Shandong Animation Industry Expands Reach with Tech and Cultural Heritage
Shandong's animation sector is using regional cultural heritage and advanced digital technologies to expand its national footprint. On World Animation Day, October 28, the province’s creative hubs highlighted a production strategy that blends traditional stories with modern studio workflows.
Decades of IP Development Across Shandong
The province’s modern animation roots trace back to the 1990s adventure series Haier Brothers, produced by the Haier Group. Thirty years later, the sequel Haier Brothers: Deep Sea Voyage secured selection as a national radio and television priority animation project, establishing a continuity that underpins current studio slates across Jinan, Qingdao, Jining, Zibo, and Heze.
Recent projects adapt historical figures and regional folklore through distinct visual mediums. A Jinan team produced a stop-motion short titled Li Qingzhao using traditional intangible cultural heritage dough-sculpting techniques to recreate the Song Dynasty poet. In Jining, MeiHou Animation adapted passages from the Analects and stories of Mencius into serialized educational shorts.
Industrial Collaboration on Major Studio Productions
Shandong studios have integrated into the supply chains of large-scale domestic features by starting as subcontracting houses for high-end character rigging, hair simulation, and digital asset creation.
A startup team of returning youth in the Heze Luxi New Area completed character hair and clothing dynamic calculation work for the box-office feature Ne Zha 2, spending nearly three months refining a 90-second sequence. In Jinan’s Changqing Innovation Valley, Shandong New Vision Digital contributed hundreds of digital assets to two Ne Zha films, iterating a single digital weapon model across 200 versions over 18 months. In Qingdao, Xiao Cui Animation participated in background and supporting character production for the animated feature Deep Sea.
Technology Integration in Regional Production
Production houses across the province are deploying artificial intelligence generation tools, virtual digital humans, cloud rendering pipelines, and optical motion capture systems to accelerate output while retaining local narrative themes.
Jining-based Doushen Animation constructed the Approaching Confucius immersive virtual reality space, which has been deployed in cultural tourism and study-tour locations across more than ten provinces. In Qingdao, Dison Star established a professional motion capture stage at the Oriental Movie Metropolis facility to support projects such as Monkey King: Hero Is Back 2.
Following technical work on external blockbusters, Heze studios transitioned internal teams toward local cultural properties, producing AI-generated shorts like Ode to Peony and archaeological micro-dramas. This shift from pure contract manufacturing to proprietary storytelling marks the current trajectory of Shandong’s digital creative economy.
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