Big Panda v Little Rabbit tale hits screens

As well as many domestic animation works and online games, TH1 has helped Sony Pictures render two animated movies - Tekken: Blood Vengeance and Residential Evil: Regeneration.

Nearby, in the green surrounds of the Motion Capture Room, two men in green-dotted black body-stockings are performing various movement routines. Around them, 24 digital cameras capture their movements and the data are transferred to a computer. On its screen two animated characters standing in a street are going through the same motions. The system can carry out real-time capture, real-time coloring and 3-D rendering of the face and body.

In a bigger studio, 48 cameras can capture six people's movements simultaneously. The hardware is Avatar standard, a technician boasts.

These cutting-edge facilities are supported in the NAIP by the Public Technical Service Platform, which covers 10,000 square meters, and includes studios for viewing, recording and channel mixing.

Due to government support, the hiring cost for the recording studio is a mere 300 yuan an hour if anyone wanted to lay down some music tracks.

Companies are also busy here developing their own technology. Fufengda Films, based in downtown Tianjin, has come up with a system to transfer 2-D films to 3-D. The company has 50 patents.

Such advances are attracting customers from the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada.

"If everything goes smoothly, the orders in 2013 will triple last years' value, reaching 300 million yuan," said Fufengda chairman Liu Yong.

Vasoon Animation, based in Beijing, has set up shop in Tianjin's animation park with 70 employees. Like Tianjin North Film Group, Vasoon also took a beating from Kung Fu Panda 2 in the summer of 2011, when its first animated movie Kuiba screened. The investment was 35 million yuan but domestic box office was only 3.5 million yuan.

However, Vasson has dusted itself down and, undeterred, is working on a sequel.

"Apart from the story, the biggest difference for this one is we have applied a technology to three-dimensionalize two-dimensional pictures, which was developed by ourselves," said Wang Chuan, president of the company.

"The quality of the Kuiba 2 is also better than the first movie because over the years we have accumulated knowledge and experience."

But as well as competition with other countries' movie industries, there is also much cooperation.

"We are now negotiating with a Hollywood team that took part in Avatar," said Jiang Jian, deputy general manager of Tianjin Eco-city Animation Park Investment and Development Co Ltd, which manages the NAIP. "We hope they can give us some inspiring guidelines so we can introduce advanced concepts and technologies."

Last October, Yellow Mountain (Tianjin) Film decided to build the world's largest virtual digital studios in the park, with an investment of 120 million yuan for the first stage of the project. There will be six digital studios, each occupying 1,500 sq m.