My Animation Era

As we all know, "The Adventures of Loluo the Variety of Robots" is a 3D animation.

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

Among them, the two human protagonists Luoluo and Jingjing are better. After all, 3D human modeling has traces and basis for reference.

But robots are in trouble...

To be honest, Wanbao Animation has also produced many 3D robot animations. For example, works such as "Fruit Strike" and "Super Beast Arms" contain 3D models of robots and mechas.

These robots are quite handsome, but the problem is that they are completely different from the robots in "The Adventures of Lolo".

Transform!

The most important and core setting for the robots in "The Adventures of Lolo", especially the motorcycle warriors, is to "switch forms", which can transform from ordinary vehicles into "humanoid" robots that can fight.

But this is an area that Wanbao Animation has never touched before, and the animators felt quite numb.

Design two sets of 3D models for one character?

It seems like this is all we can do.

It is easy to design two sets of 3D models, but how to present the "switching" between the two sets of models to the audience?

Gu Miao's initial idea was to use the experience of the original animation to create a single "close-up screen" for motorcycle warriors such as Human Torch and Vanguard when they transform.

This close-up picture can be made with CG!

You don’t understand, right?

A simple explanation is that you think the Human Torch has deformed, but in fact he has not. He just uses "shot editing" to make the audience mistakenly think that he has deformed.

Assume that the Human Torch 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 switch from model A to model B is not smooth and natural in the middle. Instead, a CG animation special effect is added, which is the C shot.

The Human Torch, who was in Model A, the sports car form, finished speaking a line, and the camera suddenly turned away and began to "play" the CG scenes prepared in advance. After the CG was played, it cut to the model B robot form.

This saves trouble.

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

You can make a CG and use it until the animation is finished, and you can even continue to use it in the second and third seasons. It’s not too troublesome.

This is exactly the same as the evolution animation of "Digimon", the debut animation of "Ultraman", and the transformation animation of "Magical Girl". Not only can the same material be used repeatedly, but there is no need to modify anything even for sequels.

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

He believes that CG can be used.

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

"Then what do you think we should do?"

"I think we can dismantle the transformation process and divide it into different parts to make independently..."

As Huang Kun spoke, he picked up a pen and drew a drawing on the draft paper: "Let's take the Thunderbolt as an example. You can first extend the body and make the rear part of the car look like a scissor."

"Then the upper part of the car body rotates 180°, the left and right doors are raised at 45°, and the top of the car rises out of the robot's head..."

Through Huang Kun's dismantling, the entire deformation process became intuitive and clear.

It is roughly divided into three parts.

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

The second part is detailing, such as the appearance of fingers and the appearance of the head.

The third part is the light effect. After completing the above two steps, the eyes and the flame pattern on the car body begin to glow, giving people the illusion of "coming alive".

"Isn't that too rough?"

Gu Miao was a little hesitant because he felt that such a transformation was a bit too crude and crude.

If it were produced with pure CG special effects, the transformation process would be much more "exquisite and gorgeous", just like in the "Transformers" movie, and the audience would even exclaim at the transformation.

"Rough? Rough?"

"This is rendered in real time based on the background. I think it's great that it can be done like this." Huang Kun said speechlessly, "I'm locked in a small dark room, and after the transformation is completed, I come out to fight. It must be exquisite and gorgeous!"

"That makes sense."

Gu Miao curled her lips.

Those delicate and delicate robot transformation processes that can be called a visual feast are basically "little dark room" close-up shots.

The kind of transformation Huang Kun mentioned does not require being locked in a small dark room, but is rendered based on the real-time background.

for example.

The Human Torch is currently in Energy City, so when he transforms, there is the background of Energy City behind him, as well as images of other characters such as Biker and Lolo.

The difficulty is completely different.

But even so, Gu Miao still felt that such a transformation process was not what he wanted. What happened to being locked up in a small dark room? Children only care about whether they are handsome or not. They don't understand what a dark room is.

"I'm thinking about the toys!"

"You do such complicated and delicate transformation movements, but when the children buy the toys, they find that they can't transform like the animation at all. How disappointed are you?"

Gu Miao: "!!!"

I was so busy thinking about the visual effects that I forgot about the "toy" thing.

Huang Kun is right!

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

The transformation movements of motorcycle warriors and beast warriors must also consider toy products to a certain extent. It is best to synchronize toys and animations.

In this way, after 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 this is not possible, or if the animation transformation is very delicate and delicate, but the toy version is very crude and crude...

The temptation of related toys is not so great!

"you're right."

Gu Miao's attitude made a 180-degree turn, from the original sarcastic denial to understanding and support, and she stopped talking about the refined transformation movements.

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" deformation effect was created.

Tell the truth...

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

After all, it's just a "toy commercial", so we can't ask for too much.

Comparing it with "Transformers" is a bit bullying, and it is only fair to compare it with animations such as "Fruit Strike" and "Super Beast Arms".

What? Compare it to the original version?

This is incomparable. The original animation was only a few years old, and its 3D effects and expressiveness are completely incompatible with Wanbao's current technical level.