Original title: Old wine in new bottles, not afraid of deep alleys
Recently, animations created based on Dunhuang murals have been very popular, arousing the attention of many netizens. Many people called out Dunhuang culture in the form of animation, “making the culture alive”, which fully reflects my country’s cultural self-confidence.
Old wine in new bottles, not afraid of deep alleys. The crossover and combination of animation and traditional cultural elements is a correct “opening method”. The two are not simple physical splicing, but converge like water in a canal, and both can exert their own powerful kinetic energy: animation in the form of expression It has the characteristics of simplicity, vividness, intuitiveness, and humor. The display of traditional culture in the form of animation design is more acceptable to young groups; the traditional culture that has been polished over the years contains too many beautiful elements, which requires the in-depth development of animation producers. Excavation and sincere expression can present unique charm.
From the perspective of the pre-production of animation, whether it is pre-planning, data collection and organization, or the follow-up script, character modeling design, style scene design, and sub-lens script, elements of traditional culture can be integrated. There are a lot of materials in traditional culture, such as calligraphy, Chinese painting, Tai Chi, paper-cut, clay figurines and other cultural symbols… In fact, in the 1960s, my country began to integrate ink painting into animation design, and produced many classics. Works, such as “Little Tadpoles Looking for Mother”, “Landscape Love”, “Shepherd Flute” and so on.
A large number of classic works in traditional culture can be displayed in the form of animation. At present, the selection of materials for animation design in my country is generally concentrated in the common Ming and Qing novels, while the selection of cultural works of other art forms is less, which also leaves a huge space for the creators to imagine. Incorporating traditional Chinese cultural symbols in style design, character modeling design, scene design, etc. or using traditional Chinese cultural expressions, such as shadow puppets, ink painting, opera, etc., will form an animation style with Chinese characteristics and have good artistic effects. .
In the post-production work of animation, traditional cultural elements can also be integrated. For example, the design draft and background drawing can be integrated into the beautiful artistic conception of Chinese classical poetry, the brush line can be used for computer drawing, and the animation dubbing can integrate elements such as opera and traditional classical music.
In terms of content, animation can look for empathy in traditional culture that spans ancient and modern times, but people have the same heart and the same reason; in terms of form, animation can make bold innovations in technology and concepts. A good work combining the two, from beginning to end, revolves around the theme of cultural people. In foreign countries, many elements of traditional Chinese culture have also been “interpreted”, such as the American animation works “Kung Fu Panda”, “Mulan”, “Flying to the Moon”, etc., from the details to the cultural connotation. It is a cultural appropriation to please the audience and the text is not on the topic. As one of the largest animation consumer countries in the world, China has allowed animation products with Chinese elements produced by foreigners to occupy the market, which makes Chinese animation people ponder and reflect.
In particular, it is worth mentioning that the main audience of current animation works are mainly children. The impact of animation integrated into traditional culture on children is not only in the present, but also in the future. Incorporating traditional culture into animation can bury cultural symbols in children’s hearts, cultivate children’s interest in traditional culture, and help build cultural self-confidence.
With the continuous enrichment of animation works infiltrating traditional culture, it will gradually change the situation that domestic adult animation works are rare. The traditional cultural animation specially created for the characteristics of adults is even more promising. It can not only embody the deep thinking of the ancients on nature, society and life, but also combine the depth of thought, cultural thickness and emotional concentration into one. Looking forward to more and more animation works that promote traditional culture. (Lu Yu)