About two years ago, CityU of Hong Kong established a "Trilateral Partnership" with Beijing Film Academy (BFA) and School of Cinema-Television of University of South California (USC). Sounded all good and dandy. Though this partnership seemed to float on the surface of film-making practices, with student exchange deals with BFA, Summer Institute (teaching staff from the 3 institutes involved) and visiting scholars from BFA for a semester or two. Things are moving along, for sure.
But as a student in animation stream, it always feels like this animation stream is leading to nowhere groundbreaking, with the lack of animation theory education (in a greater sense, it's more than just the basic principles of how you animate things in order to look Disney-like) and the nonexistent course like Animation Studies. And you step back, look around, and notice BFA Animation School has worked closely with MIT, building a digital archive of animated works made by the Animation School. Notice the objective of this project, it emphasises on an open platform which is accessible to the public, students and staff of both institutes can have a shared site to exchange ideas, works-in-progress, final products, comments, teaching materials and so on...
Now this is genuinely groundbreaking.
詩情畫意 水墨藝術---水墨動畫賞析
【作者】刘蕊
【刊名】吉林藝術學院學報 Journal of Jilin College of The Arts , 編輯部郵箱 2001年 04期
【中文摘要】<正> 一、水墨動畫片的誕生 曾引起國際動畫界矚目的水墨動畫片,是中國美術電影藝圃中極富民族風格的一朵奇葩,它誕生於1960年,把中國傳統的水墨畫技法和風格,運用於動畫電影, 創造了一種獨特的動畫形式。由於要表現水和墨的渲染效果,使活動的人物沒有邊緣線,這就突破了動畫片通常使用的“單線平塗”的製作方法,在技術上也是一個 創舉。
【篇名】中國動畫學派的發軔成型和成熟
【作者】金天逸.
【刊名】電影藝術 2004年01期
《中文核心期刊要目總覽》來源期刊 ASPT來源刊 CJFD收錄期刊
【摘
要】
世界動畫影壇有一個中國動畫學派。在我們論述中國學派動畫電影以前,先回顧一段往事。1954年,在威尼斯國際電影節,中國的動畫片《烏鴉為什么是黑的》
(導演錢家駿)①參賽得了獎。事后听說有評委認為,蘇聯的這部動畫片拍得不錯。獲獎本身是值得高興的,但明明是中國的動畫片,卻被認為是別的國家的作品,
這件事給中國的動畫電影工作者很大的震動。當時擔任上海電影制片厂動畫片組組長的特偉后來回憶說:“這件事一方面說明當時我們的動畫片已經達到了相當的水
平,說明我們模仿別人已經是模仿到家了,但是,你再會學,學得那么逼真,人家還以為是別人的東西。只從這...
Jill from the University of Bergen put up a pretty insightful piece on Student Use of the Wikipedia. While I can't deny that the wikipedia, at times, provide quite accessible infomation on general topics (accessible, I meant, easy to be understood), but somehow it's just not enough to be cited in a research paper. Another note is that I often find the websites the wiki entries cited far more informative and sometimes accurate than the wiki entries themselves.
Understanding animation / Paul Wells.
London ; New York : Routledge, 1998.
ISBN: 0415115965
Cartoons : one hundred years of cinema animation / by Giannalberto Bendazzi ; [translated by Anna Taraboletti-Segre].
London : John Libbey, c1994.
ISBN: 0861964462
Yellow crocodiles and blue oranges : Russian animated film since World War Two / David MacFadyen.
Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2005.
ISBN: 0773528717
動畫電影探索 / 黑白屋電影工作室策劃 ; 黃玉珊, 余為政編
臺北 : 遠流, 1997
ISBN:
9573233428
This book is divided into a few sections, including history of animation, characteristics and styles of animations from different countries, masters of animations, techiques of animations as well as a brief introduction to animation schools all over the world.
I've taken a look at the chapter on Chinese water ink animation which reveals how they were made in a more understandable and detailed way than the previous article. The writer somehow questions the political backgrounds of the animation making crew and also their close connections to the government more. Somehow it feels slightly more political than needed in such an introductory book. This is simply my first impression, perhaps it's not really like that after some more reading. Though it is refreshing and simulating to read articles/essays in Chinese written by people outside mainland China.
中国动画电影史 / 颜慧, 索亚斌著.
北京 : 中国电影出版社, 2005.
ISBN:
7106023817
Probably one of the first attempts to put together a Chinese animation in a chronological ways. Important historical study of Chinese animations. Will need some time to digest and evaluate the validity of some events though. Includes detialed bibliographical references and filmography.
Still in the process of reading. Will post more when I encounter any interesting points and twists.
Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press, 2001.
ISBN: 0253340357
Indeed, books on manga and anime have been pouring out into the market in the recent years which is good for a change. They help the rest of the world know a few animation styles in this region and especially in Japan, on the other hand, what's there outside the world of anime? Honestly, I haven't seen any animations done in South-East Asia, nor Mongolia yet every nation has their own kinds of animations despite the fact that they have heavily been affected by the 'outsourcing' from the West. In 'China' chapter, not only the editor has included two articles based on the interviews with Te Wei done in the 90s, but also put an emphasis on two other important people in Chinese Animations - A Da and Zhan Tong. When we read histories, we often put index at all the great men. Sure, most of them have done much to deserve a place but still there are other people around them, behind them... that somehow got neglected in the course of histories. This book reminds me to take a step behind, look at the bigger picture, from a broader point of view, instead of surrounding Chinese animation with only one man's contributions.
Website
Shanghai Animation Film Studio - Timeline of their productions (in Chinese)
Interview on AWN (webzine)
Te Wei and Chinese Animation: Inseparable, Incomparable
John A. Lent and Xu Ying report their experiences from visiting China and speaking with one of China's leading artists -- animation-related or otherwise -- Te Wei, and discussing the nation's rocky past and quickly changing future.
One of the few interviews with Te Wei, both in English and Chinese media. It provides a more personal approach to the works I've seen, information on his experiences with two main media - cartoons (closer to newspapers/magazines illustrations) and animations - and the government's support during the golden era of Chinese animations in the 60s and 80s.
Most of the times, I only get to see the finished projects done by a talented team led by Te Wei, thus what I can do is on the works themselves without the knowledge of the author's comments and (the initial) thoughts on the projects. This interview piece really helps me to look into the "how or why" an influencial artist can create such inspiring and unique works, plus a brief biolographical touch. I remember - once Marina Abramovic was asked by an audience while doing a lecture on her past works, "why are you doing this? Explaining everything that you did like 20 years ago? Some artists don't even bother with the press or artist statements. Then she went like "Well, you wouldn't know what I was trying to say just by reading my artist statements before my performance, mostly importantly, what's in my head and my reflections after the performances. So here, this and now is a very different learning experience for you and also me, right?"
Traditional Ink-and-Wash Animated Films
A short piece on water and ink animations, a brief history of early Chinese animated films but mostly about the awards they won. Not an analysis piece.
Chinese Animation: Splendid Past, Bitter Present
Selected 5 animated films produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio from the 60s to 80s, including brief plots on each piece (seems to me that the writer just snapped the plots off the official site and translated them instead) and their awards. The second part is more stimulating to read, not because it provides insightful views into why the present of Chinese animations looks gloomy, but because the writer sounds very bitter in his/her tone of voice, leaving the readers to ponder on what materials s/he based such a statement as
"all demon characters in Chinese movies inevitably have the unambiguous look of 'bad people'... Wouldn't it be better to let children differentiate between good and evil, and experience life and understanding by themselves?"
on. Is it even a valid reason for the downfall? I have to say most of the sidekicks in Disney cartoons look undeniably like "bad people", and most of the kids seem to enjoy them. Lesson learnt? Not to make up any lame invalid statements to solely support a very one-sided point of view. :-) Now don't I sound just as bitter as the aforementioned writer?
The Te Wei 90th Birthday Collector’s Edition DVD
A beautifully descriptive review of the recently released collection of Te Wei's works, stretching from the 50s to 80s, including the water and ink ones - Where's Mamma? 小蝌蚪找媽媽, The Cowboy's Flute 牧笛 and Feeling from Mountain and Water 山水情 - all of them were done with heavy Chinese aesthetics after Te Wei's team had made an art film which was mistaken as a Soviet work. Before reading this article, I was quite sure how they made the paintings into animations but from this paragraph, I think they made use of a few of the ink characteristics - spreading and dissolving - and took shots of them, in order to animate.
It is challenging enough to paint a translucent shrimp using Chinese ink painting techniques. Animating two of them smoothly at 24 frames a second without varying the weight of the inks requires an astonishing level of technical virtuosity.
