On Film and Television Character Modeling Design

Character modeling is one of the important elements of film and television works creation. Character modeling mainly includes two parts: one is makeup modeling, and the other is clothing modeling. Film and television character modeling design can be divided into realistic modeling design and freehand modeling design. Realistic modeling design is more common in historical dramas, focusing on expressing the truth and credibility of history, but it has a poor sense of form and innovation; Freehand brushwork modeling design can be seen almost everywhere in film and television dramas, paying attention to form and emphasizing the spirit of writing with meaning, but ignoring its historicity. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. The combination of realism and freehand brushwork can make them learn from each other, pay attention to historical truth and emphasize the formal beauty of modeling. The combination of realism and freehand brushwork can make the characters more fully embodied and more perfectly represented.

Film and television make-up is based on sketch, color, sculpture and other artistic forms, aiming at shaping real people with individuality and typicality, and has become one of the important components of the aesthetic value of film and television works. Film and television makeup should follow the creative thinking of the unity of technology and artistry, realism and freehand brushwork, and create an artistic image with aesthetic realism and both form and spirit.

Character modeling design is particularly important in costume film and television dramas. The design of costume characters is from head to toe, including costume design, facial design, hairstyle design and accessories collocation.

There are two kinds of characters in film and television dramas, one is realistic modeling design, and the other is freehand modeling design. Realism is hard in practice and pays attention to reduction and reproduction. It requires neat brushwork, attention to detail description and true reflection of things. Freehand brushwork in the void, pursuing "spiritual reconstruction" (Hegel), paying attention to the expression of expression and expressing the author's interest. This is in line with the artistic practice principle of combining makeup technology with artistry.

As an artistic form of shaping images, the biggest feature of film and television makeup lies in its respect for objective reality, that is, to reproduce it. The charming charm of film and television makeup comes from its imitation and reproducibility. Realistic modeling design is more common in historical dramas and dramas, such as Hanwu Emperor and Da 'ao (Figure). Because historical drama is based on historical events and historical figures, reflecting historical facts, the characters are perfectly reproduced. Those "fresh faces" shaped for traditional aesthetic norms and traditional cultural content aroused the audience's psychology. The makeup design of the historical drama "Hanwu the Great" (picture) mostly adopts realistic methods. First of all, the color is very bright, which restores the style of the Han Dynasty from the big tone, mainly black and red. Secondly, women's makeup is more distinctive. In the Han Dynasty, women's hair stood upright, and lipstick was only applied on their lips, so women's dresses were designed accordingly. At the same time, designers pay attention to the retro style of the overall style of character modeling. Black was advocated in Han Dynasty, and the main colors of clothing were black, red, white, blue and yellow. Women's wear is mostly red, and clothing is mainly cloth, with thick lines and heavy styles. In the play, soldiers wear bronze armor and leather clothes. Huns are obviously all leather. The accumulation of technical details of historical and cultural characteristics has shaped a "real image" with strong historical and cultural atmosphere, and achieved the grand and atmospheric drama style of Hanwu Emperor. Another example is the once-popular Korean drama Dae Jang Geum (pictured), in which the characters are lifelike, from the emperor, the palace, Ding Bai to the untouchables, with strong Korean flavor and historical characteristics. Clothing of all classes is influenced by strict identity system, such as color, pattern, textile, etc. The clothing was restricted to a great extent, but later, influenced by practical concepts, the clothing between nobles and poor people gradually became equal. The mage of the female role in the play also respects the original appearance of history very much. Women's big hair and headdress show their status.

Realistic modeling has both advantages and disadvantages. First of all, its disadvantage lies in the lack of innovation in the modeling design of the role and the easy repetition of the image. Secondly, its shortcomings are reflected in its inadaptability to modern aesthetics. For example, the shape of a geisha in Memoirs of a Geisha (Figure). In Japan, traditional geisha have white faces, red lips, rigorous hairstyles and gorgeous kimonos. However, in the performance of film and television works, this strong loyalty to historical makeup can not be accepted by the audience. Therefore, the stylist made appropriate improvements in the handling of characters: weakening the white makeup on his face; More natural and relaxed in the handling of hairstyles; Some gray tones are also used in the clothes.

Freehand brushwork design is more common in costume martial arts dramas and comedies, such as The Condor Heroes and Dong Fangbubai. Because the martial arts drama aims at pursuing entertainment, it combines the audience's heroism, emotional romanticism and adventurism to satisfy their own entertainment mentality. Since it is for entertainment, history is just a means, and there is no need to stick to restoring history in character design. In order to enhance the visual effect of film and television works, exaggerated, symbolic and abstract design techniques can be adopted.

For example, in the movie Hero (pictured), there are five colors: red, blue, white, green and black, and each color has a different meaning, which plays a role in promoting the development of the story and portraying the characters. "The love between the broken sword and the flying snow in Zhang Yimou's lens has also gone from the narrowness of red, the melancholy of blue and the agitation of green to the end of white, which leads to a little greatness. Maggie Cheung finally changed from the charm of red, the romance of green and the simplicity of blue to the sadness of white. How many colors are there? Who is right? I couldn't help itching, and finally squeezed into the cinema to personally appreciate the master's style of using color. Like clothes, the hairstyle and decoration of the film are very simple. Just like freehand brushwork in Chinese painting, extensive and concise pen and ink can express the charm of the image, strengthen the ideological artistic conception to be reflected in the film and make the characters more symbolic.

Freehand modeling design can also be found in film and television works adapted from myths and legends, such as Green Snake. This kind of work is not limited by specific historical years, so it is not limited to historical facts and can give full play to the imagination and creativity of designers. In "Green Snake" (Figure), the clothing materials of green snake and white snake are mainly chiffon and mosquito net yarn, and the sense of elegance is greatly prominent. There are three main styles of green snake and white snake, one is Indian style, the other is Arabic style, and the third is Qingyi style of Chinese Peking Opera, which is widely used. Every style is beautiful. Using the expression technique of China traditional Peking Opera, the asymmetrical three long hairpins on the bun outline the gentle and virtuous temperament of the white snake. The combination of white and red reveals joy in silence, which also plays a great role in expressing the characters' hearts and stories. This kind of freehand brushwork modeling well embodies their (snake) essence and shows their dual characters of being both human and demon.

The advantage of freehand brushwork design lies in its strong sense of form and originality, which can highlight and strengthen some characteristics of characters and conform to modern aesthetic concepts. In form, freehand brushwork is not limited by the rules and regulations in historical modeling, and there is a lot of room for free innovation. The novel clothing in Hero did not copy the historical clothing of the Warring States period, but grasped its inner essence and expressed the feeling of the Warring States period. In the modeling of clothing, people will show beautiful modeling effect when walking, and at the same time use color to strengthen their personal characteristics.

The deficiency of freehand brushwork modeling lies in its inconsistency with historical facts and the established figures in the concept. For example, the costume modeling of the controversial new TV series A Dream of Red Mansions (pictured) is exposed as big Baoyu and little Baochai, and many people have a "three-second effect" after watching it, with mixed comments. The first reaction is mostly opera-like, like Kunqu opera, and some even say it's like "green snake". Especially the "forehead makeup", I think this unified "hairstyle" is too eye-catching, but it is difficult to distinguish the faces of Daiyu and Baochai. This is because the descriptions of these characters in the original work and the preconceived images of the characters in the 87th edition of A Dream of Red Mansions are very familiar to the audience, and their images have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. If it is reflected by freehand brushwork, it will contradict the history and the characters in the audience's mind, which is not easy for the audience to accept.

In the process of obtaining the real makeup image, the unity of realism and freehand brushwork is based on the premise of limiting, omitting and compressing realism to a certain extent, that is, "do something, do something." In the designer's mind, all aspects of ordinary natural life that are not suitable for expressing characters have been deleted, and many independent factors that have no natural connection at all have been put on the same image-all the characteristics of different people and nationalities, and all the details of different backgrounds and different environments have been mixed together. Break the original realistic object and present the artistic image rearranged, sorted and organized by designers to the audience. Infiltrated the designer's subjective understanding and artistic feeling. At this time, the superficial truth, that is, the truth of life, retreated to a secondary position, highlighting the designer's cognition and perception of objective things. All kinds of immortals and ghosts created by China makeup master Wang Xizhong for the TV series The Journey to the West (pictured) have become classic images simulating makeup modeling. Examining his creative thinking: the combination of reality and reality and the combination of form and spirit are his consistent design concepts. When Wang Xizhong determined the model for the Monkey King, he repeatedly thought: "Is it more about monkeys or portraits? If it is too much like a monkey, it is not easy to feel beautiful. If it is too much like a human, it has no characteristics of a monkey. After repeated experiments, we found a more suitable point between man and monkey, beauty and ugliness. This is roughly as follows: the nose is like a person, and the mouth is like a monkey, but it is not as big as a monkey's mouth; Eyes like people, forehead like monkeys; Instead of carving wrinkles on the face, we create a certain skin texture according to the texture structure of the human body, and choose the color and density of the golden monkey to design the hairstyle, which adds a certain sense of beauty to the characters. Starting from reality, the designer restored some real features of "Sun Monkey" as an animal, such as hair, mouth shape, forehead and so on. Every place has its origins and details. But for the author, a hero with deep connections, it is not enough to punish evil and promote good. Completely naturalistic reproduction of reality is not only a misunderstanding of the spiritual connotation of the work, but also a joke in the eyes of the audience. So the makeup artist started from the virtual place and extracted the characteristics of human evolution to fill the defects of the monkey image, and the thick makeup made the glorious image of the "Monkey King". In fact, any work of art has extremely high artistic generality and abstraction, and the image of the Monkey King is the best representative. In this novel, demon, man and god are presented in a trinity, among which the most prominent feature is humanization.

For example, "The Princess Rounds the Pearl Three Times" (Figure), the characters in the play give people a refreshing feeling and are also pleasing to the eye. It combines history and reality properly in design, giving full play to realism and freehand brushwork. The women's hair style in the play has changed from the big wings used in the Qing Palace drama. The new hair style is eye-catching, but it is not the hair style of the Qing Dynasty. Gege's flag head is small and lovely, and its headdress is exquisite and fashionable. The tassel worn on the national flag has also become a cloisonne pendant. This shape, which is similar to the flag head but not the flag head, is dignified and exquisite at the same time. These are all excellent designs with appropriate freehand brushwork and innovation under the premise of being loyal to history.

In terms of aesthetic pursuit and artistic expression, the character modeling design of historical dramas in ancient costumes requires highlighting the aesthetic ideal of the times and reappearing the characters in harmony with that historical era, which is against both the tendency of "history for history's sake" and the tendency of historical modernization. Therefore, character modeling design need not stick to simple realism or simple freehand brushwork, but can grasp the degree of both according to the content of the script and the requirements of the play.

Realism and freehand brushwork are the premise of each other, complement each other, and * * * jointly complete the most expressive character modeling.

(Editor Jiang Yuyu)