LunaCSunshine's Blog

Anime Relations: Akagami no Shirayuki-hime

My brother's been getting me into this show tonight while I'm visiting my parents (Akagami no Shirayuki-hime)…really beautiful drawings for the characters…very few inconsistencies, too. Also gotta love the backgrounds…nicely complimented by a particle system or the occasional lens flare…very nicely done. I especially love the CONSTANT use of parallax so that everything feels like it carries more depth.

On a side note…just got a ton of work done lately…and it's in animation too. Most of my paid freelance gigs have been in more film than animation as of late so I was pretty pleased to also pick up an additional paid motion graphics gig with my producer from those earlier film gigs. Turns out, a lot of film guys just don't know any animators and they really need one! That's what I'm here for! ^_^

Recently I finished off a 3 panel digital illustration…I'll probably post all three eventually somewhere but here's the first shot.

Had a lot of fun with this one…I'm getting pretty proficient with materials and lighting so this was more of a fun piece than any particular challenge. The bump map on the carpet wasn't really working out the way I wanted to (because it came off as more tiled than organic) so I took it into Mudbox so I can sculpt it a normal map with a custom brush I made from importing a blue carpet texture. All in all, I spent more time putting off rigging and posing the characters than messing with the environment. This overall took me about a month of work because I was so busy doing two Motion Graphics projects a week in additional to a minute phone commercial that involved shooting videos and compositing in some visual effects. That and like I've said, I'm balancing some freelance film gigs on the side to help get some additional experience. Mostly filming documentaries for Netflix or being an extra in some promotional commercials…the latter of which I hate because I'm an animator and it's more appropriate for me to be behind the camera than in front of it.

Can't wait to get into a new anime though…I'd like to watch something less depressing though…a lot of stuff I've been seeing is ridiculously gritty (I get it, gritty is really hot right now!) but I just wanna chill and relax when I'm NOT animating for once, haha. If anyone can recommend me something fun and light-hearted, go ahead!

Thanks for reading! No one reads these; it's more my personal diary of anime than anything else at this point but it's still fun to update this once in a while.

Anime Relations: Ladies versus Butlers!

A lot of people in my field have deeply entrenched feelings towards anime, and they tend to range from incredibly positive/nostalgic to deeply negative. Some animators enjoy the exaggerated larger eye shapes, soft and shiny hair, and static/posey framerates that appear often in anime. Workflow wise, anime tends to focus on drawing rich frames full of detail and downplay the fluidity of actual movement. When hair tends to move, it doesn't follow realistic physics. The same can be said for skirt and dress hems and long fabrics that require draping.

However, when you look at frame-by-frame, old school 2D animation ala Walt Disney, hair moves more dynamically than anime, much like real life hair, but with a certain added appeal. The quality of the animation, which often requires drawing 12 frames a second (traditional video requires drawing 24 frames per second, but animators often work on "two's" or "every other keyframe") has exaggerated mechanics and physics and if anything, moves with much more fluidity than traditional animation.

Unlike anime, there's far less "camera tracking up/down a static shot" in Disney animation, but it's still present at times. In some ways, working in an establishing shot this way can save animators a few seconds of real animation so these stiffer drawings and more static shots are actually pretty conducive to expressing a vision or idea. It's much simpler to draw a single frame of a crowded supermarket and have a camera "pass over" the single drawing than physically sitting there and having animators draw out what each background character is doing in that busy moment, especially if the shot only lasts for a few seconds.

Western animation in the more recent years has also "cheapened" its look, especially on television, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. With the addition of newer technology, some 2D animators find it easier to be able to "cheat" when one can, often implementing "tweening" (relying on the software's ability to interpolate movement between frames) to save time and effort. Some animators make great use of this technique–while others tend to shy away from and rely on the more expensive traditional method of frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation to communicate their ideas.

This mindset is akin to what happens in other creative industries–for instance film director Chris Nolan has a famous preference to using celluloid film over digital film. Celluloid is much more expensive and time-consuming to use than digital film. On top of that, celluloid does not allow a director to watch "dailies" the same day that they were shot, considering film often takes a full day to develop, which can make reshoots more daunting. I feel that what's more important should be simply establishing the idea and moving on to tell the story, where the purpose of the art will matter most.

As for me, I love all types of media–and I need both in my life. This goes for hand-drawn 2D, as well as 3D animation. Variety is the spice of life for me, and while I tend to respond well to more beautifully done hand-drawn animation, I also need the "ugliness" and simplicity of American comedic television such as Bob's Burgers. No matter the technique, I want to see artists use the tools that would best communicate their ideas. One size doesn't necessarily fit all and the variety of animation out there is what makes it such a great artistic medium to work with.
This is one of the reasons why I'm an animator.

I don't care for seeing my friends and colleagues argue over whether anime or not is a "crappy genre" considering the one-size-fits all mindset is rarely conducive to achieving the highest vision.

I honestly think this world needs both.

/rantover

Anime Relations: Denki-gai no Honya-san

I hate and love rendering.

I hate it when I'm on a time crunch and can't set up a render farm anywhere convenient.

I love it when I can be productive and lazy at the same time by allowing my computer to do all the work.

Anyway, I applied the basic materials here and am just about ready to render out with both Final Gathering and Global Illumination. Just need to tweak a few more things and render this baby out with the alpha channel. Luckily, binging anime will allow me to pass the time more quickly.

For my next project, I need to do something more horror-related, so I don't stagnate and can break out of my comfort zone as an artist. I don't want to develop a style that's limiting me, as far as employment goes.

Anyone got any good horror anime to recommend? Preferably something with effectively creepy character design. I need to have some character model sheets done by Wednesday.

Anime Relations: Pupa

Got most of the scene blocked out. Just need to add in details and start working on making some of this more high-poly. While I'm usually pretty decent at 2D work, I also love getting time in 3D for the change of pace.

Watching lots of anime helps the time pass...a little faster.



Just got done watching Pupa thanks to a recommendation. Was slightly creepy and surprisingly gory. Had to stop/rewatch parts of it because I'm working so much. I learned a good bit of Japanese in middle school so luckily subtitled anime doesn't really bother me, as far as keeping me from my work.

Anime Relations: Psycho-Pass

In for a long night of animating/rendering.

Watching some Psycho-Pass to make this go faster.

I love scifi. XD