Chapter 263 - 260: National Day Training (Part 2)

Chapter 263: Chapter 260: National Day Training (Part 2)

Wang Ming couldn’t help but scratch his head. "What I was thinking was, if there’s a dedicated person delivering milk, it means Tom’s owner lives in a relatively populated area."

Faced with Jiang Xia’s skeptical gaze, Wang Ming deflated, his confidence faltering. "Okay, fine. It’s not."

"Why don’t you try a different approach? Use perspective to lay out the scene. The main point of view is Tom’s house, with other houses in the distance. The early morning sun is just rising, which gives you an opportunity to play with light and shadow. Then, the camera slowly pans until Tom’s house nearly fills the entire frame."

Hearing this, Wang Ming’s eyes lit up. As Jiang Xia described it, the scene began to take shape in his mind, frame by frame.

Seeing the look of dawning comprehension on his face, Jiang Xia smiled. "Can you picture it now?"

"I’ve got it. I’ll sketch it out for you to see. If it’s not right, I’ll change it."

Wang Ming took a sheet of animation paper and sat back down to revise his work, his expression completely focused.

Jiang Xia smiled faintly. ’He’d always said Wang Ming had a talent for animation directing. With just a few pointers, he was already getting the hang of it. Although he still had a long, long way to go to meet his standards, there was plenty of time. He could learn gradually; he’d get there eventually.’

About ten minutes later, Wang Ming presented his new storyboard, but one look was all it took for Jiang Xia to shake his head.

"You’ve got the right feel, but the perspective is off."

"How so?"

Jiang Xia took the script again, pointing at the text and speaking bluntly.

"The script is a continuous narrative, so the visuals have to be continuous too. You can’t just focus on the beginning and ignore what comes next. Look at the description that follows—Tom’s act of stealing the milk is supposed to be sneaky. But what did you draw? A shot aimed directly at the front door? Are you telling me Tom is just going to openly walk out the door and grab it?"

"How can you call that stealing?!"

As he said this, Jiang Xia looked at Wang Ming, his voice rising unconsciously. It was clear he was calling him out on a rookie mistake.

"Besides, the ’sneaky’ part also implies something important: Tom’s owner is very strict. If Tom gets caught stealing milk, he could get thrown out of the house. These details were already established in the first two seasons."

"Uh... I think I get it."

"Go on."

"Since he’s stealing, he must get the milk through some other means. Like through a mouse hole Jerry made, but that obviously wouldn’t be right for this scene. But considering the script mentions a window, we could set it up so..."

Wang Ming took his pen and sketched a few quick lines on the paper. They were both artists; one glance was enough for them to understand what the lines represented.

"A basement window." He drew a small, cross-paned square in the lower-left corner of the doorway. "The milkman leaves the milk at the front door, and Tom pushes open the basement window to swipe a bottle without anyone noticing."

"Go on," Jiang Xia said, nodding.

Seeing that Jiang Xia didn’t object, Wang Ming grew bolder. "Our protagonist is Tom, so the camera angle should be focused on that basement window. It would be a low-angle, upward-tilted shot, so you can see part of the door and the milk bottles in front of it."

"So, the main elements in the frame would just be a portion of the owner’s house, the milkman—whose face we don’t need to see—and the basement window Tom is sneaking out of."

After finishing his explanation, Wang Ming looked at Jiang Xia cautiously, afraid he would once again say it was wrong.

"Now *that’s* a great analysis."

Jiang Xia clapped Old Wang on the shoulder. "As an animation director, you have to learn how to extract the key elements from the script. For a relatively simple animation like *Cat and Mouse*, keeping it simple is paramount. Just follow the train of thought you have now and keep drawing. I’m not going to walk you through it line by line anymore. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. In fact, you *should* make mistakes. Go ahead and fall into every trap. What’s left at the end will be success."

"Yeah!" Wang Ming nodded emphatically. ’Getting a word of encouragement out of this guy really isn’t easy.’

"Alright, let’s eat first. We can get back to work after."

Li Weiya watched this exchange, a smile unconsciously touching her lips. ’She had thought her son would have trouble adjusting to his new role, but he was picking it up surprisingly fast. Of course, she couldn’t deny that it was because Jiang Xia was a good teacher.’

’Even at university, you wouldn’t find a professor who would teach so hands-on. Most importantly, Jiang Xia was letting Wang Ming practice on a real, live project. You couldn’t get that kind of opportunity anywhere else.’

A little while later, Lin Yanwan came up from a restaurant downstairs with four boxed lunches. They were all shredded pork with green peppers. The restaurant owner must have been thrilled to get such a simple order.

"I got the phone numbers for a few restaurant owners. From now on, we can just call and order whatever we want, and they’ll deliver it right to our door."

Lin Yanwan handed out the lunch boxes. She’d specifically requested that the restaurant pack the rice and the main dish separately so it wouldn’t get mushy by the time they finished eating.

"That’s a great idea. Starting tomorrow, we can all order what we want. We’ll get to try more dishes that way." Jiang Xia picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. He was starving after the long morning.

"We can, but the company lunch stipend is only fifteen yuan per person. Anything over that, you’ll have to pay for yourself," Lin Yanwan said with a grin.

She was in charge of the company’s finances now. A huge amount of money had recently been spent on renovating the recording studio and purchasing equipment. It was no exaggeration to say they were spending money like water. Before she knew it, nearly a million yuan was gone. The transaction alerts alone made her heart ache.

"Uh... Boss Lady," Jiang Xia began, his face a mask of seriousness, "logically speaking, we’re working overtime, right? None of the other employees are here, just a few of us dedicated souls. So, shouldn’t we be getting triple pay for this, as per national regulations?"

Hearing him call her "Boss Lady" in front of Li Weiya, Lin Yanwan’s face flushed red. She shot him a harsh glare and retorted, "You want triple pay? Why don’t you ask for the moon while you’re at it? Godmother already sent out the announcement: everyone is on vacation for the National Day holiday. You’re the one who decided to work overtime, so no, there’s no extra pay."

"Fine, no overtime pay. But at least let me eat something nice," he grumbled under his breath.

Watching the two of them bicker, Li Weiya just smiled silently. ’The young couple’s relationship is so good,’ she thought. ’Looks like I’ll be attending a wedding as soon as they graduate. I just wonder when I’ll get to hold my god-grandson.’

’Then there’s my son... sigh, he doesn’t even have a girlfriend yet. Shen Ying seems like a nice girl, but I think they’re just friends. I wonder if there’s any chance of setting them up.’

’But children have to make their own way in life. I won’t interfere too much with how Wang Ming finds a girlfriend. As long as the girl truly cares for my son, that’s all that matters.’

After lunch, they all took a short break to let their food settle. Wang Ming didn’t go back to his storyboards, but sat to one side, carefully mulling over everything Jiang Xia had just explained to him.

He had learned a great deal.

「That afternoon」

The people from the recording studio design and renovation company Li Weiya had contacted arrived. They surveyed the Qitian Animation Company office space and decided to convert the conference room and an adjacent office into the recording studio. The total area would be over seventy square meters, taking up roughly a quarter of the entire office.

Jiang Xia felt it was a decent size, though perhaps even a little on the small side.

After all, the audio department was one of the company’s most vital divisions, and it would need to accommodate a large number of people, including voice actors, music supervisors, and sound engineers.

Moreover, during recording sessions, the animation director and art supervisor would often need to be present. Add to that all the recording equipment, speakers, mixing consoles, and so on—if the studio wasn’t big enough, it would feel incredibly cramped during actual use.

Everyone knows that an animation’s quality is truly brought to life through its combination of dialogue, BGM, and sound effects.

In other words, without Lin Yanwan’s brilliant voice work, the *Cat and Mouse* they were producing would be nothing.

Therefore, the progress on the recording studio was now Jiang Xia’s absolute top priority.

The renovation company didn’t give a quote right off the bat. Instead, after taking detailed measurements, they planned to provide a design blueprint first, and then decide on the appropriate building materials.

Jiang Xia nodded in agreement. As for materials, he only wanted the best. He had only one requirement: the studio’s acoustics had to be perfect. From sound capture to soundproofing and noise reduction, there could be no flaws.