Tag: Design for animation narrative structure and film language

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/

Peking University Network Articles Research Group, 2021. Research Report on Readers’ Preference of Tomato Novel free model (2021) (I) [Online]

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/wkBpXxFCalYToHM0bqLzUw [access] on January 2, 2022

Peking University Network Articles Research Group, 2021. Tomatoes novel free model reader preferences survey report (2021) (on) [online] [access on January 2, 2022] https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/t3nlLfLbsc1b572cm7ipTg

Hannes, R. (2018) Animation: From Concept to Production. CRC Press. USA

Hu Ming and Wang Congcong. , 2010. Small white-collar workers popular after work “chasing” novels. [online]

http://zqb.cyol.com/content/2010-06/22/content_3287901.htm [on December 17, 2021, visit]

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

Sito, T. (2013) Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation. MIT Press.

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

There are many online novels in China that have high IP value. After selling their copyrights, they have been adapted into animated TV series, comic videos, etc. Some of them are well adapted, and some are not well adapted. I would like to conduct research in this area. Of course, the novel chosen as an adaptation is very good or very popular. And because of space issues, I do not intend to discuss failures caused by reasons such as poor acting skills of the actors and no logic in the plot change.

I listed a draft, listing the good works that have changed and the bad works that have been changed, and clearly stated why they are good and why they are not good. According to my investigation, I found that the biggest problem lies in the narrative structure.

The first is the poorly adapted works. Because online novels count money by word count, many authors like to write the novel very long, and like to add some dialogues and characters to extend the word count of the chapter. Especially masculine novels, with more than a million words at every turn. After the video is made, it will appear that nearly half of the content in an episode is a meaningless dialogue between the two characters, but between their dialogues will vaguely reflect the clues of the next plot. , So I can’t jump over to watch it, and there are still videos of the whole season until the protagonist hasn’t come out of Novice Village. And sometimes there are even cases where the protagonist does not appear in many consecutive episodes. These problems are all because of the narrative structure. There is also the fact that the plot itself is very complicated, but the adaptor does not have the ability to control the complex plot, or the key parts of the plot are deleted, so the plot is changed so that the audience cannot understand it. Of course, I ruled out the following reasons: because the heroine actor wants to appear quickly, the special effects are poor, the law does not conform to the laws and regulations, and the plot is completely different from the original.

The well-adapted works are not changed much on the basis of the original novel, especially some of the very exciting and important plots that have not been changed. In fact, for the audience, many times the requirements are not so high. As long as the special effects are good-looking, the modeling scenes are beautiful, the fighting is cool, and the plot is not too insulting to people’s IQ, the audience will easily accept it. I have singled out two examples here, the web animation “Douluo Continent” and “Sorrow in the Fire”. And both of these are 3D animations that match my major.
“Douluo Continent” is a typical Xiaobai essay, and the plot is very long. According to the data released by the “2020 China Internet Audiovisual Development Research Report”, the animation “Douro Land” has an average playback volume of 149 million per episode, and the album has a total playback volume of 12.5 billion, making it the first domestically produced animation with a playback volume of over 10 billion. It is currently the most profitable 3D animation in China. He has hardly any changes in the plot, and even the characters’ movements and expressions are somewhat rigid. It’s just that the special effects are beautiful, the modeling scene is beautiful, and the fighting is cool, which attracts most people to watch. Because of the development of motion capture technology and cheap and fast UE4 rendering technology nowadays, 3D animations can be broadcast quickly and at a low cost at the speed of one episode per week. So even if the original novel is very long, there are already hundreds of animation episodes, and the distribution is not that difficult for the audience to accept.
“Sorrow in the Fire” is a very complicated plot, with each link giving the audience a strong sense of suspense and surprise. Whether it is writing or adaptation, the requirements are very high. The editing technique used extensively in this animation is parallel editing, that is, the cross-editing of two or multiple events. Thereby causing synchronization on the timeline, or strengthening the potential connection between one’s own events. In addition, this animation brings the audience into the perspective of the protagonist Xuan Ji. Because Xuan Ji’s descriptions are quite detailed, both externally and psychologically. And many of Xuanji’s psychological descriptions often elicit and summarize the questions he and the audience have about the unknown world. Even if the audience does not understand it, Xuan Ji will summarize the plot for the audience.

After comprehensive consideration, I plan to use “Burning Fire to Sorrow” as the main cause of my article to study the narrative structure. Because the success of “Douluo Dalu” has nothing to do with the course I studied, but because the success of this animation is very interesting, I wrote another blog to study this phenomenon.

Here are my examples of good and bad adaptations, and why they changed for good and bad.

Sorrow in the Fire

https://www.bilibili.com/bangumi/play/ss35208/?from=search&seid=17745856224045031605&spm_id_from=333.337.0.0

Chekhov’s gun The foreshadowings made in the front will be useful in the back.

Alfred Hitchcock

Let’s suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, “Boom!” There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o’clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: “You shouldn’t be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!”
In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.”

Winter Begonia—— television series 

http://www.iqiyi.com/lib/m_220178214.html

The director was very good and changed the script by calling the original author in the past. The costumes and make-up props were very good when filming, because it involved Peking Opera, professional guidance was also invited. The actors also took serious shots.

Douluo Continent——3D Animation

https://v.qq.com/x/cover/m441e3rjq9kwpsc.html

There is almost no change to the plot, and one episode a week is broadcasted at a very fast speed. The main special effects are good-looking, and there is no big logic error in the plot.

Ever Night——television series 

https://v.qq.com/x/cover/rpup19lfbuf2skc.html

This drama is well filmed and conforms to the original text. And the adaptation is also very good. First of all, there is a very complicated relationship between characters in the original work, which needs to be clarified. There are also some supporting role gags. In the article, these mainly account for the number of characters, because Chinese web texts are charged by characters, but in the process of interrogating and mixing, they will reveal some necessary information. This must be controlled when making a TV series. time. And this article is very long, so it is very likely that the protagonist will not have much time to play after an episode.

The Longest Day in Chang’an——television series 

This compact story must happen within one day and must end within one day. In order to render the sense of tension, the timing of the play is represented by the projection of the sundial scale, and it is advanced according to these 12 hours, and these episodes are finished. It was also exactly 12 hours. And the content is very compact, and the historical background is also very restored.

not good

Can Ci Pin——3D Animation

https://www.bilibili.com/bangumi/play/ss26265/?from=search&seid=18052374240887705680&spm_id_from=333.337.0.0

People who have never read the original will not understand it.

Jade Dynasty——Film

Xianxia drama was made into a martial arts drama. The laughter is vulgar, and the characterization fails.

Character development

Weakness: Character Development Workshop

It is the second kind that often appears. Weaknesses that require the presence of others to become weaknesses.And it is possible to be hurt by this weakness.

Story development

• Then audience wants to work for their meal: 2+2
• Stories aren’t exact or predictable
• All well drawn characters have a dominant unconscious goal.Acknowledge what drives you take the wheel and steer it
• Change must happen in a story
• Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty
• An itch they can’t scratch
• Singular goal
• Truth that deepens understanding of who we are
• Make me care
• Make a promise in the beginning
• Stories have guidelines
• Like your main character
• Theme: “who are you?”
• Invoke a sense of wonder

Character and Story development in animation

Take 2 films you enjoy and break down the character development and story development throughout the film:
Analyze how the main characters evolve
Analyze how the characters drive the story
If there are similarities between your films point this out and why you think they are following a similar structure if so.

The Lion King

Analyse how the main characters evolve: Naive and escaping become brave and strong

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Analyze how the main characters evolve: Being smart and rebellious becomes accepting the responsibility of a new life

Analyze how the characters drive the story:

New York City teenager Miles Morales struggles to live up to the expectations of his father, police officer Jefferson Davis, who sees Spider-Man as a menace. Miles adjusts to prep school, and visits his uncle Aaron, who takes him to an abandoned subway station to paint graffiti. Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider and gains spider-like abilities similar to Spider-Man.

Returning to the station, Miles discovers a collider built by Kingpin, who hopes to access parallel universes to bring back his late wife and son, whose deaths he blames on Spider-Man. Miles watches as Spider-Man attempts to disable the collider while fighting Kingpin’s enforcers, Green Goblin and Prowler. Spider-Man saves Miles, but Green Goblin shoves Spider-Man into the collider, causing an explosion that kills him and severely wounds Spider-Man. Spider-Man gives Miles a USB flash drive designed to disable the collider, warning that the machine could destroy the city if reactivated. After watching in horror as Kingpin murders Spider-Man, Miles flees with Prowler in pursuit, eventually getting away.

As the city mourns Spider-Man’s death, Miles tries to honor his legacy and become the new Spider-Man. While trying out his newfound abilities, he inadvertently damages the drive. At Spider-Man’s grave, Miles meets Peter B. Parker, an older and worn-down version of Spider-Man from another dimension. Upon meeting him, Miles discovers his ability to emit a bio-electric “venom” blast. Peter reluctantly agrees to train Miles in exchange for help stealing data to create a new drive. They infiltrate Kingpin’s research facility, and Miles discovers he has the power to turn invisible. They are confronted by scientist Olivia Octavius, who determines that Peter will die from cellular decay if he remains in their dimension.

Chased through the laboratory and surrounding forest by Octavius, Miles and Peter are rescued by Gwen Stacy, a Spider-Woman from another dimension. They then visit Peter’s aunt, May Parker, who is sheltering more Spider-people from other dimensions – Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker, and Spider-Ham – who are also deteriorating. Miles offers to disable the collider so the others can return home, but after questioning and testing him, they tell him that he lacks experience. Distraught, Miles retreats to Aaron’s home, where he discovers Aaron is Prowler. Miles returns to May’s house, where Peni has completed the new drive; he is followed by Kingpin, Prowler, Octavius, Scorpion, and Tombstone. In the ensuing brawl, Miles reveals his identity to Aaron just as Aaron corners him. Unwilling to kill his own nephew, Aaron spares Miles, only to be fatally shot by Kingpin. Miles flees with Aaron, who tells him to keep going before dying. Jefferson arrives on the scene and Miles escapes, leading Jefferson to mistake Miles as Aaron’s murderer.

The heroes regroup at Miles’ dorm room. Peter restrains Miles to ensure his safety and leaves with the others, choosing to sacrifice himself by staying behind and deactivating the collider. Jefferson arrives outside Miles’ door and, assuming Miles does not want to speak to him, apologizes for his mistakes and inspires Miles. Miles masters his powers, escapes his restraints, and creates his own Spider-Man gear. He joins the heroes, defeating Kingpin’s enforcers and using the new drive to send them home. Kingpin fights Miles, attracting the attention of Jefferson, who realizes that Miles is on his side. Jefferson encourages Miles, who subdues Kingpin with his venom blast and throws him at the kill switch, destroying the collider.

Kingpin and his enforcers are arrested and Jefferson recognizes the new Spider-Man as a hero while receiving evidence of Kingpin’s murders of Spider-Man and Aaron. Miles embraces the responsibilities of his new life, while the heroes return to their lives in their own dimensions.

If there are similarities between your films point this out and why you think they are following a similar structure if so.

1. The hero in the story must have a special “ability”, or he is going to complete a great mission, or do good deeds and deeds.
2. The hero must have an enemy equal to or even stronger than him. This person is not a “vote”, but he thinks he is.
3. The hero must be “cursed” — this is the price he paid to become a hero. The hero defeated the curse, or was defeated by the curse.

story arc:

• exposition
• rising action
• climax
• falling action
• resolution

Stories as a circle

1. you A character is in a zone of comfort
2. need They want something
3. go They enter an unfamiliar situation
4. search Adapt to it
5. find Get what they wanted
6. take Pay a heavy price for it.
7. return Then return to their familiar situation
8. change Having changed

Character types

• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Dynamic
• Static
• Round
• Flat

Hero types

• Hero
• Mentor
• Threshold Guardian
• herald
• Shapeshifter
• Shadow
• Trickster
• Allies(sidekicks)

story leading、

• The ending can make or break a story.
• This is a crucial part of story development. You want your audience to want to see the story again or tell more people to see it and increase your audience size.
  Has anyone ever felt like they were mislead by a story or felt unsatisfied with an ending?

Pick a film you personally have watched and enjoyed. Forrest Gump
Breakdown the story arc (what are the 8 stages)

1. you In 1954, in Greenbow, Alabama, young Forrest is fitted with leg braces to correct a curved spine, and is unable to walk properly. He lives alone with his mother, who runs a boarding house out of their home that attracts many tenants, including a young Elvis Presley, who plays the guitar for Forrest and incorporates Forrest’s jerky dance movements into his performances. On his first day of school, Forrest meets a girl named Jenny Curran, and the two become best friends.
2. need Forrest is often bullied because of his physical disability and low intelligence. While fleeing from several bullies, his leg braces break off, revealing Forrest to be a very fast runner. This talent eventually allows him to receive a football scholarship at the University of Alabama in 1963, where he is coached by Bear Bryant, witnesses Governor George Wallace’s Stand in the Schoolhouse Door (during which he returns a dropped book to Vivian Malone Jones),[7] becomes a top kick returner, is named on the All-American team, and meets President John F. Kennedy at the White House.
3. go After graduating college in 1967, Forrest enlists into the U.S. Army. During basic training, he befriends a fellow soldier named Benjamin Buford Blue (nicknamed “Bubba”), who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him after their service. Later that year, they are sent to Vietnam, serving with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta region. After months of routine operations, their platoon is ambushed while on patrol, and Bubba is killed in action. Forrest saves several wounded platoonmates – including his lieutenant, Dan Taylor, who loses both his legs – and is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
4. search At the anti-war March on the Pentagon rally, Forrest meets Abbie Hoffman and briefly reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie lifestyle. He also develops a talent for ping-pong, and becomes a sports celebrity as he competes against Chinese teams in ping-pong diplomacy, earning him an interview alongside John Lennon on The Dick Cavett Show, influencing the song “Imagine”. He spends the 1972 New Year’s Eve in New York City with Lieutenant Dan, who has become an embittered cripple. Forrest soon meets President Richard Nixon and is put up in the Watergate complex, where he unwittingly exposes the Watergate scandal.
5. find Discharged from the army, Forrest returns to Greenbow and endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles. He uses the earnings to buy a shrimping boat in Bayou La Batre, fulfilling his promise to Bubba. Lieutenant Dan joins Forrest in 1974, and they initially have little success. After their boat becomes the only one to survive Hurricane Carmen, they pull in huge amounts of shrimp and create the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, after which Lieutenant Dan finally thanks Forrest for saving his life. Lieutenant Dan invests into what Forrest thinks is “some kind of fruit company” and the two become millionaires, but Forrest also gives half of the earnings to Bubba’s family. Forrest then returns home to his mother as she dies of cancer.
6. take In 1976, Jenny – in the midst of recovering from years of drugs and abuse – returns to visit Forrest, and after a while he proposes to her. That night she tells Forrest she loves him and the two make love, but she leaves the next morning. Heartbroken, Forrest goes running, and spends the next three years in a relentless cross-country marathon, becoming famous again before returning to Greenbow.
7. return In 1981, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny, who asked him to visit her. Forrest is finally reunited with Jenny, who introduces him to their son, Forrest Gump Jr. Jenny tells Forrest she is sick with an “unknown virus” and the three move back to Greenbow.
8. change Jenny and Forrest finally marry, but she dies a year later. The film ends with Forrest seeing his son off on his first day of school.

Breakdown the characters into their archetypes

Forrest Gump：Protagonist，Dynamic，Round

Create a timeline for the main character starting before the film start

• exposition: Forrest lives alone with his mother, who runs a boarding house out of their home that attracts many tenants. On his first day of school, Forrest meets a girl named Jenny Curran, and the two become best friends.
• rising action: After graduating college in 1967, Forrest enlists into the U.S. Army. During basic training, he befriends a fellow soldier named Benjamin Buford Blue (nicknamed “Bubba”), who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him after their service.
• climax: After months of routine operations, their platoon is ambushed while on patrol, and Bubba is killed in action. Forrest saves several wounded platoonmates – including his lieutenant, Dan Taylor, who loses both his legs – and is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• falling action: Forrest soon meets President Richard Nixon and is put up in the Watergate complex, where he unwittingly exposes the Watergate scandal.
• resolution: Forrest is finally reunited with Jenny, who introduces him to their son, Forrest Gump Jr. Jenny tells Forrest she is sick with an “unknown virus” and the three move back to Greenbow.