On October 8th, the seven-day National Day holiday finally came to an end, and working professionals and students alike resumed their normal work and studies.
"Aunt Su, I'm skipping the theory class this morning. If the teacher takes attendance, could you cover for me?" Jiang Xia said to Su Qing after breakfast.
As the boss, he has to show up and say a few words today no matter what. Although he's currently a hands-off manager, there are some things that Li Weiya can't completely replace him in.
For example, when it comes to understanding cats and mice, he, as the father of Tom and Jerry, should give all his employees a lesson.
"good."
Su Qing nodded slightly, already guessing that he was probably going to the company to handle some matters.
Do I still need to go to the company?
Jiang Xia shook her head. "No need for now. Didn't Director Li explain everything to you yesterday?"
"Yes, she's temporarily putting Luo Peng and me in charge of the second key animation."
The so-called second keyframe is a refinement and detailing of the first keyframe. This assembly-line-like operation, with each part having its own function, can greatly speed up the animation production process.
"come on."
Generally speaking, the first original artist is usually an experienced concept artist, while the second original artist can be a newcomer, who can quickly gain experience.
Since Su Qing and Luo Peng are college students who have just entered the Academy of Fine Arts, it is most reasonable to let them serve as the second key animators. It is not too late to let them become the first key animators after they are familiar with the overall production of the team.
Li Weiya has a lot of management experience in this area.
"I will."
Jiang Xia smiled slightly.
Afterwards, he told Lin Yanwan and rode his bicycle to the company.
At eight o'clock in the morning, Li Weiya had already arrived at the company. Today was the first day of the company's opening, and she would be very busy, as she would also be presiding over a meeting.
Upon seeing Jiang Xia, she was slightly surprised. "Didn't you say you weren't coming today?"
"The morning class was a theory class, not important, so I just came to check it out," Jiang Xia said with a smile.
Li Weiya nodded slightly. With Jiang Xia here, she felt reassured.
Half an hour later, colleagues began to arrive at the company one after another. There were young people and middle-aged people, but most of them were middle-aged. Jiang Xia had never seen many of them before, but since Li Weiya had hired them, it meant that they must be competent in their professional skills.
A little while later, Li Weiya, with a smile on her face, brought two people to Jiang Xia.
"Ah Xia, let me introduce you. This is Zhou Zhen, the director of photography, and this is Meng Xiulian, the director of music. Both of you have been working in this position for seven or eight years and are very experienced."
Jiang Xia looked up at the two people in front of her. Zhou Zhen wore glasses, had medium-length hair, and was slightly overweight. Meng Xiulian, on the other hand, was wearing a suit jacket and high heels, looking very professional.
“Zhou Zhen, Xiulian, this is the President Jiang I was talking about, the founder of Qitian Animation, and the real father of Tom and Jerry,” Li Weiya introduced them with a smile.
Upon hearing this, the two of them were stunned for a moment. The young man in front of them was actually their boss, and the popular cartoon Tom and Jerry that swept the country was created by him!
Although surprised, both of them were working professionals who had been in the workforce for many years, and they reacted quickly.
Zhou Zhen and Meng Xiulian greeted President Jiang.
Hello.
Jiang Xia smiled slightly and said, "From now on, I'll leave the photography and voice-over work to you two. Please feel free to let Director Li know if you need anything."
"You're welcome, Mr. Jiang. It's what we should do."
Jiang Xia looked at Meng Xiulian and said, "Our company's recording studio is still under renovation and is estimated to be completed by the end of the month."
“President Jiang, Director Li has already told me,” Meng Xiulian said.
"That's good."
Subsequently, with Li Weiya's introduction, Jiang Xia met with several experienced concept artists, colorists, and animators. With their help, it is believed that after a period of adjustment, Qitian Animation can begin true assembly line production.
"Ah Xia, this is the project schedule I made based on the storyboard you provided. Take a look and see if it's suitable." Li Weiya handed him a chart.
Jiang Xia took it and examined it carefully. He had to admit that Li Weiya, as the project director, had done her job very meticulously.
From submitting the storyboard to creating the original drawings, then drawing the in-between frames, followed by coloring, photography, voice-over, and finally video editing, there are different progresses every day. The whole process takes about 20 days on average per episode.
With the company's current staffing, it can produce four episodes of animation simultaneously. A season consists of 12 episodes, which takes exactly two months.
Of course, this is just an ideal situation.
After all, everyone's skill level is different, and the progress of drawing is unpredictable. It is easy for the early schedule to be disrupted and the later production to be intense, which leads to various scenes of working overtime and staying up all night to rush the manuscript.
Fortunately, Jiang Xia has already provided the storyboard, which is the most important part of the early stage. Everyone else just needs to work step by step, and there shouldn't be any major problems.
“Very good. But isn’t this time a bit too tight?” Jiang Xia asked.
The time from original drawings to animation was only 15 days, and the subsequent coloring, photography, voice-over, and editing were even less, only five days. This would have been no problem with the previous three-shot production method, but after switching to two-shot production, the workload almost doubled.
“Don’t worry, there’s plenty of time.” Li Weiya smiled slightly. “Each group of artists has four people. Even if we follow the law and only give each artist two days off per week, the workload per person won’t be much.”
Four artists—one Ichihara, one Nihara, and two Nakagawa artists specializing in drawing in-between panels—if they work well together, they can easily handle simple line drawings like those for Tom and Jerry.
Jiang Xia was slightly taken aback. He had actually forgotten about taking a holiday. In the past, it was a small workshop with only a few people, and there was no concept of holidays. In order to produce the finished product as soon as possible, he worked overtime almost every day.
Now that it's being produced under the name of an animation company, every process must be standardized.
"That's good, let's proceed according to this schedule for now." Jiang Xia finalized the decision.
"Then I'll make more copies and give one to everyone in a bit."
"good."
Before I knew it, it was already nine o'clock.
Jiang Xia looked at the employee list. Apart from a few students, everyone was on duty within the stipulated time. There were 35 people who should have been there, and 31 people were actually present.
The entire hall was divided into several areas, and the originally spacious and quiet offices suddenly became lively.
Jiang Xia couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Qi Tian Animation had finally taken its first step. With this group of people, future development would be much easier.
At this moment, Li Weiya stepped forward and called everyone to the conference room for a meeting. This was the first employee meeting, and it was of great significance.
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