Vol 3 of the AKIRA Animation Layouts & Key Frames ( Otomo The Complete Works ) is now up for pre-orders ( Nov 1st ) ! -
This will be the biggest Vol of the three at 678 pages; read my review for Vol 2 here -
A 4 seconds crowd shot from Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises (2013) that took animator Yamamori Eiji 15 months to complete.
How one goes about animating such a complex shot infused with so much zest & energy boggles the mind, but it is an absolute marvel to behold. 🥲
Animating a shot like this with such stunning, stylized realism ( no, it's not rotoscoped ) is nothing short of a supernatural ability to me 🥲
If you mess up the shading on the any of the folds, it's going to look weird ( and not fabric-ish ) right away.
In this dramatic battle seq from Princess Mononoke (1997), 4 armored samurai take on Ashitaka, but are eventually bested by his supernatural abilities granted by the Tatarigami. The shot of Ashitaka intercepting the arrow is surely a cinematic moment one would not soon forget.
Yep, that is how painstaking manga work used to be pre-digital...all the screentones need to be manually cut and pasted, and then shaped with a scraping tool to create any desired hatching. Nothing but respect for all manga artists/assistants. 🫡🥲
Art book PSA -
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
- The Art Of The Movie will be out July 3rd.
The work we do in lighting/comp are strongly informed by art from the concept/prod design/visdev teams, & I assure you the art work featured will blow you away -
These color keys painted by Kat Tsai was what I used when I started key-lighting parts the train fight seq. It took our team almost 3 months to complete all the shots.
Months of work for that precious few minutes of animation, but hey, worth it ! 🥲😌
#AcrossTheSpiderVerse
I've always wondered how the pupil dilation effect is achieved for animatronic creatures in films like Jurassic Park/World. Fascinating stuff; and the results are so convincing !
Developing an oil-filled dilated pupil mech on Jurassic World Dominion. It was designed using compressed clear silicone oil to create a magnifying lens over a flexible membrane.
Video credit: Karl Gallivan (
@karl_gallivan
)
#props
#animatronics
#engineering
#technology
Animation reference. I love the first cleave where she uses minimal arm strength and just the sheer revolving momentum of the dropping axe to do the work. 😎
So much to love about these shots from City Hunter ( Sunrise - 1987/1991 ); the dynamic, stylized lens flare as the chopper turns toward camera, the flying detritus that adds a sense of depth to the scene, & the use of negative space in the 2nd shot 🤌
This hypnotic, soundtrack only sequence from Patlabor 2 (1993) is Mamoru Oshii's own unique brand of mise-en-scene. The framing & composition are all richly cinematic as though shot through a live-action camera, with some really interesting use of reflections and silhouettes.
Re-watching Otomo's Memories (1995). The quality of
#animation
is exemplary all around, but special credit must be given to the run/walk gaits, which are complimented with splendid, little nuanced movements. Take for example Miguel's stumble in his run around the 0:08 mark -
One of the reasons why
#AcrossTheSpiderVerse
looks so darn good ? - the art team is just outta control 😭; colorkey/concept pieces by
@dbleich
&
@Chuwenjie
.
I cannot recommend enough the upcoming art book, which will showcase the whole art team's work -
This dynamic shot of Gwen animated by Em Guiry is actually made up of 6 separate shots; 1 of Gwen & 5 different shots ( we call them "inserts" ) that make up the background.
Inserts can take just as much time to work on as the main shot, sometimes more ! 🥲
#AcrossTheSpiderVerse
One of the biggest visual delights of anime films are the stunning background art, and if you ask me, the stand-out piece in "recent" history has got to be Tekkon Kinkreet (2006). Legendary art director Kimura Shinji's work on this film is just ridiculously good & singular -
Can't get enough of all the gorgeous
#AcrossTheSpiderVerse
art but having trouble keeping up ? I made a list of all the visdev artists that I'm following, get'em all ! -
The plot behind Masaaki Yuasa's Eizouken's (2020) revolves around 3 high school girls overcoming insurmountable odds to make a short anime, and is a great way to actually learn about the animation/filmmaking process. Plus the screenplay is really hilarious. Highly recommended -
"I wanted to convey the speed & energy of the incoming arrow purely by the reactionary movement of Ashitaka's arm, so I deliberately did not animate the (speeding) arrow entering frame." - animator Masashi Ando.
It's blink & you miss performance, but it packs a heck of a punch.
Now that the art book for
#AcrossTheSpiderVerse
is out, I wanted use the art featured in the book to talk a little about how we incorporate the visdev artists' beautiful color keys with our lighting workflow. A short thread ! (1/9)-
The way Howl cracked the egg by hitting it against the side of the stove/fireplace is so smooth, natural and convincing. Animated to perfection by Atsuko Tanaka -
Ghost In The Shell is packed full of memorable scenes, but the one that really impressed was the lengthy locked camera shot of the Major's bedroom during the opening. Mamoru Oshii had absolute confidence in his mise-en-scène to hold the viewer's attention. Certainly held mine.
Animators who worked on this shot in Akira vent their work frustrations by leaving hidden rants/messages in the film. Paraphrasing, the message on the Caution label reads something like "Do we really need to draw details for every inch, nook and cranny ?! FFS !" 🤣
If there was ever any doubt the importance of reference in
#animation
, even legends do it -
In this clip from the documentary "How Princess Mononoke Was Born (2001)", Hayao Miyazaki asks 2 animators to act out the movements of the shot with Ashitaka carrying an injured Koruko.
One mandate that we always follow when lighting Miles is to stay true to the original colors of his suit; dark blues & bold reds. We do add tight rim lights to integrate him into surroundings, but the rule is always to make his form sharp & recognizable.
#AcrossTheSpiderVerse
This is one of the first shots I worked on when I started keylighting for the sequence. Brian "Blaze" Blasiak took it to finish and it looks amazeballs.
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
Not gonna lie,
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
was super challenging to work on both creatively/technically, & at times I almost felt like giving up. But the amazing work of all the many other artists on the show pushed me on, & I’m so excited for all to finally see the film ! 😭
3
#SpiderVerse
shots I worked on +
#LEGO
versions by
@FG_Artist
. After we delivered the first trailer, word began spreading of an artist who recreated it entirely in LEGO form. Before we know it, Sony had reached out to the kid to work on the show. Truly inspiring artist story !
This must be one of the longest "one single take" shots from
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
. From a lighting perspective, the difficulty level is just insane; 2 separate locations requiring different rigs, the camera panning every which way, & a gazillion characters. Just wow.
So much animation goodness going on here. The framing, the dynamic camera angles; moves, the barely perceptible but super expressive smudge frames that subliminally register in your brain to convey movement. 🥲
Oh, and it's done in
#b3d
A small segment from AKIRA (1988). The film has more than its fair share of iconic moments, but that adrenaline rush when Geinoh Yamashirogumi's soundtrack kicks in during this bike seq is an exhilarating cinematic moment that for me has rarely, if ever been topped.
#animation
#AcrossTheSpiderVerse
visdev artist Kat Tsai talks about how she created the "burst cards" for this iconic shot of
#MiguelOHara
.
While working on the train fight seq, this was the one shot that we always look to for reference.
The shot of Miles swinging into his room & then doing a wardrobe change upside down was actually my very first shot on
#AcrossTheSpiderVerse
! But I had to go work on the train fight seq, so my teammate Geri Smith took it to finish and it looks amazing !
One of the more memorable "non-action" scenes from AKIRA (1988) that I love - Kaneda pulling off the soft fabric cover from his bike as he prepares for a show-down with Tetsuo. The
#animation
is so life-like and fluid and utterly impresses me even today.
Fascinating. Apparently the Ramda long armed robot that appeared in the Lupin The 3rd episode titled "Lupin, Whom I Loved" was Hayao Miyazaki's homage to the animated Superman short film "The Mechanical Monsters". One can certainly see the similarities !
#さらば愛しきルパンよ
Very cool !
Purely as trivia and not in any way a critique of this excellent piece, we do not put hatchlines ( which is a unique Miles World attribute ) on Miguel, he is part of the 2099 World look driven more by Copic marker and construction lines Syd Mead style.
#SpiderVerse
Something kinda cool about the way I've built Miguel's shader is that the lighting can really change how flat it looks as seen here from going within rendered and material view
Playing Alan Wake 2 but I'm constantly distracted by just how good the game looks; the env design, the atmo/vol fx, the lighting, and all that strewn debris on the ground, is that's modeled geom and not some procedural ?!
Great work by all the artists at
@remedygames
.
Transformers Dark Of The Moon is 12 years old, but this sequence is still gold standard
#VFX
. I was always envious because I never got to work on any of these shots when I was on the movie but in hindsight I'm not sure I could have pulled it off, those are some hardcore shots.
In celebration of Mamoru Oshii's 73th birthday, here's the splendid opening sequence to his magnum opus animated film Patlabor 2 : The Movie, complete with Kenji Kawai's moving OST. Goosebumps every time.
#押井守 #機動警察パトレイバー #劇パト2
#animation
The concept art of Syd Mead ( top left ) was a big inspiration for the look of
#SpiderMan2099
world.
In lighting/comp we fashioned the lens flare ( top right ) to look like hand drawn construction lines instead of anamorphic lens optical artifacts. 😎
#AcrossTheSpiderVerse
There are opening sequences for anime films, and then there's the opening sequence for Mamoru Oshii's Patlabor 2. I'll never not get goosebumps the second the title card kicks in together with Kenji Kawai's rousing soundtrack.
#Animation
hall of fame stuff.
This sequence belongs in a museum !! Get it ? No ? ...
I'll see myself out...
Srsly tho, killer stuff. Hats off to everyone who worked on this stunning sequence.
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
With
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
out the Art Department has started to share their dev work & I think my mind is about to explode.
Definitely check out their art posts & follow them all ( tags below ) ! -
Plus the art book will be out soon too ! -
The
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
art book is a spectacular showcase of all the stunning concept art by the visdev art team & is the essence of why the movie is so good. Easily one of my fav art books of the year so far. Explore more in my review -
These astonishingly massive crowd shots in Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises (2013) are completely hand animated and took the team a whopping 15 months to draw just 5 seconds worth of footage. But hey, worth it !
I'll never not be impressed by the work of stop-motion animators; what is even more impressive is that unlike computer animation, they can't save the progress of their work ( I don't think ), so it's either a home-run or a re-do. High-stakes !
I'm not sure what kind of serum
#MiguelOHara
injected himself with, but don't you just love the flurry of rich colors & graphic render styles as he goes through the action ? I'm only starting to appreciate these cool details on repeat viewings. 😌
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
Agree with OP.
#animation
performance details; the shifting of the weight of the cart as the characters board, that reactionary bounce when the driver loads the heavy suitcase, etc. All mundane stuff, yes, but all add up to the life of the shot. 🥲😌
Got my first animation job in Japan to work on a Katsuhiro Otomo animated series shortly before I graduated from film school, and AKIRA was what got me into animation. I asked some of the animators what Otomo is like and they be like "oh he's just a grumpy ojisan ( geezer ) " lol
working in animation is realizing a coworker was a lead artist on tarzan, your favorite movie ever, going "i...literally work in animation because of you", and for the coworker to say "sorry about that"
Phenomenal creature
#vfx
for
@RealGDT
's Blade 2, released more than 2 decades ago. I'm still thoroughly amazed by the quality of the visual effects for this film. Also excited for the upcoming 4K UHD release, which I believe is in the works ! 🥲
OMG Labors are real !! This train cable repair bot deployed by JR East Japan is I quote "a heavy machinery puppet bot" manned by an operator with a VR headset. Headgear would be proud !! JR西日本、人型重機ロボットと工事用車両を融合させた鉄道重機開発 -
Sweet Migs looks like I'll have to acquire the Japanese version of
#SpiderVerse
as well when it hits blu-ray because the voice-over is just rockin'
#スパイダーマン
"We're not taking the average of everybody's ideas, but rather we're amplifying the individuality of all the artists. It's a thousand people's really thoughtful ideas." 🥲🥹😭😌
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
It's been a long 6 months but I'm finally down to my last 2 weeks of
#vfx
work on Spider-Man : Far From Home. Exhausted but I'm pretty happy with the shots that I've worked on for the film. Catch it in cinemas early July.
#SpiderMan
#spidermanfarfromhome
A segment of the vertical train fight that I worked on as key-lighter. The env color palette is mostly cool/metallic, allowing the bold reds of Miles/Miguel to really pop off the screen. I think it works well ! Animation/layout by
@keyframeking
.
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
4月18日発売の『イラストレーション』では吉田明彦さんを大特集します。April issue of Japanese magazine
#Illustration
will feature Yoshida Ahihiko ( Bravely Default/Tactics Ogre ). Definitely picking this up for review. #吉田明彦
@illustration_g
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
is out now on digital & I'll like to share a little more of the lighting/comp work I did on the film !
I'll start with this vertical train shot, a tag-team effort with
@joanponsart
, and one of the first shots I completed for this sequence -
What a cool story. This scene from Nausicaa (1984) is animated by Takashi Nakamura, who later became animation director on AKIRA. His animation technique for the detailed debris is so good that it was dubbed the "Nakamura Debris" effect, influencing animators like Hideaki Anno.
A shot from Sam Raimi's Dr Strange Multiverse Of Madness that I worked on (lighting). The on-set
#vfx
team gave us a LIDAR scan of the set so that we can use it to integrate our CG lighting ( proper shadow casting, light interactivity ), but it was quite badly misaligned. (1/2)
A frame of Jessica Drew on her red bike during the Spider Society Vs Miles chase sequence, a really nice nod to the famous Kaneda bike slide shot from AKIRA.
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
Fascinating. Apparently the Ramda long armed robot that appeared in the Lupin The 3rd episode titled "Lupin, Whom I Loved" was Hayao Miyazaki's homage to the animated Superman short film "The Mechanical Monsters". One can certainly see the similarities !
#さらば愛しきルパンよ
97% of players will never heed a 2nd look, but I want to give a big shout-out to the texture/lookdev/asset artists who must have spent a good deal of time creating & set dressing
@alanwake
to make the detailed env so realistic & immersive. Just splendid work.
@remedygames
🧵(1/5)
Re-watched AKIRA and I'll never not be amused by the animator/s of this shot taking a piss at Otomo with this "hidden" insult 😂😂🤣🤣-
『どうしてこんなどこまで描かなきゃいけないの!いい加減にせん!もう』
“Do we really need to draw details, even here ?! FFS, just let it go !”
This shot was lit & comped by the amazing Kelly Christophers.
Internally, this particular dimension was dubbed "Wiles World", and I love the punchy, crunchy colors and overall just ominous & unsettling look.
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
Sure, Toriyama Akira is a great artist, but on top of that, he is a brilliant designer. I mean the guy could design ANYTHING and make them look attractive. This is not a given skill set even if one can draw very well -
The first film that I worked on when I joined ILM in 2009 was Rango, and this was one of the first shots that I lit and comped. Before ILM I was working in Japan creating celshaded CG using Lightwave, so the power of Renderman and its photorealism blew me away completely.
#vfx
Big fan of the 2D animation shots done by
@TitmouseInc
from
#MilesMorales
' monologue, rendered in Copic marker style.
Before the advent of digital painting, Copic markers were the essential rendering tool for concept artists & the like.
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
Love this series of shots from the vertical train seq, the action is intense ! I was on key-lighting duties & the amazing Oleksandr Vozniuk took them to finish. He really went to town with all those colorful impact frames !
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
Reminder that the
#SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse
art book will be out tomorrow ! With over 200 pages of gorgeous art work, it'll be epic !! -
AMZ US -
AMZ CA -
AMZ UK -
AMZ JP -
AKIRA production background for cut no. 2207. Katsufumi Hariu who painted this piece shows me how he created the moving reflections of the clouds in the puddles.
Director
@edgarwright
of Scott Pilgrim fame directed this advert for a big fast food chain and I gotta say it's a refreshing take, with utterly no branding cues except the name reveal at the end. Pretty fun !
I know next to nothing about brake-dancing but dang those spin moves are impressive, especially that first one. From an animation/motion study point of view it feels he doesn't have quiet enough momentum build up to launch into such a move, but he does.
Very impressive stuff by
@cg_orange_inc
for
#TRIGUNSTAMPEDE
. The staging and shot design, at certain moments behaving like a TPS is something I've seldom seen before -
The Major's 3 hit combo Punch+Punch+Kick in this scene was inspired by a move from Sega's Virtua Fighter character Lau Chan. Mamoru Oshii documented this in the Ghost In The Shell genga book and even drew a cool sketch for the animators to reference -
I worked on this
#SpiderVerse
short con-currently while working on the film. Pity it wasn't included on the blu-ray release as an extra ( rights are tricky, I know ).
Hopefully it gets a wider release so more can see it though. 🙏
#animation
Official synopsis for the upcoming
#SpiderVerse
short film — 'The Spider Within' 🕸
"Miles has to fight a silent but deadly enemy that many people across the world have to deal with as well: Anxiety"
Happy Patlabor Day (8/10) !
This 2 minute sequence from Patlabor 2 : The Movie (1993) evokes so much mood & emotion with nary a single line of dialogue, & paved the way for the Nightstalker seq in Ghost In The Shell 2 years later.
#8
月10日はパトレイバーの日 #パトレイバーの日