This is Lin Yongqiang's second time participating in the Dunhuang film viewing party, but his identity is very different from the first time.

He has been promoted from a senior film specialist of the second largest cinema chain in China, Sky Cinema Line, to the director of the film department, which is not unsatisfactory in his career.

And this is largely due to the blessing of Dunhuang.

Under his strong recommendation, Sky Cinema has insisted on giving Dunhuang's films a high ranking over the years, so it has gained a considerable piece of cake, and its market share is rapidly approaching the largest cinema chain in China.

At present, Sky Cinema and Dunhuang are public "honeymoon periods".

However, this is not the main reason why he came to Dunhuang to watch the film of "Toy Story".

In fact, the industry can't say that it's not optimistic about Dunhuang's animated film, but if you really want to say how many people believe that it can be as big as Dunhuang's live-action movie, it's absolutely nonsense.

Animated films are not the same as live-action movies after all.

Although Dunhuang claims to present "the first 3D animated film ever" to the audience, the title does not bring much attention to it.

After all, while 3D animation has been used for special effects, hand-drawn 2D animation still dominates the animated film market, and animators have embraced computer animation, and sometimes even the use of computer graphics and editing has been met with their opposition.

No one thinks there will be any market for computer-generated animation.

Not to mention, the production cost announced by Dunhuang is as high as 80 million yuan!

What is the concept of 80 million for animated films?

Let's put it this way, the largest investment in an animated film in the history of Lianya Entertainment, if it is only a production, it will not cost so much money.

How high does Dunhuang have to sell at the box office to recoup its costs?

- This is the real reason why everyone watches this movie.

Because the brutal fact is that in the past five years, excluding a few blockbuster cartoons produced by Lianya Entertainment, nearly 20 animated films released by mainstream film companies or famous independent directors have earned an average domestic box office of less than 50 million yuan.

Therefore, in the animation industry, Lianya Entertainment is in China Entertainment, and Disney is in Hollywood, both of which are dominant, and they both focus on mainstream 2D animation.

Lin Yongqiang knows what everyone thinks of Dunhuang's attempt - this movie has failed in the sand, but it will not make Dunhuang hurt, but it is just another proof of Lianya Entertainment's unshakable position in the animation industry.

The theater side is the most realistic, and they will not waste resources on a film that is destined to have no future just because both parties are in the "honeymoon period".

However, Dunhuang wants to carry out in-depth joint marketing with Sky Cinema on this film, such as the sales department of Sky Cinema Line that spreads the movie around.

Therefore, Lin Yongqiang came to watch the film in person.

After I came, I found that Dunhuang not only invited the cinema line film specialist, but also came to the representatives of many businesses such as chain restaurants and chain shopping malls.

Lin Yongqiang couldn't help but squint his eyes.

That's interesting!

Dunhuang's planned marketing campaign for this animated film is not small, and it can be seen from the invited merchants that it is not just aimed at families with children.

Of course, families with children must come first, just look at the name, this is a cartoon suitable for small children.

The question is, does it really get the interest of teenagers or adults?

Dunhuang obviously has this self-confidence, and the source of confidence can only be in the movie.

With curiosity and anticipation, Lin Yongqiang soon ushered in the film screening.

Then, for the first time, he felt the magic of 3D animation on the big screen!

A group of cold toys in daily life suddenly "became fine", but it seemed so real-

The delicate expressions of the computer-created characters are unattainable by hand-drawing. When they open their mouths, the shape of their mouths changes just like those of real people, causing facial muscles to move and express complex and expressive expressions.

When watching the movie, the audience may not pay attention to the large number of technical components in it, and only feel that they are one with the film.

Lin Yongqiang was shocked - it really pushed animated films into a new era!

He doesn't think it's just because of the technology, which usually only captivates the audience for 10 minutes, and then relies on the exciting story to capture the audience.

At first glance, Toy Story is a very simple cartoon, but its storyline is not a simple binary, the two protagonists are not perfect, and there is no single truth in the story - growth, friendship, and family are the themes it wants to explore, which is particularly intriguing.

"It's really amazing – the first time Dunhuang made a family carnival animated film, it did an excellent job of rendering a world full of joy, and there are metaphors for the real society, and these are all within the size of the family story...... Kids, teenagers, and adults alike can enjoy it. ”

"The real challenger of Lianya Entertainment has appeared!"

Lin Yongqiang commented silently in his heart.

The reaction of the rest of the audience in the theater proved his point - no matter when Lin Yongqiang looked over, he didn't see anyone feeling impatient or even dozing off.

After the screening, there was thunderous applause.

"It's just amazing!"

Relying on friendship and status, Lin Yongqiang came to director Gu Xiji and producer Wang Wei for the first time to congratulate, "You brought an epoch-making animated film, how did you do it?" ”

Wang Wei made a "please" gesture and gave the stage to Gu Xiji.

The latter is not humble either: "In fact, the production process of Toy Story is far more complicated than imagined......

- It also burns a lot of money!

Wang Wei answered silently in his heart.

If you count from the initial idea of production, it took more than three years for "Toy Story" to complete the entire production.

Although the production cost of external publicity is 80 million, the real cost is in the early 70 million, well, this is more than 10 million more than the initial budget.

This is on the premise that he has reduced a lot of preliminary work.

In fact, the animation production process in China and abroad is almost the same, and it is divided into pre, middle and post.

The early stage is story creation, character, scene and prop design, storyboard setting, etc., and generally speaking, the early stage often accounts for more than 40% of a mature animated feature film budget.

And because of a certain hanging, the creative team of "Toy Story" took a lot of detours in the early stage of starting from scratch, but in the end it still overspent a lot, for many reasons.

One is that after Gu Xiji joined the team to provoke the main beam, he greatly expanded the team and accelerated the pace of advancement from the middle term.

This is also the reason why Wang Wei specifically asked Gu Xiji to be the director-

The animation technicians who were originally recruited were very skilled in using computers to build 3D models of characters, scenes, and props, but it would be difficult for them to carry out full-fledged cinematic lens design.

Wang Wei didn't have the time to guide - even if he did, his animation production experience was not rich; At this time, Gu Xiji's leadership role was reflected.

At the stage of arranging characters and props into the scene, using the virtual camera to shoot different shots, and capturing the emotional atmosphere and the focus of the story, he can think of the frame of the shot, specify the position of the camera, and arrange each camera position.

In order to achieve the realistic effect of live-action films, he even imitated the unique shots of live-action films, such as the ring shot, which was used to shoot scenes where the protagonist was surrounded by toys and blamed.

After the completion of the first and middle stages, it is time for post-rendering (the final expression of lighting effects and materials), that is, the stage of "funds are burning every second"-

The crew needs to use more than 200 computers to work 24 hours a day, and it takes 45 minutes to 20 hours to complete the rendering of a picture; Every week, the crew can only move forward at a rate of four or five minutes of footage.

And this is quite fast in the industry, because the crew is willing to spend money on equipment and technology.

——The progress of technology, this is what Wang Wei is most pleased with.

Needless to say, the core rendering technology, the rendering tool developed for this movie, in the words of Jiang Lei, a Weibo technology boss, is evaluated - "Even if you include your counterparts on the other side of the Pacific, our technology is the most advanced!" ”

In addition, the new modeling technology, grid subdivision technology, also gave Wang Wei a lot of surprises.

- Previous CG effects and 3D models in video games were drawn with polygons, which made some of the characters look rough on the surface.

But if you look at the characters in Dunhuang's "Toy Story", you will find that the characters' hands are as smooth as human hands - Wang Wei has the impression that this is the progress of Pixar in his later life probably until "Toy Story 2".

The application of these large and small animation techniques to the production of CG special effects in live-action movies is also unhindered, in a sense, this is the greatest value of developing this "Toy Story".

This is also why, Comrade Wang, who has always hated overspending, did not chirp too much when making additional investments - this is considered technical infrastructure, and it is not that it cannot be reused.

At this time, Gu Xiji's brief introduction also came to an end, and this guy did not hesitate to boast at all: "...... We all say that the more you know about the process of making it, the more you admire it. ”

"I'm speechless." "It's really breathtaking, and it's only when you see all this that you understand what it means." ”

- Actually, Wang Wei suspects that he doesn't understand technology at all.

However, this does not prevent him from realizing that he is not only watching an animated film, but also participating in the creation of animated film history.

"We want to make sure that more people see all this, and Sky Cinemas will make this film one of the main films of the summer season, and there is no problem with the surrounding counters in our sales department." Lin Yongqiang made a quick decision and gave the best promise.

Because he noticed that other representatives of watching films, including business representatives, also smelled business opportunities and discussed cooperation with the people in Dunhuang.

"By the way, you'd better stock up on more goods, otherwise I'm afraid that the peripherals of this movie will sell out." Lin Yongqiang did not forget to remind.

This is enough to show that he has a strong prediction of the big hit of this movie.

Wang Wei and Gu Xiji glanced at each other and smiled: "At this point, you can rest assured that the supply of peripheral products will be as much as you want." ”

Lin Yongqiang couldn't help but look sideways.

They dare to say this kind of thing, "how much you want", which shows that the production of the surrounding area has long been included in the overall plan.

- Otherwise, make drawings, design, sample preparation, finished products, and go to market...... For a new toy, it can take at least a few months to go through this process.

And even if he has already watched the movie, Lin Yongqiang can't help but want to complain-

"How much confidence you have in this film!"

……

There is another shift today, before six o'clock in the afternoon~~~

(End of chapter)