#I assume the animation will be outsourced to a new studio

[paintsplash1712]

RWBY'S COMING BACK!

Thank you Viz Media

[citadelofmythoughts]

https://www.tumblr.com/citadelofmythoughts/765910599241809920/okay-eff-it-im-posting-this-with-the-caveat

I don't like the idea of other companies doing the animation for RWBY. That is one of my biggest concerns for RWBY being under Viz. They might not allow CRWBY to have their own animation team and might just outsource it.

VIZ has no in-house studio. I always assumed they would be using a new studio. That's just the reality of the situation.

If it turned out to be Studio Mir, I wouldn't complain as long as the style remained consistent.

[tvaccaro]

Thank you so much for the shoutout in your Moana video! I loved your review! You really put into words the nebulous, baffled and upset feeling that hit me every time I saw a new Moana 2 trailer. It’s been such a disheartening campaign to watch unfold.

Do you think this is a case of overconfidence (with Disney leaning on their reputation so hard they didn’t even feel the need to market their work), or were the Disney execs so spooked by Moana 2’s mediocrity that they felt the need to dial down/muddy its marketing? I would assume it’s the latter option, but I’ve seen companies fall on the spike of the former enough that I’m honestly not sure lol!

OH MY GOD I'M SQUEALING LOWKEY, I absolutely love your work!

Honestly, learning more about how Moana 2 was outsourced to a studio specializing in TV animation (likely with less union protections) and how truly rushed it was, it's giving pure Disney arrogance on this one.

And truthfully, I've yet to see it (gonna torment a friend as I drag them along for research purposes), but from all the reviews I've glimpsed... there was nothing in the movie to market to begin with lmfao

[burningthrucelluloid]

Christmas Carol-cember, Day 17

Of all the 80s films that have become a franchise, I’m surprised Ghostbusters even had one with such longevity that extended outside the Reagan-era "business ventures that provide a service but is being held back by environmental regulation."

A movie born out of Dan Aykroyd’s personal interest in the supernatural and to co-star with his SNL buddy, Jim Belushi, “Ghostbusters” was truly the film that beat the odds set against it considering the lack of faith from the studio heads as it grossed over $200 million in 1984 and became a pop culture juggernaut with toys, movie sequels, comic books, video games and animated television shows.

Course that’s not much if you consider Robocop, The Toxic Avenger and Rambo got their own animated TV series in the 80s and their franchises haven’t exactly had the same longevity of popularity like Ghostbusters. When the fifth movie came out this year yet the Toxic Avenger remake shows no signs of being released and the other two licenses show no interest in being revisited, clearly Ghostbusters got what the hip kids call “that special sauce.”

So it should come to no surprise that the company responsible for creating these kid-friendly versions of movies that were aimed for older viewers was DIC Entertainment, the same folks behind the 1997 Tim Curry film I covered last week. In the case of today’s outing, “The Real Ghostbusters” (called such over a title dispute with Filmation’s “The Ghost Busters”) was recorded in Los Angeles under joint operation by Columbia Pictures Television with Coca-Cola Telecommunications funding the distribution. But typical of DIC, they shipped the storyboards, scripts, vocal performances and music over to their Japanese HQ and handed over to studios TMS and Toei to put the episodes together before returning them to the Unites States for airing. Though more often than not, DIC would outsource the work to South Koreans studios to do the work for a lower cost, a practice that continues to this day. Which one is hard to pin down as they weren’t credited and all most fans have to go on is speculation.

Regardless of who animated what, ABC aired this episode on December 13, 1986 with the title “Xmas Marks the Spot.” One that also plays on the Dickens tale with their own twist to the narrative.

It’s Christmas Eve in New York City, but for the Ghostbusters, it’s another work day as they return from a countryside haunting during a snow storm. When their car stalls and they walk out to get help, the four are transported to 1840s London where they spot an old man being attacked by ghosts. Stepping in with good intentions, though only assuming the town is just some old fashioned historical commune, the four bust the ghosts, only to be coldly reprimanded by the old man with a “Humbug.” They return home to discover everyone hates Christmas and the best selling book is an anti-Christmas manifesto written by one Ebenezer Scrooge (Peter Renaday). Realizing their mistake too late after the captured ghosts are placed in the Containment Field, the four have to work together to try and save Christmas. Egon Spengler (Maurice LaMarche) dons a special suit and enters the Containment Field to locate the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future while Winston Zeddemore (Arsenio Hall), Ray Stanz (Frank Welker) and an equally scroogey Peter Venkman (Lorenzo Music) return to the past with technology to try and haunt Scrooge themselves as they take on the roles of the three ghosts until Egon can return. For if they fail, Christmas will forever be a Humbug…

This episode has all the feel of a Saturday Morning Cartoon.

Limited animation, big goofy expressions with a comical sidekick who babbles and characters talking to one another in ways that feel like the writers wanting to impart a “lesson of the day.”

That said, I applaud the writers for getting creative with the premise.

When you establish these guys hunt ghosts, why wouldn’t they immediately bust some ghosts haunting Scrooge without a second thought?

That part is hilarious and still retains the goofiness that defined the Ghostbusters.

I’ll even extend praise to the vocal cast playing the characters. Maurice LaMarche, best known for his stellar Orson Welles impression, does a solid job capturing the flat monotone of Harold Ramis while spewing pseudo-science. Frank Welker’s Ray sounds more like a child-like Fred from Scooby-Doo, but he sells it. Arsenio Hall’s Winston has his moments of wit and he really shines when he pretends to be the Ghost of Christmas Present. Then there’s Lorenzo Music as Peter Venkman, who certainly pairs his lucid tones to match the sarcastic wit of Bill Murray while also showing some depth of feeling when he takes on the role of the Ghost of Christmas Past and his attempts to teach Scrooge how his rough past forms his present causes Venkman to see a parallel between each other.

Also, cause I know it will be brought up if not mentioned, yes, Lorenzo Music was also the voice of Garfield for the cartoon series and then Bill Murray was Garfield for the 2004 movie.

That hot take is as old as as the Numa Numa video.

“The Real Ghostbusters: Xmas Marks The Spot” has a few moments of inspiration, but it’s buried in the same trappings as was present in most 80s cartoons around this time. But that’s not to say the people who worked on it didn’t give their heart into the project, the voice cast clearly commits to the bit, I like that the writers were able to use the one Ghostbuster who doesn’t like Christmas to find the merit in good tidings by finding a parallel with his own past to learn his own lesson and the idea of regular people having to step in to serve as the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future using modern technology was amusing and original. Its corner-cutting animation is ultimately what keeps it from rising above a passive recommendation, but certainly worth saying that it showcases what made this show popular.

That and toys based on the show. Cause who doesn’t want their own proton pack?

“The Real Ghostbusters: Xmas Marks the Spot” can be purchased on YouTube, Amazon and AppleTV. But you can also watch the full episode for free on YouTube with the link down below.

Next time, we’re headed to Gotham City as it seems the Batmobile lost it’s wheels and the Joker got away.

[jamesgabrielloppie]

WildBrain and ICON Creative Studio Made and Created Those 3D-ified and CG-ified Strawberry Shortcake Specials

Okay guys, so about three days ago, I was watching the animation ending credits of... The Beast of Berry Bog (one of the CG/3D Strawberry Shortcake Specials)... As such activity, I was beginning to wonder who (I mean where and which studio) did the production services made, created, done, and provided by: "_____" So throughout my Gmail, I went to simply talk with WildBrain, then I asked them a reasonably fair-minded series of inquisitive questions regarding whether or not said SS specials were either outsourced or in-house Only for what it seems like, I had or got no answer, and few of the employees and respondents (or recipients) stated and claimed it was done entirely from just only WildBrain Vancouver as stand-alone solo on/of its own To me, however, I personally doubt that very much, no hard feelings, it's just because whenever and however I watch cartoons, normally I always see in animation credits, where there's got to be a certain studio behind it For the record, the other main reason I initially assumed ICON Creative Studio (www.iconcreativestudio.com) is in partnership with WildBrain is cause they've used even similar animation style/technique with "Firebuds" Speaking of that thing being said by me, one of the animation artists used to work straight directly at/from WildBrain; thus he was one of the premier artists and animators fully and heavily responsible for most of the specials among others His real full name is Logan Webb and you can find him on his official website www.loganwebbanimation.com; that is if you feel the desperate need ask him for further info, details and examples, who did what, etc. So the truth is, in spite of my increasingly difficult scavenger hunt to figure this out, I had no luck nor hope of trying to find the exact official answer... though I honestly never actually winced, not even once, so regardless of using my wit and determination... I'm just going to learn to respect the fact it's safe to say that not all credits necessarily have to add a certain animation service credit almost every time Therefore, I guess what I'm really trying to say is that ultimately, my long search is over, nearly as well as my occasional (if continuous) wild mass guessing and wasting my time over something irrelevant Sometimes I just can't help but feel a little suspicious and impatient, worrying too much about wondering who's responsible for most of the projection, either WildBrain by itself or someone else working with/for it, who knows? And forgive me if I may, I guess little curiosity somehow got the very least worst of me among what's led and driven me to new understandings and discoveries, so yeah, that's just about pretty much all I have to say for myself from there on To whom it may concern: I’m just wondering out of curiosity… Who did (by that in which I mean) which other CGI-ified animation studio (specifically outside of Wildbrain) did some of the 3D animation production services? Usually I see within the animation ending credits, somewhere it says and is labelled “production services provided by” (name of credited studio outside of Wildbrain) Something like... “PRODUCTION SERVICES DONE BY CREDIT / ANIMATION SERVICES PROVIDED BY CREDIT” Sincerely with thanks and regards, James Gabriel Loppie

[astronomical-bagel]

hello everybody I've decided this is going to be my hill today!

first off: lets introduce the studios that are included in this post.

the first studio is Titmouse studios, who worked on Vox Machina, and is the only American studio on this list. They're most known for that adult swim artsyle, like Bigmouth, but their newer stuff has them really branching out! Vox Machina is the only show of theirs that has that art style. They're also working on the new Tales of the TMNT show, and here's a video of all their animation in Across the Spiderverse!

Now. Let's talk about Studio Mir, the actual studio that I'm going to talk about. Studio Mir is a South Korean animation studio, and they are responsible for all the artstyles that you see in the first section of this post. You know how I mentioned that Titmouse doesn't usually go for the artsyle used in Vox Machina? That's because a subunit of Mir called Studio Reves worked on at least 25 episodes of Vox Machina. Titmouse outsourced a lot of animation from Studio Reves (I presume for labor cost reasons), and let them guide the artstyle for the majority of the show.

Studio Mir has worked on Voltron (2016), and My Adventures with Superman, the two other shows op mentioned. They've also worked on The Legend of Korra, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Lookism, and they're also doing Devil May Cry, which is set to release next year and looks really cool. They are the "we have anime at home" style. You know why? Because they're Korean. Of course theyre gonna have an anime-reminicent artstyle! Look at this highlight reel of their work (sadly it was made 7 years ago so it doesn't showcase their newer stuff) and tell me that this is boring.

And listen. I'm not saying you have to like the artstyle. I'm not saying you have to like Studio Mir. But seeing as all of op's examples can be traced back to them, and their style was called "the worst trend in western animation", I really just had to step in. Studio Mir doesn't deserve that. They're not anime, and they're not western animation either. They are from South Korea and really deserve to be recognized as such. (Side note, appearently the word for a Korean cartoon is called hanguk aeni, and a Korean comic is called manwha! I just thought that was interesting lol)

That being said, what is wrong with a "squeaky clean" artstyle? It doesn't always mean the studio is being safe or trying to appeal to the largest audience. Maybe their slow scenes aren't as detailed for, I don't know, budget reasons? tight deadlines? or simply because they're slow scenes and they want to devote their time and money to the fight scenes? why are we just assuming the worst here? When you use the word “safe” to describe the artstyle it comes across as calling the artstyle “sanitized” or without soul, but it’s not! It’s just Korean!

And to clarify!!!! I don't watch any of these shows!!! I don't even watch studio mir's other shows!!! I just really like animation and I recogize that Studio Mir knows what it's doing. Their poses are dynamic, their impact frames are impactful!! Op has (unintentionally (I assume)) singled them out and I feel like everyone is being unfair to them. Please, I beg of you, actually look at their work instead of just dogpiling on them, they're actually really cool and skilled and they care about what they make.

(here are some more examples of Studio Mir's work, just because they deserve to be shown off some more)

I'm feeling kinda mean atm so i'm just gonna say it

This kind of boring-ass squeaky-clean "safe" artstyle is the worst trend in western animation of the last decade and the sooner it dies out the better

[seabreezeraincloud]

I'm a big fan of the Tangled series' animation style too! I'll admit by saying that it may not as appealing looking in comparison to shows like Gravity Falls & Owl House, but being a huge fan of the Disney animation studio films, the art style in the series works very well for me. I'm hoping they'll continue to use that art style for their upcoming Tiana & Moana series.

It's ironic that you mention Gravity Falls, because that's a show whose style actually was an acquired taste for me. When I began watching it for the first time, I did not like the art style going in. That's right; I used to be a "bean mouth" hater. Obviously this was like 10 years ago and I grew to like it eventually (and become more open-minded on art in general), but even now I wouldn't say the style is amazing or anything, and I certainly wouldn't say it's better than Tangled's. The animation itself is very high quality, and the backgrounds are gorgeous and really bring out the atmosphere the show is aiming for. It's undeniably a very good-looking show; I just prefer big colored eyes over tiny black dot eyes, I guess.

And like...as much as I now disagree with what I thought of the style back in 2012, I think it's good to remind myself that I did hold that opinion and I almost didn't watch the show because of it. I almost missed out on Gravity Falls because I didn't like how it looked. I'm so glad I gave it a chance anyway because it ended up being an amazing experience that I'll look back on fondly for the rest of my life. It just goes to show that I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss an animated series just for its visual style.

Now, The Owl House definitely has a style that appeals more to my personal tastes. I feel like if it came out 10 years ago, I probably would've been less hesitant to watch it than Gravity Falls. Back in 2019, while the cartoon community was raving over Amphibia - a show I was pretty "meh" on at the time - this was the "Gravity Falls successor" show I was really looking forward to (it's probably my biggest "I liked it before it was cool" flex lol), and I really do think that was not only because of the premise and setting seeming more interesting to me, but because of the art style being a bit more distinct from Gravity Falls'. That's not even to mention how great the animation is in the show. I'd probably rank it right below Tangled in terms of my favorite DTVA visuals.

When it comes to how Tiana and Moana will be animated...eh, I don't know. Part of me would be happy to see them take inspiration from Tangled because it's a style that I love so much, but another part of me likes that it's a style unique to Tangled that gives the series its own identity and doesn't really want it just copy-and-pasted onto other Disney Princess shows. I know Disney Princess properties borrowing heavily from each other's styles is nothing new, but still, they don't have to all look alike, y'know? That said, I certainly can't see myself complaining if they did decide to make them look similar to Tangled. I kind of doubt Tiana will get this treatment since The Princess and the Frog is already a 2D-animated property, but I can see Moana potentially going this route (unless they decide to take the path of "noticeably lower quality 3D", which I would be a bit disappointed by). I guess it partially depends on whether the animation for these shows will be done at WDAS or outsourced to another studio like Mercury, which I haven't seen any confirmation for, but...I'm assuming it will probably be outsourced since that's what Disney usually does for their animated TV shows. I haven't been following the updates that closely though. It'll be easier to form an opinion when they get closer to release, but regardless, I am looking forward to these shows.

Anyway...yup, I am a Tangled series art and animation lover through and through. It was the right call to go for a unique style instead of trying to replicate the movie's or even a more traditional WDAS style. It's so pleasing to look at and I will always be salty that Disney never gave us an art book or at least a physical version of Rapunzel's journal.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 18: A Series of Ecological Disasters

Booting up ye old Yugioh, booting up a new aesthetic playlist to type to. (today’s playlist is webcore, which would feel like such a damn fake aesthetic, if it weren’t that every single one of these -core aesthetics are pretty damn fake and everyone knows it.)

Anyway, it’s been so long that, I’ll be honest, I thought I booted up the wrong episode:

I usually skip the anime intro, but I try to watch it once each arc, cuz the intros change, and this arc was like “screw it, here’s all the other villains, just pretend this arc isn’t happening.” They had Pegasus, they had Marik, they have Bakura (who is kind of in this shot as well, you can see him phasing in there.) And like...I guess they’re hiding the villain of this arc or something because that was it. Alexander the Great got just nixed from this villain list and that’s a shame.

Just a real weird choice, but since apparently this arc didn’t air in Japan they probably had to outsource this anime intro and whatever studio in charge of it just cobbled together stuff from every other season and then a couple of shots of capsule stuff.

Speaking of capsule stuff: get a load of how many freakin lines the animators have to deal with every time they draw Grandpa.

Bro saw this and was like “oh yeah, this is a Shonen Jump” and yeah. The hair does give those vibes. We got a good look at what Vegeta would look like if he really let himself go.

(read more under the cut)

Sorry, my playlist started playing a song where every single line of the song is “Adrien Brody” and it took me like a few minutes to realize I was listening to “Brodyquest” completely seriously.

Damn it, webcore, don’t betray me like this.

Anyway, this arc does something super surprising: Yugi actually hugs somebody and doesn’t look like he’s going to pass out standing up.

It is pretty fitting that the good Yugi hug would go to Grandpa.

And, as night falls, Joey Wheeler has gotten hungry, and there is nothing to eat but his new best friend and spirit animal, baby dragon. Unfortunately he shares life points with the dragon, and I think if you eat it that just instakills you.

And directly underneath him--since this world is like 100 feet wide and things just conveniently happen--Tea has told everyone that they needed to stop worrying about Joey. Which is a lot coming from Tea, because her worrying about Yugi/Yami getting hurt is most of what occupies her headspace in this series.

But even Tea was like, screw Joey, I guess.

Who kinda just falls directly into them upside down, and shows us what Joey’s hair looks like when it’s sticking straight up.

For reals, admire how long Joey Wheeler’s hair is. If Tea were upside down, she would have the same length of hair.

Also speaking of Vegeta, I am low key concerned that Joey has what appears to be a significant amount of male pattern balding going on for a teenager.

Apparently getting set on fire many, many times did have an effect on Joey, and this massive pompadour he wears is a combover. Poor baby.

Holy crap, if this is what card stress and getting killed multiple times did to Joey Wheeler, can you imagine what’s going on under Seto’s bangs? That’s probably why his bangs ride so low, Seto likely wears a freakin toupee.

Guys, Joey’s gonna lose his hair at 25 at this rate. Those locks just aren’t long for this world. Poor baby.

After Joey rejoins the party, he immediately eats all of their food. Not sure why they can’t just have Baby Dragon eat like...whatever Baby Dragon naturally eats...and then transform that into shared Joey Wheeler life points, but it’s not clear exactly how much of a life-connection they have with their Yugioh monsters. Not like it matters because Joey Wheeler is default starving all the time anyway.

Tristan has decided we should start laying blame, I guess because Duke Devlin isn’t here anymore to be the local kill joy. This doesn’t seem to be important at any point, and most of the characters are just ignoring Tristan because like...once you’re in the haunted game in a haunted tomb in a random part of India--it’s kind of moot to argue about who’s fault that is, youknow?

Joey reminds us that he found this quest item in a treasure chest under a secret waterfall. No one says “that was convenient that you landed there after getting chased through a ravine by man-eating birds after you got your dragon from when you got your crotch injury from getting spliced by that tree.”

Which is when Tea says “Wait! We haven’t had a plot thing happen in like 4 seconds! Wait!”

Hey what degree of “I don’t trust nature” do you have to be to assume that all the flowers are trying to eat you?

Like what level of anxiety is Tea where she not only is like “pretty sure the flowers are going to destroy us?” but also...she’s correct? Like she’s not wrong.

They set the dog flowers on fire, but unlike the Jungle Book this doesn’t solve any problems (which apparently got taken off the Disney+ kid’s menu so...yet again, I make a Disney reference in these recaps that future generations will not understand because so much of the Disney library has been banned from the vault. It’s almost like Disney should let go of that copyright they held on for like a hundred years, because what they’re holding on to is only going to get more racist with time. But nah. Gotta hold on with their greedy mickey mouse gloves.)

So instead of using fire, Tristan used his monster to electrocute the air (?) and blind the dogs. Wisely, the animators quickly jumped to this other scene so we wouldn’t have to analyze why it’s suddenly daytime or why that plan would even work.

Joey and Tristan do a lot of buddy buddy stuff this arc. Usually we see a lot of Joey and Yugi’s bottomless friendship, but we don’t get this much Tristan/Joey love. So shippers rejoice, these two seem to have several coordinated dances and songs...and I’d say that teens don’t typically do that, but I went to summer camp, there are situational places where teens will sing the entire vacation and make coordinated dances.

Weirdly, since Joey and Tristan share so much time together, this also means Tea and Yugi actually sit next to eachother for a lot of this arc, almost as if they were a couple. Mind you, they’re chaperoned closely by Grandpa, but youknow...that’s a different energy than I’m used to seeing.

That and like, they can’t have Tea dance with them because last time she did a dance, it was like a DDR fight and she elbowed some guy like it was a fisticuffs situation. Like there was some sort of dance war going on behind the scenes of Yugioh’s card war, and it came up once and I guess Tea resolved it and the dance fights haven’t come back since.

Overall, if they did a dance with Tea, they would get kneed in the face, so that’s probably why they insist on doing cancans as a duet and not a trio.

After Joey and Tristan freak out over having no food, Tea decides to just start eating in front of them.

and like...didn’t Joey eat that food yesterday? Like last night? The short term memory loss on all these fools.

Immediately after this we realize something weird in the water. That’s right, it’s a massive head.

Yugi seems to have forgotten they lit this turtle on fire and electrocuted the entire sky the night before. Not that it mattered.

There were like...nesting birds on those trees on that island. What the hell? They just killed so MANY of those man-eating dogs that are flowers.

Seriously are land turtles allowed to just...dive underwater for long periods of time? How does that ecosystem even work? It’s like...That’s wild to think about.

Inside the temple, they have to fight a genie or something.

In case you were wondering, the only reason Tea and Grandpa got iced is because they were the closest to the door. The two who were actually standing out of harms way were the closest to harm the whole time.

Bro tells me this is also what will happen to you if you are in the front or the back of the party while playing Cthulu D&D

Anyway, Pharaoh decides to disclose that his big problem of feeling guilty all the time and taking all the blame, which he did all of last season...is still a huge problem he will probably never tackle.

Straight up, don’t be fooled by my caps, everyone else has completely forgotten about Alex, who is still running around that temple up there. They haven’t even asked Grandpa “hey is this your protege? Is this your mentee you never told us about?” Nah. They already forgot. 

How wild is it that Pharaoh thinks this is all his fault when he was the only one who was like “YUGI IT’S A TRAP DON’T GO IN THE- well...OK I guess we’re doing this, fine.” Is he upset he didn’t take control from Yugi and walk back to the plane? Because that’s the only way he could even be partially responsible, He was the only guy who was like “I see the end from the beginning on this y’all, and it’s the massive pyramid in India.”

Speaking of forgetting, they came across this language Pharaoh has decided to have nothing to do with.

This was actually a riddle and it was like...it was a riddle, sure, I guess.

And so Joey Wheeler does not hallucinate his dead wife from a previous incarnation and get on the back of his Baby Dragon to sail away into the sunset. Instead they’re just gonna walk.

Too bad Tea’s orb covered in wings only seems to hover a bit. Every single wing on that weird orb is absolutely useless.

And then Pharaoh’s pokemon is just a fire--which is hard to sit on--and Celtic Guardian...who would allow it, sure, but probably doesn’t fly (I think. He might fly)

And then Tristan’s Pokemon kinda seems like if you sit on it, you will get electrocuted. It can probably fly though. It’s very round. Seems like an anime thing that the more round your mascot character is, the more likely it can at least bounce a good distance.

So, next time, I’m just going to assume that we are going to do even more camping. And youknow, if you told me exactly HOW MUCH CAMPING was in this card game show with super future tech, I would not have believed you. But like...a lot of this series is set in the woods right? Like a lot a lot? I have grown to appreciate the woods.

Anyway, as always, if you just got here, this is a link to read these in chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

See you next time!

[horncity18-blog]

How anime works?

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That involves preparing the main image or living "cells" (displayed in relaxing colors) on backgrounds (displayed inside cool colors), along with descriptions of how the digicam should move. In additional words, the planning director support frames each series and appears at the overall formula. anime The example connected with one of a kind cut design. The dark box towards this edge in the paper shows the frame. A design and style movie director determines the make up of each lower, just simply like a movie show. Imagine by way of Nihonden. computer animated A further sort of this is in the Howling ADVENTURE. The backgrounds are dark blue and the cells usually are dark orange. This is unusual because often the clouds are computer animated, not really humans. Image through MangaUK. animation Once the dermal are finished, the production assistant gives the important animators. They are this ones who provide lifetime to images. The particular finished discounts are unveiled in the animation director for the tv show, who checks regularity and even quality. If the special discounts receive the stamp involving authorization, they go to be able to the intermediary unterhaltungskünstler. This particular work is generally outsourced to less experienced computer animators at cheaper prices. Interior frames are sent to typically the intermediate supervisor in order to ensure they are consistent with the quality and support frames of the key animation. If the cut is turned down any kind of time stage, it can be delivered for review. anime manufacturing A key filmtegner is responsible for the main element animation or even, in additional words, the primary frames associated with a slash. Image by means of Pinterest. digitized Finally, the moment the animation is performed, this color team, supervised simply by the color designer, digitizes, clears and colors typically the cuts. At this stage, the slashes are known as cells (or digicells). The colorist spots the color tissues inside the background image (as given in the designs) and brings any 3DCG under the guidance associated with the 3DCG supervisor. One more stage of production is definitely filming, in which arrangement, effects, and editing are generally finalized. animated The fine art director, colorist, and movie director come together to figure out the final coloring pattern or even gradient per character or maybe each using a cut. In this article you can see a number of palaces of different shades in contrast to the background, known as art. Graphic from Sentai Filmworks. Post development Having the end in vision, the production assistant communicates the final cellular material to the post-production recording director. Typically the recording director runs typically the "duplication" process by which post-production teams add voice acting, sound effects, and popular music. 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Creation office The production office will be the studio's command middle and is comprised of the Manufacturing Manager (PM) in addition to a variety of Creation Assistants (PA). The Prime Minister is definitely in charge for handling the particular series' programming, logistics together with financing / finances. Their very own purpose is to present final reductions in moment plus budget. APs function in the PM plus are generally liable for 1 or two episodes. Essentially, the availability office does their job. This is precisely what an anime production display looks like. This can be just an case in point. They are generally a great deal more messy as compared to that. And more horrible, correct? Image through Reddit. overseer The inventive chief produces, the educator, the evaluate, the jury and the particular executioner. Basically, the overseer is the director in the entire project and oversees the final stages of each part of the anime production approach. The representative also has the final word around all creative decisions. They can be directly responsible for the particular circumstances and the closing approval of each one episode. This director from the episode. This specific is self informative. Found in substance, they are typically the film fans of a certain event. The particular episode overseer works directly with the particular overseer on most artistic and logistical judgements regarding the assigned episode. Receive the correct Black Anime figures The script supervisor The particular writer himself (say what? ). Your job, involving course, is usually to make often the characters speak. The representative may present this circumstances, but the script director is responsible for publishing the talk and narratives that guide the episode. Fundamentally, the piece of software supervisor produces the character types, settings, and plot to our lives.

[traumahound]

[INTERVIEW] A CASUAL CHAT WITH JONATHAN JACQUES-BELLETÊTE

The art director for Deus Ex: Human Revolution shares insight on cyberpunk and texturing furniture. Originally published April 1, 2011 on Totalplaystation.com

In early March, PAX East attendees were given a live gameplay demonstration of Deus Ex: Human Revolution by Eidos Montreal personnel, including Game Director Jean-François Dugas, Art Director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, and Community Manager Kyle Stallock. The demonstration consisted of around 20 minutes of an early level in which the protagonist, Adam Jensen, infiltrated a warehouse using a combination of stealth, computer hacking, sharp implements, and bullets. Following the demonstration, I had the opportunity to sit down with J.J.B. and ask a few questions.

Though footage of the demonstration is not officially available, there is a walkthrough of the same portion of the game floating around on YouTube.

So, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. First of all, tell me what you do.

I’m the art director, so I’m trying to make it look pretty.

All right—

Really hard.

Managing a lot of people?

Yeah, I am managing a lot of people, definitely. I mean, there’s a structure. There are artists; there are leads on everything that have their units and whatnot. Overall, we must have close to 60 artists on this game, not counting outsourcing; we’ve had some people doing concept art and modeling outside, but in the studio, we must have a good 60 artists.

Speaking of outsourcing, the pre-rendered cutscenes are, I assume, done by another—

Yeah, all the trailers—in the game, it’s all in-game cutscenes, but the marketing stuff, all the big CGI, the E3 trailer, the extended trailer that you guys saw, that was all done by Visual Works, which is the cinematics department at Square Enix. You can’t ask for better than this. It’s like, “What!?” It’s so weird: one day, you wake up and suddenly your company is owned by Square Enix, and then two months later, you learn that you’re going to work with them on a trailer.

Is it a little intimidating knowing that now people have that in their minds, the look in those trailers, and now you have to sort of, in real-time, try to meet those expectations in the game?

Totally a legitimate question, and you’re absolutely right, but the way that it happened is that we had already set the style of the game’s visuals before we did those CGI trailers. At the same time, as an art director, I’m highly influenced by—I love anime and Japanese video games; we concede, and I say openly that there’s a strong Metal Gear influence on the game, and stuff like that. When Square Enix took our material to do the trailer, it was like we already spoke the same language. The way that I treat the textures in the game, there is no photographic material, just like the Japanese also almost never do that. Everything is done by hand or procedurally, so everything already seemed well-prepared for them to deal with it. So, yeah, you watch the trailers, and then you watch the in-game, and obviously there’s a huge gap, but it still seems to be a part of the same style; the aesthetic essence is exactly the same. I’m actually quite proud of that, really.

How did you arrive at the game’s particular style? It has a unique look: the color palette, I notice a lot of hexagons—

A lot of triangles.

Did you go through other styles on the way to find what you ended up with?

Yes and no. I knew straight from the get-go that I wanted to have a stylized game, that I wanted to have something that has its own signature. As an art director, I’m not into photorealism; it’s really not something that interests me all that much, because I find that credibility—photorealism and credibility are two different things. You can have a game where they put all their efforts into trying to make it photorealistic, but the game doesn’t feel credible at all. I’m not even talking about the “uncanny valley,” I don’t want to get into that, but the credibility of the game itself is not even there. You can have a Disney Movie, like The Beauty and the Beast, where you have a teapot and a cup talking to one another, and it’s totally credible, right? So there’s something there: why is it that when we strive for photorealism it doesn’t work, and something as low-fi as that works? So, anyway, let’s just say that I knew that I wanted to go stylized; I knew that I wanted a specific signature, and now, the hard thing was to figure out what that recipe would be. I knew that I wanted low—not low intensity, but (what is it, fuck,) often I find that in games, textures are too noisy, there’s just too much shit everywhere.

Right, as we gain the technology to add more and more detail to everything—

Right, it becomes a fest of just “pile some more stuff.”

—bump-mapping and making everything gritty.

[Points to nearby black leather couch four feet away.] If I just look at that couch from here, I don’t see texture in that couch. If I get closer I’ll see it, but not from here. In games, a lot of the Unreal 3 Engine games, from here it would look like it was grated or something, so that’s what I wanted to get away from. It looks maybe slicker, in that sense, but then we have fairly advanced shaders, so when you get close to an object, it’ll have really precise detail still. Yeah, the hard thing was mostly to figure out what the recipe was.

Is it intimidating at all working on this franchise? We’ve already seen what happens when someone makes a sequel to Deus Ex and it doesn’t meet expectations. Fans are going to hold it to a very high standard, maybe unrealistically high. If you go back and play Deus Ex now—

They almost have a distorted memory of it, yes.

It was kind of weird, because we also had to start a studio at the same time. Most of the early people, we all came from Ubisoft Montreal, and there were two things: to do a new Deus Ex, and it was also to put the studio together. We were renting offices, at first; we had nothing, barely any equipment, there was no team, the technology wasn’t chosen yet, there was no art bank. You know, for example, when we were at Ubisoft, we start a new project and for the first six months, just to get your thing going, you’ll be taking stuff from other games.

Like for placeholders?

Right, and we had no such things—I don’t know, maybe somehow because of that, it dampened the fear we should have had from having to make a new Deus Ex, you know what I mean?

Because you had so much stuff to deal with, you just had to get to work.

There we go, I couldn’t have said it better. Obviously, we knew how big it was, and we were all big fans ourselves. We knew about the pedigree, we knew about the fans, but we had to do it; we wanted to do it; it’s kind of like this make or break thing. You know, it’s the studio’s first game... maybe it wasn’t such a good idea! No no no, it was a great idea to attract people, actually. We just jumped in head-first, and put all of our eggs in the same basket. I think it’s looking alright; it’s not up to me to say how good it is.

The original game has some celebrity developers attached to it: Harvey Smith, Warren Spector; have they seen the game that you know of? Did you get any reactions from them?

Yeah, Harvey hasn’t seen it, but Warren has seen it, and he likes what he saw. I don’t want to hype it too much or under-hype it, because I don’t want to get into trouble, but I will say that he liked it.

This is kind of a small thing, but can you talk about the “item glint” system that you’re using? [The walkthrough demonstrated a yellow outlining effect to highlight interactive objects.] It seems like it would be hard to find a balance between making it obvious what you can interact with and avoiding something overly obtrusive.

It’s not so bad. One of my main art direction pillars was clutter. I wanted to have lots of props, lots of shit piled on top of everything. We realized was that, going through playtesting, it was a little confusing. That’s when we decided to go with that outline stuff, and like J.F. was explaining in the questions, I think it’s properly managed. It’s not like you open the door to a big room and everything lights up; you need to get into a proper distance, and there’s a rather small threshold in which it becomes highlighted, and it disappears as soon as you move away. Some people, it might not be their cup of tea, but in today’s market, if you make it too subtle, some people will just get discouraged. It has to be accessible.

Hey, you’re an augmented guy with crazy vision implants, so—

That’s our rationale behind it.

Speaking of which, cyberpunk as a genre has kind of fallen out of fashion, with the Internet becoming a mundane, everyday thing—

My feeling is that cyberpunk is what we live today.

How do you try to make it feel relevant today?

The way that we thought about it starting mostly, for me—we asked ourselves the question as artists: can we reproduce the visuals of Blade Runner on today’s consoles? The answer would probably be yes. But then, what would it say about the studio’s capacity for creativity? So, we wanted to bring something new. As you say, it’s not that fashionable; it’s kind of dormant, so that’s when this whole idea of the cyber-renaissance thing, which is not something that you saw much of in today’s demo, but it’s such a big game with so many areas that sometimes you feel it, sometimes you don’t, sometimes it’s omnipresent. That’s part of the idea to bring back cyberpunk, but with a twist to it.

The other thing is, when we started the first focus group for the game, kind of early on, maybe within the first year, testing out the early ideas and everything, we realized that here in the States, and in Europe, because we tested in both continents: kids nowadays? They don’t even know what cyberpunk is. Really, we could not believe it. You never would have thought, if you take a random chunk of 20 kids who all play games—even the hardcore ones—they’re like “Cyberwhat?” We thought, we cannot use that word! Nobody knows what it is. And, you know, we’re using it, but it really was a huge eye-opener for us.

[Gesturing to J.J.B.’s prominent tattoos] I can see that you’re a fan of Warhammer, you know, tabletop games. Have you played roleplaying games at all?

I played when I was younger.

Ever play Cyberpunk 2020?

The only roleplaying game I really played was Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

An awesome game; lots of limbs getting chopped off.

Lots of limbs getting chopped off, yeah, inverting those numbers [a reference to the operation of the critical hit tables]. Yeah, as someone who was creative and wanting to make games, I would buy tons of roleplaying rulebooks, just to read them, and so I had all the Cyberpunk and all those things, and it was the same thing for Warhammer. Warhammer 40,000 is probably my most favorite universe ever, but I own all the rulebooks and all the codices, and I’ve never played the game. Never fucking played the game. I’ve painted the figurines. I haven’t painted in, maybe, six or seven years, because I just don’t have time, but I got to a really high level, where maybe I could start doing those competitions, like the Golden Daemon and shit, but then I just started running out of time. So, I got really into painting the figurines, really into the universe, to the point that—these tattoos are old; I was eighteen when I got them, but still, my passion for that universe hasn’t gone away ever. It’s just kind of weird that I’ve never played the game.

I have a bunch of miniatures, I’ve painted a lot, and I have a ton of the books, and I’ve never played it—

I have all the novels, all the rulebooks, and I love reading them, love the computer games. Alright, cool man, you’re like the first guy I’ve ever met who’s like me. I love to get into that universe, but I don’t really feel like playing the game that much.

Tell me about designing Adam Jensen.

It was tough. It was rough. It took a good two years to nail him down. We kinda knew the overarching design straight from the beginning. We wanted, obviously, not a big brute, there are enough of those in this cycle of consoles. We wanted him to have hair.

You’re crazy. Nobody is going to buy that.

There was this sentence that we coined at the beginning: “He can kick your ass, then he goes home and reads a good book.” We had this idea of, you know the French actor, Vincent Cassel?

No.

Have you seen Black Swan?

No.

He’s French, but he does a lot of movies here. Anyway, he’s a regular build, but there’s just something about his face, about his attitude. You think, “I would never fuck with that guy.” It’s just something that he emanates. And that’s kinda what we wanted. But, because we wanted the mechanical augmentations to be at the forefront of the game and of the visuals—that’s why often you see Adam from third-person, so you can see his arms—J.F. wanted his arms to be visible at all times. And, you know, he’s the creative director, so he’s my boss, but also, we wanted him to look like an agent who could be sent behind enemy lines, and at the same time walk into a high-end restaurant to interrogate someone.

It was a really hard equation to solve: he has to look like Solid Snake, and he has to look like James Bond, and you need to see his mechanical arms all at the same time. So we gave him a vest, and he looked like a douchebag all the time, like a biker or something. Every one of my concept artists had a go at it, where they would pool their energy to try to improve him, and it never quite worked. One day, Jim Murray, one of my concept artists, approached me, and—as simple as it sounds—says, “Let’s just make him two outfits.” One is kind of his battle gear, where you see his arms, and one is kind of his urban gear, because such a big part of the game is being in the city hubs, investigating and talking to people, going into rich places, inserting yourself into an apartment or whatever, and that’s when he’s gonna have his cyberpunky trench coat, and you’re not going to see his arms.

Again, as simple as it sounds, like holy shit. But then, we still had to run it by J.F. and the writer. Often, people don’t realize how a simple choice can be very complex to implement in the game, so we had a few meetings about it, and we decided to go with it. After that, within two months, Jim had nailed them; we had the jacket, which I loved. Also, the challenge was that when he has the jacket, he still has to be able to use the same augmentations. So, he has the claymore, the typhoon, where all those beads eject from his arms, so how do you do this when you have a jacket? Or when your blade extends backward? So we designed those slits in his jacket, and he has ports on it that kind of magnetize to the holes on his arms to let go of the beads and everything, so we kind of worked out how it works.

Yeah, so two months later, Adam was born, and the little pointy beard was kind of the Don Quixote thing, kind of the renaissance/baroque thing.

In the Icarus dream sequence in the trailer, you can see that the facial hair works in both settings. [This sequence features Adam surrounded by men in Renaissance-era garb.]

The Icarus thing was such a great find, in the sense that it was such a great metaphor for augmentations, because that’s what happens, right? Daedalus, his dad, gives him the wings so he can escape the maze, basically having wings is augmenting yourself. The feathers are glued with wax, so he says, “Don’t fly too close to the sun, or the wings will melt,” but he has so much fun with the wings that that’s what he does, and then he dies. That’s a bit like what it is with augmentation; if you overdo it, like with anything in life, you might burn yourself. We though it was such a great analogy for that.

Do you personally have a strong opinion on transhumanism?

Strong? Not necessarily, I wouldn’t say strong. I’m not intensely passionate about the pros and cons, but I think it’s inevitable. I think it’s one of those things that we’ll need to have laws, and we’ll need to have ways to control what will happen. There are going to be big mistakes, like with everything. There are mistakes made all the time in medicine, the military makes mistakes all the time, but I think it’s inevitable. If we try to stop it, there will be underground, illegal shit, and stuff like that. I’m quite convinced that in the next, maybe, 40 years, we’ll be immensely transformed. From all the stuff I’ve read, the specialists we’ve met, I think we’re going to see some crazy shit in the next 30 years.

Globe-trotting was a big component of the first Deus Ex; you cover a lot of mileage. Do you do that a lot in this one?

Yes, there’s definitely a lot of variety, yup.

One thing that the first game kind of failed at was giving the impression that you’re in a larger world. The city areas felt a bit constrained. How did you approach that problem?

It’s funny, as the cycles of consoles and technologies evolve, the constraints somehow always remain the same. OK, Grand Theft Auto, it’s immense or whatever; it never seems to end, but, for example, what you do with the NPCs is very limited compared to Deus Ex. Anyway, you add all this stuff that you can do in Deus Ex, and suddenly you don’t have the power to do a city that big, so we had the same constraints. Don’t get me wrong, the city hubs are quite big; many, many streets; tons of alleyways and buildings to get into, sewers to get into, rooftops... all that shit. At the same time—at some point you can’t go further, and you need to find tricks to convey that there’s a sprawling city around you, and why that path is blocked when it seems like it should be open. It’s a very common game design problem.

I remember on Splinter Cell at Ubisoft, it was the same thing. “This street is blocked, why?” And I would be, like, “Maybe some guy is moving out,” so there’s a big truck, and stuff like that blocking the street. It’s very common. But honestly, I think we manage rather well in Deus Ex. And then, there are compounds that you go into, like office buildings and secret laboratories where those limitations aren’t as important anymore, because you are in a confined area, but for the city hubs, I think we get away with it quite well.

A big feature of the game is having multiple approaches to every situation. Is that frustrating, especially being involved in the art side, because there may be significant chunks of the game that a lot of players won’t see?

Frustrating? No. I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating, because, obviously, we try to make the coolest stuff in the critical path. Now, that being said, it doesn’t mean that side-quests or whatever don’t have their own things, but you can manage; you just try to make everything look cool. I don’t know if we succeeded. I have a really hard time saying, “Oh, this doesn’t need to look as cool,” or whatever; I try to put just as much energy into everything.

I guess your question is more—if some people don’t see some of the cool stuff we’ve made... It is going to happen, but to some degree it’s kind of cool. They’ll be talking to their friends and they will have seen it, even if you haven’t, and I think it’s all part of the trip, really. But it’s cool, because I’ve worked at companies before where they never would have allowed us to do that.

It seems like a waste of resources.

Exactly. Some companies are so into every penny you spend, the player has to see it. Which is very rational when you think about it; it makes total sense, but sometimes making a game that gives you a specific feeling, that gives you that flavor so that once you’ve turned off your computer and when you go to bed you’re still thinking about it, it’s also a game that has all these things that are not just thrown in your face like that. But, that is quite expensive to do.

So, I’m guessing you can’t say anything about Thief 4.

No.

I figured.

That would be the death of me. No, it’s gonna rock your socks off; there we go.

Just how awesome is it?

Super awesome. Super-duper awesome.

No, it’s a great team honestly; tons of my friends are there. The art director is a great friend of mine, and uh... I’m not even sure I’m allowed to say that, so I’ll stop there.

It seems like a similarly ambitious sequel to make. Like with Deus Ex, fan expectations are off the charts.

It’s the same thing, exactly. I think it was really... that’s what we wanted to do with that studio. If we open another goddamn studio in that city? We do it strong or we don’t do it.

**In the first game, J.C. Denton is kind of inept in the beginning. It’s surprising that he’s supposed to be this super-spy, but he can barely fire a gun straight. I assume that Adam Jensen is a bit more capable right off the bat. **

Big time, yeah. Also, the shooting is something that right from the get-go, me and J.F. agreed that the shooting skill of Adam Jensen is going to be the player’s shooting skills. In terms of that, it’s a full-fledged first-person shooter. You know the crosshairs there? That’s where the bullet’s gonna go. You can still augment him in some ways to be a better shooter, like for recoil, or stuff like that. All the weapons are fully upgradeable, so that aspect of RPGness is still there, but where you shoot is where you shoot.

I’ll admit that I cheated to max out my skills in Deus Ex and found it a lot more fun that way.

The skills—that system was quite punitive.

You do have an upgrade system in this, where you earn your Praxis Points and unlock augmentations—are those scarce enough that you can’t get every upgrade by the end of the game?

You can’t max everything in a play-through. You can become the jack of all trades if you want, but you won’t be an expert at everything, or you can really invest in a branch.

If somebody specializes very much in, say, stealth, and therefore tends to use that to get through every encounter, do you think that can become monotonous and discourage people from experimenting with the other techniques?

Hmm, that’s a good question. It’s never been asked to me that way, specifically. I hope not. I don’t think it is—the way we’ve designed the challenges is that they’re never molded for one style of gameplay. It’s not like you get to an environment where it’s like, “Here you have to play stealth.” We’ve shown a quick example of that in the demo: if you wouldn’t have been able to disable the turret, there was that passage on the side. Usually most challenges are set up that way, but not as obvious as that; it’s built quite like the first one in that regard.

Are you absolutely sure there are no blue laser swords in the game? [A reference to a question asked during audience Q&A]

As of right now, this time, today: absolutely sure.

Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.

It was awesome, man. Great questions, thanks.

[vanilla-blessing]

The Thousand Noble Musketeers Has The Worst Anime OP

So I was forced to watch Senjuushi (The Thousand Noble Musketeers) recently, a Japanese anime that has only been newsworthy for how terrible the animation is (https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2018-08-29/fans-lament-the-thousand-noble-musketeers-anime-production-issues/.136070), which was picked up by Sentai’s vulture-like anime streaming service after the big boys took nearly everything else. The Thousand Noble Musketeers has garnered abysmal scores and reviews on every venue that has covered it, and has drawn memetic comparisons to the legendary DYNAMIC CHORD. I would bet money that barely anyone in the West was ever within the strike zone of this HIDIVE exclusive untranslated mobile game tie-in anime adaptation of an antique gun-themed male harem, but one thing stuck out to me about this season’s beautiful disaster. As a result of the most questionable production of the season, having outsourced its very first episode, TMS has developed what may be scientifically the least good “OP” (OPening theme song animation) ever made. Let’s break down everything I could identify that was awful in this OP because that sounds like fun. - qb

https://animethemes.moe/video/Senjuushi-OP1.webm

The OP antique memories begins with a sick guitar riff and literal slideshow of several named characters that you can buy in the mobile game probably. The faces are all awkward, in ¾ profile, and it looks kinda like the intro to a 80’s speed dating VHS. This gif ironically has the most frames in the entire OP. Chorpsaway immediately called it fake news.

Next, there’s another slideshow, this time of the presumably main Gun Boys, staring into the camera, then turning at right angles away from the camera, while holding the antique guns that they are anthropomorphic representations of. Their costumes are incredibly garish and at worst and dull at best. More shots introduce further characters, this time in groups, who also stare at the viewer impassively. This all looks like total dump because their faces are universally identical and nearly emotionless. Nothing meaningful is conveyed, except that some boys exist, somewhere.

At this point the faces can’t even stay on model and begin to drift. If you didn’t already feel uncanny from the mechanically limited, rigid movements and soul-crushing assembly line feeling you get from the overall aesthetic, this will probably do it. Wonky faces are apparently a recurring issue further down the line in The Thousand Noble Musketeers, with mouths reportedly flying off of heads seemingly of their own will. According to fans of the series, they’re hopeful that the eventual DVD and Blu Ray will be corrected to fix all of these fundamental production issues, citing 2014 anime about twin tail fetishists from a completely different studio, and assuming anyone will eventually buy this on home video.

A dizzying spiral of Gun Boys greets the viewer before a dazzling shot of the morning sun, leading into an equally dizzying inverse spiral of even more Gun Boys, before finally stopping at an enigmatic shot of some Gun Boys in gas masks. This is the only shot in the entire OP with a hint of intentional meaning, as they are lit with a foreboding, purple light, and stand on a bed of purple, dark rose thorns. I assume the gas masks are a sort of ambiguous commentary on war? From what I’ve seen of the show the collective multinational Gun Boys are fighting a vague oppressor that does not match any real country or axis, so this vaguely threatening aesthetic choice fits right in. Every other shot in the OP is of the sky or a color gradient, so these 5 seconds are the only part that even be generously stretched to mean something. At this point they ran out of their people budget, so some Bob Ross paintings of trees are all we have before the inevitable pan to the clear blue sky because every anime OP has to end with a pan to the blue sky.

Personally, my experience with The Thousand Noble Musketeers was constant drunken disbelief at what I was seeing and I would probably recommend it over anything else this season for a cheap laugh. The constantly awkward faces and nonsensical mobile game-derived story will at least hold your attention for 22 minutes. A few people had high expectations of the staff involved before the outsourced premiere aired, but for the most part, the devoted audience of this anime seem to be far more interested in the attractive voice actors than anything else. The core audience doesn’t seem to mind so the wonk animation probably isn’t hurting anyone. A BluRay release could improve The Thousand Noble Musketeers’ animation by a lot, but using the OP as a metric for the best they can do, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

- qb friend of a show (queuebae on twitter)

[faisalkhanlove]

Is there any free whiteboard animation software?

You wish to pick the very best computer animation firm for your company video clip, yet there are loads of choices. You can surely locate off-shore options for a few thousand bucks, and also you can surely discover premium carriers for numerous hundreds of bucks. Between there are some terrific (and also some simply great) alternatives at differing cost factors. Just how do you choose which one to deal with?

Spending plan is a great area to begin. That is why we have separated our suggestions by rate groups listed below. Company designs differ from group to group and we have defined the subtleties there too, so you recognize what to get out of each computer animation firm.

Why Do Intend to Aid You Locate the Ideal Computer animation Firm?

In the past we dive into a  worth and also profile contrast, we need to attend to the elephant in the room—isn't it odd that we are offering shouts bent on our competitors?

Many individuals could assume so. Yet we desire you to be certain that you are production the correct choice when you pick IdeaRocket. Our objective is to develop top quality computer animation that releases your message into orbit. We're respectable at it, if we do state so ourselves, however we're not the appropriate suitable for every service. When that is the situation, we desire you to discover the most effective computer animation firm for your spending plan and task. Why? Since we rely on the power of computer animation as well as we believe there is space at the table for everybody to prosper.

Nevertheless, we have not drawn punches. This listing consists of just the worthiest firms in each rate vary as well as we have been sincere regarding their toughness as well as weak points. Oh, and also we're leaving the home enjoyment firms off our listing entirely. Certainly the majority of organisations cannot manage to collaborate with Pixar.

Exclusive Agency-Client Workshops - $$$$

These firms commonly obtain their function from marketing and also advertising and marketing companies. Although they may periodically function straight with a firm, generally they do not market themselves straight to organisations. Their charges normally vary from the top 5 numbers to well into the six-figure range; the variety of individuals on their manufacturing groups can be as high as twenty or more.

Dollar Create: With workplaces in Brand-new York City, Los Angeles, and Sydney, Dollar Create was an computer animation giant for many years. They do not simply do computer animation, either, yet product packaging, tee shirts, publish, whatever. Here is a peek at the collection of brief movies they provided for Mailchimp Offers

Psyop: Established in Brand-new York City in 2000, Psyop currently has workplaces in Los Angeles also. Their specialized is premium, extremely outlined CGI work. They're the workshop behind Chick-Fil-A's well-known Xmas industrial "The Trigger" and also Coca-Cola's 2019 Extremely Dish Industrial highlighted listed below. They've ventured into web content and also video pc gaming systems as well.

Scholar: Started by Will certainly Johnson as well as William Campbell, Scholar began in Los Angeles previously increasing to Brand-new York. They operate in a range of strategies from online activity to CGI to standard computer animation. A number of those designs get on show in their advertisement for the 2020 Porsche 922.

These workshops do modern, stunning work that can possibly often go viral simply on the toughness of its awesomeness. Nonetheless, they run out allocate several brand names. These exclusive workshops usually function from ideas offered them by firms instead of functioning straight with organisations. Frequently, they'll do specification operate to win a large or respected job - and obviously, the set you back of their fell short specification pitches is amortized into task expenses.

Bottom-line: Exclusive workshops bill an exclusive cost and seldom work straight with brand names.  

Costs Direct-to-Business - $$$ This is our group. These business like IdeaRocket may occasionally deal with firms - in our situation, it is regarding a quarter of our organisation - yet are more made use of to functioning straight with organisations. That suggests we are concept-to-delivery homes, offering calculated recommendations as well as copywriting along with computer animation manufacturing.

The common job charge for these firms remains in the reduce 5 numbers. Normally, their manufacturing groups are tiny - normally 2 to 6 individuals.

IdeaRocket: That is us! We have innovative workplaces in NYC and London sustained by first-rate manufacturing solutions in Buenos Aires. While lots of international firms are making use of the unbelievable computer animation ability in Argentina by outsourcing, IdeaRocket is the just US-based computer animation workshop with its very own long-term manufacturing center in Buenos Aires. Our management and our society is both multilingual as well as multicultural, enabling a one-of-a-kind international fluency and also mixing of ability from all over the world. We're additionally an employee-owned business, so you can felt confident that every participant of our group has actually a rate of interest in your success.

Trial Duck: Trial Duck is a Chicago-based company that frequently obtains superb outcomes by outsourcing to exclusive musicians all over the world as well as providing excellent imaginative instructions. Established in 2011, they began off developing trial video clips as well as screencasts. Today, they provide both computer animation as well as real-time activity for a range of sectors.

Epipheo: Cincinnati-based Epipheo Workshops was among the initially business in the Explainer video clip market in 2009. They expanded a customer base thank you partly to a top quality articles program. A lot of their design was imitated to fatality by others yet Epipheo has continuouslied restore itself and also produce engaging function. They additionally very own Video clip Brewery, a lower-cost manufacturing system coordinating up manufacturing groups with consumers.

All-time low line: Costs companies assistance your video clip development procedure from idea to distribution. We function straight with brand names to provide costs video clip web content.

Mid-Tier Direct-to-Business - $$

These business usually (however not constantly) work with tiered cost frameworks: various rate degrees for various high quality degrees. If you can not manage a costs top quality item, these are the following ideal best alternative.

Demoflick: Started by Albert Berry in 2011, Boston-based Demoflick was just one of the leaders of the explainer video clip area. Their streamlined computer animation design is the appropriate selection for some brand names and also messages. They provide custom-designed computer animations along with application/software application demonstrations, educating, and business interaction video clips.

White boards Computer animation: Focusing on white boards computer animation, Whiteboardanimation.com is centered in Brooklyn, NY as well as Union City, NJ. They occasionally integrate white boards with various other methods such as 3d, to develop crossbreed techniques. Rates is based upon the intricacy of the video clip. You will pay a costs for shade and also smooth scene shifts. Their moms and dad workshop, ideaMACHINE supplies various other computer animation designs.

Yum Yum Computer animation: Buenos Aires has ended up being a hotbed of computer animation, with a lot of workshops (consisting of ours) touching the amazing skill there. Regarding I understand, Yum Yum is the just Buenos Aires-based workshop trying to market itself straight to US firms, although they likewise do some white-labeling for various other workshops.

Economic situation Direct-to-Business - $

Firms in this rate complete greatly on cost. The set you back here's 3 to 4 numbers each min. Although several of these service companies make believe not to, the majority of contract out their computer animation to India or Pakistan. The operate you access this rate vary is commonly common, as well as the develop has the tendency to be thin.

Broadcast2World: Broadcast2World is centered in India with a sales and advertising workplace in New Jacket. They use infographic computer animation along with typical 2D computer animation. You may see their item in mid-priced studio's portfolios since they white-label a great deal of their operate. They supply great worth, yet you may wish to care for the creating on your own.

Kukuzoo: Kukuzoo was started by Wear Radhay in Toronto, Canada. They began by aiding tale authors to develop personality layouts and also computer animations. In 2014, they transitioned to explainer video clips. Unlike many workshops, they are clear regarding their rates. Their create is threadbare, however their creating benefits the rate vary.

Freelancer Systems - $?

Can possibly you go more affordable yet? Certain, if you utilize a consultant system such as Upwork or Fiverr. Occasionally, business will search for organisation on these websites, yet regularly it's solo professionals. It's truly hard to discover a person that incorporates the abilities to compose a manuscript, create, and also animate a video clip, so you may should contribute some creating or at the same time, cobble with each other a group on your own. Yet indeed, it's feasible to produce a video clip this manner in which will set you back hundreds as opposed to hundreds of bucks.

As you can possibly see, picking the greatest computer animation firm for your company depends mainly on your spending plan. In my eBook, Being successful With Computer animated Video clip, I discuss how you can establish an allocate your computer animated video clip based upon anticipated expenses as well as predicted returns. Sign up with our e-newsletter to obtain your free duplicate!

Find out ways to handle an computer animated video clip task for your company:

How you can choose just what does it cost? to invest Getting buy-in from your company Selecting a service provider and design for your video clip Collaborating with your stakeholders Dealing with the innovative group How you can determine ROI on your video clip task Ways to advertise your video clip Maintaining metrics so you can possibly find out

Leading Messages

3 Means to Utilize Gifographics: Change Information Into Interesting GifsExperience Annecy 2021: A World Best Computer animation EventSpecialists Share Just how the Pandemic Modified the Form of AdvertisingOur Computer animated Video clip Manufacturing Procedure: From Suggestion to Orbit

[ketanmehtajodhpuruniversity-blog]

India Now Ready to Take Animation to Next Level: Ketan Mehta

With “Motu Patlu: King of Kings” coming out in stereoscopic 3-D animation on October 14, acclaimed filmmaker and Maya digital Studios founder Ketan Mehta says the time is proper for the Indian animation enterprise to take off in a large way.

“Animation enterprise in India is developing extraordinarily rapidly during the last five years. since India is truly a past due starter in the animation enterprise, it took time to advantage momentum. however now, there's a huge expertise pool this is available in India and that i assume India is prepared to take it to the next stage now,” Ketan told IANS in an e mail interview from Mumbai.

Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University Ketan Mehta Jodhpur National University

 Ketan Mehta

in line with the FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and entertainment enterprise file 2015, the animation and VFX marketplace in the united states turned into pegged at Rs fifty one billion in 2015 and is projected to grow to Rs 58.7 billion the 12 months after.

“Motu Patlu: King of Kings”, produced through Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd, Cosmos entertainment and Maya digital Studios and directed by way of Suhas D. Kadav, is set  great pals from Furfuri Nagar. these are popular characters from Hindi comedian magazine Lotpot, and after a successful tv series on the same, its film version is now set to enthrall cinema-goers, courtesy Ketan Mehta, Deepa Sahi and Anish JS Mehta.

Ketan, at the Lonavla global film festival final month, had shared that he had “faced a crisis as a filmmaker” while he wanted to infuse a few visible consequences for a scene in his 1993 movie “Maya Memsaab”. there was a lack of up-to-date animation device and understanding to meet his want in India.

That’s whilst the idea of launching Maya digital Studios with spouse Deepa dawned upon him.

searching lower back at the times, Ketan said: “while we began the studio to start with, there has been just no manpower in India, era became absolutely new, and when we started out MAAC (Maya Academy of advanced Cinematics), there had been hardly any trained professionals in India.”

“For the primary 10 years, most of the paintings the animation studios and we did was outsourced from the usa or Europe. Progressively, simply 5 years in the past, the entire situation began changing. Most of the tv channels were additionally simply recycling American or jap animation. But they realized very soon that until they assist unique Indian content, the boom become now not sincerely viable.”

He said after they took a bounce of faith and decided to create their personal IP, it paid off.

“It has sincerely galvanized the complete industry to an extent where maximum of the worldwide channels at the moment are telecasting Indian content. That has also given bandwidths for the studios to start developing characteristic films. First, they began doing television functions and over the previous couple of years, increasingly more characteristic movies also are taking place and the entire boom is genuinely gaining momentum,” Ketan said.

Maya digital Studios plunged right into a complete-duration characteristic film with the 2010 movie “Ramayana — The Epic”.

“However the market hadn’t grown sufficiently (at that time). because then, the marketplace has grown, whole generations of youngsters are growing up on watching Indian animation and with ‘Motu Patlu’ in stereoscopic 3-d, we trust that the time is right for Indian animation industry to take off,” he brought.

but, the truth that “animation is a global phenomenon” is what the Indian animation enterprise has to recognize.

“Catering just to the home market isn't always going to be enough for the good sized increase of the enterprise. however we additionally must realize that as compared to the yankee, european, chinese and japanese animation movies, Indian animation is being achieved at a fraction of these prices and the value distinction is so excessive that to match those qualities inside these charges, will become very tough.”

“I consider that the only way to that is that the Indian innovative skills has to get extra formidable and believe in themselves and make merchandise for the worldwide market,” he said, adding that with “Motu Patlu”, they're seeking to make bigger the marketplace significantly.

“We accept as true with that the time is proper and the capability has simply started.” (IANS)

[geekysweetie]

Makura no Danshi - Pillow Boys - Anime Review

OK…. I just watched one of the weirdest anime of my life… Well two of the weirdest anime of my life…. And I didn’t really hate it?..

The first anime I came across is a relatively new anime called OneRoom. In OneRoom, everything is supposed to be in first person… except… only… it’s not??? Because why then can I keep seeing almost up the backs of the girls’ skirts?! Do I have hidden cameras in my apartment? Do I have super powers? Am I having an out of body experience? The answer is NO, they just wanted to cram as much fan service as humanly possible into each 4 minute episode…

Not only that…. But it is the first anime I’ve ever watched which puts YOU in the anime…. or tries to… but fails miserably at this… They make it so you never see, hear, or know anything about the main character… sort of… only except… you do know/assume what he is saying based on the things the girls are saying to you… And unless you’re a total pervert, chances are whatever the anime thinks the main character is feeling/thinking/saying doesn’t line up with what you’re actually feeling/thinking/saying while watching it… so it’s still almost impossible to immerse yourself into this supposed “blank slate”.

While watching it, I felt like I was playing Love+ (a dating sim game), except I wasn’t playing anything at all. It was like a waifu simulator, with all the gamification and simulation parts taken out.

Still… because the artwork was cute… and the music was catchy… and most of all because the episodes were only 4 minutes long, I kept watching….

While reading reviews after watching, just to laugh at peoples “WTF” comments…. I discovered there’s a version of this “anime experiment” designed for women as well….

Enter Makura no Danshi! Pillow Boys! An anime by the same studio as OneRoom, Makura no Danshi, or Pillow Boys, features a different Pillow Boy each week.

What the heck is a Pillow Boy? In Japan, for both guys and girls, there are anime pillow cases that fit large body sized pillows. WARNING NSFW: https://www.aliexpress.com/promotion/promotion_anime-male-body-pillow-promotion.html

This anime was blatantly created for one sole purpose… to sell such pillow cases…. and this anime is effective at doing that… Before watching this anime, I knew about the Pillow Boyfriend / Pillow Girlfriend trend in Japan…. and I’d looked at such pillow cases before… I didn’t have a large pillow at the time though; About 3 weeks ago I got a really big expensive memory foam body pillow…. It’s currently dressed in a not very feminine or kawaii dark color…. Watching Pillow Boys reminded me that I could get something more Kawaii that would fit my image, my room, my decor, my life. I already cuddle my pillow every night so why not cuddle it and look at cute anime boys too lol. So I will probably buy one of these pillow slips, as soon as I decide which one I want… there are literally hundreds of styles, some from popular games and anime, and others completely original characters.

So now that you know what a Pillow Boy is… let’s move on to the actual review…

Title: Makura no Danshi! Pillow Boys!

Episodes: 12

Episode Length: 4 minutes

Studio: Feel

Publisher: Imagineer

Release Date: 2015

Genre: Slice of Life, Shoujo, Romance, “Pillow Boy Simulator?” lol.

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

Overall: 35/55 64% D “Average Anime for Girls”

Geeky: 1/5? lol… Not sure… I mean it does have pretty art, and actually I really like the opening theme song, and it IS geeky, because I mean, who else buys these pillows except for geeks. But I can’t in good faith give it a higher score here, because aside from the opening theme, there’s almost no other music, each episode is 4 minutes long, and there’s literally no plot, and it’s just weird as heck lol.

Sweetie: 5/5 – at the opposite end of the rating spectrum, this is an incredibly cute, kinda awkward, and at times highly inappropriate, funny, fun, anime…

Concept: 6/10 — Fanservice for Women. Blatant money-grab anime whose sole purpose is to sell merchandise… but yet… oddly… interesting… and entertaining… Each week a new Pillow Boy is introduced… and they’re all pretty cute and likeable….

I want to make a comment here… but it may be a spoiler… not that the story is important or even coherent in this series… but just in case, using my spoiler tags… you can click to read… it’s about the ending of the final episode…

Spoiler

Perhaps the weirdest thing about this anime is, I believe that the characters actually ARE pillows throughout the anime, not just cute guys who the main character (You) spend your time with… My reasons for believing this include, in the final episode the Pillow Boy says “Hey!! Don’t Fluff me! That’s so mean!” Now why on earth or even how on earth would you fluff a person? You could fluff their HAIR maybe, but that’s not what the character says… Also there’s the fact that You are always tired and/or sleeping in every episode… And… the fact that all of these guys know where you live, sleep in your bed, and seem overly familiar with you, and that’s odd especially for Japanese cultures even more so than American culture, and it STILL seemed weird to me too as an American. My first thought was WHY do I have so many different boyfriends, and how do they know where I live, and why are we sleeping together all the time? — All of these things led me to the conclusion that not only are they ACTUALLY PILLOWS; but that YOU as the viewer are well aware of this fact, and that YOU as the viewer and main character, are actually talking to and fantasizing about your pillows… making you perhaps one of the saddest, most desperate, lonely main characters that I have ever seen… On the other hand, you could just be dreaming in each episode, which would be less creepy, and also less funny, than someone talking to their pillows and pretending to be in a relationship with them lol.

And when you realize THAT, it kinda completely changes the entire tone of the anime lol.

Story: 3/10 – Each week a new Pillow Boy is introduced, each episode is self contained and stand-alone. Each episode consists of the Pillow Boy talking to you about his day, and asking you questions, which you’re encouraged as an audience member to talk back to the TV (k we go from talking to pillows to talking to the TV now lol). They don’t give you much time for response, and ultimately, it suffers the same problem as OneRoom, in that it’s still difficult to immerse, because you can still get a vague idea of the “conversation” that is supposedly going on.

Characters: 9/10 – Ok so the characters themselves though are actually strangely cute, and charming. I honestly liked just about all of them. My favorite was probably the cuddly one or the shy astronomy geek, or maybe the naughty twins lol. “Let’s play find the flower” lol. But even the little boy was cute, in a strictly platonic way. But that didn’t stop the anime from making highly inappropriate sexual innuendos and jokes even in that episode such as the title of that episode: “Innocent Danshi, a highly energetic, hot, 5 year old” WHAT THE F??? That is the creepiest weirdest title for an episode I’ve ever seen. PS, the episode is COMPLETELY G rated – thank god. It’s NOT some weird creepy perverted pedophile anime lol. — You know most anime with a “young looking” “Loli” or “Shota” character, they merely LOOK young but are actually of age of consent, and not an ACTUAL 5 year old… but in this anime, he really is a 5 year old, and you’re baby sitting him… I won’t give too much away, but you’re playing power rangers and he tells you to be the pink ranger, and he wants to be the super “rare” black ranger, whose super power is “Fatty Beef Bomber” — Really? lol… Innuendo much there? Given the character’s age, that is just messed up…. But then… when you take into account what I mentioned in the spoiler tag above, about the ending of the final episode, then you can look past this part. Each character is unique and has a charm of their own.

Artwork: 3/5 – The character designs are super cute, but the animation itself is very low quality and cheap. One scene, with your coworker, in particular, keeps one still image on for 1-2 minutes… in a 4 minute episode… that’s…. pretty cheap lol. The character designs are also not consistent — the final episode brings back the pillow boy from Episode 1… and he looks like a junior high school or even elementary school student now (which to be honest, fits his personality better) Except then, near the end, he goes back to looking about college student aged again (as he appeared in the first episode) for a few seconds. I don’t think this was done for any reason other than they were lazy. It wasn’t like he was done in a “chibi” style to be more cute, It was more like, they forgot what they went with, or couldn’t decide on and stick to one style, or they were outsourcing or using different artists – which would be pretty sad given its a 4 minute per episode kind of show, which shouldn’t be overly complex or have that much detail etc.

Music: 3/5 – The opening theme honestly, would be like a 5/5 — I really like it. It’s catchy as heck. But the rest of the anime has almost no music at all… Even an episode where the Pillow Boy is a violinist, which was the weirdest episode to watch without music.

Voice Acting: 5/5 — I thought the voices were cute, as well as the artwork, those two factors played a big role in my liking of the characters and overall enjoyment of the anime.

Overall: 35/55 64% D “Average Anime for Girls”

Makura no Danshi – Pillow Boys – Anime Review was originally published on GeekySweetie.com - Geeky & Kawaii Anime, Tech, Toys, & Game Reviews & News