My Animation Era

The characters in "The Three Jelly Musketeers" have no arms, which is a very "deliberate" setting.

to be honest.

At first, Gu Miao didn't understand why Cheng Liuxiang, Pineapple Chuixue and Lu Xiaoguo didn't have arms.

But then he figured it out.

This is a jelly man!

The Jelly Man's body tends to be "spherical". In human terms, he is short and fat. If he added arms, it would be an eyesore.

Moreover, the look and feel is relatively "ugly".

What if the arms were removed and only two round "palms" were left?

emm…

From a visual point of view, the character obviously becomes more cute. There is no sense of dissonance like before, and the "texture" of the jelly is also richer.

"So this is ah!"

When Gu Miao explained why he wanted to remove the "arm" part of Cheng Liuxiang, everyone stared at the 3D model of the character on the screen and couldn't help but nodded.

It has indeed become a lot cuter.

Although there are no arms, the hands are floating in the air, which is a bit contrary to common sense. But considering the world view setting of "The Three Jelly Musketeers", it doesn't seem that outrageous.

The modeling part is not difficult.

Why do you say that?

Because the character shape of Jelly Man is really too simple. This is like a primary school student taking a handicraft class, and the teacher asks you to use plasticine to make a "work".

Do you think it is easier to shape a watermelon using plasticine, or to shape an Optimus Prime?

This is not a level at all!

Not only is the modeling simple, the animation part is also very simple. If you carefully recall the action postures of the characters in the play, it is not difficult to find an "amazing" fact.

Their actions...

It doesn’t seem too complicated! The really complicated part is the "lifelike" expressions of each character.

That’s right, expressions!

Why is the "Jelly Three Musketeers" or "Jelly Strike" animation series so magical and brainwashing?

The plot is one factor.

A very important point is that the characters are too "lively". They are obviously jelly figures, but their expressions are extremely lively and interesting, as if they were living people.

This is particularly interesting.

Gu Miao rarely sees characters with such rich and three-dimensional expressions in a 3D animation that focuses on comedy and nonsense.

To give a simple example...

Everyone knows that Pineapple Blowing Snow is "greedy and lustful", right?

When Pineapple Chuixue talks about "money", what kind of expression will he show to reflect his "greed for money" character setting?

The mouth opens wide.

The eyebrows are raised extremely exaggeratedly, almost reaching the top of the head.

A hint of red appeared on both sides of his cheeks, and in his widened eyes, two extremely vivid golden "coin" signs appeared.

look!

Through these few inconspicuous little details, an extremely exaggerated expression is pieced together, and the image of Pineapple Blowing Snow's greed for money suddenly becomes deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

This is what "expression" does.

Gu Miao attaches great importance to this part because he feels that the shaping of "expression" is very likely to determine the success or failure of this animation.

"Be exaggerated and vivid!"

Because it is animation, unlike live-action TV series and movies, the expressions of the characters must be a little "exaggerated" to attract the attention of the audience.

But it’s not good to be too exaggerated.

It fits the plot and shows the right expression at the right time, so that it can be called lively and interesting.

…

After holding a meeting and explaining and analyzing the importance of the jelly man's "expression", Gu Miao returned to his office.

He suddenly remembered something.

In essence, the core story content of "The Three Jelly Musketeers" is actually in the same vein as the subsequent "Fruit Strike" series.

That's right!

Not only are the characters exactly the same, but the story backgrounds are also basically the same.

The two are highly correlated.

But in the original version of "The Three Jelly Musketeers", it used the shell of the "Jelly Man" to tell a funny and nonsensical "martial arts" story.

Gu Miao was not very satisfied with this plot.

He believes that the original intention of "The Three Jelly Musketeers" was good, but the production team most likely did not expect that the subsequent "Fruit Attack" adapted from "The Three Jelly Musketeers" would be so popular and influential.

So he's going to fine-tune it.

But how to fine-tune it?

It may not be a good idea to introduce the "Fruit Mecha" in advance, because when the "Jelly Three Musketeers" project was first established, the element of "Mecha" was not considered at all.

But other foreshadowings can be left aside.

For example, the relationship between the abbot of Jelly Martial Arts Academy, Feng Qingyang, Tianshan Guolao and Dongfang Qiubai.

Well!

According to the timeline, after Feng Qingyang founded the Jelly Martial Arts Academy, Dongfang Qiufei also founded the "Fruit Processing Factory".

In other words, when the Three Jelly Musketeers first debuted, they could have designed a plot that would have them encounter Dongfang Qiu's fruit processing factory.

Then the abbot jumped out to explain, saying that Dongfang Qiubai was his junior brother and Grandma Guo's second senior brother.

This can be regarded as a preparation for Dongfang Qiu's defeat in advance.

Lest after the broadcast of "Fruit Treasure Special Attack", a lot of people will ask, where did the dragon fruit of Dongfang Qiubei come from?

Oh yes!

Dongfang Qiufei has come out, so naturally we cannot forget the four evil thieves.

The four evil thieves are loyal to the Great Empire in "The Three Jelly Musketeers" and are the villain bosses in "The Three Jelly Musketeers". In the finale, he was rescued by Feng Qingyang, and finally defected to Dongfang to seek defeat.

The Great Empire is pure nonsense.

This setting was abandoned in subsequent "Fruit Attack" series, and Gu Miao would naturally not use it again.

After his modification.

In the latest version of "The Three Jelly Musketeers", each of the four evil thieves has "surprising origins" and extraordinary life experiences.

The boss, There Are No Thieves in the World, was originally a pirate. During an operation to rob villagers, the three jelly swordsmen pointed out the shortcoming of "seasickness" and was abandoned by the pirate gang.

The second child, a rebellious minister, wanted to get the first prize in civil and military examinations through favoritism and fraud, but he was discovered by the three jelly swordsmen, and finally the first prize fell to Lu Xiaoguo.

The third child recognized the thief as his father. He was originally a gangster who disrupted social order. He was later collected by the Three Jelly Musketeers and brought to justice.

The fourth thief has a sly look, and has always wanted to be an outstanding mountain thief. He finally realized his dream by dominating a mountain, but was expelled by the three chivalrous jelly swordsmen in the blink of an eye.

The foursome, who hated the Three Jelly Musketeers, were finally taken in by Dongfang Qiubai and brought to Huaguo Mountain after their revenge failed.

"The Three Jelly Musketeers, do all the bad things!"

Seeing Gu Miao's revised version, Jiang Keke said with emotion: "Looking at it this way, Dongfang Qiubei is really a good person."

"yes!"

Gu Miao smiled and nodded.

In the animation, whether it is Dongfang Qiubai or the four evil thieves, they are actually the kind of characters who "look like villains but are actually good guys."

The lives of the four evil thieves were basically ruined by the Three Jelly Musketeers.

But Dongfang Qiufei took in the four frustrated people. From a certain perspective, this can be regarded as a kind of "salvation."