As we all know, "The Adventures of Lolo" is a 3D animation.

The most critical and time-consuming production process of 3D animation is character modeling and rigging.

Among them, Luo Luo and Jingjing, the two human protagonists, are better, after all, 3D human modeling has traces to follow, and there is also a basis for reference.

But the bots are in trouble......

To be honest, Wanbao Animation has also produced a lot of 3D robot animations. For example, "Fruit Treasure Special Attack", "Super Beast Armament" and other works have 3D models of robots and mechas.

These robots are quite handsome, but the problem is that they are not the same thing as the robots in "The Adventures of Lolo".

Transformed!

The robots in "The Adventures of Lolo", especially the locomotive warriors, the most important and core setting is to "switch forms", which can change from ordinary vehicles to combatable "humanoid" robots.

And this is an area that Wanbao Animation has never covered before, and the animators feel quite numb.

One character, two 3D models?

It seems that this is the only way to do it.

It is simple to design two sets of 3D models, so how to present the "switch" between the two sets of models to the audience?

Gu Miao's initial thought was to use the experience of the original animation to give a separate "close-up picture" when transforming the locomotive warriors such as Thunderbolt Fire and Rush Vanguard.

This close-up can be made with CG!

You don't understand, do you?

To explain it simply, you think that Thunderbolt is deformed, but in fact it is not, but it is just using the technique of "lens editing" to make the audience mistakenly think that he is deformed.

Let's assume that the Thunderbolt sports car form is model A and the robot form is model B.

The audience thought that switching from model A to model B was "one shot to the end", and the model switch was completed naturally and smoothly.

But in fact, the A model is switched to the B model, and the middle is not smooth and natural, but a CG animation special effect is added, that is, the C lens.

In model A, that is, the thunderbolt in the form of a sports car, after saying a line, the camera suddenly began to "play" the CG screen prepared in advance, and then cut out the robot form of model B after the CG broadcast.

It's a hassle-free way.

After all, the transformation process of each biker/beast warrior, no matter how many times it is repeated, is actually the same.

If you make a CG, you can use it until the end of the animation, and even the second and third seasons can be used again, so it's not too convenient.

This is exactly the same as the evolution animation of "Digimon", the debut animation of "Ultraman", and the transformation animation of "Magical Girl", and not only can the same material be used repeatedly, but even the sequel does not need to be modified.

But this proposal was rejected by another director, that is, Huang Kun.

He believes that CG can be used.

However, the location and timing of each battle are different, and using the same set of transformation materials is a bit too perfunctory.

"So what do you say?"

"I think it's okay to disassemble the transformation process and divide it into different parts to make it independently......

Huang Kun said, drawing a drawing on scratch paper with a pen and said: "Let's take the thunderbolt fire as an example, you can first extend the body and the rear part of the car is scissor-shaped. ”

"Then the upper part of the body is rotated 180°, the left and right door positions are raised at 45°, and the robot's head ...... rises from the top."

Through Huang Kun's dismantling, the whole deformation process becomes intuitive and clear.

It is broadly divided into three parts.

The first part is the hands and feet, that is, the hands and feet of the "robot" are roughly stretched out through the changes in the body.

The second part is refinement, such as the appearance of fingers, but also the appearance of the head.

The third part is the lighting effect, after completing the above two steps, the eyes and the body flame pattern begin to glow, giving people the illusion of "coming to life".

"Wouldn't that be too rough?"

Gu Miao hesitated a little, because he felt that this kind of transformation action was a little too simple and rude.

If it is made with pure CG special effects, the transformation process will be much more "exquisite and gorgeous", just like the "Transformers" movie, the audience will even exclaim for the transformation.

"Simple? Brusque? ”

"It's a real-time rendering based on the background, and I think it's great to be able to do that." Huang Kun said speechlessly, "Locked in the small black house, and after the transformation is completed, and then come out of the small black house to fight, it must be exquisite and gorgeous!" ”

"Makes sense."

Gu Miao pursed her lips.

The deformation process of those delicate and delicate robots, which can be called a visual feast, is basically a close-up mode of "Little Black House".

And the kind of deformation that Huang Kun said does not need to be locked in a small black room, but is rendered according to the real-time background.

Here's an example.

Thunderbolt is now in Energy City, so when he transforms, there is a background of Energy City behind him, as well as other characters such as Locomotive Warrior and Lolo.

It's not the same at all.

But even so, Gu Miao still felt that such a transformation process was not in line with his wishes. What's wrong with being locked up in a dark room? Children only care about whether they are handsome or not, they don't know what a little black house is.

"I'm thinking about toys!"

"You do such a complex and delicate transformation action, only to find that the children can't deform like animation when they buy a toy, how disappointed are they?"

Gu Miao: "!

！ ”

I was thinking about the visual effects, but I forgot that there was also a "toy".

Huang Kun is right!

In the animation "The Adventures of Lolo", the design of peripheral toys is also an important part.

The deformation actions of the biker warriors and the Mengbeast warriors should also consider toy products to a certain extent, and it is best to synchronize the toys with the animation.

In this way, after the children buy the "Thunderbolt" toy car, they can immediately transform the toy car in their hands into a robot according to the animation prompts.

If you can't do that, or if the animation is delicate and delicate, but the toy version is rudimentary......

The allure of related toys is not so great!

"You're right."

Gu Miao's attitude took a 180-degree turn, from the original sarcasm and denial, to understanding and supporting, and not talking about any refined deformation actions.

With his support, Huang Kun's "disassembly" plan was approved, and soon with the joint efforts of modelers and animators, the first version of the "Thunderbolt" transformation effect was made.

Speak from the heart......

Although Gu Miao felt that there was still a certain gap between this thing and "Transformers", its performance was already very good.

After all, it's just a "toy commercial" and can't be too demanding.

Comparing "Transformers" with "Transformers" is somewhat a bit of a bully, it's fair to compare animations like "Fruit Treasure Special Attack" and "Super Beast Armament".

What? Compare it to the original?

This is incomparable, the original version is an old animation of several years, and its 3D effect and expressiveness do not match the technical level of Wanbao now.