202508Supervision Meeting

issac zhang
Aug 19, 2025
3 min read

Outcomes

Writing

Table of contents Intro： Glossary of terms: My research spans multiple subjects, so it inevitably involves a wide range of carefully defined terms.

Methodology part： I take PaR and autoethnography as my top-tier methodology, and then I mixed other methods： case study、 field work、visual analysis, 、AI. Every method has its role, as I explained in my methodology part.

Literature review： I separate my literature review into two parts， one of which mainly focuses on discussing Chinese aesthetics and aesthetics within Chinese prints， as Tantou prints are a legitimate inheritor of Chinese aesthetics.

Chinese aesthetics |

Chinese popular prints |

Tantou prints(case study& fieldwork)

Another one of the focus points is discussing remediating static prints to animation, using the Chinese academic school of animation as a case study to explore how traditional media are animated and then， through theoretical multi-facet frameworks from animation， woodblock prints, 、media theory to demonstrate the theoretical feasibility of animating prints.

Practice Outcomes： AI animating prints are a brand-new research topic in the related field, which means outcomes can not be productive and efficient， but rather need to be explored and experimented with step by step under a clear road map. So, this chapter needs to show how my final animation comes from an iterative creative process.

Writing draft_202508

Pratice

如果分开我的研究对象ancient Chinese woodblock prints这个词组，我们基本可以

把这个词组分成两个大类： aesthetic组，即有着ancient Chinese aesthetic。和craft一类别，即woodblock prints。craft level的直接artifact产物-digital matrices是符合中国学术界对于prints的定义：indirectness和mutiplicity，用一个具有间接性的可无限复制的母板进行复制、大规模生产图像。

My research subject, the term ancient Chinese woodblock prints, can largely be divided the phrase into two categories:

The aesthetic group（'ancient Chinese'）, which possesses the aesthetic of my research subject.
The craft category which refers to woodblock prints.

The outputs of the craft level—the digital matrices—align with the Chinese academic definition of prints: indirectness and multiplicity. which means prints involve using an indirect reproducible matrix to replicate multiple images.

这个月我关注于craft level of woodblock prints这方面的工作，具体来说是想测试用AI生成的代码脚本（我称之为digital matrices），看看能不能把AI生成的动画序列帧直接转换成激光打印机可用的文件，以方便用于直接激光雕刻母板出来，用来制作动画。

This month, my focus was on the craft level of woodblock prints. Specifically, I sought to test a code script generated by AI, which I called digital matrices, to see if I could directly convert AI-generated animation frame sequences into files usable by a laser printer. and then print it out to see if this would facilitate laser engraving of the matrices for woodblock print animation production.

Qigong Animation image sequences files for laser cut

第一版的激光雕刻木板测试由于文件的格式问题和数值设置的问题导致了线条边缘有着很明显锯齿。

The first version of the laser-engraved woodblock test resulted in very noticeable serrated edges on the lines due to issues with file format and numerical settings.

这个是接下来的几版效果。

从实物可以看出，AI生成的画面经过我的digital matrices转化过后的木板在滩头产的手工竹纸上印制出来的效果是很接近原生的手工印刷品的。

不过仍旧因为木材的差别，印刷出来的颜色会有一些颗粒状的纹样。

Here are the results from the subsequent versions.

As the physical prints show, the images generated by AI, once converted by my digital matrices and then printed on handmade bamboo paper from Tantou, produce an effect that is very close to that of native, handmade prints（prints on the right side）.

However, due to the variation in the wood material, the printed colours still have a granular texture.