Chapter 42 042 Time Will Answer

When a person has a high enough social status and plenty of money, she can do whatever she wants very smoothly.

Song Xiaoli: ...

I really want to exclaim, "My life is as easy as turning my hand."

The company had just been established when a friend of a friend, a bigwig in the entertainment industry, asked her if she needed to buy copyrights. If she wanted the copyrights of popular works, such as the Legend of the Condor Heroes from Hong Kong, she suggested that they could try to import them to the mainland for animation.

At that time, the 1994 version of The Legend of the Condor Heroes was airing in mainland China. If the company could acquire the animation adaptation rights to a work of this caliber, it would be easy to quickly revitalize the business.

However, Song Xiaoli's ambitions lay elsewhere. Those famous works would inevitably be adapted in various ways in the future, and even if she did them better, the impact would have a limit, failing to meet her expectations. It would be better to turn a work she had never heard of in her previous life into a blockbuster; the lower limit was low, but the upper limit was high. Moreover, this way, she wouldn't feel guilty about "stealing someone's opportunity from the original timeline."

“My niece is drawing comics, and I want to adapt them for her first,” Song Xiaoli told her friends. As a result, people in Beijing also turned their attention to little Song Xiaoxiao, thinking that Song Xiaoli had a pretty good relationship with her relatives, and helped Song Xiaoxiao solve some minor troubles.

Song Xiaoli was too busy to get away, so she called home and explained the situation to her uncle and his family. "The money I have is just sitting in the bank doing nothing, so I might as well use it for some investment. The domestic animation industry is in a slump right now, so I've recruited a lot of decent people in the industry and plan to try my hand at it."

"It just so happens that Xiaoxiao's comic hasn't been sold for copyright yet. If you're comfortable with that, you can let me try it out. We'll pay the copyright fee on a revenue-sharing basis. I'll give Xiaoxiao 50,000 yuan upfront as a deposit for the collaboration. After that, once the animation is made and broadcast, and it's profitable, we'll give Xiaoxiao 10% of the profits."

From a business perspective, Song Xiaoli didn't offer Song Xiaoxiao an excessively high percentage of her earnings just because she was her niece, but a 10% share was still quite generous. After all, it was a newly established company with many employees to support, and even if the first product was a minor success, it was unlikely to put the company into a profitable state.

Song Dianchen had watched Song Xiaoli grow up, so how could he not trust her? He immediately asked her to find someone to bring the contract back, with Song Shijia and his wife as guardians and Song Xiaoxiao as the party involved. The three of them readily signed the contract.

It's actually quite labor-intensive and time-consuming, but there's no way around it; we haven't reached the AI ​​era yet. Even in the AI ​​era, we can't rely entirely on machine computing power to create full-length animations; we can only provide strong auxiliary effects.

She recruited many artists, some skilled in various backgrounds, some in coloring and shading, some in breaking down character movements, and others in subtle facial expressions. With the help of an animation producer with over ten years of experience coordinating things, the team worked together much faster than they had at their previous animation studios.

The beginning is always the hardest, but Song Xiaoli's start was actually quite smooth. No one hindered her at any stage, she had money and manpower, and all that was left was time.

Two months later, the finished animation with music and voice acting was released. Song Xiaoli specially invited Song Xiaoxiao and Tian Qian over so that they could have a look.

"Auntie Lili!" Song Xiaoxiao rushed over and hugged Song Xiaoli. Her mother, Hu Li, stood behind them, carrying her bag and smiling.

The company general manager that Song Xiaoli hired previously worked for a foreign company, and his contract doesn't expire until the end of the year. For now, she's signing all the documents herself. However, since she doesn't plan to stay at the company for long, she hasn't hired a secretary. Fortunately, the company has two receptionists who are relatively free for the time being, so Song Xiaoli asked one of them to come over, do things like fetch water, carry bags, and perform other odd jobs.

"Let's go to the general manager's office. The production team is in the audio-visual room setting up, so there won't be any space available for a while." Song Xiaoli gestured for her cousin-in-law and niece to follow her. The receptionist followed behind, carrying water and a backpack, looking a little tired. After they sat down in the office, Song Xiaoli took two hundred yuan from her bag and gave it to the receptionist. "Go back now. Use this money to buy some food and drinks, or you can invite your friends out for lunch."

The receptionist immediately beamed, revealing a bright white smile that made her look quite pretty. She didn't say much, went out for a moment, and then brought in some sliced ​​fruit arranged on a plate. Considering Song Xiaoxiao was a child, she also placed a small handful of White Rabbit milk candies in front of her. These items were probably paid for with the two hundred yuan budget, as the company didn't have any outside customers at the moment and hadn't prepared these supplies.

Hu Li found it amusing, "The girl you found is really good at handling things."

"After all, she's a receptionist. Besides having a good image and an outgoing personality, she also needs to be good at interpersonal relationships." The receptionist also drew the curtains in the office. After arranging for the guests to be seated and serving them tea, she knew they wanted to watch cartoons, so she turned on the soft lights, drew the blackout curtains, and connected the computer to the large screen player.

Song Xiaoli glanced at the folder that appeared on the screen and opened the first episode of "Urban Elf".

"We've finished five episodes so far, and the plan is to broadcast them on CCTV Children's Channel during the summer vacation," Song Xiaoli paused the screen and explained the schedule to them. "However, there will only be one episode a day, and 'Urban Elf' will be broadcast from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM. There will be commercials before, during, and after the broadcast."

"Coincidentally, the story told from the perspective of the little begonia fairy is also coming to an end. I discussed it with the animation team and decided to name it 'Urban Fairy: Begonia Chapter'. It will probably have forty to fifty episodes. After it is completed, the first season will be over. Then we will start production on the second season when Xiaoxiao's new story is finished."

In addition to faithfully recreating all the main storylines from the manga, the anime also adds some small slice-of-life scenes to enrich the characters' personalities. The original work is a fantasy story with a lighthearted, everyday style. These added details were handled by veteran anime creators, and instead of making the anime lengthy and boring, they enhance the storyline and make it easy for even adults to watch.

Seeing that Song Xiaoxiao was staring at the screen, her eyes reluctant to look away, Song Xiaoli knew that Hu Li had taken her words to heart, so she didn't say anything more and continued playing the video.

The opening theme is instrumental. Besides the main character, the little begonia fairy, the first characters to appear include a human girl. This is also the first scene of the comic: the little girl is under a begonia tree in a greenbelt, praising the beauty of the begonia blossoms. Then, one of the flowers trembles as if laughing and falls from the branch. When the little girl rushes over to catch it, the flower transforms into a cute and beautiful fairy, dancing lightly in her palm.

When Song Xiaoxiao saw her characters come to life for the first time, her eyes welled up with tears. She couldn't quite describe the feeling, but her heart was beating fast and softly. She was so happy, so very happy.

"Wow!" Song Xiaoxiao's eyes sparkled.

Song Xiaoli paused again, "Most of the characters appear in the opening credits. Their images are based on the character designs you provided, with slight modifications. What do you think? Are there any characters you're not satisfied with?"

"No, no, no!" Song Xiaoxiao quickly shook her head. "Some of them look even more exquisite than mine. Auntie, please look ahead!"

The three of them sat on the office sofa and watched the first five episodes of the animation together. Song Xiaoxiao, as the original author, was still very satisfied and said, "It's really well done."

She scratched her head and said, "Actually, when someone first wanted to buy the rights to make an animation, I was a little worried that they might change my character into something a bit exaggerated like Sun Wukong or Nezha, or make me into someone with a big head like Tutu... Hehe, luckily it was my aunt's company that did it, and they all look so beautiful."

Everyone has their own aesthetic preferences. Song Xiaoxiao doesn't particularly like the art style of the earlier popular animations like the Monkey King series from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, nor does she like the currently trending TuTu animation. She prefers the art style of Disney fantasy animation, while also incorporating some elements of Japanese anime. Overall, she strives to maintain basic human proportions and facial features while aiming for cuteness or beauty. She mostly draws in black and white, but magazines periodically require color pages, and her character designs are also in color, demonstrating her preference for soft yet bright color schemes.

When creating the animation, Song Xiaoli asked the production team to maintain the original author's aesthetic preferences.

“It’s so beautiful,” Song Xiaoxiao rubbed her eyes, “I almost cried.”

Hu Li watched the film very carefully, based on the fact that it was her daughter's original work and her own emotional foundation. Before coming here, she even took the time to watch many animated works from home and abroad. Perhaps she has a bias towards her daughter's works, but compared to other works, this one is her favorite. The characters have positive values ​​and the plot is free of negative energy, making it a very comfortable work to watch.

"To ensure that the source material is not leaked, this computer is not connected to the internet, and the animation is distributed via discs. You can enjoy the first five episodes first, and for the rest, you will have to watch it on TV like other viewers."

Song Xiaoxiao: ……

"Can't I live with Aunt Lili?"

Hu Li chuckled and tapped her head. "You have to draw your serialized work and maintain your exam results. If you move in with your aunt, how will you go to school? Who will take care of you?"

You know, her grandparents pick her up and drop her off at school now, and she gets three nutritious meals a day when she gets home. If she stays up late painting, she can have a snack anytime. The whole family revolves around her. If Song Dianchen's two sons weren't already married and didn't need the grandparents' help, Tian Qian might have had to hire a nanny for her daughter.

Song Xiaoxiao stuck out her tongue. "I was just saying!"

Then she asked Song Xiaoli, "Auntie Lili, I feel this animation is really well made. Many people liked it when the comic was being serialized. Will many people like it when the animation is released?"

"I can't guarantee that. But we've done our best, and we'll leave the rest to time."

Song Xiaoxiao is waiting for the audience's answer.

Song Xiaoli awaits the world's answer.