After the divorce, my wife and I were reborn

"Don't worry, I will take care of it and promise not to delay my studies."

Seeing Jiang Xia's insistence, Wang Ming couldn't say anything more, so he took out a piece of 50 yuan and handed it to him, thinking that his current animation might be just a hot-headed decision, and after a few days, his fiery heart would cool down , it is estimated that it will be abandoned.

After all, it’s really difficult to do animation. You can’t draw enough, and you need a script, and then make the text into a picture-like storyboard, and then draw the original painting.

There are so many difficulties here that Wang Ming's scalp feels numb when he thinks about it. Compared with them, the sketches, sketches and colors in the art test are all simple.

After paying the money and carrying a heavy pocket, Jiang Xia breathed a sigh of relief again. With the painting tools, it is a step closer to making the finished cat and mouse.

"Where are you going now?" Wang Ming asked.

Jiang Xia hesitated for a moment: "Go back to school, it's a little quieter there."

"Are you planning to start drawing now? What about the script, the storyboard? What about the characters? Don't you have nothing to prepare? Talk about it for a long time, are you kidding me?" Wang Ming looked at him speechlessly. Brother is not like someone who doesn't understand anything.

Hearing this, Jiang Xia just opened the schoolbag silently, took out the storyboard draft that took a whole day to draw yesterday, and handed it to him.

"Cat and mouse...plan?"

Wang Ming raised his voice a few notches, glanced at Jiang Xia with a strange expression, and then turned to the first page.

So, he was shocked.

Chapter 15 Production Begins

"You drew this all?!"

Wang Ming's eyes widened. Although he was not a professional, he had received enough influence from his mother since he was a child, so he could tell at a glance that this was an animation for children.

"Yeah." Jiang Xia nodded slightly: "I have been preparing for a long time, and it was not until last night that I finished the storyboard of the first episode."

"You kid..."

Wang Ming quickly went through the thick stack of manuscripts. Even though all the storyboards were rough, with almost only a simple outline and facial expressions marked in text, considering that the storyboards and original paintings were all his own, There is nothing particularly difficult to understand, as long as the creator can understand it.

Moreover, the character design on the first two pages is very detailed, and the theme is also very clear, which is the kind of feeling that children will fall in love with at a glance.

If he remembered correctly, the draft paper that Jiang Xia showed him a few days ago was a drawing of Tom and Jerry, but now it has been colored and the details are richer, so it looks much more perfect.

"Okay, you kid is hiding deep enough!"

Wang Ming returned the proposal to him and raised his eyebrows: "Tell me, how long have you been drawing?"

"Winter vacation, I started preparing after the art exam, how do you feel?" Jiang Xia lied casually, mainly because he was afraid that telling the truth would scare him.

"It's hard to say. I saw your theme. This should be a pantomime-style animation. Although dubbing can be saved to the greatest extent, there are almost no animations of this type on the market. The absence of lines means that the audience cannot Understand the meaning of the animation at the first time, and..."

Wang Ming said and looked at Jiang Xia: "And in the final analysis, you are an independent producer, so it is difficult to guarantee the quality. If you can generate electricity for love, if you really want to achieve anything with this animation, it will be useless at first sight."

Jiang Xia smiled and did not explain too much. The essence of cat and mouse is to let the audience understand the content of the animation without lines. As for the quality, excellent content trumps everything.

He watched so many animations in the Internet cafe the day before yesterday, and none of the mainstream works on the market can fight cats and mice.

As long as he can make it, in today's animation field, he will be Wang Zha!

"Just treat me as a power generator for love. You can't give up before the official production has started. How can there be such a reason, don't you think?" Jiang Xia put the planning book in his bag and put it away.

Wang Ming pondered for a moment: "That's true, why don't you go to my studio? It just so happens that my mother is not here today, and I have all the tools there, so you can get whatever you want."

"Good brother, that's it!"

"Why do I feel like you've been waiting for me to say this?" Wang Ming felt a toothache.

"Illusion, it's definitely an illusion!" Jiang Xia looked serious.

◇

Wang Ming took out the key to open the door. Before the two entered the room, Jiang Xia saw a beautiful young woman in home clothes sitting on the sofa watching TV through the gap between the screens.

"Lao Jiang, here are the shoe covers. You can wear them yourself." Wang Ming put the school bag net shoe cabinet away, took out the shoe cover and threw it over. As a result, he changed into slippers by himself, but saw that Jiang Xia was still motionless.

"Don't be restrained. Didn't I say that when my mother goes out, she just treats her as her own home. She doesn't pay much attention to it."

Jiang Xia glanced at Wang Ming speechlessly, can this kid give you some information?I'm afraid that after I leave for a while, I will suffer a meal of women's singles.

Seeing Jiyou's hint, Wang Ming's heart thumped subconsciously, his neck was a little stiff and he turned around, seeing his own mother looking at him with her legs crossed.

"Mom, didn't you say you were going to have a meeting with the company?" Wang Ming suppressed a smile with difficulty.

"The plan has changed, it was postponed until the afternoon, but you..."

Li Weiya looked at her son and frowned slightly: "Didn't you go to school? Why are you back again?"

"A-Xia said she wanted to paint something, but I thought the studio at home was empty anyway, so I brought it back."

Hearing that Jiyou turned around and sold himself, Jiang Xia looked helpless and bowed to Li Weiya: "Mr. Li, I take the liberty to bother you."

Wang Ming's mother is an art teacher in a middle school, and also works as an art supervisor in an animation outsourcing company.

When Jiang Xia was studying painting in her previous life, she was often taught by Li Weiya. Strictly speaking, she was half of Jiang Xia's teacher. In the later generations, they both chose animation by coincidence, and they were more or less influenced by her.

Seeing Jiang Xia's polite attitude and her son's bluffing, Li Weiya couldn't help but sigh.

"Come in, come in, you're welcome, just as he said, just order casually, by the way, have you had breakfast yet?" Li Weiya asked with a gentle expression.

"I've already eaten, Teacher Li." Jiang Xia replied.

Putting on the shoe covers, Jiang Xia followed Wang Ming into the studio, saying that the studio is actually a study room, with many works of Li Weiya hanging on the wall, as well as several art trophies.

Although he has been here quite often, it has been more than ten years for him now. Looking at the familiar scene layout, I feel a lot of emotion in my heart.

"Okay, you can draw it yourself. I'll go read and ask my mom if you don't understand something. After all, she is a professional." Wang Ming patted him on the shoulder and walked out of the room. After a while, he came in with a glass of boiling water. .

"Thank you."

Jiang Xia didn't hesitate, opened his schoolbag, took out the three-hole positioning paper he just bought, and started to do it. Looking at the storyboard draft he drew yesterday and the description marked next to it, he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was already in the state.

The first storyboard features a white wall, a long tail, and a mouse that keeps running in place while trying to escape.

This shot is very simple. You only need to draw three subtle movements while running, and then fill in the middle frame. Finally, when editing and making later, repeat this segment to present a visual effect of running in place.

The next scene is that Jerry noticed something was wrong, and he turned his head slowly while running, as if he saw something terrible, showing a frightened and exaggerated expression. .

Since the background of the two shots has not changed in any way, the original background painting can be drawn separately, and the movement of the characters and the background can be combined with software in post-production, which greatly improves the efficiency and saves the A lot of meaningless time.

Then the camera turned, and it was Tom cat lying on the ground, with one paw resting on his chin, and the other paw holding down Jerry's tail, his eyes were full of jokes, explaining the previous scene.

The combination of the three shots is the content conveyed by the first ten seconds of the shot-Tom easily caught Jerry and played with it.

He was painting vigorously, but the door of the studio opened quietly. Li Weiya stood behind him at some point, her eyes became brighter and brighter.

Chapter 16 Dreams Are Made to Come True

Tom held Jerry's tail and pulled it far away, then suddenly let go. Under the action of inertia, Jerry rushed forward. Just when he thought he could escape smoothly, Tom smiled and opened his mouth wide in front, waiting for Jerry to take the initiative. into its mouth.

After drawing Jerry's terrified expression, Jiang Xia put down the pen, withdrew from that state of high concentration, took a sip from the water glass, and found that the boiled water he poured before had turned cold.

"Can you show me?" Li Weiya asked softly.

Jiang Xia shivered reflexively at the sudden sound, and turned around to see Li Weiya standing behind him.

"Did it scare you? Sorry, I came in to take a look when I had nothing to do, but I found that you were serious about painting, so I didn't intend to disturb you." She smiled.

Jiang Xia scratched his head, and quickly handed over all the original paintings that had been drawn.

"Ms. Li, please take a look."

Li Weiya was helpless: "Jiang Xia, don't be so polite with me."

While speaking, she took the drawing paper and flipped through it page by page. As an animation practitioner, her brain has automatically connected the content of the drawing paper seamlessly, and even made up the middle frame of the animation in her mind to make the picture run smoothly. more fluid.

"Just now when Wang Ming told me that you were doing animation, I still didn't believe it, but it turned out to be true." Her tone was slightly amazed.

Through the observation just now, Li Weiya found that Jiang Xia's basic skills are more solid than some professional original painters. The emotions of the characters are portrayed very well. You don't need lines to understand what happened between the cat and the mouse. The painting speed is fast and there are many lines. It's all drawn in one stroke.

You must know that such people are often senior bosses who have been immersed in the industry for more than ten years, and all this is actually reflected in a high school student who was learning painting from her not long ago.

"The painting is very good." Li Weiya flipped through the original painting in her hand again, and praised without hesitation.

Jiang Xia continued to scratch her neck in embarrassment: "Mr. Li, I just drew for fun."

"They all made a proposal book, it doesn't look like they are just drawing and playing."

Li Weiya continued to ask with a smile, "Can I have a look at the proposal?"

"OK."

He handed over the proposal and waited patiently for Mr. Li to read it. He also wanted to know what kind of evaluation a professional art supervisor would have on cats and mice.

Holding the storyboard manuscript, Li Weiya found a chair and sat down, gently brushed her hair hanging down her ears, and read each page carefully.

Due to occupational diseases, she will subconsciously analyze the theme of cat and mouse and the hidden commercial value of this animation. Based on preliminary estimates, she can actually get a high expectation score in her heart.

Doesn't it mean that this animation has the potential to become popular?

After a long time, Li Weiya slowly raised her head: "The name of this animation is Tom and Mouse, right? The idea is very good. Use the hostile nature of animals to make an interesting animation that loves and kills each other. I think you mainly portray Not the specific main line of the story, but the process of the cat catching the mouse?"

"Excellent, Mr. Li is indeed a professional." Jiang Xia praised.

After all, from a professional point of view, this project proposal is not comprehensive, except for the specific character design, the rest only has a few simple keyword descriptions.

If other animation directors hold this proposal, maybe they will produce a work with a core theme.

Li Weiya always felt weird being praised by her students, but there was a kind of joy of being recognized in her heart.

"Tell me, what's your specific idea?" she asked.

"In fact, there is no specific main line of cat and mouse. This is a long-form unit drama animation. There is no connection between the first and second episodes. There are only cats and mice fighting in various situations. For example, Tom tried every means Catch Jerry, and Jerry will also rack his brains to resist to the end."

"Is that so..." Li Weiya frowned, "Have you ever thought that if there is no specific main line, each episode is equivalent to a new story, and in many cases it will slow down the progress of the production. There is always a day when you run out of ideas.”

Jiang Xia smiled: "Traditional animation is like this. A good storyline needs to be promoted by the plot, and the plot is often drawn out by the contradictions between the characters, but cats and mice are natural enemies, and conflicts are born. They fight in ten thousand situations. , what I have to do is to express these ten thousand situations in an exaggerated manner, as for who wins and who loses, that doesn't matter."

Listening to his words, Li Weiya's eyes lit up.

"Just like the storyboard of the first episode, the mouse deliberately broke the tableware in the owner's house, and finally the cat was driven out. In the next episode, it may be because of a piece of cheese, the cat and the mouse wrestle together again. They can be enemies , or friends."

"Correct."

Jiang Xia shrugged: "Actually, I didn't even have the idea of ​​letting the master appear on the screen. The struggle between them is the most important thing. I didn't even consider any dubbing. In many cases, body language is better than all kinds of voices." lines are much more efficient."

Listening to his unique insights, Li Weiya was amazed: "To be honest, I still can't believe that this is a work that a high school student who has only studied painting for a few years can come up with. I already look forward to your making the first episode Once the film is made, maybe it will soon win over a group of Tom and Jerry fans. At least I already am."

Jiang Xia was slightly surprised. Unexpectedly, Li Weiya had a high opinion of cat and mouse. Sure enough, classics are classics no matter what era they come from.