[size=75]Stay on the path, I heard a green ogre hangs around here.[/size]
I was watching CCTV a few hours ago when they ran the box-office report (Narnia is Number One at the moment). They then ran an update on upcoming films, and one of them is touted as their first 3-D animated film. Which is kinda ironic, seeing that it’s traditionally-animated with hand-drawn aesthetics instead of computer-generated models. I also find it strange that while the rest of the world (save for Japan with, its anime) is hopping on the CGI bandwagon, China is remarkably sticking to the classics.
The trailer is a little underwhelming, as it is poorly edited and from my limited understanding of Mandarin, doesn’t appear to have a clear narrative. But it is refreshing to see traditional animation being given new life in a different culture while the rest of the industry has moved on, and the characters certainly look charming enough.
The pre-vis concepts look more promising. FYI, the film was a collaboration between Chinese and European studios according to the report, so perhaps some of the Western aesthetic influenced the art direction.
Overall, it does hold potential, and the visuals are passable. It remains to be seen whether the Chinese can tell a compelling enough story that can appeal to international audiences, but this is certainly a step in the right direction.
Little Big Panda opens in China on February 3th, just in time for the Lunar New Year crowd.
I don’t know how I would ever get a hold of this movie, but it looks interesting. When I read the title of the thread, though, I thought, “Another KFP rip-off”? So I agree, they should have used a different title. I might rent it if my store gets it.
Interesting! Last I heard, Greg Manwaring (of Django Films/The Illusionist) was directing Little Big Panda at Accio Studios in Spain, with German outfit Benchmark Entertainment producing. So maybe this is a Chinese dub for release there, or maybe China co-financed the project. Wonder if it will get a release in the West? If so…direct-to-video as a guess.
On a technical note…does anyone else think “Flash animation” based on the trailer? I’m not sure. The style is interesting, and it looks like the hand-drawn characters are animated by code. Hence, perhaps, the claim of “3-D” animation you heard, tdit. Although China already has Thru the Moebius Strip under its belt, and then there are the Imagi Studios efforts, so the claim that Little Big Panda is the first mystifies even more…
I don’t have too much interest in this movie, since it’s not playing where I live and I had no idea what the hay was going on, but it looks adorable. The gorillas really threw me off. But I like the cheetah/leopard creature that was about to claw the panda.
Can’t stay away from that trailer! After multiple viewings, it looks safe to go out on a limb and say, “Yep, that’s Flash animation.” I’m most familiar with the format from two TV series on PBSKids in the States, WordGirl and Cyberchase. WordGirl especially looks similar to the animation style of Little Big Panda:
There’s precedent for features made using Flash animation. Phil Nibbelink’s Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss had a limited theatrical release in the States, and there are a few other examples listed on WikiReferenzaganza. So if Little Big Panda is indeed Flash animation, might the “3-D” reference apply to the theatrical presentation experience planned for China? Curiouser and curiouser…
Slight off topic but the brand new My Little Pony cartoon is also in ‘flash animation’ as well. It’s actually fairly popular and pretty good, though I’ve only seen the first few episodes of the introductory special myself.
(I’d probably feel more ashamed about enjoying it as a female in her early twenties if it wasn’t that I discovered it because a man in his late twenties who recommended it.)
I kind of wonder however if this movie will be released in English or with english subtitles later myself. We may just have to wait and see.
I spot a lot of computer animation in there though, TDIT. You could call this ‘mixed media’. A clear example would be the snow falling from the tree at 0:38.
Also, a lot of the lighting/shading doesn’t feel traditional…
And it’s not necessarily (traditionally) hand-drawn either. Might as well could have been done on a tablet. There’s quite a bunch of software that supports frame-to-frame ‘hand’-drawn animation, although this is clearly not something done in Flash…
Either way, to me this doesn’t look very interesting, although the title does ring a bell… I think I saw a preview of that somewhere.
Oh well… It’s nice to see them try, but it doesn’t really look interesting to me. Which says something, because I absolutely adore hand-drawn animation with animals.
Czarine: That falling snow is what first snagged my attention (also, the gorillas at the bridge). Just curious, what do you see that clearly rules out Flash animation? Hoping to learn something from your response. Also, might you name a few software packages that support frame-to-frame animation? Much obliged!
I personally work with TV Paint, but it’s not advanced enough to produce an entire animated feature with. I also saw a 2D computer animated graduation animation from a student at HKU (a big Dutch art acadamy) that was produced with Anime Studio (and no, it wasn’t anime, it was a western styled, futuristic cartoon, here’s the link to the video vimeo.com/2205743 ). There’s also opportunity for 2D animation in Maya, for instance: some parts of the animated feature Brother Bear were done in Maya (the stampede of caribou, for example).
An animation produced with Adobe Flash would kinda look like Happy Tree Friends or the new My Little Ponies series (Friendship is Magic or something…). There isn’t much opportunity for detailed backgrounds and character models, so it’s (usually) more suited for more ‘cartoony’ features.
I’m not much of a software nerd but I know it’s out there, I could look a bit more into it if you like.
I was thinking that “Flash animation” included software similar to Flash as noted at Everyone’s Best Friend WikiBrainia, but this link clearly shows that there are more software packages available, as you mentioned. (Plus, I’m not a big Adobe fan, anyway.) So, for purposes of discussion here, how about “Small Web Format animation” or “SWF” for short?
Anyway, great comment about background detail. Looking at Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss on YouTube, I wonder if the backgrounds are occasionally comparable to what’s in Little Big Panda? LBP does look more detailed in more places, though. Perhaps we’ll have to wait for Greg Manwaring to reveal in his blog what software was used on Little Big Panda. It does look like SWF animation to me, at least in parts. Inquiring minds want to know!
Flash animation is popular for cartoons because it does part of the ‘tweening’ for you, so all you really have to do is draw keyframes (= the fun part of the work). But there’s other software that supports completely handdrawn animation… there just has to be.
Some visually stunning animes are partly or even fully computer animated, while being 2D and maintaining that traditional look and feel.
If my memory serves me right, 5CM Per Second is one of them.
Czarine: Agreed, that 5 CM Per Second looks quite lovely! I also wonder about where the traditional anime ends and the computer animation begins with films like Vexille and Appleseed Ex Machina. It’s an interesting nexus to ponder.
The Little Big Panda storyboard showreel was done by The Big B Animation Co. in Germany, and on their site it lists a few TV shows that they animate with Flash. It would be interesting to learn why Manwaring or Benchmark didn’t hire The Big B for the whole ride, not just the storyboards…which do look promising as pointed out by tdit. So what was going on at Accio in Spain? The whole thing really underscores the complexity of such international collaborations and the production/budget considerations that must be addressed. Anything that keeps costs down is probably jumped on with zeal.
I honestly don’t think the Japanese will ever stop with anime. It’s a big part of their culture (it defines them in some ways…) and I think computer animation will just be added to their array of tools used to achieve the same end goal: creating a typical 2D feature with everything looking extremely cute and handsome with a lot of lens flares and high contrast backgrounds.
What really puts me off is the lighting. It results kind of obvious they’re just separating the figure from the background to achieve the 3D, and the borders of the characters look weird.
Hi! As everyone seems to be interested in the method/programme used to animate the movie, I hope I can shed some light on the subject
Almost all character animation is traditional hand drawn 2D (Yes! On paper!!)
I say “almost all” only because as animation crew worked freelance, each used their preferred working method. Some, keeping up with the times, used Cintiq combined with TV Paint/ ToonBoom. The Assistants and Inbetweeners followed through using whatever method the Animator used to create the scene. As far as I know, no one used Flash.
Hope this helps.
