Wei Li Director
Li Wei holds a Master’s degree in Animation Creation from the School of Animation at Beijing Film Academy and a Bachelor’s degree from Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts. Representative works include ‘Two Monkeys in The Illusion’, ‘Nanqi Ji’, ‘The Man Who Lost the Shadow’, ‘The Unknown’, etc.
Synopsis
There is a blue and white porcelain vase on the table, with peach trees painted on it. Two monkeys sit under the tree, eating peaches. Finally, they start to compete for the last peach. As the fight intensifies, the bottle where the two monkeys are located is gradually pushed to the edge of the table. The two monkeys try to maintain balance, but at this point, the peaches they are competing for fall from the sky, breaking this balance In terms of artistic style, the entire film ‘Two Monkeys in The Illusion’ is based on a blue tone, aiming to express Eastern aesthetics through Chinese ink and blue and white porcelain.
Why you prefer creating animations with traditional Chinese characteristics?
Li Wei：Firstly, it is related to my personal creative experience. Because the animations I currently create are mostly Chinese style, I have some confidence in their expressive power. Secondly, it is related to my personal life experience. Because I had a life experience in the countryside when I was a child, and I had some feelings for the natural scenery in the countryside, so I prefer to paint things in Chinese style.
For example, my undergraduate graduation project “Nanqi Ji”, and the works I created during my time at the film academy, such as “Dongtian” and “Shengdan Jingmo Chou”, are all in traditional Chinese style. So overall, I would prefer this style.
But in fact, during the learning process, I have not systematically studied traditional Chinese painting. During my undergraduate studies, I studied at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, where there were many elective courses. I took a course in traditional Chinese painting and was exposed to ink painting on paper. Later on, during my graduation project, I wanted to continue that feeling and use ink brushes on the computer to imitate the texture of ink as much as possible. Then I also referred to some animated short films from Shangmei Film Studio, such as “Shanshui Qing”. For example, when the bottle appears at the beginning of the film, a 40 second long up and down camera is used as a reference for “Scenery”. This classic film focuses on expressing artistic conception, conveying thoughts and emotions through natural scenery. So I also want to achieve such an effect through my short film and learn from our predecessors.
Why did you decide to create a film with blue as the main theme, and would using a large amount of one color make it easier to create?
Li Wei：Originally, all I thought about was making a porcelain vase, where there was a world inside and the real world outside. Later, my classmate said that if you were making porcelain bottles, why didn’t you make a blue and white porcelain? So I decided to make the entire film blue in color, so that the visuals would be more advanced and it would be easier to distinguish between the real world and the world inside the bottle. The art style with blue as the main tone was set like this.
But in fact, if one color is the main focus, creation is not becoming simpler, but more complex. If I only use blue first, I need to consider that it is more about sketching relationships rather than color relationships. Because like sketching, many times I have to distinguish one or two things, only through black, white, and gray, through sketching relationships. For example, there is a flower and a grass on the ground, both of which are blue and need to be distinguished, with a lot of detail work to be done. If painted in color, the flowers are painted in pink, and the grass is painted in green, which distinguishes them directly. We need to do a lot of details well for it so that the picture won’t be monotonous.
How did you associate and organically apply many elements of Eastern aesthetics in this film?
Li Wei：My screen originally had two worlds, one was the outside world, where blue and white porcelain could be seen from the outside. I used MAYA to model the porcelain vase, which made it convenient for dynamic motion. The world inside the bottle uses my expertise in ink and wash. I use scatter perspective in perspective, which is different from the Western focus perspective, and can emphasize the charm of China. In addition, I also utilized the design of leaving blank space. Many times, I don’t draw water and just leave it blank, which is more in line with our traditional Chinese aesthetics.
Regarding the protagonist, who is the two monkeys, I am trying to imitate a special painting technique called “ink bone”. It is not directly outlined, there are no ink lines, and it is directly laid out with ink. But in fact, the monkey has long fur on its body, and the texture is furry. Using ink bones to draw, I did not achieve the feeling of that furry texture. This is where I feel that the expected effect was not achieved.
Is there any other source of inspiration for the film besides “Shanhaiqing”?
Li Wei：When I was creating, I referred to a German short film called ‘Balance’. The director is Christopher. Then it mainly talks about that in a surreal space, there are five people with the same appearance leaning against a board, and the five people who originally belonged to a balanced state suddenly changed. Because one of them caught a music box, these five people began to compete for the music box. I created the initial story of ‘Two Monkeys in The Illusion’ based on this short film. In some aspects, it is in line with the wisdom of the Chinese people, because we Chinese people pay special attention to the traditional Chinese virtue of humility, such as the story of Confucius blending pears since ancient times. I believe that in today’s society, regardless of the state, stable and harmonious interpersonal relationships require mutual understanding and a tolerant attitude to maintain. For example, in my story, the two monkeys were originally eating peaches, but in the end, they only had one peach left. They started fighting for their own selfish desires, but the struggle led to the destruction of the bottle. To some extent, it is also a fable like story with some educational significance.
Does the title ‘Dongtian’ have any other meaning besides being the bottle mouth of blue and white porcelain and a piece of monkey’s cave?
Li Wei：Haha, actually it doesn’t have much meaning, it just sounds good. Because when it comes to expressing two worlds, there are other mysteries besides the real world. In fact, the original name of my short story was ‘Two Monkeys’, which meant two particularly silly monkeys. Later, my mentor, Sun Lijun, commented that the name of my short film was not aesthetically pleasing. Later, I discussed it with a friend and he said, “There is another hole in the sky.” Then I said that the name sounded very nice and called it ‘Dong Tian’. The two words were concise and concise, and finally it was decided.
From director to screenwriter to storyboard, most of the creative work for this film was done by one person. Did you encounter any difficulties during the process?
Li Wei：I want to say that animation is really a collaborative industry, and the workload of completing it alone is really huge. I paint there every day, and it feels quite painful to create, but it’s not just painful but also joyful because every time I finish a shot, I feel happy, and I feel like I’ve reached a height I haven’t reached before. I remember staying up late to paint until early morning. I spent three weeks working on the four shots of the six bottles painted by Qi Chen at three or four o’clock. And keep exploring step by step. I think the biggest difficulty is the shortage of manpower. Because this is considered a work of my first year graduate school, and I didn’t want to hire any foreign aid. I completely adhered to my own idea and did it this way.
The preparation period for the work actually takes one year. At first, this was my homework for my first year graduate program at the Film Academy. The course was called Pre design, and then I created this story to communicate with the teacher. The teacher thought that this short film was also well made. So I did it. The final preliminary design, including the three views of the characters, character segmentation, dynamic segmentation, and modeling of blue and white porcelain, was all done by me alone. After finishing, I felt that it would be a pity if I didn’t experiment with it. After all, I think this script is really good, and it can also represent my ability, level, and reflection in the first stage of graduate school. In the end, I persisted in making it.
I independently completed all the sound effects for this film, and I was also involved in the sound effects. I asked a more professional classmate to help me polish it, helping me transition from 2.0 channels to 5.1 channels, which will be more three-dimensional. It also took a lot of effort to solve the difficulties in music, because in traditional Chinese opera, there is a particular emphasis on a sense of rhythm and it is difficult to have suitable music. Because I am a student, it is impossible for me to spend a lot of money hiring a professional composer to compose music for me, so I searched online for ready-made copyrighted music. I spent nearly 2000 yuan to buy two pieces of music, one called “Nostalgia” and the other called “Jianchang Yue”. In order to add points and adapt the screen and music, I made many adjustments and finally achieved a more comfortable state. Later, I invited Liu Yuru, a student from the School of Sound, to help me enhance the sound effects. The original music was very soothing, and the rhythm itself was not strong. Later, he used some onomatopoeia, drums, gongs, and other online sound effects to enhance the rhythm of the film, so in the end, a better music presentation was produced.
What is your creative motivation?
Li Wei：I think my preliminary design is quite good, it is the biggest motivation for my creation. I think for art creators, a good idea, a good script, these preliminary works are crucial.
The teacher’s help has also given me a lot of motivation, because the teacher is constantly giving me advice, and I can also get timely feedback from their feedback. Having someone who can help you watch, supervise and guide you, and I think I can learn more, will be very helpful for my future employment or career in the animation industry. Therefore, I am also honing myself through this short film, so I feel very happy. So I am really grateful to the teachers Sun Lijun and Huang Yong who helped me during this period.
What are the shortcomings and most satisfying aspects of this work that you feel about?
Li Wei：The first flaw is that the scheduling of the play scenes is not very good, and it is a bit fluid. The second and main regret is the design of the monkey. At first, I thought about it simply, only thinking about two furry monkeys. Then, I summarized some of its structures with lines, but in fact, there should be a feeling of clumping. For example, the ancient style short films made by Shangmei Film Studio are all in blocks. With one ink stroke, they can form a block surface. But when it comes to handling it, the monkey’s arms, feet, and face have all been processed into lines, giving people a very thin feeling, which is not so beautiful. On the other hand, the monkey’s movement design does not highlight the monkey’s feeling, unlike a monkey, it looks like a person. The play was too stiff. Later, I also posted on Bilibili and heard the opinions of other viewers, and I felt that it was indeed these aspects that could be improved.
The most satisfying part is actually the script, because in fact, a good script sometimes has a sudden inspiration and you want to seize it. Making movies and TV shows is the same. A good script is really crucial! I am very satisfied with my original idea, as there are many ideas mixed in. And then there is also the satisfaction with the picture. The blue tone of the picture makes the film very unique, allowing me to use the ink bone painting method without too much line cutting. I use filling to draw it, and use block surfaces to decorate it. Just draw a silhouette first, unlike me drawing some things now, and then draw the lines first, outline it first, and then draw the structure inside. I want to do something different for the upcoming graduation project. Because I have been working on Chinese style, I have already created three works with Chinese style, so this time I have changed my direction and want to do something new to break through myself. I don’t know if my choice is right, but I’ll just work hard. What we are doing now is a theme about rural areas, which is about the destruction and rectification of rural areas in the process of urbanization, and in this process, some people’s beliefs have collapsed. That’s a story like this. I certainly hope that one work is better than another, so that I can make progress.