Author: Liu Hanwen Zheng Zekun

　　"Guangming Daily" (15th edition on July 6, 2022)

　　[Viewing the tide of literature and art]

　　In recent years, China's online animation has developed rapidly.

According to relevant statistics, the number of new online original animations in 2019 and 2020 will be 26 and 24, respectively, and will reach 42 in 2021.

As of April 2022, the cumulative playback volume of "Douluo Dalu" has exceeded 40 billion, setting a new high for Chinese animation playback.

There are also works such as "Breaking the Sphere", "Perfect World", "One Thought Eternal", etc. The number of broadcasts is also hundreds of millions, and the attention is kept high.

However, corresponding to the sharp increase in the number of works and the hot market response, the quality of many works is criticized, and there are not many masterpieces that are both applauded and popular.

This paradoxical phenomenon of upside-down clicks and word-of-mouth should arouse the thinking of practitioners.

　　Is building a low-cost, high-efficiency, streamlined production and broadcasting industry chain

　　With the development of video sites, domestic animation has undergone a media shift from TV animation to network animation.

The continuous emergence of online animation works has gradually broken the situation that the main audience of TV animation is relatively young, and has met the diverse needs of audiences of different ages for animation with a more diversified positioning.

　　At the beginning, many creators chose the strategy of comic adaptation, formed the operation model of "comic + animation company + video platform" in the exploration, and created works such as "100,000 Cold Jokes".

In 2015, the animation adaptation of the online novel of the same name "The Chosen" was launched, and online animation entered the era of online text adaptation.

Works such as "Breaking the Sky" and "Douluo Continent" have sprung up, and online animation has turned its creative perspective to the field of online novel adaptation.

Some works are led by the online literature platform, and the original online novel text is handed over to the animation production company for visual adaptation, and the finished product is then put on the online audiovisual platform for playback; The Group and Tencent Group signed the "300 Online Comics Reform Plan" to create a low-cost, high-efficiency, streamlined production and broadcasting industry chain.

　　According to statistics, more than half of the top ten online animations in 2021 will be adaptations of online novels.

The reason why the web adaptation animation has such an amazing amount of playback is mainly the result of the superposition effect of fans.

Online novels adapted from online animations are often popular works on online text platforms and have a large number of fans.

The animation production company also has a group of loyal fans, coupled with the audience's movie viewing habits cultivated by the online audio-visual platform for more than ten years, the three have formed a combined force, making the broadcast volume of the online text adaptation works hit a record high.

　　Facing the polarization of broadcasting and word-of-mouth

　　While the adaptation of online texts has become the "new darling" of online animation creation, it is facing the polarization of broadcasting and word-of-mouth.

Many works have hundreds of millions of views, but the audience evaluation is worrying.

For example, in the eleventh chapter of "Douluo Dalu", the score on Douban dropped from 7.2 points to 6.6 points, the first season of "Yao Shen Ji" was 6.5 points, and the first season of "Breaking the Sky" was only 5.6 points.

Among the top 50 animations on Douban's rating list, there are only a handful of animations adapted from web articles.

　　The current network animation creation is faced with some unavoidable problems.

First, the source is not wide.

The texts adapted from web articles and animations are basically works that have been popular on the original web literature platform. The source of the texts is mainly concentrated on a few leading writers.

These writers have a large fan base, and selecting their works can guarantee the number of broadcasts.

The higher the playback volume, the more the producer prefers to choose other works of this writer for adaptation, thus falling into the vicious circle of one-way text selection.

There is a serious homogenization problem in the works of these writers, dragging the creation of online animations into the world of only cultivating immortals and fantasy, forming a bad and closed inner loop.

　　Second, the style is not high.

Some online animations are full of violence, blood, pornography and other borderline content, which can easily distort audiences, especially young people's cognition of the real world.

Many online animations tend to be too entertaining, and the proportion of confrontation and immortality plots is too large.

There are also many works that rely on the strength of others to challenge their opponents by leaps and bounds when showing the growth process of the protagonist.

Such a plot also ignores the meaning of personal struggle and conveys negative values ​​such as getting something for nothing.

　　The third is poor quality.

The quality of web-based animations varies, especially in terms of scenes, character modeling, and duration.

For example, in a certain film, the "Fire Python Tiger" described in the original book is a fierce and domineering beast dressed in reckless stripes, but in the animation it has become a small, cartoon cat image, which is not loyal to the original book. , and it is difficult to get the audience's approval.

In terms of duration, some web comics have shrunk drastically.

An episode of an animation is less than 20 minutes long. Excluding the opening and ending, the effective content is only more than 10 minutes. There are also a large number of soft advertisements, which seriously affects the viewing experience.

　　Profound Chinese traditional culture is still the foundation of creation

　　Since June 1 this year, the State Administration of Radio and Television has implemented a licensing system for the distribution of domestic online dramas, which means that the "license era" has come when the online audio-visual is more standardized and stricter.

In this context, online animation should also improve the level of specialization and standardization, face up to the problem of being addicted to adaptation, and devote itself to creating high-quality masterpieces that are well-received and well-received, and blaze a trail from adaptation to originality.

　　It needs to be seen that teenagers are an important viewing group for online animation.

Therefore, the value-oriented issue of online animation is particularly critical, which is about helping children and children buckle the "first button" in life and lay a solid foundation for thinking and values.

However, in some current online animation works, the value concept spread is vulgar and negative.

Therefore, the creation of online animation needs to further strengthen the awareness of orientation, with correct political orientation, healthy ideological orientation, noble moral orientation and rich cultural orientation, so that online animation has soul, emotion, and love, and truly become the spiritual nourishment of the audience. meal.

　　Orientation is conveyed through the telling of the story.

Therefore, what kind of subject matter to choose and what kind of story to tell are issues that network animation creators need to think about urgently.

We should jump out of the rut that the current creation is limited to the adaptation of online literature, and open up a broader imagination space.

On the one hand, based on tradition, draw nourishment from excellent traditional culture.

At present, most of the online animations related to Chinese traditional culture are "old wine in new bottles", and the author creates new content based on myths and stories. Although this has a certain relationship with traditional culture, it does not excavate and present it rigorously and deeply. Traditional Culture.

Chinese traditional culture is extensive and profound, and there are countless excellent story texts, not only mythological stories, but also legendary historical events, heroic characters, and classical opera stories.

Network animation should choose more excellent story text creation from it.

On the other hand, stick to reality and create more works that are closely related to the main line of the theme.

In recent years, a number of animation works have been deeply excavated and presented in a variety of ways around important time nodes and major events such as poverty alleviation and the centenary of the founding of the party, which have been welcomed by the audience.

For example, "The King's Diary" cuts in from the perspective of an orange cat, introduces China's poverty alleviation and education support, and brings the audience a warm and meaningful viewing experience.

It can be seen that while showing people's imaginative world, online animation should also pay more attention to the real world, focus the camera on ordinary people in life, interpret their extraordinary stories, and make the creation more realistic and social value.

　　Creators should also focus on the field of aesthetics, and regard the creation of aesthetic connotations with Chinese characteristics as a conscious pursuit.

In the middle and late last century, the Chinese animation works launched by Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio and others are world-renowned, creating animation forms of ink painting, paper-cutting and origami, and producing "Little Tadpoles Looking for Mother", "Landscape Love", "Shepherd Flute" and "Deer Bells". and other works, attracting foreign animation directors to come to learn art.

However, with the development of Chinese animation to the current stage of online animation, the traditional Chinese aesthetic connotation seems a little thin.

Many works are influenced by foreign animation styles and lack distinctive local characteristics.

Therefore, online animation should dig deep into the rich ore of Chinese aesthetics and create more excellent animation works that reflect the Chinese aesthetic style.

In addition, aesthetics and technology go hand in hand, so how to innovate technology and improve art and technology simultaneously is an important development trend of web animation.

At present, VR and AR technologies are relatively mature, and online animation can be actively used in the creation process, making creation a higher level of visual presentation.

　　In short, as a new variant of domestic animation, network animation has huge development potential.

Creators should adhere to the concept of upholding integrity and innovation, improve originality, enrich artistic expression, embellish things and transmit mainstream values ​​silently, create more classic artistic images, create more far-reaching works of art, and improve the overall quality of Chinese animation. Become an important force to enhance cultural self-confidence and promote cultural overseas.

　　(Author: Liu Hanwen, professor at the School of Communication, Fujian Normal University, and Zheng Zekun, a 2021-level postgraduate student at the School of Communication, Fujian Normal University)