In recent years, China’s network animation has developed rapidly. According to relevant statistics, in 2019 and 2020, there were 26 and 24 online original animations respectively, and in 2021, it reached 42. By April, 2022, the cumulative broadcast volume of Douluo Continent had exceeded 40 billion times, setting a new high for animation in China. There are also works such as "Breaking the Sky", "Perfect World" and "One Thought of Eternity", with hundreds of millions of broadcasts and high attention. However, corresponding to the sharp increase in the number of works and the hot market response, the quality of many works has been criticized, and there are not many masterpieces that are both applauded and popular. This paradox of upside-down click volume and word-of-mouth should arouse practitioners’ thinking.
We are building a production and broadcasting industry chain with low cost, high efficiency and assembly line.
With the development of video websites, domestic animation has experienced a media shift from TV animation to network animation. The continuous emergence of network animation works has gradually broken the situation that the audience of TV animation is relatively young, and satisfied the diverse needs of audiences of different ages for animation with more diversified positioning. At the beginning, many creators chose the strategy of comic adaptation, and formed the operation mode of "comic+animation company+video platform" in their exploration, and created works such as "100,000 cold jokes". In 2015, the animation "Choosing Heaven" adapted from the online novel of the same name was launched, and online animation entered the era of online adaptation.
Works such as "Breaking the Sky" and "Fighting the Mainland" have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, and online animation has shifted its creative perspective to the field of online novel adaptation. Some works are led by the online literature platform, and the original online novel text is handed over to the animation production company for visual adaptation, and then the finished products are put on the online audio-visual platform to play; Others are directly cooperated by the online literature platform and the online audio-visual platform. For example, the Reading Group and Tencent Group signed the "300-part network text modification plan", creating a low-cost, high-efficiency and streamlined production and broadcasting industry chain.
According to statistics, more than half of the top ten online animations in 2021 are adaptations of online novels. The reason why the animation adapted from the net text has such an amazing amount of play is mainly the result of the superposition effect of fans. Online novels adapted from online animation are often explosive works of online platform and have a large number of fans. Animation production companies also have a group of loyal fans, coupled with the audience’s viewing habits cultivated by the online audio-visual platform after more than ten years, the three have formed a joint force, which has made the number of works adapted from online texts hit record highs.
Facing the polarization of broadcasting and word of mouth
While the adaptation of online text has become the "new darling" of online animation creation, it faces the polarization of broadcasting and word of mouth. Many works are played in hundreds of millions, but the audience evaluation is worrying. For example, in the eleventh chapter of Douluo Continent, the score on Douban dropped from 7.2 to 6.6, while in the first season of The Demon God, it was 6.5, and in the first season of Fighting through the Sky, it was only 5.6. Among the top 50 animations in Douban’s rating list, there are only a handful of animations adapted from online texts. The current network animation creation faces some unavoidable problems.
First, the source is not wide. The text adapted from online text and animation is basically a work that has been a hit on the original online literature platform, and the source of the text is mainly concentrated in a few head writers. These writers have a large fan base, and choosing their works can guarantee the amount of play. The higher the broadcast volume, the more the producer prefers to choose other works of this writer for adaptation, thus falling into the strange circle of one-way text selection. There is a serious homogenization problem in the works of these writers, which drags the creation of online animation into the world of cultivating immortals and fantasy, forming a bad and closed internal cycle.
Second, the style is not high. Some online animations are full of violence, blood and pornography, which can easily distort the audience, especially teenagers’ cognition of the real world. Many online animations tend to be too entertaining, and the proportion of confrontation and cultivation of immortals is too large. There are still many works that blindly rely on the strength of others to challenge their opponents when expressing the growth process of the protagonist. Such a plot also ignores the significance of personal struggle and conveys negative values such as getting something for nothing.
The third is poor quality. The quality of online animation is uneven, especially in the scene, character modeling and duration. For example, in a film, the "Fire Python Tiger" described in the original work is a fierce and domineering beast, but it has become a small and cartoon cat image in the animation, which is neither loyal to the original work nor acceptable to the audience. In terms of the length of time, some online texts have shrunk dramatically. The length of an animation episode is less than 20 minutes, and the effective content is only more than 10 minutes except the opening and closing, and there are a lot of soft advertisements, which seriously affect the viewing experience.
The profound traditional culture of China is still the foundation of creation.
Since June 1st this year, the State Administration of Radio and Television has implemented a licensing system for the distribution of domestic online dramas, which means that the "licensing era" of more standardized and stricter online audiovisual has arrived. In this context, network animation should also improve the level of specialization and standardization, face up to the problem of being addicted to adaptation, devote itself to creating excellent masterpieces that are applauded and popular, and embark on a breakthrough road from adaptation to originality.
It should be noted that teenagers are an important audience for online animation. Therefore, the value orientation of network animation is particularly critical, which is related to helping children to button up the "first button" of life and lay a solid foundation of thought and values. However, in some current online animation works, the values spread are vulgar and negative. Therefore, the creation of online animation needs to further strengthen the sense of orientation, with correct political orientation, healthy ideological orientation, noble moral orientation and rich cultural orientation, so that online animation has soul, affection and love, and truly becomes a spiritual and nutritious feast for the audience.
Orientation is conveyed by telling stories. Therefore, what kind of theme to choose and what kind of story to tell is an urgent problem for network animation creators. We should jump out of the stereotype that the current creation is limited to the adaptation of online literature and open up a broader imagination space. On the one hand, based on tradition, draw nutrition from excellent traditional culture. At present, most of the network animations related to the traditional culture of China are "old wine in new bottles", and the author makes up new content based on fairy tales. Although this has a certain relationship with the traditional culture, it does not excavate and present the traditional culture rigorously and profoundly. China’s traditional culture is extensive and profound, among which there are numerous excellent story texts, including not only fairy tales, but also legendary historical events, heroes and classical opera stories. Network animation should select more excellent story texts to create. On the other hand, keep close to reality and create more works that closely follow the main theme. In recent years, a number of animation works have been deeply excavated and diversified around important time nodes and major events such as poverty alleviation and the centenary of the founding of the Party, which have been welcomed by the audience. For example, Diary of the King, from the perspective of an orange cat, introduces the cause of poverty alleviation and teaching in China, bringing a warm and meaningful viewing experience to the audience. It can be seen that while showing people’s imaginative world, online animation should also pay more attention to the real world, aim the lens at ordinary people in life and interpret their extraordinary stories, so as to make the creation more practical and social.
Creators should also focus on the aesthetic field and take the aesthetic implication of creating China characteristics as their conscious pursuit. In the middle and late last century, Shanghai Animation Film Studio and other China’s animation works were world-renowned, creating the animation forms of ink painting, paper cutting and origami, and produced works such as Little Tadpole Looking for Mom, Mountain Scenery, Mudi and Deer Bell, which attracted foreign animation directors to learn from their teachers. However, with the development of China animation to today’s network animation stage, the traditional aesthetic implication of China is somewhat thin. Many works are influenced by foreign animation styles and lack distinctive local characteristics. Therefore, network animation should dig deep into China’s aesthetic wealth and create more excellent animation works that reflect China’s aesthetic style. In addition, aesthetics and technology go hand in hand, so how to innovate science and technology and improve art and technology simultaneously is an important development trend of network animation. At present, VR and AR technologies are relatively mature, and network animation can be actively used in the creative process, which makes the creation by going up one flight of stairs in visual presentation.
In short, network animation, as a new variant of domestic animation, has great development potential. Creators should adhere to the concept of integrity and innovation, enhance their original ability, enrich artistic expression, convey mainstream values silently, create more classic artistic images, create more far-reaching works of art, and improve the overall quality of China animation, so as to make it an important force to enhance cultural self-confidence and boost culture to the sea.
??(Author: Liu Hanwen, Professor of Communication College of Fujian Normal University, Zheng Zekun, Master of Communication College of Fujian Normal University in 2021)