客家文化電腦動畫「火旁龍」創作論述與Maya nCloth布料運算研究

火旁龍文化為台灣客家文化特有的民俗活動。舞龍是民間的傳統文化，由龍圖騰衍生出舞龍活動。藉由動畫傳達客家傳統之美，運用3D布料運算來模擬布料的運動動態，讓柔軟的舞龍可以不生硬的舞出傳統之美。
客家文化是台灣寶藏。相較於閩南文化，在台灣客家文化是個比較弱勢以及難以保存的文化，台灣以閩南文化為大宗，於環境條件下較不易傳承，文化的傳承及保存成為一個大問題。客家文化之美等著我們去發掘，這份珍貴的文化正需要去保存及傳承。
苗栗火旁龍活動現已與平溪天燈、鹽水蜂炮和台東炸寒單並列為台灣四大元宵活動，有別於其它三項活動，火旁龍是唯一的客家活動。火旁龍是長達一周的元宵活動，活動期間共歷經六項階段，分別為：糊龍、祥龍點睛、迎龍、跈龍、火旁龍及化龍。每個階段接富含文化意義。
動畫是個有效傳達訊息的媒介，利用動畫創作來傳達客家文化使其活潑生動。火旁龍最引人注意的就是聲光效果了，布料運算就是一大重點，在3D軟體Maya中以nCloth (New Cloth)功能來作運算非常適合，藉由nCloth布料運算系統來模擬布料舞動的動態效果讓舞龍更加生動自然。
客家文化值得讓大家認識並傳承，火旁龍文化只是文化中的一小部分，期望能藉由作品來讓觀眾重新認識客家文化，也期望能夠開始對觀眾自己本身的原生文化感到興趣，進而發掘文化之美，傳承下去。

“Bombing The Dragon” is a traditional Hakka festival, also is one of the most important Hakka events of the year. Dragon is a mythological animal that can brings lucky and auspicious future, people developing the “dragon dance” from the dragon totem and wish it can brings the wellbeing back to the people. We wish to spread the beauty of Hakka traditional by 3D animation, use Maya nCloth to simulate the movement of the dragon, make it more vivid and real.
Hakka is the national cultural treasure of Taiwan, compare with the strong culture – Hokkien; it is not easy to conserve. Hakka culture is waiting to be discovered, it needs to be conserve and transmit.
“Bombing the Dragon” is one of the Lantern Festival activities, the others are “Flying Lanterns”, “Bombing Lord Handan” and “Feng pao”. “Bombing the Dragon” is the only Hakka culture activity. It has 6 stages over one week. The 6 stages are “Pasting the dragons”, “Dotting the dragon’s eyes”, “Welcome the dragon”, “Walk with the Dragon”, “Bombing the dragon” and “Send the dragon back to the heaven”. Every stage has mounts of culture content.
Animation is effective way to connect with audiences; it can present Hakka culture lively. “Bombing the Dragon” is attractive due to the sound and light effect, so dynamic simulation of cloth is very important. The nCloth system (New Cloth) of Maya is very useful. It will make the simulation more vivid and real of the dragon dance.
Hakka culture is deserved to learn and transmit, “Bombing the Dragon” is only one part of it. We hope that audience not only learn the Hakka culture by this animation, but also get interested in their own culture, and then found the beauty of it.