Practice notes _ Supervisor Meeting 02/19
- issac zhang
- Feb 18
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 19
Why do I need to keep training LoRA?
I aim to explore the expression of Chinese aesthetics in motion. So, I selected the Chinese traditional woodblock prints as the primary research object, specifically taking Tantou woodblock print as the case study by doing fieldwork to explore the characteristics and attributes of conventional woodblock prints' arts and crafts.
However, I found barriers for modern people to recreate old prints with Chinese aesthetics after I analysed and compared the old prints' visual characteristics with the contemporary illustrations or prints, such as forms, lines, colour, designs, etc., which is where Chinese aesthetics are.
So, we can solve this problem by training LoRa after composing a dataset for LoRa from ancient printed books that can date hundreds of years. It could objectively distil its visual characteristics with strong Chinese aesthetics but without the limitation of intrinsic personal favour or drawing habits within every single person.
Also, the AI animation workflow is not similar to the traditional animation workflow. The idea and good quality of the dataset decide the quality of outputs. So, Continuously collecting and selecting visual materials for LoRA updates is essential for achieving better results.
A recent sample was generated by Kling within 3 minutes.
What is the idea of my animation? Qi-gong 气功
I am fascinated by designs and animations that evoke a retro feel, much like the Dream core, which stirs my memories of the past and inspires my imagination about that time period. I also notice similarities in people's perceptions of ancient China and early modern China, often sparked by materials such as photographs or books. Additionally, images generated by Lora, utilizing data from the Traditional Chinese Printed Books dataset, can serve as a powerful stimulus for igniting the imagination of earlier eras.
After I reviewed and selected from hundreds of books, I found the topic of ancient books that contained visual information that could be used for training LoRA are mainly focused on the following topics:
1. medicine
2. Military
3. Superstitious& Religion(Daoist, Buddism)
4. others, such as the Confucian classic or fiction
Those printed books can be seen as representations of ancient Chinese people's cosmic or world views, which arouses my interest in combining all of these enjoyable visual elements without going beyond my research scope: Chinese aesthetics.
Concerning the story of my animation. I think Qi-gong 气功 is the perfect topic for connecting the modern audience with ancient aesthetics to create a retro illusion feeling as the natural blender that concludes with such issues as superstitious belief, religion, Kongfu, medicine, and cosmology, which are also common in ancient printed books.
Qi-gong 气功, as an inheritor of traditional Chinese culture, integrates various elements such as traditional Chinese cosmology, martial arts, religious beliefs and superstitions, as well as supernatural sciences. it is a part of the Chinese people's collective memory. It was a trend supported by celebrities and authorities that was well-recognized by families during the 1980s and 1990s. This trend led to some absurd events, such as people believing they could get superpowers if they learned Qi-gong. or Da-shi (大师, meaning "the master") selling the Xinxi Pot (信息锅, meaning "information pot") to the uninformed public. Because People believed they would receive beneficial energy from the universe by placing the pot on their heads as a receiver of universal energy.
Lastly, Qi-gong 气功 mixes people's imagination of the 1980s and 1990s, the start of China's open policy, represented a vigorous era in modern China, held a special place in modern Chinese memory and disappeared in the river of time because of its attributes of antiscience. However, the imagination within this topic is suitable for creating an interesting animation.
Exploring the Reception, Transmission, and Externalization of Human Bodily Information
Research on the Material Basis of Qigong 'External Qi': Preliminary Experimental Results on Particle Flow
What will this final animation installation look like？
1. notes after watching Bill Brand's work After researching and analysing the New York artist's work, MASSTRANSISCOPE, and Xubing‘s work， Sun Xun‘s work.
I developed a similar idea featuring a total of hundreds of frames at 12 frames per second and printing these frames out in the form of scroll painting and also displaying them on displayers. The purpose of this approach is to allow audiences to view both the scroll painting and the moving images displayed on the screen. This combination will help convey my intended message about the connection between ancient and modern art and the remediation of traditional artistic forms.
I want to create an animation in a single-coloured （for time-saving） minimalist line style that feels both ancient and mysterious, similar to an old martial arts manual.
The main focus is on finalizing the storyboard details to ensure that the final printed scroll-like book appears as a genuine sacred text, even though it is fictional.
The story/the form/visual will resemble a book or manual, with a storyline reminiscent of 80s-90s commercials.
Reflective Notes about its rough ideas
The style Sketch/Form reference from an ancient printed book
What have I done so far？
1. Sketches/storyboard V1？
Story Board V1?
The animation will be divided into three chapters.
The first chapter explains the principles of Qigong, focusing on concepts like the unity of heaven and man, yin and yang, the scientific basis of how the body emits energy, and how practising Qigong can change cells and external molecules.
The second chapter details the specific steps of practising Qigong.
The third chapter demonstrates the effects, such as remote object manipulation and healing.
Sketch
2. Dataset preparation for LoRA Training
3. Technique testing
Laser cutting is much faster than 3D printing after I consulted some professionals in Helix and the studio in the school of design.
What is my plan for the next step？
Roadmap：
Idea- storyboard - New Lora training – style frame – AI animation generation – compositing – print – final
What will I provide in the next meeting?
Storyboard_V2 （TBD）
Final Style frames
several LoRAs and Visual test images
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