FENG YONGBIN/CHINA DAILY
Students from Jilin Animation Institute in Changchun, Jilin province, are busy in an animation studio of the institute.
FENG YONGBIN/CHINA DAILY
A worker with the institute's animation industry zone displays the interactive technology between human and TV screen.
Yue is one of near 900 students in the animation department, where about 60 are majoring in model making. It costs him about 20,000 yuan ($3,314) every year to study at the institute. If he had attended a public university, his tuition fees would have been only about 5,000 yuan.
Many students think it's worth the price and the effort because they will not find it hard to get a job after graduation. Companies in the animation and games industry come to the institute to recruit twice a year.
Making an animated film involves a broad spectrum of skills and the 3-D digital animation that Yue was involved in is only a small part of the production effort that finally makes it to the big screen.
The Frog Kingdom tells the adventure of a frog princess and her partner and how they go through the trials and tribulations of winning back a country taken away by enemies.
The director is Nelson Shin, who has produced iconic animations such as The Simpsons and Transformers.
With a total investment of nearly 50 million yuan, the film needs box-office takings of 120 million yuan to generate a profit.
However, as of Jan 20, ticket takings are less than 30 million yuan, according to Zhao Bin, deputy general manager of the production company Vixo.
"In terms of technology and visual art, we have to go a little distance more, compared to our Western counterparts. What we lack is the knowledge of how to tell a good story," Zhao says.
The Frog Kingdom is still "testing the waters" of the 3-D animation market, Zhao says, as the company and the institute make efforts to establish their own brand in China.
Although they have invited directors and scriptwriters from the West to participate in the production process, it is still a Chinese company making the film, Zhao says. Many plots are drawn from Chinese classics, such as The Art of War, an ancient military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu (544-496 BC).
But while more and more directors from the West are turning to China to find inspiration, especially after the success of Mulan and Kung Fu Panda, the Chinese, says Zhao, are very cautious.
"We want to produce good animation on our own. We're already working in the right direction," Zhao says.
Even as The Frog Kingdom is still on screen, production on the sequel has already started and related games and merchandise have been released.
Zhao is confident about the future of made-in-China animation, especially when he has the support network of a major animation institute, with more than 10,000 students working in studios of their own.
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