Thanks to the development of motion capture technology and cheap and fast UE4 rendering technology, 3D animation can be broadcast quickly and cheaply at the rate of one episode per week. In China, more and more online novels are sold by IP and adapted into 3D online animation. Different from traditional 3D animated films, most of the time they do not have a lot of technical content, as long as the modeling is good, the special effects are not bad, the fighting is intense, and the plot of the characters is not changed, they can be easily accepted by the audience. Of course, the novels chosen for adaptation are very well written or popular, so there will be a lot of popularity and traffic even before the animation adaptation begins. This is great for anyone who wants to invest in 3D animation and make a quick buck these days, just buy a popular fiction IP, and the production side only needs to be able to modify the motion capture and render using UE4. At present, many books and papers on animation are constantly studying how to make a film or 3D animation better, but there are few articles on 3D animation, which is very simple but can make money quickly. Nowadays, many such animations have been broadcast in China and have achieved high profits. Therefore, in this article, I will use the most successful network animation “Douluo Continent” as an example to discuss my views.
Adapted from the original fantasy novel of the same name by Chinese writer Tang Jia SAN Shao, the online animated series is co-produced by Penguin Pictures and Xuanji Technology. From January 20, 2018, every Saturday at 10:00, Tencent Video exclusive legal update. Won the honor of National Cartoon of the Year in 2018 Tencent Video Star Festival. In September 2020, “Douluo Continent” was selected as “IP Influence List of Chinese Online Literature” in “2019 Chinese Online Literature Ranking List”. According to data released by the 2020 China Internet Audio-visual Development Research Report, the cartoon douluo Mainland was streamed 149 million times per episode on average and 12.5 billion times in total, making it the first Domestic animation to reach 10 billion views. (CCTV.com, 2020) Douluo Continent is a time-travel fantasy novel created by Tang Jia SAN Shao. It was first published on Qidian Chinese Website from December 14, 2008 to December 13, 2009, and first published in May 2009. “Douro mainland” tells the story of how through to douro mainland Tang Three step by step to practice the soul, by people practice for god, and finally eliminated the evil forces on the douro mainland, avenged the killing of his mother, become the story of the strongest douro mainland. The development of Online literature in China has gone through a process of about 20 years. In the first four or five years, the development of online literature was very slow, and began to develop rapidly in about 2005. At present, Chinese online literature is one of the four cultural phenomena in the world, along with Hollywood, Japanese animation and Korean TV dramas. Online literature in China has 6.8 million online writers and 350 million online readers. (Zhang Wei, 2018)
The network animation Douluo Continent does not have a lot of changes in the plot. Douluo mainland novel is a typical cool prose, xiaobai prose. Shuang Wen is a relatively common type of web novels on various major novel websites. The characteristics of Shuang Wen are that the protagonist progresses smoothly from the beginning of the novel to the end of the story. Xiao Bai wen refers to the simple plot, the lack of the basic structure of the novel, and the repeated filling of meaningless words, making the content of the novel bloated. The plot is extremely routine, lack of thought, the content is plain, common in network novels. This does not mean that a novel is well written, on the contrary, it is often derogatory. But there is no denying, and it is very frustrating, that most people enjoy reading this kind of little white text. According to a survey of 2,030 people conducted by the Social Research Center of China Youth Daily, 67.6 percent of them preferred “easy and convenient reading”, 62.1 percent said “fresh language with a strong sense of The Times”, 60.3 percent said “creative freedom and variety of content”, and 54.6 percent said “grassroots and individual”. 33.6 percent said they can interact with authors and readers. (Hu Ming and Wang Congcong, 2010) The repeated cycle of “trough, climax and trough” makes Xiao Bai Wen the most suitable novel for the Internet to follow. For the reader, follow up… No need to take into account the complex and profound overall meaning, just a daily cool, can meet their busy life in the cultural entertainment needs. And the “practice” and “upgrade” presented by gamification also accords with the basic psychology of contemporary society. (Wang Kaiwen, 2019) Many people watch novels or animations not to appreciate a very good work, but to rest and relax after busy work. Therefore, they do not want to watch some very serious works, and their personality tends to conform to their own preferences, which can make them feel happy. This is also what douro mainland 3D animation does, with beautiful scenes and characters, gorgeous special effects, intense fighting, and mindless plot. Using dynamic complement technology and UE4 rendering, at a low cost to quickly broadcast the weekly episode speed, the story and the original almost no modification. But it is this 3D online animation that has become the first Domestic animation to break ten billion yuan in broadcast volume.
The fact that audiences prefer generic, unthoughtful, shallow content is bad news for those who want to create good, more artistic work. But it’s good news for newcomers or those who want to try out 3D first. You don’t need a lot of technology or a lot of investment, just buy the right IP, you can easily make money and experience.
Douluo mainland [network animation]. 2018. Le-ping shen (director), Tang Hongyu (executive director). China: penguin, film and television and the mystery of science and technology Available from: https://v.qq.com/x/cover/m441e3rjq9kwpsc.html
Zhang Wei, 2009. Douro continent. Available from: https://book.qidian.com/info/1115277/
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Wang Kaiwen, 2019. Fight through the sky silkworm potatoes. Shao Yanjun, Xue Jing, EDS. In: Collection of 20 years of Chinese Online literature. China: Lijiang Press. pp. 222-237
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CCTV network, 2020. “2020 China Network Audio-visual Development Research Report” was released, the user scale exceeded 900 million, short video to promote the market reform. [online] [https://news.cctv.com/2020/10/13/ARTIip4JhuTW6qREtOt5SV2t201013.shtml] on December 17, 2021, visit
Zhang Wei, 2018, the article writers do positive energy, make IP industry who has the world influence [online] [] on November 25, 2021, visit http://www.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0321/c32306-29880699.html