers is very advanced, from traditional guns, missiles to ion beams, directed energy weapons. Their laser and ultrasonic combat systems have been shrunk to the size of ordinary guns and are surprisingly powerful. Autobots can shoot extremely cold liquid nitrogen bullets and very hot lead bullets, which are deadly destructive to humans and existing weapons. They also have a logistics support system, and robots such as flywheels have the ability to repair other Transformers. In order to create the texture of heavy metals such as aluminum, copper and stainless steel, the film uses the material of real car and engine parts as a reference to study the changes of light and shadow on the metal surface, and the treatment of ambient light also gives a strong sense of reality. Due to the large number of fighting scenes, the texture group also made a very detailed treatment of details such as damage and scratches left in the fighting process, and drew multi-layer color maps and bump maps.
In China's first large-scale animation with transforming robots as the protagonist, "The Adventures of Lolo: The Adventures of Variety Machine Beasts", we can also see the efforts made by the scene design in terms of materials. Among them, the "City of Time" is Made of blue glass, "Most of the robots in this city are racing cars. They have weapons in their hands and can fire cannonballs. The city's defense token is hourglass-shaped and golden. The city of energy is the most important part of the locomotive family. The city’s defense is the highest, and it has a central missile system.” [3] Although the film’s scenes are cartoon-like in terms of picture style, we can still feel that domestic mechanical animations are also beginning to pay attention to the precision of scene structure and the sense of technology. , began to pay attention to the performance of the details of the picture, which is undoubtedly a good development trend.
The characters in "Transformers" have powerful artificial intelligence, they can automatically collect battlefield conditions, comprehensively analyze, and quickly make judgments. In the movie, Transformers of different characters even have emotions. This kind of robot with human thinking characteristics can accurately obtain information and make judgments. It does not need a long process of information collection, analysis and judgment like human commanders and staff. This makes the combat operations of Transformers extremely fast, and the discovery and destruction, maneuvering and combat can be converted in an instant. This dynamic deformation makes the audience's blood boil, just like a display of military stunts with a sense of the times, which is amazing and shocking.
"Transformers" made a comeback and presented us with a visual feast. Although the film was insufficient and criticized by public opinion, it did not affect the audience's fanatical love and attention. The reason why this film has achieved great success at the box office is that, in addition to its previous influence, the key lies in its ability to "carry on the past". In short, it is to creatively transform old things, adjust the narrative angle, create shocking visual effects, and make the film full of extraordinary imagination and philosophical thinking. In learning from domestic mechanical animation, it should not be limited to the imitation of gorgeous appearance or the simple copying of machinery, but should also focus on the excavation of its spiritual core and the analysis of the theme, so as to make our own films more The depth of thought has created the brilliance of national mechanical animation in the 21st century.
[1] Zhao Zhen: "Transformation and Revelation - "Transformers" and the Development of Chinese Film and Television, "Film Review", No. 2, 2008.
[2] Ibid.
[3] http://baike.baidu.com/view/2027489.htm
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