Cosplay at the 12th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival (Photo/Shanghai Daily)
Experts from home and abroad expressed increasing confidence in the future of China's cartoon and animation industry during the China International Cartoon and Animation Festival, which ended on Monday.
"I feel very encouraged by recent Chinese animations," said Steven Brown, associate director of academic affairs and Character Animation Program at the California Institute of the Arts.
Brown, who is also the guest professor at Beijing Film Academy, cited the film "CUG King of Heroes" by Tian Xiaopeng because "it really caught the attention of people in the West." The film was on the cover of the US publication "Animation Magazine" in December, 2015.
"China has a strong tradition of animation which is recognized in the world for its excellence," said Brown, naming old films by Shanghai Animation Film Studio like "Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven" (1965) and "Little Tadpoles Looking for Their Mom" (1961).
Mark Osborne, one of the two directors of "Kung Fu Panda 1," said that "Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven" was one of his inspirations for "Kung Fu Panda."
"The history is incredibly deep in China, and I think Chinese animators really need to find something from their history that still means something to them today," he said.
Osborne's "The Little Prince" is adapted from the novel based on the same name. Since he was a little boy, Osborne was inspired by the story, he said. His film uses not only CG techniques, but paper and wood animations as well.
"The best ideas win, and passion is a must," he said.
Brown agreed. "Feature film should not be part of commercial marketing, it should represent a director's vision."
"Part of the reason that 'CUG King of Heroes' is so good is that it had an eight-year production time, and the director made it out of real passion," Brown said.
In the West, work on a film continues for as long as it takes, but in China, producers tend to get impatient.
"Hopefully, given the performance of 'CUG King of Heroes,' some animation studios are more willing to consider allowing a longer production time for feature films," Brown said.
At a seminar held among educators from animation and cartoon colleges from home and abroad, Chinese educators said that less than half of their students work in the industry after graduation. Some even put the number at 10 percent.
For prestigious schools like Bournemouth University, the figure is 85 percent, and that of CalArts is 95 percent.
Vincent Chua, production recruitment manager in Shanghai for Oriental DreamWorks, was at the animation festival in search for talents from Chinese colleges.
"The Chinese version of 'Kung Fu Panda 3' is done by many Chinese animators and some foreign animators," he said, explaining that the Chinese version was almost redone because characters' facial expression and mouth shape were remade to match Chinese dubbing.
"We look for those willing to learn, with strong passion for animation, and the necessary skills to work in our team," said Chua.
"Education is the starting point of the industry, and it is important to tell colleges what the industry needs and requires," said Bao Jie, one of the initiators of an international exchange hub for animators launched at the festival.
"We are in need of a large amount of talents who make visual special effects, but in China, there is no major related to special effects," said Jia Guanglei, shoot supervisor of Double Negative Visual Effects in Britain, a company which has won two Academy awards for visual special effects.
More than 5,000 professionals and exhibitors from 80 countries and regions participated in the festival, now in its 12th year.
In total, the festival welcomed more than 1.3 million guests, while contracts of almost 13 billion yuan ($2 billion) were signed.
"Everything is on a good track, it just takes a certain amount of time," Brown told Shanghai Daily.
