The “Bahamut 2022 ACG Creation Contest” organized by Bahamut has announced the winners of all categories. In order to encourage the winners and contestants, this time GNN also specially interviewed the winners who won the top three in each category in this competition, and let them share the creative process and mood of this work. This article is an exclusive interview with the “Upside Down Boy Blue Wall” author “UPSD Upside Down Animation Team” who was awarded the “Animation Group” Bronze Award.
“Upside Down Boy” describes an upside-down boy who lives in a house with his father. The father is afraid that following the boy leaves the house, he will fly away from the sky due to the opposite gravity, so he does not allow the boy to leave the house. But the boy didn’t want to compromise, he read books and began to imagine the vast world outside the window…
The UPSD Upside-Down Animation Team is a three-person team from the Department of Digital Media of Yunke University. The members are Tu Yucheng, Zhong Wanyu, and Chen Lilin. Because the personalities of the three are very different, there are often small frictions when working together, but it is precisely because of the differences that each of them will use their own advantages to make up for the shortcomings of others, so there will be a great tacit understanding when creating together.
“Upside Down Boy” trio
When talking regarding the reason for the creation, the team members said that the original intention of “Upside Down Boy Blue Wall” was that the three of them chose the most interesting idea when they conceived the story. If… There is a person who is upside down on the ceiling, what would it be like? story? Maybe… he symbolizes a mentally ill child? Or is he actually a group that society cannot accept? Or is he an overprotected kid? These various ideas burst out in their minds. The concept of “upside down” is very fantastic but very realistic, so they finally decided to choose this story as the question, hoping to explain a meaningful story through this idea.
Members of the Upside Down Animation team at UPSD noted that the themes of Upside Down Boy revolved around themes of overprotection, when they conceived the story thinking, might an upside down person not be able to leave the house? Since his gravity may be the exact opposite of ours, he seems to be confined to his home. Using this idea as a starting point, the members told the story of a father living in a house with his upside-down child, and the father forbids the boy from leaving the house because of the opposite gravity when he leaves the house. ; And then I want to convey the issue that parents often overprotect their children through such a story concept, so that viewers who have watched the film, whether parents or children, can better understand each other and understand each other’s state of mind, and slowly resolve the invisible bondage on the child. shackles.
When asked regarding the reason that the story seemed to emphasize the father’s overprotection of the little boy, and the little boy did not leave the house in the end, the three thought that if they wanted the most shocking result in the ending, instead of letting the boy be free, On the contrary, it is more shocking and touching that he can’t leave the house, and the audience can really understand the meaning of Blue Wall, because the boy painted the wall the blue of the sky, symbolizing that it can only create a false sky, but can’t really touch it Get out the window for true freedom.
Regarding the role of the little boy in the animation, the three expressed their hope to set the boy as a cute and curious boy. Although he cannot leave the house, he hopes to imagine the world outside the window through the book in his hand. Therefore, although the relationship between him and his father is set to be in opposition, he does not want his father to restrain him with a tough attitude, but hopes that his father’s emotions are restrained by gentleness and strict protection. Boys are a kind of shackles with emotional pressure, so that boys can’t easily step out of the window because of their father’s emotions.
The three pointed out that because the boy is in an upside-down relationship, it is also very troublesome when designing the storyboard, because if the upside-down appearance is often shot, the expression on the boy’s face is actually a bit difficult to recognize, unless the expression is very exaggerated; therefore; In the process of designing the storyboard, they also deliberately flipped the boy back to the front in the close-up shot, so that the audience can clearly see the boy’s emotional performance, but in the long-range process, most of them will still use the upside down. The appearance of a boy, following all, is in line with the theme of “Upside Down Boy”.
In fact, there are many types of animation. “Upside Down Boy” chose to present it in 3D animation. The members said that the main reason is that the three people are not so good in 2D animation. Although the three people are not at the top level in the 3D field, the basic operation It’s more than enough to use, and using 3D is also the best way to express the style they want.
However, the three also admitted that they all wanted to try stop-motion animation. In fact, when the script of “Upside Down Boy” came out, they thought regarding whether to try to do puppet animation, but when they thought regarding the length of the film and the factors of time cost, the result had to be give up. If there is an opportunity to create in the future, puppet animation will be a very interesting form of expression.
In terms of art style, the art style of “Upside Down Boy” does not want to try more gorgeous pictures and visual effects, but wants to express a concept of purity and virginity. The overall story is divided into “fantasy world” and “real world”. The fantasy world presents the boy’s imagination of the world outside the window. The overall style uses illustrations combined with 3D models, and adds the texture of corrugated paper. The fantasy world of the book gives the feeling of turning a book by hand, showing the boy’s curious imagination regarding the world outside the window. The character style of the overall animation and the indoor scene are expected to be in the style of puppet animation, so the nicks and traces of smearing on the skin surface of the characters are all carved for details, emphasizing the texture of clay and wood, presenting a single tree One-of-a-kind art style.
Since the team consists of three people, all three of them are good at different projects in terms of division of labor. Wan Yu is good at the design of character art, storyboards, illustration materials, etc. in the early stage; Yucheng is the person who is mainly familiar with 3D and is mainly responsible for In the middle and late stages of animation, materials and lighting; Lilin is good at administrative communication, note preparation and film editing. He is mainly responsible for the behind-the-scenes personnel to deal with various things, and is also responsible for the production of 3D scene modeling. But basically none of the three is working on a single field, and the scripts are all conceived together. In addition, in the later stages of modeling, animation, materials, lighting and other projects, all three participated together, and did not let one person do all the stages alone.
When it comes to whether they are inspired or influenced by a specific creation or creator, the members said that the story is relatively unaffected by a specific work, because basically the types of works they like to watch are very different, but the three have a common hobby. That is, they go to the Taichung Animation Film Festival to watch cartoons together every year, and when they watch animation creations that are more artistic, they slowly and gradually influence the way they think regarding the mode and direction of animation stories.
The USD Upside Down animation team spent regarding a year and a half creating the Upside Down Boy work, starting production in October 2020 and premiering at the school in April 2022. Of course, some challenges were encountered during this period.
The team members said that the animation story was the first problem they encountered in the early days, because although the theme of the story was an overprotected boy, the way the plot was laid out made them feel a little too ordinary, and it didn’t make people watch it. There was a sense of surprise, and the original script was too long, and it was difficult to tell a story clearly in just 10 minutes; so they constantly revised the plot elements such as paragraphs, endings, character personalities, etc., but the more I wanted to write an interesting story, but instead, the three of them got stuck in the quagmire and didn’t know how to move on.
But one day, one of the members – Wan Yu (director and screenwriter) suddenly proposed a solution to flip the entire story structure, proposing to turn the story that originally stood only a small part of the paragraph – the boy’s fantasy world into the main axis of the story , and modify the ending to become a more poetic and sad ending. This decision caused the three of them to fall into a dispute. First, it was different from the original direction of the story, and second, it meant that the original style of the story in the past would be completely replaced.
Finally, following the discussion of the three people, they decided to change the direction of their own plot style, which also made the overall story look completely different. “Upside Down Boy” went from a happy ending to a sad ending, and added narration elements to drive the story with the boy’s childish tone, and used many scenes from the fantasy world to present many of his inner whimsy. And use fantasy and reality to string together a whole story. The three of them don’t regret making such a change, and even like the current appearance of the plot, because it seems to have loaded more of their own creative consciousness, making the story of “Upside Down Boy” completely different from other animated short films. style.
When it comes to whether there are any unforgettable memories during the production process, the three said that because they are used to working together in the same space, they will all work together in classroom 307 of the school in the followingnoon or evening. The advantage is that they can ask questions and get feedback immediately. They can also cheer up together; they have worked together in this classroom for more than half a year, and the most unforgettable one is that they were really busy until late. out. Although the current state is very tired, but recalling the past from now on can not help but make people feel a little emotional, because in the future, it may be difficult to have such a passionate memory of creating works following leaving the university and entering the workplace.
As for why they decided to participate in Bahamut’s creative competition, the team members said that because several senior sisters had participated in the competition, they thought it was a very interesting animation competition, so they decided to sign up to participate. At the same time, they also thanked the judges for their affirmation. They also met many outstanding creators at the awards ceremony. They were also impressed by the works “There are Ants in This Hotel” and “Love to Death”, which were also contestants. It is a very distinctive work. Although the above two works have different styles, they both show interesting features and styles of their own stories. For the event as a whole, they thought it was a great event. During the process of participating, they might see many excellent works and creators. They also suggested that the creators who came to participate can prepare their acceptance speeches in advance next time. , to avoid being caught off guard when you go on stage.
When talking regarding their future development plans, the Upside-Down Boys trio said that not all of them will continue to work in the animation field, but all three will move towards goals in different fields; some are engaged in a career in the field of illustration, and some continue to study in the field of animation. , and some have turned to filmmaking.
More stories regarding the winners of “Bahamut 2022 ACG Creation Competition”
Bahamut 2022 ACG Creation Competition “Animation Group” Interview Report
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Gold Award and Special Award of the Academy of Culture and Policy: Anonymous Town (coming soon)
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Silver Award and Special Award of the Academy of Culture and Policy: This hotel has ants (coming soon)
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Bronze Award: Upside-Down Boy BLUE WALL (coming soon)
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Bronze: Love to death (coming soon)
Bahamut 2022 ACG Creation Contest “Comic Group” Interview Report
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Silver Award and Special Award of the Academy of Cultural Affairs: Alien Rice Dou (Report link）
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Silver Award and Special Award of the Academy of Culture and Policy: A Rational Man (coming soon)
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Bronze: Back & Up (coming soon)
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Bronze Award: Say goodbye, Xiaomei! (coming soon)
Bahamut 2022 ACG Creation Competition “Game Group” Interview Report
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Gold Award and Special Award of the Academy of Culture and Policy: Perfumer｜Perfumer (coming soon)
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Silver Award and Special Award of the Academy of Cultural Affairs: Memory Swallow (Report link）
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Bronze: Automatic Chaos (coming soon)
