Obari's cube

Little piece of animation I did for Steve's enhancement session on squashing and stretching . Though sketchy , I absolutely enjoyed making this , as I provided me with a chance to practice more anime techniques , particularly those features in fight scenes like the Obari's cube ground explosion or warp and blasts, all the while keeping true to the task goal's of producing squash and stretch . With this I feel like I'm really starting to improve on timing and knowing how to create force and weight using camera movements. I also starting to move away from  straight ahead animating to a more conventional keyframe animation , which has been very useful in the point prior. Overall , very happy with what Im doing right now , considering the fact that when I entered uni I was pretty new to this

Ceramic induction 2 : Tape and clay

With the wireframe done and the foam applied for structural support , I began to tape everything up to make it more durable as well as building a surface for the clay to stick on- creating a mummy like creature in the process. After that came the most challenging part of the build : the modelling . Now, I did an entire blog on how 2D-oriented designs like those of anime don't really translate well onto  3D and it certainly shows at this stage. However , I did my best to deal with it and I have to say that what I did with the character's face is pretty decent , looking good in both 3D and similar to my 2D designs. The hardest thing to get was the eyes , as it is a very small indentation, with a curve surface for the eyeball itself , so I had to really get in there with the smaller tools. The clay itself is pretty tricky to use as it id very soft and picks up a lot of small accidental movement that creates blemishes in the model. I find that having something thats a bit harder would be more suiting for my liking . For what I have done in this session though , I'm very happy , the character is looking great and just need some final touch up in the face to be perfect !.

Ceramic induction : Wire frame

Ceramic induction was a pleasant surprise today , as I didn't t think I would enjoy it as much , being much of a 2D person myself. The construction of the wire frame was pretty straight forward done by just bending aluminium wires together. However, actually twisting the wire was interesting , using the power drill and all. I decided to do my character from Visual language, because of that , I had to alter the feet size to balance the large head, and also to put in the nut and bolt at the bottom of the feet . Overall , really please with the result of this skeleton and the feel of the figure as a whole. Handling the wire was tricky as first but as I got used to it it became easier. Really looking forward to the next step of modelling my character on top

Cuberrush : ARTWAR

Over the past month , I decided to join the character design competition held by the website : Cuberbrush. Our brief for the 2D section was, choosing either a theme of sci-fi or fantasy , create a hero design, showing front and back and then from that create an piece of illustration depicting him/her in a scene. If Im honest with myself I joined mostly for the grand prize of a wacom cintiq and 1000$, but at the end of it , I had lots of great experience, as well as a chance to see so many other talented artists and their works while also having major improvements of my own. This brief is interesting as its very much like a Visual language brief I would get here in uni, where you have to shows some evidence of design development like rough sketch and character sheets. And by having people do this, I managed to catch some glimpse of the techniques used by other artists in their process, especially this technique of blocking out shapes and overall silhouettes as the first step of designing the character - its a fast and very creative way of building as it doesnt limit character ideas to lines already, meaning you can experiment more. As for myself , I stuck to my anime roots , designing a character that is very much a portrayal of Japanese aesthetic : a futuristic samurai - balancing the future with tradition ,much like the country itself. I used lots of reference : particularly actual samurai armour and the Raiden character from Metal gear rising. For the painting technique itself, this was a major improvement for me in terms of level of detail and background work . Overall Im really happy with the final product and the experience overall. Finger crossed for that prize !

https://forums.cubebrush.co/t/art-war-2d-yuuji-takeda-dishwasher1910/2622/6

 

character sheet

 Final illustration

PPP presentation: CGI use in anime

 Starting on this, we first touch on CGI's domination in western animation with reasons as followed :

Toy story by Pixar sets the foundation for other CGI movie in how it should look and feel , which other studios would learn from and implement in their own production .

Success of Toy stories also led to higher public interest in new CGI technology => influence the choice of studio switching over to 3D. Eventually, 3D has dominate so much that is consider a norm form of animation, especially with the new generation being brought up in a world that is incline more toward technological aesthetic ( i.e the gaming scenes and realistic graphics and explosive visual ) hence, the subtle manner in Western 2D animation just doesn’t do it anymore.

 In Japan, there was no Toy stories hence there was no public interest in new forms of tech nor template for studio to pursuit , adding on top of that a massive 2D culture where things like manga and anime have a higher social appeal – being  geared toward a wider audience not just children.

Japanese appreciation for craftsmanship and storytelling : Miyazaki and Ghibli => put anime in higher regard. + more dynamic actions and visual help it makes much more of an impact.

 However CGI did have roles in anime. Many CGI technology are used in backgrounds and specific sequences for artistic and practical uses. On top of that most anime since the 2000 have been drawn digitally. However , it played more of a support role for traditional method rather than replacing them.

More ambitious attempts at fully CGI animated met with mixed review and generally lies in the Gaming industries more than anime. However, it did prove of Japan’s ability in digital technology , showing that the reason why CGI has not caught on is because lack of tech

Reason is that the studio themselves understand the anime’s audience appeal toward 2D that has already been established ( which could also be a part of a return of interest in more practical and hands-on method of production in film) which led to a confusion of purpose for CGI production where they aim to look as 2D as possible.

 There is  interest in this idea as well from the West, culminating in the short Paperman which shows it could work very well . However, the method of production is vastly different as “Paperman” were very experimental in nature and only used as a proof of concept . Japanese studio lacks the budget and proper development time for such technologies. Therefore they’d sticks to more conventional methods like cell shading and other   deliberately slowing down the framerate to match the typical anime frame rate => to feel more anime. This works when the animation is 2D with CGI background , but full CGI animations suffers from problems.

 What I feel is important for Japanese animator to understand is that CGI can work well as a supportive role in animation ie Visual effects or background that helps to enhance the 2D visuals rather than replacing it , all the while attaining an artistic level of its own , as proven by shows like Ghost in the Shell , Attack on Titan and Fate.  So, why not just stick to it first ? Besides whats the point of using CGI , if youre not going to use all is functionalities