Issue 4:
Let's take a look at what the animation elites in our country are doing.
First, let's talk about the academic circle, which I am very familiar with.
According to statistics, there are currently more than 200 universities across the country offering animation majors, and this is just for undergraduate programs; there are even more for junior colleges and other programs. However, what few people know is that very few teachers in these universities actually come from an animation background. Most of them have transferred from other majors and started teaching after only a few days or months of temporary animation training.
There are very few animation training classes specifically for university teachers in China, with Beijing Film Academy being the most prominent. Many animation teachers from universities across the country have received training there. Since I haven't attended their training, I can't comment on the quality, but judging by the duration, it seems quite unrealistic to make someone who knows nothing about animation familiar with every aspect of it after just a few months of training.
Anyone who has the opportunity can talk to some so-called animation program directors. From my experience, most of them are around 40 years old. If you talk to them about One Piece or Naruto, nine times out of ten, they will look at you blankly. And if you ask them about Chinese animation, nine times out of ten, they will go on and on about how great classic Chinese animations like "Havoc in Heaven" or "The Three Monks" are.
This is the reality: many teachers who teach animation only know or have only seen early Chinese animations and are completely unaware of the animated works that are currently popular among young people. If you talk to them about Chinese animation, they will say the prospects are great; if you talk about European or American animation, they will say they are done well; and if you talk about Japanese or Korean animation, they will look at you with a disdainful eye: those kinds of animations that spoil kids, let's not even talk about them.
As a result, the animations they guide students to make always need to have a moral or teach a lesson, and they are never well-received by Chinese animation enthusiasts.
Back in the day, Beijing Film Academy made an animated film. As soon as I heard the title, I knew it was doomed. The film was called "Little Soldier Zhang Ga." The producer said with great enthusiasm: I hope three generations of a family can go together to the cinema to watch this film. As it turned out? Years have passed, and I haven't seen it shown in cinemas at all.
Still, Beijing Film Academy held an animation competition, which is very well-known.One year I went to attend an award ceremony in a large auditorium with hundreds of people, every seat filled. Teachers and students from animation programs across the country were there. I kept a low profile, sitting in the last few rows. Then the host said: 'All the teachers present, please stand up.' I immediately sensed they were up to something, but I didn't move at all. Then I saw the whole hall, and no fewer than 100 teachers stood up. There was a guy a few seats away from me who looked very simple and honest, and he slowly stood up as well.
Then the host said: 'Let's give a round of applause to these lovely teachers present here. Without them, there would be no development in China's animation industry.'
I almost burst out laughing. I dare say the teachers who stood up are worthy of respect, but it should never be in such a passive way. I remember once during a class, when students clapped spontaneously during an exciting part — I much prefer that kind of applause. Having said that, some of these teachers may not even deserve respect.
So the whole hall erupted in applause, and the simple guy next to me also stood there grinning, waving to those around him…
Many readers might ask: 'Can't universities hire some good teachers?'
Honestly, even if universities want to, there's no way. Now the Ministry of Education has regulations about how many teachers must hold a master's degree. This basically means that those with a bachelor's degree or below don't have a chance in universities.
Some might say, 'Graduate students are fine.' Everyone, based on my experience interviewing various graduate students, the current animation graduate students mostly aren't even as good as strong undergraduates. As is well known, art students aren't good at English, but entrance exams for graduate programs require good English skills; their professional skills come second. So many students from other majors specifically take exams to get into art graduate programs — as long as they pass the English test, everything else is manageable. As a result, many students who majored in tourism, English, and the like become animation graduate students, starting from scratch without any art foundation — the level is predictable.
Moreover, vocational and junior colleges are even worse. I once conducted a training session for animation teachers at a higher vocational college. Most of the teachers there were encountering animation for the first time; they had originally majored in computer science, but because the school established an animation program, they were forcibly assigned to teach animation. So they barely knew anything, and the training lasted only half a month.\I was also worried about not being able to teach well, taking attendance every day, being very strict, and fearing that they would know nothing and mislead others in the future. Then one of the teachers told me: Don't take it so seriously. Most of the work being done is just to get the certificate; very few actually want to learn. Just turn a blind eye. After all, we've all watched animation when we were kids.\So I was completely speechless.\Also, many specialized seminars are just nonsense. The few high-level animation forums I attended were basically inviting so-called experts to give speeches on stage. The gist was always about how bright the prospects of Chinese animation are, and then about how well their own schools are doing. Then everyone sits together, pretending to discuss how Chinese animation should be developed, which is almost all empty talk. At the end, the forum organizers would stand up and say what products their companies have launched, what successes they have achieved, contact information, and so on.\So now, when I hear about any seminar, I simply don't go. A few days ago, a company organizing handwriting tablets and high-end animation software certification training held a forum and invited supposedly all the animation teachers from provincial universities, even insisting: seafood buffet for everyone. Apparently, teachers from some stingy schools were all dragged there.\A few days ago, a student of mine, now a teacher at a normal university in a prefecture-level city, contacted me, saying their school wants to heavily invest in the animation program. They didn't even ask me about what equipment is good, just what equipment is the most expensive. They even mentioned motion capture devices. I said, 'Are you guys crazy? How much are you planning to invest?'\He said at least a few million, there's no way, if there's not enough equipment, it's hard to expand enrollment. Then he asked about MacBooks: which model is the most expensive? Which type of handwriting tablet is the priciest? So that when the school buys them, he can take one home for personal use.\Actually, there are still good teachers in universities, and with the influx of many young people, the number of teachers who truly understand animation is increasing. The situation I described above may be limited to certain schools, and I don't dare to generalize that all schools are like this, just to be clear.\End of Part 4\Stay tuned for Part 5…\Part 5:\I guess many readers who finished Part 4 might say: Is the animation program in universities really this chaotic? We might as well go to training institutions to learn animation.\That's a big mistake!!If you come to me for advice on this question, I would definitely tell you: going to college is your best choice.
Why? Let me give an example. One year, I went to Beijing for a conference and had dinner with a senior at Shenzhen Institute of Technology who manages the animation program. She told me that their animation major teaches students how to do in-between animation. Every year, before the students even graduate, they are all snapped up by major animation companies. She said this with great pride.
I have a student who just graduated this year, working in Wuxi at a company specializing in Japanese animation outsourcing, doing in-between animation, earning 400 yuan per month. No, not a mistake—four hundred. His girlfriend works at an original animation company in Wuxi, drawing backgrounds, and last month her salary was 2,500 yuan.
Last year, we visited a large local original animation company, over a hundred people. The production department was huge, with over a hundred people gathered together. They called it the 'production workshop.' If you can't picture that scene, imagine a large internet cafe with over a hundred people—that's exactly the same.
Each person had an average of four square meters of space. Many of them looked like they were around 20 years old, sitting in front of computers with blank expressions, modeling and keyframe animating. The company leader proudly said: 'These are all students we trained ourselves.' At the end, he added: 'Students from your school won't work here at all; they would need further training from us.' The dean of the art and design college who went with us changed expression, disdainfully threw out a line: 'If the students we train could start working at your place directly, that would be the failure of our school's education.' Then he walked away.
I don't know if you understand what I mean: many training schools produce people with great technical skills—there's no doubt about that—but is technical skill alone enough?
Let me talk about myself. I started using 3D animation software back in the Maya 3.0 era and 2D animation software back in the Flash 5 era. Up to today, I have many feelings. Technology keeps evolving, generally becoming more user-friendly and simplified in terms of software. Today, you might be skilled in a certain technique, but a few years later, the emergence of a new technology might completely replace all the skills you learned before.
For example, in the past, character rigging involved things like reverse foot setups and IK/FK switching, which required very high technical skills. Later, a plugin called 'the setup machine' was introduced, and with a few mouse clicks, everything was done.
So, what's your attitude?You will find that the past few years of study were all for nothing; all the knowledge you have now has been outdated, and you have to start learning all over again.\What mindset do you have? You will find that the past few years of study were all for nothing; all the knowledge you have now has been outdated, and you have to start learning all over again.\That being said, even if the technology you learn is not outdated, so what? When I just graduated, I also believed only in technology, thinking that only software could save Chinese animation. So what happened? I went to a film and television production company for fun and saw the so-called top post-production expert in our province working there, nearly 40 years old, staying up late until his eyes were bloodshot. Behind him stood a young man in his early twenties, pointing here and there: this should be like this, that should be like that. When asked, he was a creative staff member who had just graduated in advertising.\No offense, but I almost collapsed at that moment. I realized that no matter how good your technology is, this is the outcome. By the time you reach a mature age and your technology is invincible, you will find that you still have to follow the instructions of a young kid called 'creativity' or 'design.' Is it interesting?\Some people with experience might say: Then I can always learn technology in a training school; I can't learn anything useful in college.\I can't directly refute this; people don't like to hear big truths. I have to go around in a big circle to explain in detail, since everyone's starting points are different, so listen carefully:\About a year ago, our department at our school started to intermittently receive calls from supposedly high-end animation companies wanting to come to the school to give students a lecture or something. At first, we welcomed it since they were well-known companies in the industry.\Then, once, people from the headquarters of a well-known S animation company in Beijing came, along with a reporting team from Sohu. They were quite grandiose and even asked us to hang a large banner on the main road of the school to welcome them. They claimed it was to show students the latest animation technology information. In the end, it turned into: 'Our company is short of staff and cannot recruit suitable people, so we are holding training classes. If you participate in our training, you are very likely to stay in our company. For training consultation, call XXXXXX.' Of course, there was a fee.\To be fair, some of the things they taught were indeed very practical. The lecturers were very dedicated. For example, when they talked about the history of phone materials and Blinn materials, I was almost fascinated.But when the person giving that lecture talked about his professional experience, he said that he also graduated from a design major and then joined a company to follow a technical path, studying C++ and other computer languages. He said he struggled for seven or eight years and finally became a technical director, working with a famous director on films and giving technical suggestions. At the end, he said: I am proud to have come this far.\I looked at his face, which was about my age, and felt very sad, really.\A few days later, one of my classmates got married. I was chatting with another classmate who worked at Yutong, and she asked if someone from the S Animation Company headquarters had recently given a lecture at our school. I said yes. She said that person was still contacting her, flattering her excessively, talking about how great his technical skills were, and that he had given lectures at major universities across the province. Then my classmate sneered and said: Actually, he just wants to get some private work from me.\Similar situations occur from time to time, just with different main players. Another time, a local Maya training company posted on our department forum, sharing a video they made, basically showing them teaching a class, and then a wall in the background broke and a monster appeared or something. I saw it was an advertisement post, so I removed their contact information immediately, but kept the company name. The people from the company then angrily posted in the thread: You will never be able to recreate the effect we made in your whole life.\I was very amused at the time. Not to mention that their video only used background and matchmove techniques, I just felt I saw a face of someone who was furious after having money taken from them.\Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for these people; in front of their peers they hold their heads high, while in front of clients they grovel and flatter (not referring to everyone), even if the client is a complete ignoramus.\All that is fine, but some people I extremely despise. Still the person from the aforementioned well-known S Animation Company headquarters in Beijing, reportedly a top lecturer in their training department. He had a conflict with their company and decided to go solo. He began giving lectures at major universities in our area one after another. Students who attended his lectures said he was technically brilliant and could sketch a head in almost five minutes. There are also rumors that all the animation professors at a certain university here collectively invited him for a meal.\He also said in his lecture: He has many private orders from abroad that he cannot finish by himself, and there are not many good assistants around, so he started recruitment training, costing 3,300 yuan per person.\We had students go there to check it out; he recruited around 80 people. The classes were easy, just once a week, a few hours, and then students would go back to work on their own.\I thought it was nothing special—some people are willing, some people are willing to endure. But then I heard that some teachers from a certain university cooperated with him, recruiting students from their school. That teacher would boast about how great the training was, encouraging their own students to join. The teacher would get a commission for every student who went.\This is just shameless; I really couldn't use my own students as a commodity for trade.\Some might say, 'You're talking so much, what are you really trying to say? Should I go to university or attend the training class?'\Okay, what I mentioned above was just to talk about the lifestyle of some well-known professionals in the industry. Next, I will tell you how some people around me live—this is the lifestyle I admire. The story will continue next time, and I guarantee the contents of the next issue will be something you've never heard before.\End of Issue 5\Stay tuned for Issue 6…\Issue 6:\This issue is off-topic and basically unrelated to animation, but I want to show everyone that life can actually be like this.\In Beijing, in front of the ruins of Yuanmingyuan, there is a tripod cauldron called 'Shenghe Treasure Cauldron.' It was a gift dedicated to the country in 1997 on the occasion of Hong Kong's return to China, submitted in the name of young people from various sectors in Hong Kong. But in fact, it is the masterpiece of a director from Zhengzhou. Since consent wasn't obtained, I won't mention the name, just refer to him as Director Z.\From the outside, the cauldron doesn't look particularly special, but when you delve into its deeper meaning, you notice its uniqueness.\It was 'cast using stones from the Three Mountains and Five Sacred Mountains, water from the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, and soil from the tombs of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.' If you don't understand these sentences, let me explain: The team of this project actually went to the Three Mountains and Five Sacred Mountains to collect stones, went to the sources of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers to collect water, and went to the tombs of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to collect soil, combining these materials to cast this cauldron.\This is the first time in Chinese history that someone gathered so many materials representing Chinese civilization and made a single piece of work.When I was chatting with Director Z, he used several very vivid phrases when he told me about this matter: big companies sent money and asked if there were any requirements; all the companies shook their heads and said, 'You can use this money however you want, it's free, and if it's not enough, ask us for more.' When the project was about to be completed, the interview van from the program 'Focus Interview' stopped downstairs and couldn't be chased away. All the great Chinese artists helped for free—the tripodal cauldron (ding) was designed by a nationally treasured master from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the inscription on the cauldron was written by the most expensive calligraphy master in China, and all of this was completely free. The master himself said, 'I don't dare to take money for this.'\When the ding was finally completed, Director Z put many photos and files related to it onto a CD and embedded it into one of the cauldron's legs.\When 2008 arrived, Director Z approached me and said he was about to start an even bigger, world-class project and wanted me to be responsible for the entire project planning. However, it eventually failed for various reasons, although the scale of the idea was truly astonishing. I cannot reveal specific details, but I can disclose one detail: the project would collect water from the mother rivers of all the birthplaces of world civilizations, for example, China's Yellow River and Yangtze River, as well as the Euphrates and Tigris in West Asia, and also water from both poles of the Earth (Antarctica and the Arctic), and even water from the peak of the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest.\If this project had been realized, it would truly be a revolutionary event in world history. Unfortunately, Director Z did not go into details about why it failed.\This is the story of one person I know. I tell it plainly, and I don't know what the listener would feel upon hearing it.\In a person's lifetime, accomplishing even a single thing like this could be considered a life well-lived; many people work hard their whole lives and never participate in such world-changing events. It must be said that this is a pity.\Now let me tell another story about someone around me—one of my high school classmates. In high school, there was no sign of his extraordinary abilities; after four years of university, when we met again, he seemed completely different.\To give an example: a friend of mine saw him for the first time, and he immediately took the person's pulse and quickly diagnosed their problem, saying some other things as well. My friend, who is also well-experienced, told me afterward, 'Where did you find this person? He's like a reclusive old immortal!'There was another time when he and I went together to a government official to discuss business. At the end, the official, who had seen countless people, stood up excitedly and shook his hand, saying that knowing him was the greatest honor of his life.
Also, we had a meal with a senior executive of a company, actually to request that the company hand us the contract. At that time, I was inexperienced and extremely cautious, afraid of saying the wrong thing. But he, seizing a minor slip in the executive's words, openly criticized it. As a result, the executive stood up and said: 'Your words were enlightening. Everyone else before only flattered me, but you pointed out my flaws.'
The most intense time was when he stayed at home reading. His parents were very worried, afraid that he would be disconnected from society. To prove himself, with no prior connections, he directly took the position of vice principal at a training school, earning 3,000 yuan in one month. This was just a prelude. He took this money to invite his parents to travel with him to Beijing so they could witness his capabilities.
Then, he went to an underground art exhibition at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. From the train station to the Academy, he photographed every utility pole he saw with a digital camera and printed them as part of his work. Then he chatted with a department director at the Academy about fasting (for those unfamiliar, you can look this up on Baidu). The director said that he had researched this. My friend replied that the director had only researched it, while he had personally practiced it. After sharing his fasting experience, the department director immediately called all the teachers in the department to come listen.
Then he went to 798 Art District in Beijing. From the first store onwards, he directly criticized the flaws in everyone's work, continuing until the last store, which seemed to be an internationally renowned art collection. Foreign officials personally came to discuss with him, and in the end concluded: 'If you step out, you could change the world.' My friend simply responded: 'You are right.'
I guess the readers must be dumbfounded by now and want to know what he does. He does nothing in particular, reading books every day—from Chinese classics to modern economics—and then practices what he finds interesting. He does not take on projects lightly, nor does he seek public attention. Once, out of necessity, he gave a lecture for a friend's company specifically on 'Disciples' Rules.' Later, another company invited him to lecture, offering five figures per session, but he declined.But if it's for doing good deeds, he would lose money for it. Once, there was a tourism project planned that would cut down an entire forest and turn it into a rafting site. He went directly to take the role of the chief planner for the project, asking for nothing in return, even spending his own money, just to save those trees. He believes in Buddhism, and I have been deeply influenced by him. In recent years, I have consistently refrained from lying or doing anything against my conscience, thanks to him. To this day, I have greatly benefited. Although I cannot be completely vegetarian, I always try to eat as little meat as possible.
All the people mentioned above live very well. That director Z still drives his old Jetta around town. When he has nothing to do, he often goes to internet cafes to play CS; my classmate still studies at home. Whenever he wants money, it's immediately available, but he isn't interested.
This is life: not going with the flow, not going against your conscience, doing things that change the world while living an ordinary and simple life. I like this kind of life, and it is what I pursue.
Many people may ask how they reached their current state. One word—reading. How to read? It's simple: read everything.
Books contain great wisdom, truly. When I was teaching, I even asked my students to take one evening per week to turn off their computers and read. Unfortunately, no one could do it.
The topic is a bit off track, let's get back to it. Some people ask, what does this have to do with animation?
Animation is classified by the state as a creative industry, but unfortunately, it has gradually turned into a technical industry. Many people think animation is equal to Maya. When teachers from other schools come to our school for advanced studies, they specifically ask to learn Maya. Who thinks of learning creativity?
Many people think creativity is easy—it's just about ideas! Okay, but can you think with an artist's mindset?
Some ask, what is the thinking process of an artist? I'll give an example: Suppose you want to make an animation, starting from the script. Can you convey a completely new worldview to the audience? Can you come up with a visual expression that no one has ever used before? Can your animation exist without characters or scenes?
Some might say this is nonsense. How can animation exist without characters or scenes? I can only say your view of animation is too narrow. There was once a foreign professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts whose animations had no characters and no scenes, and he won awards in Europe.In fact, this is just a circle. Animators are surrounded by scripts, characters, scenes, and so on within this circle. When you suddenly jump out, you realize that animation can be done this way. And when you can't jump out, what you naturally see is limited. Therefore, an artist's thinking must be about imagining what others have never thought of and expressing what others have never shown. Even if you can't achieve it, you must strive to pursue such a realm. Only in this way can you improve. End of Issue Six. Stay tuned for Issue Seven…
