Chapter 1652 The Changing Times of Cartoons

Katzenberg didn't quite tell the story.

Yin Jun recruited him, and the most important thing was that in addition to the above, he also gave him two scripts.

One is called Toy Story.

The other one is called Shrek.

Both scripts are very interesting. Neither of them uses childish descriptions to tell stories for children.

In Katzenberg's view, this is entirely about using these animated characters to describe and reason to adults.

Then it is an unprecedented three-dimensional animation, which is commonly known as 3D animation.

3D animation is not uncommon, it took shape as early as 20 years ago.

Even 3D movies were very popular more than ten years ago.

But in Katzenberg's view, neither is as well prepared as Disney's two current animation productions.

For this 3D animation, Disney has been working hard for more than three years, using computers to design various production programs, in order to make all the characters and scenes 3D - this is very fundamentally different from the previous pseudo-3D. .

In addition, WIN2.0 developed last year has greatly enriched the designers' knowledge, allowing them to put some of their design programs on WIN2.0 for development.

The window system is like a carrier. As long as its source code is understood, it will be easier to develop programs.

Yin Jun knew this a long time ago, so when WIN2.0 came out, he spent heavily on various animation production software from software design companies around the world.

It's a direct buyout, with prices starting at US$100,000, with no upper limit.

If it is really good, tens of millions of dollars is not out of the question.

This is just like Yin Jun, who has spared no effort to acquire IMAX technology and 3D technology over the years, sending the same message to technology-owning companies around the world.

"I have money. If you have a technology patent, feel free to use it."

All of Yin Jun's earnings in North America, especially the earnings from the previous Disney TV Channel, totaling 1.5 billion US dollars, were not touched when the headquarters was in such a difficult time. The reason was that they were used for the acquisition of various technologies and software.

This kind of costly expenditure has finally yielded results now.

It was after seeing the hundreds of computers in Disney's animation department and seeing the technical artists skillfully using computers to create pictures, coloring, scenery, etc. that he was finally tempted and decided to join this era-changing initiative. Come.

When the animated film "Toy Story" was released in 1995, it not only set a box office record for an animated film, but also created another technological advancement.

That is, it is an animated feature entirely produced using computers.

Its producer is none other than Katzenberg.

He summoned more than a hundred people, worked with the then-famous Pixar Studio, and spent a full year completing this masterpiece.

"Toy Story" didn't disappoint Disney either.

With a box office of 190 million, it became the box office champion in North America in 1995.

It grossed more than 350 million yuan worldwide, and was the global box office champion that year.

Prior to this, only two movies, "The Lion King" and "Aladdin", had won such an honor.

After the success of "Toy Story", Disneyland also added related projects.

This is its appreciation.

There are so many animation projects in Disney, but not every one of them can have a separate project in Disneyland.

In fact, "Toy Story" has lived up to Disney's love.

Four years later, "Toy Story 2" had a higher box office than the first episode, reaching 245 million U.S. dollars, and the global box office also reported 485 million U.S. dollars.

In addition to being a huge success, "Toy Story 2" also became the first animated film in history to have a sequel that made more money than the first episode.

Basically, "Toy Story" also influenced many future animated movies in terms of plot structure.

For example, "The Secret Life of Pets", "Zootopia", "Finding Nemo" and other super-hit movies all work together in this way, relying on collective strength to achieve final success.

So so far, only three "Toy Story" movies have been released, but its pioneering significance and powerful influence have already become a monument.

If "Toy Story" is an orthodox masterpiece, then Yin Jun's other "Shrek" is a typical eccentric work.

If you use popular vocabulary in mainland China to describe it, "Shrek" is a typical Diao Si counterattack story.

Shrek, who is dirty, lazy and timid, can win the favor of a beautiful princess, so what reason do we have to doubt the world?

Coupled with the interesting plot structure and humorous and ironic language, "Shrek"'s North American box office of 267 million US dollars directly broke the box office record of "The Lion King", which is reasonable.

Americans like this kind of tone.

Before Yin Jun came back, a total of five "Shrek" movies were filmed, becoming the best-selling animated series in the world.

So Yin Jun handed "Shrek" to Disney in advance so that they could prepare in advance.

After "Toy Story" is completed, "Shrek" can slowly be produced.

Yin Jun equipped Disney not only with so many computer facilities, but also with more excellent animators and artists.

Including artists and animators who came from mainland China for internship and training, they all, together with Disney colleagues, carefully learned how to use computers to draw pictures, structure systems, and complete the production of world views.

In the past, animation films in Mainland China have been left behind in the 1990s and have not picked up for more than 20 years.

It is rare to have a "Return of the Great Sage", but it is just that one, and it still lacks the situation of flowers blooming like Hollywood.

This is not because domestic animators are unwilling to make such good movies.

There are really too many difficulties.

The biggest difficulty is that we are many years behind. There is no way to integrate many advanced technologies and concepts. We can only slowly explore by ourselves and slowly produce with thinking and technology that is more than ten years behind others.

"The Return of the Great Sage" took seven or eight years from planning to release, and that's why.

Of course, another reason is burning money.

Those foreign animation blockbusters often cost tens of millions of dollars to produce—US dollars!

If nothing else, "Toy Story", which created the first computer animation, spent 30 million US dollars, not counting any other promotion and operation costs!

Calculated according to the exchange rate at that time, it was 240 million yuan!

Can "The Return of the Great Sage" produced 20 years later have a production cost of 240 million yuan?

Not even half of it! !

The average production time for each frame is about 6 hours!

There are 24 frames per second. If you look at the picture you see in one second, how many hours did it take to make it?

Is it possible that such an animation made with such careful and meticulous effort and money would not look good?

Putting aside the issue of burning money, labor costs in mainland China are much cheaper after all.

To put it bluntly, overtime fees are more than half lower than those in the United States, and many times they don’t even know how to calculate the money.

Especially in this day and age.

Animation in mainland China is now in full swing.

Yin Jun gave them two cartoons in a row to produce, and now he is preparing to join the third and fourth ones.

Chinese animation giants such as Shangmei Factory are all gearing up to produce cartoons and make a lot of money.

But in Yin Jun's view, this is far from enough.

The future is the era of computer animation. Hand-drawn animation will eventually decline because it is too complicated. At most, it will just be some simple animation.

If you want to make the best and most outstanding cartoons, you must use computers, software, workstations, advanced servers, etc.

If you don’t know how to operate these things, how can you make a cartoon?

Nowadays, in the United States, these technologies and software have just been developed, and American artists and animators have just learned it.

It just so happened that Yin Jun sent a group of artists and animators aged 20-40 from mainland China over in batches, so that they could learn with the Americans in advance.

If inventions and creations were made in modern times, the thinking of the Chinese people, which has been imprisoned for a long time, may be worse.

But when it comes to learning knowledge and applying what we have learned, Chinese people can proudly say that we are not inferior to anyone else.

Whatever we learn firsthand, we will definitely be able to learn it very skillfully in the end.

The reason why later generations did not do well in animation production is not because we did not learn enough, but because we did not have enough money.

I can’t afford those expensive facilities or the expensive production costs, so I don’t even dare to invest in it.

Disney now belongs to Yin Jun, and these equipments were developed or purchased by Yin Jun himself.

When these people finish their studies, Yin Jun will naturally send a complete set of facilities to places such as the Shangmei Factory.

Don't get me wrong, it's not for them.

Giving things to others for no reason will only cultivate their mentality of getting something for nothing.

So this was lent by Yin Jun to these factories for the purpose of allowing them to produce cartoons.

um, yes.

"The Return of the Great Sage".

This work was supposed to be made 30 years later, but Yin Jun planned to make it in the 1980s.

Cartoons don’t need to have a deep sense of relevance to the times, because they are inherently stories of gods and ghosts.

Of course they are not going back to production now, even though they have been studying for half a year.

Because the production team of "Toy Story" includes them.

By applying what you have learned, you can discover and make up for your shortcomings at work, and you can also explore your own potential.

By next year, when "Toy Story" is almost finished, they will return to the mainland and start producing Chinese animation.

After "The Return of the Great Sage", there is still a very worthy cartoon waiting for them.

How could that chubby panda not appear in front of the global audience?