Should I just let things take their course and complete my graduation project within three months, or should I go all out and complete my graduation project within a month while taking a gamble on this year's Eleanor Best Animated Short Film Award
Muxuxing did not hesitate for too long between these two choices.
Let’s not talk about whether he can finish an animated short film of the same level as “The Little Prince” within a month. Even if he finishes it before the deadline, he may not win the award. For an erratic award, rushing to finish an animated short film a month ago
Mu Xuxing felt that there was no need for this.
However-
He looked at the results of his ten consecutive draws and fell into deep thought.
R-Energy Potion x3
Take this potion and it will give you a hundred times more energy.
Valid time: one hour.
R-Speed Potion x7
Although I don't know how it works, it can indeed increase your creation speed.
Valid time: 8 hours
Forget about SSR, there is not even a single SR this time!
Mu Xiuxing covered his eyes with one hand, resisting the fact that he might be a poor man. He then calculated the total number of items he got from the last card draw: 4 inspiration potions, 7 energy potions, and 7 acceleration potions - the twists and turns in it seemed that they were about to be revealed.
He looked at the bottles and jars in front of him, and the "creation speed" that had reached level 7 as he continued to increase his points. He said sincerely, "013, if you want me to participate in the selection of this award, you can just tell me directly. There's no need to be so euphemistic."
The system tried to explain: There is no guaranteed drop in the card pool of the system mall, the drop probability of SSR is 2.5%, the drop probability of SR is 10.5%, and the drop probability of R is 87%. There is no possibility of any shady operation.
I'd be foolish to believe you!
If it is to produce a long animation like "IS" or "My Hero Academia", these potions that are valid for no more than one day are completely meaningless. No matter how fast he can create, it is just a drop in the bucket in the huge and tedious production process of the production team. These potions can only play a certain role in independent animated shorts produced by individuals or small groups.
As if sensing Muxuxing's indecision, the system was silent for a while, but it no longer concealed its intention and issued a task openly:
Main Quest: You have successfully proved your talent in commercial animation to the world. Now, it is time to temporarily abandon the market and interests and show your personalized expression to the world.
Mission objective: Independently produce and complete an independent animation short film.
Limited time: within one month.
Mission reward: Open the new section - Script Analysis Room for free.
"..." Mu Suxing held his forehead with his hand: "You are really not polite at all."
only…
Moving his eyes down to the column of task rewards at the bottom, he had to admit that Mu Suxing was shamefully tempted.
He has always been aware of his shortcomings.
For animation directors, narrative writing skills are not a must, just as an excellent cartoonist does not necessarily have the ability to independently create excellent scripts. For example, in another dimension, the popular cartoonist Obata Takeshi has a unique comic style, with tough and textured pictures, but it is undeniable that this cartoonist's screenwriting skills are indeed mediocre. Popular works such as "Hikaru no Go", "Death Note" and "Dream Eaters" are all original works by others, and Obata Takeshi is only responsible for the painting section.
But this does not detract from his excellence as a cartoonist.
As an animation director, although Mu Suxing's talent in directing is not as good as that of a true genius, it is still considered to be above average in the entire industry.
He knows how to express and refine life, and exaggerate the essence of society and life to a certain extent, integrate it into the animation language appropriately, and express it fluently. He also knows how to consider and choose the scene, shooting angle, camera movement, color, montage, long shot and other camera languages, and can even change his style according to different styles of scripts...
However, it is undeniable that he does not have the talent and ability to write scripts.
Yes, an excellent animation director does not necessarily have to have the ability to write scripts. However, all well-known animation masters basically have strong animation screenwriter abilities.
The reward from the system hit his soft spot, and even though he knew it was a trap, he was unable to refuse.
Okay, it’s just the liver, who’s afraid of who!
Thinking of this, Mu Suxing no longer hesitated. He had already had ideas for this graduation project, but he had been busy with the first season of "My Hero Academia" some time ago, so he put it on hold temporarily. Although time is tight now, with these potions in hand and his current creative speed, it may not be impossible to complete it within the specified period.
He looked at his ability chart:
Name: Muxuxing
Age: 20
Reputation: 10000 (somewhat famous)
Original painting skills: Level 5
Knowledge reserve: Level 5
Audiovisual Aesthetics: Level 6
Animation Rendering: Level 5
Design Thinking: Level 5
Creation speed: 7 levels
Shot rhythm: Level 6
Narrative Writing: Level 6
Achievement Points: 12100
The successful broadcast of "My Hero Academia" brought him 8,000 achievement points, which together with the previous accumulation, is 12,100 achievement points. If he wants, he can actually spend 8,000 achievement points to open the "Script Analysis Room" section, but if so, the achievement points for the next animation may not come out.
For now, I should find a way to finish my graduation project and the main task released by the system first.
"013, please help me redeem O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi."
The redemption price of "The Gift of the Magi" is 2000 achievement points, and the redemption is in progress... Ding, the copyright of the target novel has been successfully redeemed, please check it.
As the system finished speaking, an extremely thin book quickly appeared on the solid wooden desk in front of Mu Suxing. The woman on the cover had short curly hair. The color was really shiny and beautiful, but somehow, it gave off a rough feeling as if it had been cut randomly.
There are a large number of novels and comics with different styles and cultures in the system mall. In order to ensure that he is familiar with the specific chapters in the system mall, in addition to the initial excitement of reading several comics in a row, Mu Suxing later spent his time reading and understanding the overall development history of the culture and entertainment of the other world.
There are not many novelists and cartoonists who have impressed Mu Xiuxing. O. Henry, the author of "The Gift of the Magi", is one of them.
As one of the three famous short story masters, O. Henry's greatest feature in artistic treatment lies in the unexpected ending of his novels - the plot of the novel is clearly developing in a certain direction, but the ending is suddenly unexpected. This kind of short story with dramatic coincidences is undoubtedly very suitable for adaptation.
The same is true of The Gift of the Magi.
This short story tells the story of a poor couple who reluctantly give up their loved ones and prepare Christmas gifts for each other at Christmas.
In order to buy a platinum watch chain for her husband's high-end gold watch, the heroine sold her beautiful and shiny long hair, which she was proud of. In order to buy a set of beautiful jewel-encrusted combs for his wife, the hero sold his treasured gold watch that had been passed down for three generations.
This is the most inappropriate gift and also the best gift.
As his thoughts were flying, the mobile phone placed casually on the table suddenly lit up. Mu Suxing raised his eyes, took a look, then stretched out his right hand, ready to adjust the phone to flight mode.
Calculus Probability Theory Q&A Exchange Meeting
Fang Lian: The premiere of "Life and Death Line" is tonight. It is said to be quite good. Are you going
Wen Feihang: Fatty, are you reliable? Last time you said that "Bio-Warship" was good, but what happened? I was almost bored to death and fell asleep in the theater!
This chat group, disguised as a "Calculus and Probability Theory Q&A Exchange Session", is actually the dormitory group of Mu Suxing, Fang Lian and Wen Feihang. Mu Suxing has some impression of the movie "Life and Death Line" that he mentioned. It was an action movie that was very popular at the time. He once went to the cinema to watch it with the two of them.
But now...
Mu Suxing looked at the two people who were happily chatting in the chat group, then looked at the notebook in front of him which was filled with inspirations and ideas, and the paper balls that he had torn off because he had written too much, crumpled them into a ball, and then piled up into a small piece, and fell into deep thought.
He couldn't help typing: Have you finished your graduation project
Wen Feihang: I just finished it last week and handed it to the professor.
Fang Lian: I am quite good at this. I finished it last month. [Sunglasses]
Wen Feihang: Ah Mu, how far have you come? Do you need our help? It just so happens that Huaying has nothing to do recently, so we can help you.
Fang Lian: I remember that Amu has always been very fast. He should have started drawing the storyboards by now, right
Muxiuxing: "..."
Muxuxing didn't want to talk.
Different from common commercial animations, independent animated short films can basically be called art animations. This type of animation pursues individuality and niche, and its biggest feature is "freedom", which is also the charm of independent animation.
Unlike "IS" and "My Hero Academia", where animation scripts can be written immediately after getting the original comics, the original works of "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Little Prince" are all novels. This means that except for the animation theme and general plot, all other frameworks need to be designed and filled by Mu Xiuxing himself.
Let alone drawing storyboards at this moment, he hasn't even had time to start the most basic modeling design.
As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison. At first, Mu Suxing didn't think there was anything wrong with completing the production of an independent animation in one month. But now that he was compared with two idle people, he suddenly felt a little depressed.
Seeing that Mu Suxing didn't reply, Fang Lian sent several question marks in a row: "Hello? Brother, are you still there?"
Muxuxing: I'm here, still stuck at the beginning. I have something to report. Ignore the retreat. [Manual goodbye]
In order to prevent his thoughts from being disturbed by the outside world, Mu Suxing decisively put down his mobile phone and stuffed it into the drawer. Out of sight, out of mind, he forced his thoughts back to the right path.
The first thing to determine is the theme of the animation and the film style of the animation.
Needless to say, the theme of "The Gift of the Magi" mainly expresses the most important aspect of "human beauty", namely "selfless dedication of love".
Then there is the film and television style.
There are four common film and television styles: comic style, realistic style, virtual three-dimensional effect style and experimental painting style.
The comic book style can be directly ruled out - this style is relatively simple in the animation drawing process, and is correspondingly more difficult to make colorful. Virtual 3D effect style is also not considered. The background of "The Gift of the Magi" is set in the poor and difficult past. In this style, even if the texture of objects and the shaping of light and shadow are done well, it is difficult to accurately express the life pressure of the lower class people through the picture.
His eyes fell on the last two styles.
Is it a realistic style or an experimental painting style
In terms of production difficulty, the realistic style is somewhat simpler. As the name suggests, it is a film and television style that is as close to real life as possible. The experimental painting style is more difficult because it does not represent a specific film and television style, but is created by different independent animation directors in their exploration and has a strong personal color. These are all "new styles" other than the above three styles.
Mu Suxing thought about it and finally chose the latter.
Although there is no explicit requirement, creating and adopting animation works with a unique style is indeed an unwritten rule of independent animation.
After spending a whole day exploring and determining the overall film and television style of the animation, Mu Suxing finally pushed the progress to the part that he was most familiar with, had been the best at, but was currently the most difficult part -
Script research.
This is a problem that Muxuxing has never encountered since his rebirth.
The reason is simple. "The Little Prince" is a fantasy theme. Whether it is the overall style or the character design, it cannot be said to be too difficult. Not to mention commercial animations such as "IS" and "My Hero Academia", rigor or not is actually not important.
But The Gift of the Magi is different.
The original author O. Henry claimed to be the representative of the poor, and his novels were basically based on reflecting the hardships and bitterness of the lives of the lower classes. In short, the story should take place in a poor and backward town.
Up to this point, it is no longer something that Muxuxing can design at will.
The hero and heroine of the story have very poor financial ability and live in poverty to the point where they wish they could break every penny they can get. This is completely opposite to the environment on Muxuxing. The Mu family has been a wealthy family from the beginning, and any food, clothing and daily necessities that are a little worse would not be offered to Muxuxing.
For Mu Xiuxing, the life of the hero and heroine in the story was something he could not imagine.
In such a situation, if you rashly take action in an area that you don’t understand, that is not confidence, but ignorance.
In this case—
He took out his cell phone and opened the dormitory group of three.
Muxuxing: Are all the staff here
Fang Lian: I suddenly remembered that I haven’t finished the ending part of my graduation project, and now I need to deal with it urgently. What’s wrong
Wen Feihang: The professor just called me and asked me to revise something. Is there anything wrong
Mu Xuxing was already familiar with the little tricks the two used to tease him on a daily basis, and he replied calmly: It's nothing, I just need two laborers for something, can you ask Huaying if there is anyone who can come, I will pay you overtime by the hour.
Fang Lian: Hey? What are you talking about? If something happens to you, can Hangzi and I just ignore it
Wen Feihang: That’s right, with us two here, do you still need to look for outsiders
Mu Suxing: Okay, I won’t chat with you anymore. See you at Xingning North Airport at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning. I’ll treat you to dinner later.
Fang Lian: Airport? Where to
Wen Feihang: What exactly do you want to do? I'll prepare in advance.
Mu Suxing: Zijing Town, when we go out to collect materials, it is too troublesome to bring a camera, so you can just bring your cell phone. Try to wear simple clothes and look like a poor person.
After Mu Suxing said this, the two of them understood immediately.
Fantasy commercial animations are fine, but if literary animations involve blind spots of the director and production team, in order to ensure that the details of the animation are rigorous and realistic, the production team will usually go to similar scenes as a team to familiarize themselves with the environment, experience life, and even conduct on-site character dynamic sketching and scene sketching.
Take The Gift of the Magi, for example.
As people at the bottom of society, what is the daily life of the hero and heroine like? What do the houses in the town they live in look like? What do the streets look like? When they go to the street to buy vegetables and bargain with vendors on weekdays, what are their words, movements and expressions like
No director can simply transform words into pictures based on a few lines of the original work - that is a fantasy.
As an animation director, before officially starting to write the animation script, Mu Suxing must first construct the life details of the hero and heroine in his own mind, and be familiar with everything mentioned, not mentioned, and unfinished in the novel.
Only after thoroughly understanding the original novel can he start writing the animation script.
And these are just the beginning of the preparation stage in the entire tedious and complicated production process!
The author has something to say: Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated me with nutrient solution~
Thanks to the little angels who threw [grenades]: Yan Tong 2; Sylvia, Jiu Jiuan 1;
Thanks to the little angels who cast [mines]: Jun Mo You Chen, Sylvia 2; Shuang Xu Shiliu, Meng Hui Wen Xue, Don't Steal My Dried Fish, Mo Wang, Xu Xu Ru Tong, Tang Tang^w^, Ye Yuan, Indulge in Sucking Commissions, Can't Extricate Myself, Yang Ye Yue, W Feng Yu 1;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated [nutrient solution]:
240 bottles of Nine; 100 bottles of Forgot to Take Medicine When Going Out; 99 bottles of Qinling Autumn Wind; 38 bottles of World's Edge; 20 bottles of Lanling Wine, Initial Heart, Tragedy Cat, zzzzz, Jingli, and Jense; 15 bottles of Uncertainty; 10 bottles of Grapevine, Lord Zhou Yu, Lingzhi, and Yuanzi; 9 bottles of Kinlinking; 7 bottles of 29794893; 6 bottles of Cat Ear Scroll; 5 bottles of Jiuli, Mumu Qinsheng, Xiu, and Little Star; 4 bottles of Fleeting Years; 3 bottles of Chang'an Song; 2 bottles of Shine, Xiaoxiao, Suili, Yi Xiaowu, Xia Qiaoshan, Linlin, and Qingli; 1 bottle of Chara, Dark, Tebatie, Zhichuche, What's the Trouble with the Name, Assault Team, Muru Qingfeng, Lingling Luoluo, and Fusheng;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!