'Rainbow Sea Fly High': New sci-fi movie shows persistence of hand-drawn animation
Before the movie or TV versions of The Three-Body Problem, the Hugo award-winning popular novel written by Chinese writer Liu Cixin, are released, sci-fi animated film Rainbow Sea Fly High is set to hit the big screen on Saturday, right as school children in China kick off their summer vacation.
The 100-minute-long movie, which took six years to make, tells a fictional story concerning the relations between the cosmos, Earth and human beings.
In the future, advanced alien civilizations are discovered who can navigate freely around the universe and a giant meteorite shower has turned the Earth into a wasteland where humans struggle to survive. In the meantime a cosmos-spanning advanced civilization named Galaxy Eye conspires to implement a disastrous plan for the Earth in the name of defending the planet. The young main character Mai Dang must step forward and shoulder the important task of defending his homeland.
In addition to the storyline, the setting, story behind the production team and the movie's 2D hand-drawn uniqueness stand out from the current popular 3D animations.
In order to create a convincing animated world, the production team visited the small alleyways of Beijing and old factories in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, places considered the representative of their cities.
As digital technology has advanced over the past few years, Chinese animation faces a dilemma where production teams tend to create 3D animation works by using computer software rather than challenging 2D hand-drawn works.
Produced in traditional 2D, Rainbow Sea Fly High recruited over 1,000 animators as a huge number of frames were needed for the massive action-studded scenes. For example, a two-second scene featuring a huge disaster required nearly 600 hand-drawn images. More than 120,000 images were drawn for the entire film.
"Chinese people have longed to fly since ancient times. So we chose the story of the sky and the Earth to convey this longing and respect for the universe," Hu Yibo, director of the movie, said in a behind-the-scenes video for the film posted on social media.
Before the movie or TV versions of The Three-Body Problem, the Hugo award-winning popular novel written by Chinese writer Liu Cixin, are released, sci-fi animated film Rainbow Sea Fly High is set to hit the big screen on Saturday, right as school children in China kick off their summer vacation.
The 100-minute-long movie, which took six years to make, tells a fictional story concerning the relations between the cosmos, Earth and human beings.
In the future, advanced alien civilizations are discovered who can navigate freely around the universe and a giant meteorite shower has turned the Earth into a wasteland where humans struggle to survive. In the meantime a cosmos-spanning advanced civilization named Galaxy Eye conspires to implement a disastrous plan for the Earth in the name of defending the planet. The young main character Mai Dang must step forward and shoulder the important task of defending his homeland.
In addition to the storyline, the setting, story behind the production team and the movie's 2D hand-drawn uniqueness stand out from the current popular 3D animations.
In order to create a convincing animated world, the production team visited the small alleyways of Beijing and old factories in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, places considered the representative of their cities.
As digital technology has advanced over the past few years, Chinese animation faces a dilemma where production teams tend to create 3D animation works by using computer software rather than challenging 2D hand-drawn works.
Produced in traditional 2D, Rainbow Sea Fly High recruited over 1,000 animators as a huge number of frames were needed for the massive action-studded scenes. For example, a two-second scene featuring a huge disaster required nearly 600 hand-drawn images. More than 120,000 images were drawn for the entire film.
"Chinese people have longed to fly since ancient times. So we chose the story of the sky and the Earth to convey this longing and respect for the universe," Hu Yibo, director of the movie, said in a behind-the-scenes video for the film posted on social media.
Promotional material for Rainbow Sea Fly High Photo: Courtesy of Douban
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