AIM
The primary aim of this project is to give a deep understanding of the culture and customs associated with traditional Chinese weddings by means of a mini animation. The author, meanwhile, also attempts to influence the Chinese’s behaviour towards their weddings, which is the secondary aim of the project.
BACKGROUND
In recent years, the Chinese wedding industry has experienced a huge change. It is common to see that the Chinese hold their weddings in a Western style following the impact of globalisation. They usually wear black suits and white wedding dresses instead of wearing red, which is the stereotypical (non-Chinese) impression of a Chinese wedding. Moreover, the Chinese regularly spend a large amount of money on a deluxe wedding ceremony in order to show off their economic strength: they often choose to hold ceremonies in well-designed venues, and in addition, it is popular for brides to drive grooms to wedding venues in rented vehicles which are top brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lamborghini , etc.
The change to a typical weeding are not only noticeable through the phenomena mentioned above, but also in the establishment of wedding agencies consisting of small groups of people. Under the influence of Western culture, these companies offer people plentiful advice and inspiration to help make their vision a reality, for example a beach theme, a church theme or a yacht theme in order to customise their wedding ceremony and make it distinctive from others. Thus, modern weddings are welcomed by Chinese people nowadays.
All the evidence shows that Chinese people misunderstand the real meaning of marriage. They have no idea what the great value of Chinese wedding culture is. Therefore, there is the potential to conduct a project to refresh people’s views on Chinese weddings and to achieve culture exchange with non-Chinese.
STORYBOARD
The story is created according to the theory of three-act structure. “Three-act storyingtelling structure is a linear story with three basic steps” , which is perfectly suitable for mini films. It works on both information-oriented motion graphics and character- based animation.
CHARACTER
Disney cartoon has a lot of outstanding character designs, such as Mr Ping, Crane (from ‘Kong Fu Panda’), Donald Duck and Mulan. Inspired by Mr Ping and Donald Duck, the author generated the idea about a duck with a bill, legs, and feet, wearing a Qipao. Additionally, the author got inspirations from Mulan’s hair style and Chinese shadow puppetry.
All characters are made up of 5 parts which are wings (front and back), head with neck, face, body, legs (front and back). It is easy for moving and making facial expressions. Take the young female goose as an example.
Headwear ------ As to the female goose for daily life, she wears a flower. The flower is inspired by the traditional Chinese painting. For her wedding, the headwear is a phoenix, which is inspired by the paper cutting.
