With the penetration of science and technology into art, Chinese film production technology is accelerating its digital transformation. Digital technology and artificial intelligence are fully involved in film creation, which has led to cutting-edge technologies such as virtual scenes, motion capture, expression capture, virtual production, and real-time rendering. Subverting the production process of the traditional film industry.
Beijing Film Academy has profound accumulation in the integration of film art and science and technology, has made great historical contributions to the film industry of New China and leads China’s higher film education in the new era. In 2000, Professor Sun Lijun promoted the establishment of the country’s first animation school at the Beijing Film Academy. After more than 20 years of construction, the Beijing Film Academy Animation School has become China’s number one, Asia’s top, and the world’s leading animation education institution. In order to understand the current creative status of film art and technology, and to look forward to the artistic form of future films, on August 21, 2023, the China Institute of Art and Science invited Professor Sun Lijun, Vice President of Beijing Film Academy, to give an academic lecture. With the title of “Integration of Art and Technology”, it uses personal creation and research as cases to vividly explain the art of animation and its transformation from three aspects: “the development process of technology-driven movies, the characteristics of animation in real-life shooting, and the extension and connotation of animation in the future”. Practices, results and experiences of technology integration. After the lecture, “Yike Information” conducted an exclusive interview with him.
Introduction to Professor Sun Lijun
Sun Lijun, Vice President of Beijing Film Academy, second-level professor, doctoral supervisor, deputy director of the Drama and Film and Television Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, one of the “four batches” talents of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, selected talents of the national “Ten Thousand Thousand Persons Plan”, and enjoys special privileges from the State Council Subsidy expert, director of the Animation Film Working Committee of the China Filmmakers Association, and director of the Animation Art Committee of the Chinese Artists Association. Professor Sun Lijun has been engaged in film education, creation and theoretical research for a long time. He has won many major awards such as the China Film Golden Rooster Award, the Huabiao Award, the “Five One Project Award”, the Culture and Art Government Award, etc.; he presided over the national high-tech “863 Plan”, the National Social Science He has carried out more than ten major projects at the national, provincial and ministerial levels, including the National Art Fund, the National Art Fund, and the Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Ministry of Education. He has published “History of Chinese Animation” and “Research on the Current Situation of Chinese Animated Film Creation and Communication Methods” He has more than 20 volumes of important theoretical works, many of which have been translated into English, Japanese and other languages and published globally; he has published more than 50 academic papers in important journals such as CSSCI and Chinese Core. Professor Sun Lijun has made outstanding historical contributions to contemporary Chinese film education, creation and theory, and has a high academic reputation and extensive artistic influence.
Art Science Information: Hello, Principal Sun, you have analyzed the development process of film from a technical perspective. Please briefly describe its development characteristics.
Sun Lijun: The history of the development of film art is, to a certain extent, the history of the development of film technology. Its development process is accompanied by the continuous development of technology. From silent movies to sound movies, and now to digital movies and 3D movies, the production and expression forms of movies are constantly changing. The first generation of movies was the era of black and white silent films. The success of “The Train Arrives” opened the door to film production. The audience was shocked to feel the reality of a train approaching you in front of the screen. With the major breakthrough in recording technology, the first sound film in the history of world cinema, “The Jazz Singer”, was released in the United States in 1927. Audiences began to experience the artistic charm of the film through hearing. As the market size of the film industry continued to expand, color films with sound soon began to appear - in 1935, the world’s first color film “The World of Vanity” was born. I liken it to the era of second-generation color films with sound. Since then, the rise of digital movies is the result of the development of science and technology in the 20th century, especially the continuous development of digital technology. Now, with the advent of the artificial intelligence era, the third generation of movies is accelerating. I think the third generation of movies has the following two characteristics: First, it is an interactive movie. The audience no longer passively waits for the director’s arrangements, but has the right to choose the plot and ending of the movie. The movie is no longer a traditional linear narrative, but a tree-like cross-narrative; second, movie gamification, game cinematization. In addition to the continuous interactive gamification of narratives, third-generation movies are also deepening the degree of gamification in terms of production technology. Currently, game engine UE software has become popular in 3D animation production. It can perform real-time rendering, high-simulation fast lighting, and motion capture at an affordable price.
Yike Information: How important do you think animation technology is in today's films?
Sun Lijun: Currently, “animation” and “movies” have gradually merged. Take “Avatar: Water Path” as an example, which made extensive use of animated imagery. Some scholars have studied: Only two shots of the sea in this film were shot by real cameras. Therefore, a film like “Avatar: Water Path” can be considered from an academic level to be an animated film. It obscures the natural reality of film shooting through the “reality” of artificial animation, and captures the audience’s audio-visual senses with animated images, causing a perceptual disorder between illusion and reality, and animation and film have become one. Another example: the animated film “To the Moon”, which won the Grand Prize at the Hong Kong Bauhinia International Film Festival. In the film, except for the lead actor Dong Hao, who is a real actor, other characters, backgrounds, props, etc. are all produced with digital technology. The real-time interaction between real actors and digital virtual characters is a highlight of the film. It uses animation to vividly interpret and display the thinking about the relationship between humans and AI in the era of artificial intelligence, and ultimately returns to “How Chinese people talk about the theme of love” highlights the humanistic heritage on top of technological wonders. Therefore, animation technology has gradually become an important mainstream technology in current digital film creation.
“Fly to the Moon” video clip produced by Sun Lijun as chief director
Yike News: You have always been a leader in applying new technologies to film creation, advocating the use of new technologies to create new audio-visual languages. We know that you have recently introduced AI creation into the field of animation creation. What is your experience?
Sun Lijun: No matter what, technology and art ultimately serve the work. First, AI technology can quickly generate a large number of story scripts, character models, scene models, special effects models, etc., thereby providing a source of inspiration for artists to engage in animation creation; second, AI technology reduces the complexity of animation production through automatic processing and process optimization. cost, shortening the production cycle and greatly improving production efficiency; at the same time, AI technology can also provide audience data analysis and intelligent advertising solutions during the animation promotion stage. However, the current AI big data model is still based on Western technical background, so the styles of its works are generally biased towards Europe, America, Japan and South Korea, and the nationality of China is insufficient. Therefore, I specifically proposed the academic proposition of constructing “Oriental aesthetics in the era of artificial intelligence”. On the one hand, we must focus on building a large model of Eastern cultural data based on the local area and develop a programming system based on Chinese thinking; on the other hand, we can On the basis of the production, secondary creation is carried out to give it more feelings of home and country and national characteristics.
Art Science News: In recent years, animated films based on and promoting traditional Chinese culture have been deeply loved by audiences. In your opinion, how should the animation industry carry out the creative transformation and development of China's excellent traditional culture in the integration of technology and art?
Sun Lijun: In 1955, Mr. Tewei, the old director of Meiying Studio, proposed the creative concept of “exploring the path of national style and knocking on the door of comedy style” and the creative policy of “not repeating yourself and not imitating others”. The Chinese animation school represented by the classic works of Shanghai Animation Film Studio, such as “Tadpole Looking for Mom”, “Havoc in Heaven”, “Three Monks”, “Landscape Love” and other works, were once known for their “strange”, “interesting” and “ The national charm of “beauty” shines brightly on the world stage. The so-called Chinese culture and national charm are not only the collage and appropriation of traditional cultural symbols, but also the exploration of the essence of “beauty” of traditional art forms, and how to realize the creative transformation and innovative development of the beauty of national art under the perspective of contemporary technology. . The 8K digital ink animation “The Beginning of Autumn” produced by the Beijing Film Academy’s Digital Film and Television Animation Creation and the Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education extends the “spatiality” of ink art in form and explores artificial intelligence on the basis of innovating the aesthetic paradigm of ink art. The destiny of mankind in the context of technology is a pioneering effort to use digital technology to activate the vitality of China’s excellent traditional culture.
“The Beginning of Autumn” video
The era of artificial intelligence and global interconnection calls for artistic expression that integrates forward-looking, diversified and creative ideas. At present, domestic animations are still mainly based on mythological themes, children’s themes, and youth campus themes, while works on realistic themes, historical themes, martial arts themes, and science fiction themes account for a small proportion. Exploring the creative concepts, ideas and methods of diversified animation themes will become an important step for future animation to move from the “plateau” to the “peak”.
Yike News: What do you think of the statement that artificial intelligence will replace human creation?
Sun Lijun: From the perspective of artistic creation, we still need to have a sense of crisis. In the early days of artificial intelligence, when some people said that machines had surpassed humans, I was opposed to it. I think that when technology develops to refined motion capture, high simulation, and hyper-reality, we need to emphasize that the value of art lies in “clumsy” and “simple” rather than “splendid” and “refined”. In the exchange of technology and art, it is not about how much technology is shown off, how much capital is mastered, how much traffic is harvested, or how many techniques are used, but how to face the universal anxiety of mankind with a compassionate artistic attitude and profound aesthetic cultivation. and an unknown future and destiny. Human civilization is making breakthroughs on its own and has unique laws. Technology is always changing and developing, and it is also summarizing and refining. The so-called “artificial intelligence self-awareness” and “artificial intelligence replacing humans” exist, but the truth, goodness, beauty, big love and small love we express, such beautiful emotions are eternal and cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence.
Beijing Film Academy Digital Film and Television Animation Engineering Center AI test chart
Yike Information: The "Yike Information" public account is an academic new media for the art technology industry hosted by me. What hopes and suggestions do you have for our future development?
Sun Lijun: The current society has entered a self-media era, and self-media represented by public accounts is playing an increasingly important media function in academic communication. Therefore, I think it is of great significance for the China Institute of Art and Science to host such academic new media. First, it can serve as a national team to disseminate more information on art and science and technology in a timely manner, and promote the rapid popularization of cutting-edge art and science and technology information in the industry; second, as an academic platform, it can push the academic opinions of different institutions across the country, starting from to the platform function of exchanging ideas and triggering innovation; thirdly, as a research institution, the China Institute of Art Science and Technology itself can publish the latest research results through this platform and promote the improvement of the overall strength of China’s art science and technology. Therefore, we also look forward to more cooperation between “Yike Information” and the Beijing Film Academy in the future of imaging art and high-end imaging technology. I wish “Yike Information” will get better and better!
Interview site
postscript
This lecture not only allowed us to understand the current status of the development of animation art and technology, but also gave us a better understanding of Professor Sun Lijun’s approach to human learning. He is not only an animation director and artist, but also an explorer and charity person. He is passionate about “running” and full of love. He is the initiator of public welfare actions such as “Operation Warm Winter” and “Crazy Marathon”. He believes that art must serve the people and be created from the people’s standpoint. All people have the right to enjoy film art. As a creator and practitioner, we must always have a bottom line, demand ourselves, and maintain our unremitting pursuit of aesthetics and constant thinking about the future and destiny of mankind. When it comes to artistic creation, we must deeply cultivate Chinese culture and look at the world, and we must not rest on our laurels. Only in this way can we tell Chinese stories well and better convey the excellent Chinese culture that we have inherited in our contemporary era. As Deputy Director Tuo Zuhai said at the end of the lecture, Professor Sun Lijun’s cutting-edge exploration of artistic innovation paths, personalized practice of art serving the people, and persistent pursuit of the Chinese aesthetic style of art are worthy of our careful study and reference.
(Author: Li Sichen)
