The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 469 Dabai and "Inside Out"

"Robot Wall-E"'s unexpected "slant door" marketing effect not only stunned colleagues, even the media and many netizens who participated in this Internet carnival consciously or unconsciously were surprised by it.

Although such marketing techniques existed in the past, they were definitely not on such a large scale and with such good effects.

After the rapid expansion of several major short video platforms in the past two years, the prosperity of the short video platform has just begun. The short video marketing of "Wall-E" is based on the short video platform to achieve viral marketing.

During this period, although some movies have begun to use short video platforms for promotion, the effect is far less than that of "Wall-E".

It can be said that this is the first time that people across the country have witnessed such a marketing explosion.

The main reason is that "WALL-E", a 2-minute cute short film composed of two or three short stories, fits perfectly with the short video platform, and the quality of the short film is also very high, showing the cute image and body language of Wall-E to the fullest. Coupled with the interesting interactions with the environment and other DreamWorks film and television animation characters, it is addictive.

After seeing such a good response, the marketing department of DreamWorks quickly launched a comprehensive publicity on foreign online media and social platforms, especially on Youtube, Twitter, and the young tiktok.

Wall-E, an animated image without the support of film and television works, began to become popular both at home and abroad, accompanied by not only the rapid increase in the attention of the "WALL-E" animated film, but also the hot sales of peripheral products.

DreamWorks' in-house computer animation department also touted the boss's genius.

"Now I know, boss, why you insisted on designing such a strange robot. It really has a chubby and naive temperament."

Xiang Xuan, director of the animation department, held a tablet computer and looked at a strange robot on the screen—not the little robot WALL-E.

It was a plump, snow-white body, as if it was the most simple stick figure drawn casually.

A profile is basically made up of several curves.

There are only two black dots on the oval head, with a line in the middle, which constitutes the facial features of the entire face.

It looks shabby than ordinary Chinese character strokes.

But the strange thing is that the round and fat outline outlined by this simple line, together with the two dots and one line on the oval head, can give him a naive impression.

Regarding the director's evaluation, Li Chun, another project leader, began to dismantle his immediate boss's platform in front of Chen Jingxing: "Brother Xiang, you complained that this animation image was too sloppy and crude, but now you can immediately feel the difference." charm?"

Xiang Xuan glared at his subordinates: "My previous first impression was indeed a bit sloppy, and the image designed by the boss is indeed more and more interesting."

Wu Han, deputy director of the animation department, also echoed: "This is called as clever as clumsy, as simple as possible."

After laughing, the others fell into deep thought as they looked at the image on the screen, and it really became more interesting the more they looked at it.

What Xiang Xuan said was really not flattery.

An excellent animator may not be proficient in everything, but is strong in all aspects.

Especially as one of the founders of Mo, Xiang Xuan's main job was to produce special effects. His talents and advantages have always been more technical, and he is not so outstanding in art design.

He didn't focus on animation until it was acquired by DreamWorks.

For example, many of the character images in "Kung Fu Panda" and "Wall-E" were directly designed by Chen Jingxing. Xiang Xuan is more fond of the character image of "Kung Fu Panda". Not too cold.

But after he started animation production, he could more and more appreciate the charm of this character image.

Maybe it’s because Wall-E went out of marketing and became a new generation of cute things, so Xiang Xuan, who has already recognized the fact that the big boss has extraordinary talent in animation character image design, re-watched this simple animation named Dabai When playing a character, I can suddenly feel the charm of a certain kind of innate cuteness in him.

"Boss, if you work in the animation industry, you will definitely become the world's top animation master."

This is Xiang Xuan's sincere praise. Chen Jingxing's imagination and storytelling ability are excellent. Most of DreamWorks' animation works Chen Jingxing has been deeply involved in the story creation.

With the ability to keenly grasp the cuteness and the image design ability to capture the hearts of the audience, it is definitely enough to become a top animation master.

Chen Jingxing got to the point: "Okay, don't flatter me, understand that this animation is not in a hurry, and we can't spare enough manpower. Has the story video of "Inside Out" been completed?"

Today is his first meeting with the computer animation department after the company moved to the new headquarters. The main topic is to watch the story video of the animated movie "Inside Out".

The story video is to use the "pre-editor" to scan the story sketches on the storyboard, which can be understood as comic strips with storyboard scripts, into the computer one by one, with dialogues, simple sound effects and soundtracks, to create The time-time narrative is edited into a story video.

It is similar to the cg preview in special effects movies.

Everyone watches the story video together to see if the narrative is smooth enough, whether there are emotional ups and downs, whether the narrative rhythm is flawed, and whether the character image needs to be changed. This is the last step in the pre-production work of an animated film.

From script to character design, to storyboard and story video, these pre-works are the most time-consuming.

It often takes a year or two to determine it.

On the contrary, the animation production after the finalization is mechanical, and the work of accumulating manpower, material resources and computing power.

It is only because of the bug of Chen Jingxing that the pre-production work that focuses on creation will be greatly shortened, so DreamWorks' animation films can be produced so quickly.

"Inside Out" is the next animation film that Chen Jingxing entrusted to the animation department to shoot after "Inception" was finished, and the pre-production work has basically been completed in just over four months.

In Chen Jingxing's opinion, "Inside Out" is a very unique sci-fi animation film. It is the first sci-fi animation featuring the five main emotions of human beings.

Anthropomorphic the five basic emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, disgust and anger, unfolding a gorgeous and scientific brain hole.

In other words, this sci-fi animation is the brain hole itself.

It involves some brain science, such as the storage and fading of long-term memory, abstract thinking and cognitive shortcuts, key events and character building, rapid eye movement sleep and dreaming, locked up subconscious and other not superficial knowledge.

And most importantly, these novel knowledge concepts are perfectly combined with the plot, which can be called a popular science movie that entertains and educates.

Therefore, it is also one of the best animated films produced by Pixar in Chen Jingxing's personal opinion in the previous world, and it is also almost Pixar's highest-grossing non-sequel animated film in the world. dollar grades.

The only problem is that the domestic box office is not good enough, even less than 1 million.

Of course, first of all, the domestic market’s acceptance of the theme of animated films is really not very high. Most of the animated films that have achieved good box office results in the previous world basically have to be related to big IPs.

It is common to find material in traditional mythology, or to get involved with pandas, kung fu, and the like.

This is why Chen Jingxing decided to use "The Return of the Great Sage" and "Kung Fu Panda" to break the ice and cultivate the habit of watching movies.

The second is that the initial impression of "Inside Out" is relatively low. Several colorful villains stand in the poster. Compared with animations like "Panda" and "Panda", they are at an absolute disadvantage.

Then there is the most important reason, the story and connotation of "Inside Out" under the childish appearance are adult, even a bit complicated.

That is to say, the viewing experience of real children watching "Inside Out" in the cinema is not as good as that of adults, and they may not even be able to understand it.

This is an animation suitable for adults to watch.

There is no classic character image that is too cute, the initial impression of young children has nothing to do with love or mythology, there is no IP foundation, and children can't understand the plot, and some audiences even classify it as a "brain burning movie". The combination really fits the definition of box office poison perfectly.

However, Chen Jingxing didn't think this was an obstacle. To be honest, "The Ninth District" was not a box office bomb. Although the actual results somewhat exceeded his expectations, he did not decide to make "The Ninth District" for the box office.

DreamWorks is not short of money until now, and Chen Jingxing still hopes to leave as many sci-fi masterpieces as possible, even if the box office prospects may not be ideal, but in the long run, the brand blessing of DreamWorks is immeasurable.

If he cared about profit, he wouldn't have to make "Skyhawk Warrior" and "Special Mobile Team".

In addition to "Inside Out", there was another "Big Hero [-]". Of course, Chen Jingxing wanted to directly name it "Big White", and it was also on the animation department's schedule.

The prototype background of this animation film has the style of the Japanese city, and the protagonist group is basically Japanese, so it is not difficult to change to the Chinese background.

And the key point is that the character of Dabai is also one of the classic cute characters in the history of animation. One of the benefits of the popularity of cute animated characters is the high peripheral income.

Let Dabai make up for the money "lost" in "Inside Out".

Of course, with the current projects and human resources of the computer animation department, the production of "Big White" may not be finished within two years.

"The storyboard of "Kung Fu Panda II" has also been completed. If the two films are produced at the same time, I am afraid that they will not be able to catch up with the Spring Festival next year."

Xiang Xuan consulted his boss with some distress, and brought an excellent animation film to the people of the whole country every year during the Spring Festival. This was the company's previous plan.

Chen Jingxing looked at the story video of "The Mind" projected in front of him, and said in a low voice: "Concentrate all the resources on "Inside Out", and "Panda II" can be produced slowly."

"So "Panda II" is probably three years away from the first one?"

"Three years and three years, a good meal is never afraid of being late, the longer you wait, the sweeter the fruit will be."

Xiang Xuan rolled his eyes. As DreamWorks built more stalls, or dug more holes, more and more audiences and movie fans complained about it. The animation department alone had to make sequels. Animated series or movies made his scalp tingle.

For example, "Super Battleship" and "The Ensemble of 46 Billion Entering" have been three years since now, and they still have no time to produce.

The third season of "Star God" is a [-]D animation, but it is already in production. "Battleship" and "Evolution" are both [-]D animations, but now all [-]D animation production resources are occupied by special effects and animation movies. The anime fans' scolding continued.

But since the boss doesn't care, there's no need for him to be anxious.

The audience itself is a group accustomed to waiting.

Chen Jingxing added nonchalantly: "Don't worry, the campus recruitment will be carried out next month, and it will continue next year. I will definitely supplement the labor force for you. There will be time for you to show your strength."

(End of this chapter)