Legend of Deification word-of-mouth bipolar？ Director： I didn’t deliberately make a family fun direction.

　　It took four years, a team of more than 1,000 people to produce, and the release was postponed for eight months. Legend of Deification finally met the audience at the National Day stall.

　　Ne Zha’s aura of 5 billion box office has not dissipated, and Legend of Deification has stood at a higher starting point and is also under greater pressure.

　　Two days after the release, the box office led the way, and the audience commented differently. As many people praise its profound theme, magnificent picture and exquisite and beautiful characters, so many people criticize its lack of plot development, procrastination and lack of laughter.

　　As early as before the Spring FestivalYuli studioWhen talking with Cheng Teng and Wang Xin, they had a premonition that Legend of Deification was more difficult to arouse empathy than Ne Zha. Because Nezha is a lovely child, fighting for personal injustice; Jiang Ziya, an adult in a confused period, is fighting for the injustice in the world, which is a different theme expression. They pursue the aesthetic conception of Chinese style and give up the route of deliberately catering to family happiness.

　　The production difficulty of Legend of Deification is unprecedented. The founders brought their working experience in Pixar and Blizzard back to China, trying to establish localized industrial standards and communication mechanisms. This is a bigger and more difficult chess game than making a movie.

　　Domestic animation, like Jiang Ziya, is still on the road of carrying forward.

　　From Ne Zha to Legend of Deification, and then to the future Yang Jian movies, the light striped house has initially completed the construction of the animated version of the "Goddess Universe".

　　But in fact, Ne Zha and Legend of Deification started almost at the same time, and they were independent.

　　The launch is in 2016. Before that, only one movie "The Return of the Great Sage" suddenly raised the box office ceiling of domestic animation, but the industrial system was far from mature. For the future of animation, no one has the confidence to win, and no one can think that a "universe" can be formed in a few years.

　　Well Lee is a teacher in the School of Animation and Art, Communication University of China, which is known as the "Domestic Animation Whampoa Military Academy". He has served as the main original painting of Big Fish Begonia, the executive director of Big Fish Begonia and the original painting director of Kuiba. He led a team to plan an animated drama series called My Master Jiang Ziya, which established contact with the light striped house and attracted investors’ attention. The striped house suggested that why not develop an animated film about Jiang Ziya?

　　Animation film is a huge project. First of all, there must be enough talents.

　　The two sides quickly locked in a candidate-Cheng Teng. After graduating from China, Cheng Teng went to the University of Southern California to pursue a master’s degree. As a student, his short films Happy Memorial Day, The Red Scarf Man and There are Days Beyond, won many awards, among which the flowing Chinese style of "There are Days Beyond" especially impressed the painted house.

　　For the invitation of the alma mater team and the striped house, Cheng Teng struggled for some time. In his early twenties, he has just become the co-director of DreamWorks. Accepting Legend of Deification means that he can only give up his development in the United States. Together with him, there is Li Xia, a classmate who was transferred to South China University and a partner of The Red Scarf Man.

　　They found Wang Xin, a senior they met in the United States, and asked him for help. Wang Xin is the animation role director of Blizzard, and her works include World of Warcraft, diablo 3, Watching Pioneer, StarCraft II, Hearthstone Legend and other top IP in the game industry. He has worked in Blizzard for 14 years, and his rank has reached the highest position of Chinese in the animation field.

　　As a result of discussion, Cheng Teng and Li Xia, including Wang Xin, all chose to return to China-if they want to do it, they will do it big, and simply borrow the opportunity of Legend of Deification to really start the industrialization process of China animation.

　　If Ne Zha’s creative "brain" is directed by jiaozi, then Legend of Deification’s "brain" is a team of four directors-directors Cheng Teng and Well Lee, and co-directors Li Xia and Wang Xin.

　　"This is a different working method. It is a team with four directors as the core to complete the process from creativity to execution. The big structure is the director group, then the story development, visual development and production group, with 30 to 40 people as the core team at the peak. We didn’t come up with many fantastic ideas, but let the creativity of the whole team accumulate through effective communication mechanism. Instead of the director being responsible for creativity, the team only does execution.

　　This film is a balanced art, there are some artistic and profound things in it, but at the same time, we need to know whether it is entertaining or not, and whether the audience will think it is good-looking. So my method is, if I propose an idea, let’s discuss it together and finally reach an optimal solution. "Cheng Teng said.

　　This working method is actually the "inverted pyramid" model learned from Pixar-not the director leading the team, but the director serving the team, which forms a huge driving force for many artists to be inspired by creativity.

　　Jiang Ziya is a household name. But so far, there is no one-man film that is deeply rooted in people’s hearts and representative, which leaves room for the animated version of Legend of Deification to play freely.

　　The main creator decided to create an original story around Jiang Ziya, and The List of Gods was only used as a prequel and background, and was presented in the form of two-dimensional animation at the beginning of the film. The feature film mainly talks about the influence of the three realms after the Feng Shen War.

　　From the story, Jiang Ziya is facing a stage similar to unemployment and middle-aged crisis; From the market point of view, the audience may have difficulty in substituting an older role. Finally, all parties are balanced, and the age positioning of 40-year-olds naturally arises.

　　Wang Xin said, "I am also in my 40 s, and I can understand his predicament very well. There are quite a few Chinese heroes in the image of middle-aged uncle, and the breakthrough points will be different. "

　　Cheng Teng also said, "When it comes to heroes in China, we think of the Great Sage and Nezha. Personally, I grew up being touched by these characters. They are ideal personalities constructed, and they can bravely do things that we dare not do, to resist and to be angry.

　　But what is different about Jiang Ziya is that at least Jiang Ziya in our film has a divine side, but he is relatively more like a human being.

　　He was a perfect god from the beginning, and was named the head of the gods, but he was demoted to the world because of a mistake and became a man. In the human stage, we hope that the audience can have strong empathy, just like ourselves or people around us. He has a confused period, those negative emotions, and the collapse of faith. He searched for what he should insist on step by step, and finally stepped out of the mortal step and became a real god. "

　　Described in a more grounded way, Jiang Ziya in the confused period is like a "middle-aged social animal, cognitive dissonance, carrying forward with heavy load".

　　According to the two masters, Legend of Deification and Ne Zha have the same theme, but their connotations are different.

　　"Legend of Deification and Ne Zha are actually fighting against fate and being their own gods. When you are confused, you should believe in yourself first, and the road will naturally emerge. "

　　"Nezha is more for the sake of his own unfair fate to resist, and Jiang Ziya is a bigger proposition, he is to resist the injustice of the whole world.

　　It will be more difficult for Jiang Ziya to arouse empathy. The audience will say that the whole world is none of my business, or that the daily necessities and personal humiliation are more likely to impress me. But we are actually in another direction, a proposition that we think from the perspective of the country, the world and the people. "

　　Nezha is faced with the troubles of children, while Jiang Ziya is faced with the perplexity of middle-aged people: How can we save the whole life if we don’t save one person? Can an innocent individual be sacrificed for the collective benefit? Does supreme authority have to be right? There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, leaving room for the audience to think.

　　"We didn’t deliberately go to the direction of family fun. Instead, I hope our animation can attract some people who didn’t watch animation. Being able to do this is more important than the box office itself.

　　It certainly has some elements of fun and entertainment, but it is not so dense. Our stories, art, music, performances, everything, you will feel that the world is self-consistent, and I will not add anything that is not in line with the original intention of our film design. "Cheng Teng said.

　　The image design of Legend of Deification’s five protagonists has experienced 615 iterations, among which Jiang Ziya has iterated 123 versions, tall, thin, handsome and mediocre, and tried everything.

　　In order to highlight the steadiness of Jiang Ziya’s character, the image he finally chose is mostly composed of a triangular structure, and his face "has both the kindness of compassion for ordinary people and the truth that ordinary people are confused and confused". Other characters will follow Jiang Ziya to make a match.

　　"Someone asked if our role was a little Europeanized. This is a systematic attempt of our overall visual style. We didn’t deliberately move closer to Europe, America or Chinese style. We studied the coordination of the entire visual system. Including role modeling, the height relationship between roles, what kind of face should be, what kind of trench coat modeling is, and what weapons to take is a process of joint development. " Wang Xin, who is mainly responsible for vision, said.

　　"For example, Jiang Ziya’s wrinkles, which are hard to see in most 3D animations, are a dangerous weapon. Once it is used well, it will be very easy to use. When the position and shape of wrinkles in close-ups are accurate, the audience will suddenly empathize with the role. "

　　Cheng Teng revealed that Legend of Deification’s two major artistic keynote, one is Chinese style, and the other is Cthulhu style. These two styles are brand-new challenges to the field of three-dimensional animation. They want to challenge the rigid three-dimensional computer technology to produce abstract visual images with oriental charm and artistic conception.

　　In addition to the temperament and core conflicts in the whole film, many other characters are the result of changes and changes.

　　Mysterious girl Xiao Jiu, the prototype is Wang Xin’s daughter. Her true identity was revealed in the second half of the film.

　　Meng Chong’s four beasts are different, and he has referred to more than a dozen animals such as cats, dogs, minks and rabbits. In order to make its hair soft and thick, the designer painted it by hand, and it took more than 80 modifications to get a smart and lovely appearance.

　　Kyubi no Youko, the villain, looks like a mask with fuzzy facial features. He talks with his tail instead of his mouth. Each of the nine long tails has its own independent dynamic system, which is elegant and charming. She is not a pure villain, but actually a deceived and oppressed woman.

　　Shen Gongbao, originally designed in the direction of villains, eventually became an admirer and good friend of Jiang Ziya.

　　The scene is polished and modified more than 40 times almost every time.

　　With regard to the sense of time, Jiang Ziya’s story happened in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and there are few documents, but the main creator still made great efforts to make textual research, including inviting experts to study Jiang Taigong’s tomb and quoting Feng Shen Bang and Shan Hai Jing to enrich manuscripts. The main creator strives to ensure that all the buildings, costumes, patterns, lines and performance methods in the film, including such fleeting characters as the mysterious bird and the giant spirit god, have their origins.

　　Well Lee is mainly responsible for directing the two-dimensional animation. Although the duration is short, the workload, difficulty and complexity are unprecedented in domestic animation. It is the same style as Dunhuang frescoes, and there are many details. For this reason, the team has also specially visited Dunhuang. When making this animation, there are more than 600 layers of PS, and every time you turn on the computer, you have to blank the screen for a while.

　　"Most 3D animation materials are realistic, which looks like the feeling of photo processing, and our materials are all drawn by hand bit by bit, in order to make the overall picture style highly controllable and unified. The audience will find it hard to describe whether it is realistic or cartoon when watching it.

　　When the audience comes into our world, all of them are hinting at the audience. This is not a real physical world. You should have room for imagination. I think a basic principle of creation is refinement. You should know what to emphasize and what to weaken. "Cheng Teng said.

　　As mentioned earlier, Legend of Deification’s core team is composed of academic school and returnee school. One of their greatest wishes when they choose to return to China is to use this film to promote the industrial process of animation in China.

　　Wang Xin said that he returned to China with a sense of mission: "When you look from the outside to the inside, you will find that Americans have a very low understanding of China animation and have little exposure. Maybe on the one hand, we are not strong enough, so we all come back with a sense of mission. This is no joke.

　　As an animator in China, I have worked in the United States for more than ten years, and I really have a lot of personal feelings. However, in our culture, there are "The List of Gods" and "The Classic of Mountains and Seas". We have many well-known legends and characters, and there is no obstacle for our local team to communicate. If Hollywood directors shoot it, the perspective will definitely be different.

　　We sometimes find it ridiculous. Why does America like a China movie? It’s not China at all, but you should know the logic behind it. This seems to be an advantage for us. Only by understanding why they like those things can you know how to break this situation in the future. "

　　Cheng Teng also said: "The experience, technology, awareness and working methods learned abroad will definitely help. But my own special personal feeling is that I stayed in the United States for five or six years before I realized that China culture is deeply rooted in my bone marrow and blood. In the past, in China, culture was a thing that surrounded me like air. I couldn’t feel it, and it was particularly strong only when I went abroad. "

　　China’s long and rich supply of traditional culture has given the Legend of Deification team confidence.

　　"Rice" is available, and how to "cook" is also very important.

　　First of all, team ecological construction. At first, because of the close proximity, many of the team were graduates of Communication University of China-just like teachers would take their students to do projects at school, the seamless connection of Industry-University-Research is a tradition of Zhongchuan. Everyone comes from the same school, so the values, aesthetics, language system and even jokes are very close. However, in order to prevent behind closed doors and "inbreeding", the team later deliberately introduced many non-academic members. For several teams led by Wang Xin, the ratio of college/non-college is about 4: 6.

　　Secondly, the establishment of industrial standardization. When Cheng Teng and Wang Xin were working in the United States, every time they came into contact with a new process and method, they wondered whether they could land in China. Hollywood animation has formed a standardized system, with smooth docking and low communication cost, but they find that this set doesn’t work in China.

　　"Domestic communication is basically based on’ feelings’. Of course, feelings are also very important. Then we have to redesign a communication system to avoid information loss. For example, in the first year and a half of development, we have to do a lot of things in advance, and even made two two-minute film-level test shots. After all the lighting synthesis and special effects are completed, we must first establish a standard.

　　Sometimes you think communication is not as important as creativity and production. In fact, communication is very important for animation. On my first day in the city, the two words written on the whiteboard were’ team’ and’ communication’, and the team looked silly, saying that other directors would talk about what to do when they came. I hope to standardize the process first, so as not to lose creativity in the process of communication, instead of saying that I came back from the United States. After I finish my method, it will be bad for you if you don’t do it well in the future, right? "

　　Thirdly, the budget level of domestic animation can not be compared with Hollywood, so how to stimulate innovation?

　　"People will think that Blizzard can burn money indefinitely? This is a misunderstanding. Big companies also have budget restrictions, but they will be more generous. This time, we also learned from the experience of American production management and art development process. For example, if you want to be unconstrained, you can, but you will be given a time limit.

　　Blizzard’s project is pushed forward bit by bit like a monster, but Legend of Deification almost started from scratch, and there is no experience in budgeting, which is a great challenge for me. We will have a macro plan, but we will keep a dynamic balance in the implementation process, so that every penny can be spent on the cutting edge. Otherwise, we can’t do so many experimental things with limited resources in the end. I hope that after watching Legend of Deification, the audience can appreciate all aspects of our careful design, which is impossible without a big framework of precise control. "Wang Xin said.

　　Although there is still a big gap between domestic animation and Pixar and DreamWorks, Wang Xin is very optimistic about the future of domestic animation.

　　Hollywood has formed a highly developed industry, and every artist can maximize one of his strengths in a simple and dedicated way. But one drawback of this model is that their working environment is like a greenhouse, and everyone has little chance to contact the world outside the greenhouse.

　　American animation companies are all big teams with all-inclusive processes, while there are countless small and medium-sized teams in China, which work together like guerrilla warfare. As long as the industrialization standards are established, I believe there will be vigorous development in the future.

　　Wang Xin often joked that they made a movie by the way in the process of establishing standards.

　　Just as The Return of the Great Sage helped Ne Zha cheer and Ne Zha paved the way for Legend of Deification, in Legend of Deification’s ending egg, Yang Jian, Lei Zhenzi, Huang Tianhua, Nezha and Taiyi appeared one after another, connecting the preceding with the following, passing on from generation to generation, and the embryonic form of the deity universe appeared.

　　Wang Xin said that to truly form the universe, it depends not only on quantity, but also on the continuous and stable output of each part.

　　Ne Zha Zhuyu was in front, and Legend of Deification caught the stick. Next, it’s up to Yang Jian.

　　Legend of Deification’s last egg is that the original new film Deep Sea, directed by The Return of the Great Sage Tian Xiaopeng, released a stunning 3D trailer for the first time.

　　China’s animation circle is small, and the main force going back and forth is this group of young people.

　　The squire is here, and the gods avoid it;

　　The industry is United, and its profits are broken.