After finishing his noodles, Jiang Xia was forced by Xia Shanshan to go back to his room to do his homework. With the college entrance exam just around the corner, this kid doesn't even try harder. Does he really think that being good at art will get him into a good university?
Lying in bed, staring at the white ceiling, he pondered what path to take next.
After her business failed in her previous life, her parents sold their house to pay off debts. Her father was driving while fatigued and had a car accident. Her mother then devoted herself to education, going to teach in remote mountainous areas. Eventually, she fell ill from overwork and was found dead on her teaching materials.
It can be said that his entire life in his previous life was a complete failure.
He was determined to rewrite his fate no matter what!
As he thought this, his mind gradually emptied, and the exhaustion from not sleeping all night surged from his limbs to his heart, and his memories gradually returned to the past.
—At his father's funeral, he cried like a child, consumed by self-blame; upon receiving news of his mother's death, he locked himself in his room for three days and three nights without eating; later, due to various trivial matters, his arguments with Lin Yanwan became more and more frequent, until the day before their divorce, an earthquake suddenly struck…
Jiang Xia suddenly woke up. He sat up straight and gasped for breath. The swaying chandelier gradually settled into the familiar bedroom in front of him.
So... it was all just a dream?
Thankfully, it was just a dream.
Taking a deep breath, still shaken, Jiang Xia rubbed his sore eyes. The sunlight streaming in through the window, mixed with birdsong, was dazzling, making him feel as if he had been asleep for a long time.
I opened the bedroom door and went out. There was no one in the living room. I looked at the digital clock on the TV and realized it was already 2 p.m.
"Mother?"
He called out twice but received no response. Then he saw a note left by Xia Shanshan on the dining table, its format as formal as ever.
son:
I have to go to school. Your dad won't be back for lunch. There's some leftover food from yesterday in the fridge. Heat it up for yourself for lunch. I'll come back and cook something nice for dinner.
Mother
7:48
Jiang Xia rubbed her stomach; she was indeed a bit hungry after sleeping for so long. After a quick wash, she took out some shredded pork with green peppers and leftover rice from the refrigerator, cracked an egg into the mixture, and made a bowl of fragrant fried rice.
After eating and drinking his fill and cleaning up the kitchen, he returned to his room, sat down at his desk, and began to seriously consider what he should draw next.
Because of the change in the world line, many well-known anime works from his previous life did not appear, so he has many anime to choose from for replication.
However, disregarding factors such as complex and detailed visuals, long production cycles, and high costs, he temporarily settled on a children's style.
After all, children's animation is relatively simple to produce, with many having fixed backgrounds that can be repeated, and the visuals don't need to be too elaborate.
In an era when the internet was not yet highly developed and people mainly received information from television, children's animation was a guarantee of high viewership.
Importantly, animation is simple and easy to understand, with no barriers to entry, a wide audience, and suitable for all ages. Children, who are the main audience, are not picky at all. As long as it can make them laugh and want to keep watching, it is a successful work.
Based on this, Jiang Xia picked up a pen and listed many names in his notebook: SpongeBob SquarePants, Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Crayon Shin-chan, Tom and Jerry, Doraemon, Mickey Mouse, and Donald Duck.
After careful consideration, he picked up a pen and crossed out each name one by one, finally drawing a circle on the world-class classic masterpiece, Tom and Jerry.
It's not that other animations are bad, but he currently lacks funds and connections, so he's canceling any animations that require voice acting.
Throughout the entire Tom and Jerry series, Tom and Jerry, the main characters, do not have any lines, but their actions and the background music are almost perfectly matched, making silence more powerful than words.
However, the essential background music can be found online, and can simply be inserted during subsequent editing. In short, it can be obtained for free.
Furthermore, the story of Tom and Jerry is easy to understand. Even a one-year-old child knows that it is a cat's nature to catch mice. The conflict in the whole story is based on this—the cat catches the mouse, and the mouse resists. In the series of contests (love and hate), it brings endless joy to people.
Jiang Xia leaned back in his chair, twirling his pen, thinking about the classic characters in his memory—Tom and Jerry, characters that would remain vivid even a hundred years from now.
He first went through the entire production process in his mind. He already had the script, overall art style, character design, props and scene design, so he could start drawing storyboards and original drawings directly. As for the mid-term coloring and post-production editing, he could rely on existing software to complete them.
Each episode of Tom and Jerry is about 7 minutes long. Considering that a lot of fixed backgrounds are reused, and using the "one shot, three frames" method, each episode requires about 500 original animation frames on average. The rest can be created by cutting out and compositing, which greatly saves production time.
Although this method of production is a bit crude, it is the only option he has for now. Once he has enough capital in the future, he can certainly reset it.
For simple original drawings like Tom and Jerry, he can hand-draw about 50 to 80 pieces a day, taking into account his spare time without affecting his studies. If he draws intensively all day, he could probably do it even faster.
In other words, from the start of drawing to the final cut, it should be completed within twenty days to a month.
It's worth noting that the early Tom and Jerry cartoons were produced by a team of 150 people, taking a full 18 months to draw a total of 100 original drawings. This is undoubtedly much, much faster than before.
Moreover, he can only produce independently now. If it were a small team, with clear division of labor and production line-style production, they could probably produce one episode per week.
But for now, it's just a thought.
I let out a long breath and looked at the white clouds in the sky, as if I had become Tom and Jerry.
He pondered for a moment, then picked up a sharpened pencil and drawing paper and quickly began sketching. Ten minutes later, the classic images of Tom and Jerry appeared on the paper.
Jiang Xia picked up the drawing paper and examined it carefully. He then buried himself in revising several details to make it look more like the image in his memory.
Next came the coloring: blue-gray Talking Tom and brown Jerry, paired with vivid and expressive faces, enough to make viewers fall in love with them at first sight.
After doing all this, he solemnly wrote down a few words—Episode 1: A Sweet Home.
The story tells of Tom breaking many things in the room while chasing Jerry, and being scolded by his owner who tells him he'll be kicked out if he breaks another thing. Jerry sees this and laughs heartily. Because of the ban, Tom doesn't dare mess with Jerry, who has fragile items. With this protection, Jerry becomes even more arrogant, ultimately resulting in Jerry's complete victory and Tom being expelled from the house.
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