Renai Dance Animação by Zhike Yang and Wenjie Wu

Renai Dance Animação by Zhike Yang and Wenjie Wu is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 A' Design Award de Ouro in Design de Cinema, Vídeo e Animação Competition Category.

OuroCinema· 2024

Renai Dance Animação

by Zhike Yang and Wenjie Wu

Client: Boxon Media Studios

A' Design Award de Ouro Winner in Cinema Category

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Verified Award Winner
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The Design

About Renai Dance Animação

Renai Dance é um filme de animação 3D que combina apelo visual com temas culturais e profundidade emocional. A história combina elementos da Dança do Leão Chinesa e do Balé Moderno Ocidental, mostrando a fusão de diferentes heranças culturais. Sua trilha sonora apresenta música oriental tradicional, elementos sinfônicos modernos e melodias temáticas para intensificar a experiência emocional. O filme tem como objetivo oferecer uma nova perspectiva sobre a exploração de tradições populares, laços familiares e a vitalidade duradoura da cultura.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award de Ouro

Renai Dance Animação conquistou o A' Design Award de Ouro, um reconhecimento imensamente prestigiado atribuído a designs de primeira linha, maravilhosos e notáveis. Os vencedores do Ouro são criações extremamente inovadoras, visionárias e glamorosamente deslumbrantes, que refletem o prodígio, a sabedoria e a proeza dos seus designers. Espera-se que Renai Dance Animação seja uma invenção muito elogiada, pioneira e monumental, que oferece um valor sem precedentes. Este design vencedor do A' Design Award de Ouro é um projeto espetacular e respeitado, que beneficia muito e faz avançar as fronteiras da arte, da ciência, do design e da tecnologia. Renai Dance Animação cria sentimentos intensos de desejo, evoca paixão, incentiva a criatividade e fascina-nos.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: “RenaiDance” is a 3D narrative emotional animation. The theme invigorates cultural inheritance and the integration of dreams, courage, and culture as transformation. By artistically interpreting a motif of inheritance and family support, integrating different cultures“inheritance” through the inspiring story, this film braces strong family love and elder culture in a never-ending chain.
Dimensions & Packaging: This film's standard resolution is 1920 pixels x 1080 pixels (Full HD). Its duration is 3 minutes and 47 seconds, with a frame rate of 23.9fps.
Tags: Animation, Love, Family, Culture inherit, Short film, Generation, Oriental, Kids,
Production Technology: For the pre-production stage, we utilized Adobe Photoshop and Storyboard Pro to create our concept art and storyboard, establishing the foundation for our film's narrative and visual direction. Moving into the production phase, we used Python to align with MAYA's coding language: MEL, and built our own pipeline tool to efficiently organize files. Then we adopted a Maya-centric workflow, where we applied Maya for modeling, rigging, layout, and animation.
Substance Painter and Substance Designer for texturing and refining the style of half-PBR materials. We tried Marvelous Designer to make clothes for our characters, it created organic draped folds and complex pleated folds on dresses, which would take triple the time in traditional modeling process.
Houdini gave us chances to explore visual effects that resonated with the scene's emotions.
Subsequently, based on our research result and testing shots rendering, we leveraged Redshift Render Farm to generate high-quality renders with faster render speed compared to the Arnold rendering. After exporting multi-layered EXR image sequences from Maya, we brought all the CG render to Nuke and refined the final details with compositing techniques.
In the post-production phase, we integrated After Effects and Premiere to edit the film, as well as compose the musical score and synchronize sound effects with the visuals.

We created an originally developed embroidery tool to easily trans any input pattern to traditional hand-made embroidery assets in digital. Artists can customize the direction of embroidery, the range of stitch types, the density and orientation of the stitching, as well as the different materials used for threads in embroidery, like silk, linen, gold, etc.

The traditional patterns on every fabric surface in the film, like on the dress, vest, and lion mask, all applied this technique. Our title logo and every word were re-designed. The design process began with initial sketches on paper, followed by digitization and refinement using Adobe Illustrator, then sending to Substance Designer, went through our embroidery tools to gain handmade thread details, gave the film unique texture.
Design Challenge: It is a huge challenge the integrate productions with all of the talents through the global world. The unique original soundtrack was presented in harmony by Hollywood composer Zak McNeil, Asian Traditional Orchestra, and Russian professional sound designer Denis Nechipurenko. Mixing well with Western Ballet style and modern electric sound effects to balance the different cultures between Asian and Western, Tradition with Modern. With vivid voice-overs perform the characters by stacking emotions, we create an emotional atmosphere at every affecting moment.

Our honor is to work with talented assistant directors, co-artists, technical assistants, composers, sound designers, and voice-over actors. We got through it together, challengingly under the budget and time limit finally during the difficult time.
Research: One of the most significant challenges encountered pertains to striking a balance between effectively conveying intense emotions to the audience while adhering to stringent temporal and financial constraints. Initially, our narrative blueprint envisioned an elaborate dance sequence to illustrate the protagonist's growth journey. However, subsequent research and production trials revealed that the intricate details such as the lion mask's fur and the character's real hair, coupled with the dimly lit environment, would necessitate twice the anticipated rendering time.

Consequently, a crucial decision was reached to determine the equilibrium point between technical feasibility and artistic integrity. We opted to maintain the core story structure and instead allocate resources towards refining lighting and meticulously color-correcting keyframes to engage the audience. This strategic shift involved utilizing a series of carefully composed still frames to denote the passage of time, thus replacing the originally planned full dance sequence.

In doing so, we aimed to ensure that viewers would embark on a complete emotional odyssey alongside our character, encapsulated by a cohesive soundscape and indelible visual imagery. Additionally, this approach leaves room for imaginative interpretation, potentially laying the groundwork for future sequels.
Inspiration: This film is dedicated to our grandfathers' generation. Beautiful traditional cultures experience significant impacts from new influences. The gap between generations is widening over time. Does the emergence of a new symbol necessarily lead to the fading of old cultures? Is the pursuit of dreams inherently divergent from our loved ones? We want to explore this point to see if we can find a vision that resonates with both our hearts and the future. The love of elevating the next generation's dreams would be the most supportive heritage and legacy.
Project Duration: In 2019, the film project began in New York, completing its production in 2021. It was screened at events in several international locations, like New York, Aspen, Beloit, Nepal, Taiwan, etc.
Operation Flow: This film is suitable for all ages, and is kid-friendly. To get the best viewing experience, we recommend watching it in a dark room to enjoy the truest colors and most intense visuals. Also, using headphones or playing it in a place with stereo sound is a good idea because the movie has professionally mixed left and right channel audio effects, plus an original score you'll likely remember long after. There's a hidden Easter egg graphic after the end credits which provides a sneak peek into the possible future storyline extension, so don't forget to stay tuned for that extra treat.
Team Members: Zhike Yang
Wenjie Wu
Han Chen Chang
Image Credits: Video Credits: Creative Director Zhike Yang.
Video Credits: Technical Director Wenjie Wu.
Video Credits: Creative Producer Han Chen Chang.
Video Credits: Sound Track Zak McNeil.
Video Credits: Sound Design Denis Nechipurenko.