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taldigi · 10 months ago

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I heard that 3D animation is cheaper, that's why they went with it for Miraculous Ladybug.

That's a slightly complicated question. It really depends on the scale and scope of your animation.

Let's say that I wanted to do a short. 3 minutes to 8 minutes long. I would say that the 3D animated option might be more expensive because the startup would be more expensive I would have to have models made and rigged. backgrounds and props would need to be modeled and designed. I might not use more than one or two sets. I would have to consider if a character will need to stay in the same outfit or not. How many characters am I using? The more characters, the more expensive it will be. How complex is it going to be? Is it going to be more stylized or is it going to be a little stiffer or more realistic. Because then I would have to consider working the models into being able to squash and stretch.

A lot of that consideration takes very different forms when approaching it from a 2D angle. I would have to do quite a few backgrounds individually, but the characters would be pretty consistent and they would be incredibly flexible. The character done in a squash animation is no more expensive than doing one in a standing animation. I would also have to consider if it's going to be frame by frame or if it's going to be a puppet style animation (think like robot unicorn warriors eternal versus bluey!) Because one is indeed more expensive than the other. Either way the freedom of movement, expression, and variation is going to be significantly more flexible than what a 3D model might provide. Because drawing a unique expression is indeed easier than having to 3D model one.

When one considers stretching it into a show format it really depends on the sort of show you want to go for. You're going to need a lot more characters and a lot more backgrounds and settings. A 2D show can probably provide a large variety of settings, and each setting is going to be the same-ish amount of effort, whereas a 3D setting needs a whole new model and props... but once they are made, they can be shot from any angle and reused as many times as needed. Where as a 2D background might be able to be reused for a few shots but if a new angle is needed they will have to redraw the background. So that is a win in the 3D department. The same goes for characters. Characters in 2D animation can grow, transform and where other clothes ... and it's going to be the same price per frame... Unless you're doing puppet animation and then you will have to make a whole new puppet. That same line of thinking is for 3D. You only need to pay for one model and you can use it 100,000 times, but if you want the character to change in any way you're going to have to know what you're doing or you're going to have to pay to have it changed. That includes outfits, hairstyle changes, etc etc.

If you're going to make a show, and you're going to have only a few characters and a few settings, then the 3D option might be more appealing. You only need to spend the money to get it set up, and then you can just pay bare minimum to have animated in. Whereas it's going to be the same ish per episode of 2D animated show. 3d is also been a huge fad. You can thank Disney and other like-minded executives for devaluing 2D animation and pushing 3D as the way of the future.

Animation is very often outsourced anyway. I believe Zag outsources their animation to... Korea? Vietnam? I think it's Korea. Samg was Korean. But very rarely is animation done in the home it is intended for. And they often do it for a reason. Sometimes it is simply because the company has already invested in render farms, other times it is because the country they are outsourcing to is able to cut costs on labor. Which is kind of scummy.

The reason why Japan can push out a ton of 2D animation is because they basically work in sweatshop-like environments. There's also a gambling element that people have over anime the incentivizes it being made. (I remember reading more detail about it but I currently can't at the moment. I think the gist was that anime and it's merchandise is treated a lot like stock. And that's a very loose explanation of it there's a better one on YouTube somewhere I'm sure.)

Miraculous does not have a very flexible art style. I believe when I was talking with one of the people who had been working with the show, one of the companies had definitely pushed for a realistic sort of animation style, and they very much discouraged squash and stretch or " anime expressions" which is why miraculous can feel kind of stiff. And if you've noticed there are definitely a very limited amount of sets. I think there's like a handful of street sets a handful of home sets and a school set or two... The characters rarely have outfit variation and I think it took like five seasons for them to give Adrian a casual/ set of pajamas? And I think they just recolored marinettes pajamas to be her exercising outfit or something.

It definitely cut costs. But it's not in the way that people think it cut costs. I see a very big theory that they switched to 3D because ladybugs spots were too complicated to animate. Which I don't believe is true because... Well, it's toei.. the studio that makes magical girl anime aka "overly complicated designs, the genre".

I think the show would have benefited from being 2D, anime or not. It wants to be a show about a fashion designer... Well, Marinette could have had a new outfit every episode. And that's way harder to do in 3D than 2D. It also lacks a lot of really snappy combat. I think the show is definitely held back by its younger Target audience especially in terms of the story it wants to tell. It is definitely a show for teens that has been retroactively fit to be a "dumb baby show." And the animation definitely reflects that.

I would also like to remind people that they did make a 2D miraculous show. It was called tales of Paris, and it is on YouTube. They also did the chibi shorts. That should show you the kind of money or style they would have probably gone with if they decided to go with 2D. And a lot of people hanging on to the hope/ the mention that they might work on a 2D series... Well they already did it and it didn't do well so now they're never going to do something more substantial so there you go.

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melsquid-posts · 6 years ago

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I wanted to see what Felix(Ladybug PV) and Will Gamble(The 7′CS/Zak Storm PV) would look like with each other’s outfits on.

Looking pretty good, you two!

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug pv #ladybug pv #felix #felix agreste #zak storm #will gamble #samg's will gamble #the 7'cs #MelSquid Draws

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melsquid-posts · 6 years ago

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I finally finished it! My Will Gamble reference sheet!

Of course, this isn’t definitive and most of it is actual guesswork, but its something I’ll probably use from now on. I’m pretty proud of it and I hope you guys like it!

#zak storm #the 7'cs #samg's will gamble #will gamble #MelSquid Draws

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melsquid-posts · 6 years ago

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