Ribbib... Move over, Kermit

A new amphibian movie star has emerged in Northeast China, and it is only one of many characters being brought to life in the animation studios in Changcun, Jilin province. Deng Zhangyu and Liu Mingtai take a look at the storyboards.

In a room occupying half a floor of a building, rows of artists are busy working on their computers painting, designing and coloring 3-D cartoon images of various frogs. The scene here is no different from animation studios flourishing in dozens of China's animation and games industry zones where rooms are so tightly packed with animators that it makes breathing a little difficult.

The difference is that here, the animators and motion designers hard at work are college students in their senior years.

Theses students are from Jilin Animation Institute, the only college in China dedicated to teaching animation. Located in Changchun, the capital city in Northeast China's Jilin province where the economy is a few steps behind Beijing and Shanghai, this private school boasts 11,000 students majoring mainly in animation and games.

Thanks to the country's burgeoning animation market in the past 10 years, tens of thousands of students have gotten hired by studios across China after they graduate from the institute and internships in studios on campus.

The college has attracted the attention of animation companies and directors eager to talent spot skillful animators, including Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne.

"Osborne has come several times to talk about cooperation. But we have refused for our own reasons," says Zhu Li, vice-president of the Jilin Animation Institute, although she is reticent about why she said no.

Zhu is proud of the 3-D and 4-D technology used in animation productions from the institute.

She is especially pleased that her students have been able to practice their skills while being involved in projects within their campus.

The biggest project for the institute and its in-house animation company Vixo has been The Frog Kingdom, a film which they spent five years producing. About 80 percent of the 300-member production team consists of graduates from the institute, not counting the hundreds of students who took part in the production every year.

Yue Jinxi, a student at his final year, says he was involved in making models of the frogs for the film last year. As a result, he has set up his own studio with some classmates to produce models of animated characters.

"We only do the basic work for the film," says 23-year-old Yue, adding that there are many studios led by teachers running different projects for the movie.

Yue is one of near 900 students in the animation department, where about 60 are majoring in model making. It costs him about 20,000 yuan ($3,314) every year to study at the institute. If he had attended a public university, his tuition fees would have been only about 5,000 yuan.

Many students think it's worth the price and the effort because they will not find it hard to get a job after graduation. Companies in the animation and games industry come to the institute to recruit twice a year.

Making an animated film involves a broad spectrum of skills and the 3-D digital animation that Yue was involved in is only a small part of the production effort that finally makes it to the big screen.

The Frog Kingdom tells the adventure of a frog princess and her partner and how they go through the trials and tribulations of winning back a country taken away by enemies.

The director is Nelson Shin, who has produced iconic animations such as The Simpsons and Transformers.

With a total investment of nearly 50 million yuan, the film needs box-office takings of 120 million yuan to generate a profit.

However, as of Jan 20, ticket takings are less than 30 million yuan, according to Zhao Bin, deputy general manager of the production company Vixo.

"In terms of technology and visual art, we have to go a little distance more, compared to our Western counterparts. What we lack is the knowledge of how to tell a good story," Zhao says.

The Frog Kingdom is still "testing the waters" of the 3-D animation market, Zhao says, as the company and the institute make efforts to establish their own brand in China.

Although they have invited directors and scriptwriters from the West to participate in the production process, it is still a Chinese company making the film, Zhao says. Many plots are drawn from Chinese classics, such as The Art of War, an ancient military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu (544-496 BC).

But while more and more directors from the West are turning to China to find inspiration, especially after the success of Mulan and Kung Fu Panda, the Chinese, says Zhao, are very cautious.

"We want to produce good animation on our own. We're already working in the right direction," Zhao says.

Even as The Frog Kingdom is still on screen, production on the sequel has already started and related games and merchandise have been released.

Zhao is confident about the future of made-in-China animation, especially when he has the support network of a major animation institute, with more than 10,000 students working in studios of their own.

Contact the writers through dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily USA 01/29/2014 page8)