Chapter 258 - 256: Slam Dunk?

Chapter 258: Chapter 256: Slam Dunk?

Ever since Li Weiya arrived in the Imperial Capital, Jiang Xia’s life had become much easier. Aside from his classes, he spent his days holed up in his dorm drawing storyboards. Life was relatively peaceful.

Occasionally, he would gather Su Qing and Luo Peng for a small meeting to review the key frames they were currently drawing and discuss the nuances of Tom and Jerry’s behavior in various situations.

In addition, the two of them would repeatedly watch the released episodes of the *Cat and Mouse* animation, studying the core of the popular show. In this environment, their drawing skills improved by leaps and bounds, and they were at least able to accurately express the effects Jiang Xia required.

By the end of September, all the storyboards for the fourth season of *Cat and Mouse* were finished. At the same time, good news came from Li Weiya’s end.

The office facilities and equipment were basically set up, and they had hired most of the necessary technical staff. Many key positions were filled by people with extensive work experience, and the total number of people in the company’s group chat had reached 28.

In other words, Qitian Animation could start work at any time.

At the same time, Li Weiya posted a new announcement in the group chat: the official start date would be after the National Day holiday, with the company opening for business on October 8th.

This was a decision Jiang Xia had made after some thought. Since it was a national holiday, he wanted to let everyone enjoy their vacation first. They could use this time to take care of any of the company’s unfinished business.

After the last class before the National Day holiday, Jiang Xia drove Lin Yanwan toward Tsinghua Science Park.

"Babe, the procedures for the company’s relocation should be almost done, right?"

"Mhm, it’s already in the final review stage. We should be able to get the business license right after the National Day holiday," Lin Yanwan said with a nod.

"That’s good."

Half an hour later, the two arrived smoothly at Tsinghua Science Park. They took the elevator to the 15th floor, and a few steps inside was the Qitian Animation Company.

The office was a world apart from what it had been a week ago. Pushing open the glass door revealed the front desk. The wall behind it featured a backlit panel with "Qitian Animation" displayed in an artistic font, along with a minimalist logo representing the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, which gave it a high-end feel.

Seeing Jiang Xia and Lin Yanwan walk in, the receptionist immediately stood up and said, "Hello, President Jiang."

Although she had only been on the job for two days, she knew that the real boss of Qitian Animation wasn’t Li Weiya, who had hired her, but the college student in front of her, who was also the true creator of *Cat and Mouse*.

"Sister Liu, is Director Li in?"

"Yes, she’s at her workstation," Liu Xinyue said.

Jiang Xia nodded lightly and walked past the reception area into the main hall. The hall was now divided into several areas by partitioned desks. Each desk was equipped with a computer, and on the cabinets lining the walls were several Tom and Jerry figurines. Corresponding posters hung on the walls. At a glance, it at least looked the part of an animation studio for *Cat and Mouse*.

Of course, the office wasn’t yet brimming with anime elements. According to Jiang Xia’s vision, there should at least be a pair of Tom and Jerry models at the main entrance, and the interior furnishings could also be designed to replicate the animation as much as possible. However, all of this required custom orders and would take time.

But Jiang Xia was already very satisfied that they could set up the office to look like this in just a few days.

At that moment, Li Weiya was drawing a scene for the third season. She only put down her pen when she saw Jiang Xia and Lin Yanwan, and she shot him a resentful look.

"You only come here twice a week. Are you the boss, or am I?"

"Hehe, with you here, Godmom, I’d just get in the way if I came around. It’s better for me to stay in my dorm and draw more storyboards," Jiang Xia said with a laugh.

As he spoke, he handed all the storyboards to Li Weiya. "These are for the third and fourth seasons. I’ve labeled each episode. They’re all done."

Li Weiya took them and looked through them patiently for a while. It was the same old flavor; the storyboards for every episode were outstanding. She couldn’t help but marvel. ’Doesn’t this guy ever hit a creative wall? How does he come up with so many interesting ideas?’

After a quick scan, she placed the storyboards on the table and nodded. "Okay. Once we officially start work on October 8th, we can pretty much begin production."

"About how long will it take to produce one episode?"

Li Weiya thought for a moment and said, "If all departments cooperate smoothly, one season in a month and a half should be about right. Excluding holidays, it would be less than two months. Of course, if you want it faster, we can go a little faster."

A season had 12 episodes, which meant they could churn out an episode in roughly five days. Even though each episode was less than seven minutes long, that was still an incredible pace.

And this was after Jiang Xia had increased the animation quality to "on twos," which meant the number of key frames per episode had increased substantially compared to before.

Now that the company had a complete team, everyone had their own duties. After receiving the storyboards, the key animators would pass their work to the in-betweeners, who would then hand it off for coloring. This was followed by the corresponding cinematography and editing, and finally, the music and sound design. It was like an assembly line, and the efficiency was worlds beyond what it used to be.

"No need. This efficiency is great. It’s okay if production is a little slow; the main thing is to improve the quality. We need to show the public that after our company started making money, we’re really spending it where it counts."

With a good reputation, audiences would be more willing to buy into Qitian Animation’s new works in the future.

Li Weiya nodded. She felt the same way. No matter how good an animation’s content was, quality was king. If they excessively pursued production speed, leading to distorted visuals, they would not only get scolded but also cause many of their original fans to abandon the show.

The gain would not be worth the loss.

"In that case, the storyboards for these two seasons are enough to keep the company running normally until next year. What are your plans next? Are you planning to continue hiring and expand the company, or what?"

Normally, a studio that had just been reorganized would need a period of settling in and team building, but there was no stopping the sheer speed at which this guy drew storyboards.

He had finished two seasons of storyboards in a single month, including the time he was in military training. To keep up with his pace, they had no choice but to hire more people. This was a source of exasperation for Li Weiya.

In all her years in the industry, she had never seen a freak like Jiang Xia.

"There’s no rush to expand. Let’s focus on stabilizing things for now."

At the end of the day, the company wouldn’t officially be open for business until October 8th. During that time, people might still quit, affecting the work progress. These were all unstable factors.

Expanding blindly would only do more harm than good.

"Okay."

"But I might temporarily shift my focus to another animation," Jiang Xia said, pursing his lips.

Li Weiya’s eyebrows shot up. ’Another animation?’

’Jeez, one *Cat and Mouse* isn’t enough for him? He wants to work on two projects at once?’

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I’m planning to start another animation. Hmm... it’ll be a hot-blooded school sports theme, with each episode being about 24 minutes long," Jiang Xia said after a moment of thought.

Hearing this, Lin Yanwan, who was standing beside them, blurted out reflexively.

"*Slam Dunk*?"