#and its a useful technique for both anyway... i love trial and error

[ryuichirou]

can you pretty pretty please with extra sprinkles on top drop the speedpaint for your most recent rookvil art? i wanna see how you did vils pretty dress and everything else cause its all so beautiful

I am so happy you like how it looks!! I would love to make a speedpaint, but unfortunately, I didn’t record it + the base for the drawing was actually done traditionally with a pencil. A lot of my drawings are done this way, actually…

Even though I can’t drop the speedpaint, I’ll do the next best thing and explain my process for this specific drawing step-by-step. It’s actually not that complicated!

Here is how the sketch looked initially. As you can see, I shaded the dress very crudely; in fact I was kind of upset with how the dress looked at this stage. Ironically, I ended up not doing much to the pencil shading, and it still turned out okay somehow?? Anyways, the first thing I did was to prep the sketch for the colouring stage: I adjusted the contrast, fixed Vil’s face, and erased some dirt and imperfections.

Then I create a new layer, set it to Multiply (this way I can colour the sketch without disturbing it, as if I was just colouring a digitally done lineart) and do a base colour layer. There is a gradient in Vil’s hair and Rook’s belt buckle, but other than that, all the colours are flat at this stage.

Before doing all the shading needed for this sketch, I add details such as makeup and tights. If you want to know how I did these, let me know, but I basically looked at a tutorial once and then simplified it lol

Now, the dress.

To be completely honest, there isn’t any proper technique to what I did, everything is always just trial and error and an hour of me going “does that look good? NO IT DOESN’T >:(“ until both Katsu and I are satisfied. This time I was lucky, because it didn’t take very long, and the “solution” was pretty simple.

Starting with the base colour. I turned off the sketch layer to show that it is indeed completely purple. And it looks kind of bright at this point, almost too bright even, especially considering that the dress is supposed to be mostly black, or at least dark purple. But bear with me.

Next I added some highlights (new layer, set on Overlay or Screen, depending on what looks best). Usually I would add the shades first, but I wanted to make the fabric look more “shiny”, you know, the type of fabric that would reflect the floor and make this highlight under the boob lol.

And after that I just went ahead and added black gradient (on a new Layer) from the bottom of the dress to make it look darker, silkier and a little bit more interesting for the eye. I erased some parts of the gradients as you can see, because it looked too dark on the highlighted parts… could’ve just placed the black gradient layer under the highlights layer and saved myself a headache, but hey, where is the adventure in that.

Finally, it turned out looking like this. It looks better than it used to look like initially, but there is one more thing to do. We don’t get to do this one too often, so it always excited both Katsu and me: THE SPARKLES!! Somehow, making the dress sparkly makes everything much better.

How do I do the sparkles: I use the star brush… or was it a snow brush? I use this brush when I draw both of these things lol + when I draw anything sparkly. I would’ve given you this specific one, but I don’t really remember where I got it from, and I honestly think that any starry or snowy brush would work wonderfully as long as the specs are small enough.

After that is done, I just shade the rest of the drawing. Nnew layer set on Multiply, the shading is done with darker purple/red + darker blue, whatever looks better on any particular material: the skin really likes warmer colours, but Rook’s suit looked bad with red shades, so I adjusted it to blue.

And here is the post where I talk about how I colour hair! Good thing I already wrote that one, this post is getting long lol

And the last step is to add details. The original sketch was done in a rather small (smaller than A6) sketchbook, so I couldn’t draw all the details like Vil’s earrings and stuff properly. Basically I just paint on a separate layer on top of everything.

And there you have it! I hope it makes sense, please let me know if you have questions.

[synthaphone]

posting these to illustrate something because i love talking about stuff

So! The first image in this photoset was how I initially finished this drawing. and then i scaled it down (image 3) and suddenly a bunch of stuff stood out to me:

the space between its left eye and mouth is too small- they start to merge together when the image is shrunk

also on the left eye, the small bit of visible iris between the pupil and the eyesocket gets totally lost and the petpet’s eyes lose focus

the shine in the left eye especially becomes almost invisible at a distance

the shading on the foremost horns makes them look like they’re pointing backwards instead of forwards

to try to fix these issues, i painted some quick revisions on a layer over the top of the original drawing (image 2) and scaled that one down to check it (image 4)- these edits made the final 80x80px image read a lot clearer!

Anyway, I just wanted to share this in case its helpful to anyone else!! Because sometimes I scale a Neopets style drawing down that I thought looked pretty legit at full size, and then at 150 or 80 px it suddenly feels off. I think figuring out what isn’t working for you at the small scale and then doing quick edits on a new layer on top just to test things out can make a huge difference!! and also doesn’t require you to mess with all of your existing layers to make the fixes ‘properly’, which is time consuming and can feel discouraging if you’ve already ‘finished’ the picture

[upontheshelfreviews]

And now we come to the final piece of Walt Disney’s original animation trifecta, Fantasia, and it’s one I’m both anticipating and dreading. Fantasia isn’t just one of the crowning jewels in Disney’s canon, a landmark in motion picture animation, and second only to Snow White in terms of influential music and storytelling in the whole medium, it’s one of my top three favorite movies of all time. Discussing it without sounding like an old history professor, a pretentious internet snob, or a hyper Disney fangirl is one hell of a daunting task.

“Did someone say hyper Disney fangirl?! I LOVE Disney!!”

“I thought you only liked Frozen.”

“Well, DUH, Frozen is my favorite, which makes it, like, the best Disney movie ever! But Disney’s awesome! There’s a bunch of other movies I like that are almost as good!”

“And Fantasia’s one of them?”

“Yeah!!…Which one is that again?”

“The one with Sorcerer Mickey?”

“Ohhhh, you’re talking about the fireworks show where he fights the dragon!”

“No, that’s Fantasmic. I’m referring to Fantasia. Came out the same year as Pinocchio? All done in hand-drawn animation…has the big devil guy at the end?”

“THAT’S where he’s from?! Geez, that’s some old movie. Why haven’t I heard about ’til now?”

“Probably because you spend twelve hours a day searching for more Frozen GIFs to reblog on your Tumblr.”

“Ooh, that reminds me! I need to go post my next batch of theories about the upcoming sequel! Toodles!!”

“Thanks. Another second with her and I would’ve bust a gasket.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Anyway, it’s no surprise Sorcerer Mickey is what people remember the most from Fantasia, and not just because he’s the company mascot. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was the reason we have the movie in the first place. It began as a pet project between Walt Disney and renowned conductor Leopold Stokowski.

“Yep. THAT Leopold.”

However, between the upscale in animation and the use of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the cost grew too high to justify the creation of only one short. Over time more sequences featuring animation set to various pieces of classical music were added in what was initially dubbed “The Concert Feature”. Later it was wisely changed to the more memorable “Fantasia”. It works not only because it’s derived from the word “fantasy”, but because “fantasia” is a term for a musical composition that doesn’t follow any strict form and leans towards improvisation. Combine the two meanings and you get the whole movie in a nutshell.

And this leads us to –

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #1: “It’s SOOOOOO boring! Nobody’s talking and nothing ever happens!”

You know, few recall that decades before Warner Brothers was known as that studio that made rushed prequels to beloved fantasy franchises and a hastily cobbled together superhero universe, it had humble origins in the music business; their Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes shorts began as music videos made to sell their records. Disney’s Silly Symphonies followed in the same vein, though they focused more on pushing the envelope in animation technique and character resonance than selling music, as did the lesser known Harman-Ising Happy Harmonies.

And if that’s the case, then Fantasia is the Thriller of animated music videos. It’s the result of years of technological advancement and trial and error, all culminating in the flawless weaving together of visuals and some of the greatest music mankind has created to tell seven stories and elicit an emotional response for each one.

Let me repeat that: FANTASIA. PREDATES. THRILLER.

“And unlike Thriller, Fantasia has the advantage of NOT being directed by a man who literally got away with murder or involving an artist whose pedophilia accusations are still discussed a decade after his passing…at least as far as we know.”

By the way, if you’re watching the current version of Fantasia that’s available, do me a favor and pause the movie to watch the original Deems Taylor intros; while they’re shorter than the ones on the blu-ray, they have Deem’s original voice. All later releases have him dubbed over by Corey Burton because the audio for these parts hasn’t held up as well over time. Now Corey Burton is a phenomenal voice actor who’s done countless work for Disney before, but there’s a problem I have with him taking over these segments: One, he and Deems sound nothing alike, and Two, he makes him sound so dry and dull. Not to mention the longer intros practically spoil everything you’re about to see whereas the cut versions give you just enough to build some intrigue for what’s to follow.

Regardless of whichever one you’re watching, Deems gives us the rundown on what Fantasia is all about and lists the three categories that the sequences fall under.

A concrete story

Clearly defined images with something of a narrative

Music and visuals that exist for its own sake

And the very first of these parts falls directly into the last one.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – Johann Sebastian Bach

Some hear this tune and attribute it as stock horror music, but for me it’s the start of a grand, dark, fantastical journey through realms of the imagination. While it is intended as an organ piece, this full orchestration blows me away. Capturing the orchestra in bold hues and shadows with colors specific to certain highlighted instruments was a brilliant move, setting the stage for what’s to come.

And if the previously referenced Bugs Bunny cartoon was any indication, the real Leopold Stokowski is one of the main draws to this segment. Stokowski’s claim to fame was that he ditched the traditional conductor’s baton and used his hands to guide the orchestra. His passion and restraint is plain for all to see, even in silhouette.

Ultimately Stokowski and the orchestra fade away into the animated ether. The idea behind Toccota and Fugue was to show a gradual transformation from the conscious world to the subconscious, providing a literal and figurative representation of what you see and hear with the music. That’s why the first animated images resemble violin bows sweeping over strings. Over time those distinct objects evolve into abstract geometric shapes.

Honestly, no amount of stills can capture what it’s like to watch this sequence play out. It’s a radically unique experience, almost like a dream.

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #2: “It’s the world’s first screensaver/musicalizer!”

This is something I hear often from people (ie. the people making the complaints I’ve chosen to highlight). First, read the previous Thing. Second, Toccata is not so much about recreating a story as it is capturing a feeling. And yet a story isn’t out of the question. I always saw at as glimpses of a battle of light versus dark, heaven versus hell, albeit not as overt as the opening of Fantasia 2000. That’s the beauty of this segment. It’s all up for interpretation. You can let the images and sounds wash over you as if you were dreaming it, or attach whatever meaning you find.

And on that note (ha) –

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #3: “God, all these animators must have been so fucking high to come up with this shit.”

I tell ya what, if you’re one of those people who think that, take whatever drug is handy, grab some crayons or whatever you feel comfortable doodling with, and when you’re comfortably high, draw one full second of animation. That’s 24 consecutive drawings that need to flow, squash and stretch into each other realistically. It doesn’t have complicated; it can be a ball bouncing, a flower blowing in the wind, an eye blinking, but it has to work.

Not so easy, huh?

Classic Disney animators who lectured at art schools received comments like this all the time. While there were some like Fred Moore who would go for the occasional beer run on breaks, there’s no record of narcotic or alcoholic influence on the animators’ turnout. I’m pretty sure Walt would’ve fired anyone who turned in work produced while high because it’d be awful. Animation was still a fairly new medium at the time, and Disney was constantly experimenting with what it could do, which is why we got things like this, the Pink Elephants, and other delightfully trippy moments throughout the 40’s, not because of drugs. Isn’t that right, classic Disney animator Bill Tytla?

“Of course! I’ve never done drugs, and I never drink…wine.”

The Nutcracker Suite – Pyotr Illich Tchaichovsky

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #4: “Yawn. Nutcracker is SO overplayed. Of course Disney had to jump on the bandwagon with their version!”

Ironically, the extended Deems Taylor intro has him mention how nobody performs Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker; in light of its modern seasonal popularity, the sentiment is rendered archaic. True, the ballet wasn’t an initial critical hit and Tchaikovsky himself virtually disowned it, but much of its ubiquity is largely due in part to Disney adapting it for Fantasia. It eschews the title character in favor of a nature ballet portraying the cycle of seasons. Initial planning included the overture and the famous march featuring woodland critters, though they were eventually cut. Walt considered pumping scents into the theater during this part, but was unable to figure out how to do it naturally. If they had Smell-O-Vision that might work, but what scents would you have to scratch off for the other Fantasia segments? Wood resin? Wine? Wet hippo? Brimstone?

The sequence begins with The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. In the night a group of fairies dance like fireflies, gracing spring flowers and spiderwebs with delicately timed dewdrops.

“Any of you girls seen Tinkerbell?” “She ditched us to hang out with that obnoxious flyboy.” “Again?! That’s the third time this month!”

The scene is atmospheric with beautifully rendered pastel backgrounds. After the fairies comes The Chinese Dance performed by a group of little mushrooms. It’s a cute number, and just another that was parodied more than a few times in other cartoons – wait do those mushrooms have slant eyes? And they’re prancing around nodding like extras in The Mikado…

You fungi are lucky you’re so darn adorable otherwise I’d sic the self-righteous side of Twitter on you.

Dance of the Reed Flutes follows. Lilies gently float on to the surface of a pond before inverting themselves to resemble twirling dancers with long, flowing skirts. And since I’m not always one to take the easy route, enjoy this niche reference instead of “You Spin Me Right Round”.

A gust of wind blows the spinning lilies over a waterfall into some moody underwater caverns, where a school of unusually sultry goldfish perform the Arabian Dance.

Cleo, does Gepetto know about this?

A novel idea, using the basic swimming motions of a goldfish and their naturally diaphanous tails and fins as veils to resemble exotic dancers, though like other animated characters in a similar vein, this has led to some…”interesting” reactions from certain people.

Right, well, bubbles transition us into the penultimate movement, the Russian Dance. Thistles and orchids resembling dancers clad in traditional Russian peasant clothing spring to life in this brightly colored energetic minute. You’ll be chanting “hey!” along with it.

And finally, the Waltz of the Flowers. As a little girl I would often hold my own “ballets” to this scene, which mainly comprised of me in a ballet costume or fancy nightgown spinning around in circles for family members with this playing in the background. Top that, Baryshnikov.

Fairies similar to the ones from the beginning transform the leaves from fresh summer green to autumn orange, brown and gold. Milkweed seeds blossom forth and float through the air like waltzing ladies. This piece above all else is what really shows the beauty of nature. I feel more emotion watching the leaves pirouette in the wind than any plain live-action drama.

Fall turns into winter, and the fairies, now snow sprites, skate across a pond creating ice swirls while even more spiral down from the sky as snowflakes. The secret of animating these snowflakes was nearly lost to time. Several years ago a notebook by technician Herman Schultheis was rediscovered, revealing how many of the special effects in Disney’s early films – Fantasia in particular – were brought to life. The snowflakes were cels on spools attached to small rails from a train set that were filmed falling in stop motion and black and white, then superimposed on the final picture.

In conclusion, The Nutcracker Suite is a lovely piece of animation and music, and I’ll pop in Fantasia at Christmastime just to watch it. This was my introduction to The Nutcracker, and it’s an excellent and unique one.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Paul Dukas

The symphonic poem of the same name now gets a proper name with Mickey Mouse stepping in the title role. It’s impossible to imagine any other character in his shoes, but for a time there were other considerations.

“Nope. Too wooden.”

“Too angry.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re just too darn loud.”

As we all know, Mickey was given the part since his popularity needed a boost. He doesn’t talk here, and I know those who find his voice grating wholeheartedly embrace that fact, but what we’re given is proof that Mickey works just as well silently as he does speaking. Very few cartoon characters can pull off that kind of versatility.

And while we’re on the topic of sound, Walt was so determined for the sound quality to match what was happening on screen that he devised a system he dubbed “FantaSound”, where it would seem as though the music would move around the the theater instead of just blare out from one speaker.

You read that right. Fantasia is the movie that invented SURROUND SOUND.

But that’s not the only technological leap Fantasia is responsible for – this is the first time we see Mickey with sclera.

That’s the white of the eyes for those who don’t speak science.

Before Fantasia, Mickey had what we refer to today as “pie eyes”, a relic of the era he was created in. As the art of animation progressed, animators found it increasingly difficult to create believable expressions with two little dots. Fred Moore is responsible for the mouse’s welcome redesign. Mickey as the apprentice serves the sorcerer Yen Sid, named after his real world counterpart.

“Hey! I didn’t teach him that!”

Mickey’s craving a taste of his master’s power, so he borrows his magical cap after he goes to bed and enchants a broom to finish his work of gathering water. It’s fun and bouncy, though the part where Mickey dreams he can control the cosmos, seas and sky is something to behold.

“The power! The absolute POWER!! The universe is mine to command! To CONTROOOOOOL!!!”

But Mickey is jolted from his dream of ultimate conquest when the broom begins flooding the place. Unfortunately the sorcerer’s hat doesn’t come with a manual so Mickey doesn’t know how to turn it off. He resorts to violently chopping the broom to pieces with an axe. The animation originally called for the massacre to happen on screen, but was altered to showing it through shadows instead. I think it’s much more effective this way. The implied violence is more dramatic than what we could have gotten.

One of my favorite stylistic choices in Fantasia is what follows. The color is sucked out, drained if you will, mirroring Mickey’s exhausted emotional and physical state after committing broomslaughter. But it slowly returns as the broom’s splinters rise up and form an army of bucket-wielding drones. They overpower Mickey and catch him in a whirlpool until Yen Sid returns and parts the waters like a pissed off Moses.

“You! Shall not! SWIM!!!”

Mickey sheepishly returns the hat, and I have to give credit to the animators for the subtle touches on Yen Sid. He appears stern at first glance, but the raised eyebrow borrowed from Walt? The slight smirk at the corner of his mouth? Deep down, he’s amused by his apprentice’s shenanigans. Even the backside slap with the broom, while rendered harshly due to the sudden swell of music, is done less out of malice and more out of playfulness.

The piece ends with Mickey breaking the barriers of reality to congratulate Stokowski on a job well done.

“Hey! I didn’t teach him that!”

If you haven’t already guessed, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is easily one of my preferred sequences. It’s energetic, perfectly matches the music, and features my favorite mouse in one of his most iconic roles. I joke about the scene where Mickey controls the waves and the sky due to Disney’s far-reaching acquisitions in the past decade, but within the context of the film it’s one of the most magical moments. Some theorize that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is an allegory of Walt’s journey to create Fantasia itself, and there’s some merit to it – Mickey’s always been Walt’s avatar after all, and here he dreams big only to wind up way in over his head. But you don’t need to look for coincidental parallels to enjoy this part.

Rite of Spring – Igor Stravinsky

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is admittedly my least favorite part of Fantasia, though I don’t hate it by all means. Thematically it’s the furthest from the original work’s intent: instead of a pagan ritual involving a virgin sacrifice, we witness the earth’s infancy. I was never really into dinosaurs as a kid (I didn’t even see Jurassic Park until I was in fourth or fifth grade), and the thundering, threatening music put me off. I found it too long (twenty-two minutes is an eternity in child time), uninteresting, and dour compared to the other sequences, with the exception of one moment. I can appreciate it now that I’m older, though.

A solitary oboe echoes through the vast darkness of space. We soar past comets, galaxies, suns, and down into our lonely little planet still in the early stages of formation. Volcanoes cover the earth. They spew toxic gas, but their magma bubbles burst in precision with the music. Once again this is due to Herman Schultheis. He filmed a mixture of oatmeal, coffee grounds, and mud with air pushed up through a vent, and let the animators go to town on it.

The volcanoes erupt simultaneously. Lava flows and the ensuing millennia of cooling form the continents. But deep in the sea, the first protozoan life wriggles, divides, and evolves into multi-cellular organisms. One of them crawls up on to land, and finally we’re back in the time where dinosaurs weren’t just confined to zoos.

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #4: “Dinosaur inaccuracies…brain melting…”

True, most of the dinosaur and plant species here never shared the same period of existence, but try telling that to the animation studio or John Hammond. They mostly went for whatever looked cool and prehistoric regardless of scientific accuracy. Some of the designs themselves are a bit off, but the animators did their best considering how much we knew about the creatures in the 30’s and 40’s. Heck, we’ve only recently discovered that most dinosaurs were covered with feathers or fur, and I don’t see anyone harping on Jurassic Park for omitting that detail. Thank God Steven Spielberg doesn’t harbor George Lucas’ affinity for reworking his past movies with extra CGI.

Believe it or not, this scene was once considered the height of accurate dinosaur depictions on film, because nobody else had done it before with this level of research and care in animation. Without Rite Of Spring, we wouldn’t have The Land Before Time or Jurassic Park in the first place. Look at Land Before Time’s bleak, orangey atmosphere and the Sharptooth fights and tell me this didn’t influence it in any way.

The dinosaurs themselves have little character and, while fascinating to see how they might have lived, are not particularly engaging. Until…

Yes, when the king of all dinosaurs makes his entrance, bringing a thunderstorm along with him no less, all the others are wise to run and hide from him. I would hide under a quilt but still peek through the holes in awe. He snaps about throwing his weight around, but when it goes toe to toe with a stegosaurus? That’s when things get real.

This battle, by the way, is animated by Woolie Reitherman, who had a knack for bringing gargantuan characters to life. He was responsible for animating Monstro in Pinocchio, and was behind Maleficent’s dragon form in Sleeping Beauty.

Though what follows is far from triumphant. The earth has become a hot, barren wasteland. The dinosaurs trudge through deserts and tar pits, their fruitless search for water turning into a slow death march. Not even the mighty T-Rex can survive this.

California: present day.

Some time later, the dinosaurs are all gone. Only their bones bleaching in the sun remain. Without warning, a massive earthquake hits and the seas flood through, washing away the remains of the old prehistoric world. The sequence comes full circle as the lonely oboe plays over a solar eclipse, which sets on an earth ready to step into the next stage of life.

If Walt had his way, the segment would have continued with the evolution of man and ended on a triumphant note with the discovery of fire, but he was worried about the possible backlash from zealous creationists. And I don’t blame him for wanting to avoid a confrontation with that crowd.

“It’s bad enough he makes a mouse act like a people with his dadgum pencil sorcery, but propagandizin’ evil-loution in mah Saturday mornin’ toon box? That’s just plum un-okkily-dokkily!”

“…You wouldn’t happen to have a dictionary on hand, would you?”

“DICTIONARIES ARE THE DEVIL’S BOOSTER SEAT!!”

Subsequently, those edits made to Stravinsky’s score pissed off the composer so much that he considered suing Disney for tampering with his work. He opted not to, yet the experience turned him off animation for good. A crying shame; Stravinsky, apart from being the only classical composer alive to see his work made part of a Fantasia feature, was excited to work with Walt. The two deeply respected and recognized each other as artists ahead of their time. Who knows what else could have come from their collaboration if things ended better?

With that knowledge, it makes sense that one of Stravinsky’s most famous pieces, the Firebird Suite, was included in Fantasia 2000: perhaps on some level Disney wanted to apologize for how the finale of Rite of Spring was mishandled by making Firebird the grand finale (though knowing Stravinsky he would have hated the little changes made to his music there as well).

Following the intermission, the orchestra reconvenes and has a fun little jam session. Deems Taylor takes a moment to introduce us to the most important – but rarely seen – figure that makes Fantasia and most music in movies possible, The Soundtrack.

Once again, Disney does what it does best and anthropomorphizes what no one thought was possible. Think about it: giving personalities to animals is one thing, but they’ve successfully done the same for plants, planes, houses, hats, and here, sound itself. It may seem silly and out of place, but I think it’s brilliant and charming. The visuals it creates to represent different instruments are perfectly matched; some of them harken back to Toccata and Fugue. This, combined with the improv from the orchestra, is a good way to ease us back into comfort after the harshness of Rite of Spring.

Pastoral Symphony – Ludwig Van Beethoven

There’s a famous story about Walt Disney while he was pitching this segment. When met with complaints that it wasn’t working, he cried out This’ll MAKE Beethoven!” In a way, he was right. This was the very first piece of Beethoven I ever heard, even before the famous “da da da DUUUUUN” of Symphony #5. And as far as I know, it was for a good many Disney fans too. We still get a romantic depiction of the countryside as was the composer’s intent, but instead of an rural utopia, we see the Fields of Elysium at the foot of Mount Olympus. It’s home to a variety of mythical creatures from the golden age of Greece: fauns, unicorns, cherubs, centaurs and Pegasi.

If there was ever a Disney world I wanted to spend a day in, this would be it. It’s so innocent, laidback and colorful; it takes me right back to my childhood. A great portion of this sequence was used in my favorite music video in the Simply Mad About the Mouse anthology album, “Zip A Dee Doo Dah” sung by Ric Ocasek from The Cars. Whether that was my favorite because it featured Pastoral Symphony or Pastoral Symphony was my favorite because it was featured in the video I don’t know. There’s nothing that could ever destroy it for –

Oh son of a…

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #5: “RACIST. FUCKING. CENTAUR. EQUALS. RACIST. DISNEY… RACIST!!!”

Yes ladies and gents, that image is real. Meet Sunflower (or Otika, I’m not sure which one she is) one of the the censored centaurettes (for very obvious reasons). I’m of two minds when it comes to their inclusion. First off, yes, they’re crude and demeaning blackface caricatures that have no place in a Disney movie, let alone one of the best ones and in one of my favorite sequences. But my inner art/film historian that despises censorship feels that erasing these depictions is the same as pretending they and other prejudices of the time never existed.

Thank you, Warner Bros.

As time and the civil rights movement marched on, all traces of the Sunflower squad were removed from later releases of Fantasia. The downside to that was editing techniques at the time weren’t as high-tech as they are today; I was lucky to see a film print of Fantasia at the Museum of Modern Art in 2015 that must have dated as far back as the ’60s because she wasn’t there, but the cuts were very noticeable. Sad to say the amazing remastered tracks done by Irwin Kostal in the 80’s used a similar print because the shift in the music is very jarring at points in this segment. It wasn’t until Fantasia’s 50th anniversary that they were able to zoom in and crop the scenes that had Sunflower in them while recycling other pieces of animation over parts where they couldn’t get rid of her, eventually managing to digitally erase her from some of the film entirely (look carefully at the part where the red carpet is being rolled out for Bacchus on the blu-ray. Unless he got it from the Cave of Wonders, carpets normally don’t roll themselves…)

I completely understand the reasoning behind Sunflower’s removal, but can also see why animation aficionados would try to pressure Disney into bringing her back with each new re-release for Fantasia, possibly with one of those great Leonard Maltin intros putting everything into context like in the tragically out-of-print Disney Treasures dvds – though the chances of that happening are as likely as Song of the South being made public again (the Disney+ promo should have made that clearer when they claimed Disney’s entire back catalogue would be available for streaming, but I doubt the tag line “We have everything except Song of the South” would hook people). It’s an issue I’m very torn on. So if there was ever a chance that a version of Fantasia with a restored Sunflower was possible, either through Disney themselves or fan edits, my thoughts on it would be a very resounding…

The first movement of the symphony is “Awakening of Pleasant Feelings upon Arriving in the Country”, and this part does just that. As the sun rises and we get our first glimpse of the technicolor fantasyland. Pan flute-playing fauns and unicorns frolic with each other while a herd of Pegasi take to the sky. Again, going back to other notable movies taking cues from Fantasia, Ray Harryhausen carefully studied the movement of the Pegasi here when creating his stop-motion Pegasus for Clash of the Titans. They canter through the air as they would on land, but in the water they move with the grace of a swan.

And look at the little baby ones, they’re just too cute!

The second movement, “Scene by the Brook”, takes place exactly where you think it does. A group of female centaurs, named “centaurettes” by the animators, doll themselves up with the help of some cupids (and the aforementioned Sunflower) in preparation for mating season.

“”I used to like the centaurettes not just because they were pretty but because each of them having different colors could be interpreted as women of all colors hanging out together and finding love. But no, having Sunflower there confirms that they’re all supposed to be lighter-skinned ladies. Racism given context makes it no less of a pain in the ass.”

The male centaurs arrive and hook up with their conveniently color-matching counterparts. The cherubs help set the mood for their flirting interludes until they discover two shy, lonely centaurs (Brudus and Melinda, because I’m that big of a Disney nerd that I know their actual names) who haven’t found each other yet. They lure them to a grove with some flute music a la The Pied Piper and it’s love at first sight.

One of my favorite details throughout the Pastoral Symphony is that we keep coming back to Brudus and Melinda. They’re a cute couple, one of the closest things we have to main characters in this sequence, and it’s nice to follow them.

Our third movement is “Peasants’ Merrymaking”. The centaur brigade prepare an overflowing vat of wine for Bacchus, god of booze and merrymaking. Bacchus, forever tipsy, arrives backed up by some black zebra centaurettes serving him. Maybe they were considered attractive enough to avoid being censored.

The bacchanalia is in full swing with everyone dancing and getting loaded. But Zeus, who appears more sinister than Laurence Olivier or his future Disney counterpart, crashes the party with a big thunderstorm. I used to think he was a jerk for endangering his subjects just for kicks, but in light of recent revelations maybe he had ulterior motives.

“Feel the wrath of the thunder god, you fucking racists!”

“Come on, dad, you used to be fun! Where’s the Zeus turns into a cow to pick up chicks?!”

“He grew up. Maybe you should too, son. Now EAT LIGHNING!”

“The Storm”, our fourth movement, provides some stunning imagery against the torrential backdrop, from the centaurs being called to shelter to the pegasus mother braving the gale to rescue her baby.

Ultimately Zeus grows tired and turns in for the night, ending the storm. Iris, goddess of the rainbow, emerges and leaves her technicolor trail across the sky. The creatures revel in the effects it has on their surroundings, then gather on a hill to watch the sunset, driven by Apollo and his chariot. Everyone settles in to sleep, and Artemis, hunting goddess of the moon, shoots an comet across the sky like an arrow that fills the sky with twinkling stars.

Pastoral Symphony was the one part of Fantasia that always received the most derision from critics, but racist characters aside I simply don’t get the hate for it. It may be longer than Rite of Spring but feels nowhere near as drawn out. I love the colors, characters, and the calm, bucolic fantasy world it creates. This was my first exposure to Beethoven and the world of Greek mythology and I still hold plenty of nostalgia for it. I admit it’s not perfect, and not just for the reason you think. Out of all the Fantasia pieces, this is the one whose quality is closest to an original Disney short than a theatrical feature. It’s a bit more cartoony and there’s some notable errors, particularly when the baby Pegasi dive into the water and emerge different colors. Also, Deems and the animators flip between using the gods’ Greek and Roman names, and the stickler in me wants them to pick a mythos and stick with it. But for all it’s flaws it’s still among my very favorite Fantasia pieces and nothing can change that.

  The Dance of the Hours from the Opera “La Giaconda” – Amilcare Ponichelli

Like I said before, Disney was a master of the art of anthropomorphism. And nowhere is this more true than Dance of the Hours. Animals portray dancers symbolizing morning, noon, dusk and evening – only they’re the most unlikely ones for the job. The characters of our penultimate act are as cartoony as any you’d see in a Disney short from the era, but what puts the animation above it is the right balance of elasticity and realism. The exaggeration is on point, but there’s enough heft and weight to the animals that I can buy them being grounded in (some semblance of) reality. The animators studied professional dancers and incorporated their moves and elegance flawlessly. Half of the comedy derives from this.

The other half comes from how seriously the mock ballet is treated. We’re never informed who the dancers will be, leading anyone who hasn’t seen this before to assume they’re people. The ballet itself is a parody of the traditional pageant, but the performers carry on with the utmost sincerity. It doubles the laughs when it comes to moments such as Ben Ali Gator trying to catch Hyacinth Hippo in a dramatic pas de deux or an elephant getting a foot stuck in one of her own bubbles as she prances around. The familiar lighthearted refrain of the dance provides wonderful contrast to the caricatures on screen, particularly if you recall its other most famous iteration beyond Fantasia.

No one ever told me Camp Grenada was this Arcadian or zoological.

Morning begins with a troupe of uppity ostriches in ballet gear waking up, exercising and helping themselves to a cornucopia of fruit for breakfast. They fight over some grapes only to lose them in a pool. Something bubbles up from beneath and the ostriches run away in terror, but it’s only the prima ballerina of the piece, Hyacinth Hippo. She prepares for the day with help from her handmaidens and dances around a bit. Then she lies down for a nap, but no sooner do her ladies in waiting leave than some playful elephants come out of hiding and dance around Hyacinth unawares.

Elephants blowing bubbles in a Disney feature…nah, it’ll never catch on.

The elephants are blown away by a gust of wind (must be a really strong breeze), and with the coming of night a sinister band of crocodiles sneak up on Hyacinth. They scatter at the sudden arrival of their leader, Prince Ben Ali Gator, who immediately falls in love with Hyacinth. Surprisingly, the feeling is mutual.

I’m calling it – first body positivity romance in a Disney flick.

The climax of the piece has the crocodiles returning to wreak havoc on the palace and pulling the ostriches, elephants, and hippos back into a frenzied dance which brings down the house.

No bones about it, Dance of the Hours is a comic masterpiece and one of Fantasia’s crowning jewels. And the moment it ended was always the signal for younger me to stop the tape and rewind it to the beginning, due to what follows making a complete and terrifying 180…

Night on Bald Mountain – Modest Mussorgsky / Ave Maria – Franz Schubert

At last we come to our final part, two radically different classical works that blend perfectly into each other. And brother, what a note to end on.

Composer Modest Mussorgsky passed away before completing his masterwork “Night on the Bare Mountain”, a tonal poem depicting a witches’ sabbath from Slavic mythology. His friend, the great Rimsky-Korsakov, finished it for him while adding his own personal touch. The result is some of the most iconic and terrifying music ever created, and the accompanying animation, with the exception of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, is the most faithful to its source material.

The scene takes place on Walpurgis Night, which is the closest thing Europe has to a real-life Summerween (those lucky so-and-so’s), on the titular mountain. The mountain’s peak opens up revealing Chernabog, the Slavic deity of darkness.

Chernabog is a masterclass in design and form. It’s easy to mistake him for Satan himself – Walt Disney and Deems Taylor both refer to him as such – though considering he’s technically Slavic Satan, there’s not too big a distinction. Chernabog radiates power, terror and pure darkness from his intro alone. You can imagine him influencing all other Disney villains to do his will, essentially filling in the horned one’s hooves. Chernabog was skillfully handled by Bill Tylta, an early Disney animator with enough talent to create characters as diverse as Stromboli and Dumbo. Bela Lugosi, the original Dracula, posed for reference pictures in the early design stages, though Tylta ultimately discarded them in favor of some different inspiration – sequence director Wilfred Jackson as model, and Tytla’s own Czech heritage. He grew up with folktales of Chernabog, which served him well during the production.

“Soon, master. The one known as Jackson shall take up your mantle and we shall feast upon humanity yet again.”

Chernabog unleashes his might on to the sleeping village below and raises the dead from the cemetery. A cabal of witches, wraiths and demons gallop on the wind and take part in his infernal revelry. Yet they are but playthings to the evil being. He transforms the creatures into alluring sirens and wretched beasts, sics harpies on them, condemns them to the flames, and lustfully embraces the hellish blaze. It’s an in your face pageantry of pure malevolence that you can’t look away from

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #6: “This is too scary for kids!! What the hell were they thinking?!”

I think it’s time we made one thing clear: Fantasia was NOT made for children – or to be more accurate, not EXCLUSIVELY for children. While Disney movies are made to be enjoyed by both kids and adults, Fantasia is the only one who dared to appeal to a more mature audience, and Night on Bald Mountain is proof of that. It had the audacity to explore some of the most darkest, ancient depictions of evil in a way that no Disney feature has before or since. Most importantly, it’s not done for shock value like any random horror movie you could name. It’s meant to show the juxtaposition between the darkest depravity and purest good; combined with Ave Maria it makes for the perfect symbolic climax to Fantasia. Light versus darkness, chaos versus order, life versus death, profane versus sacred, and the quest to master them all are the themes that unify the seemingly disparate sequences, and this finale is the apotheosis of that.

I stated in my Mickey’s Christmas Carol review that Bald Mountain was one of my first introductions to the concept of eternal damnation at the tender age of…I wanna say four, five? It was easily one of the most petrifying things from my childhood, but at least I could avoid some exposure to it thanks to its position at the very end. Though now I adore Night on Bald Mountain for how bold and striking it is. Tytla’s animation, Kay Nielsen’s stunning demon designs, and Schultheis’ effects culminate in harmonious diabolical artwork that’s impossible to extricate from the music. It’s a shame Schultheis left the studio after Fantasia. He met a mysterious, tragic end in Guatemala, right around the time Bill Tytla left too as a matter of fact…

“He knew too much…about the secrets of animation, I mean. Nothing at all about das vampyr walking the earth. No sir.”

Yet at the height of his power, one thing stops Chernabog cold – the sound of church bells. Disney historian John Culhane saw Fantasia during its original theatrical run (lucky so and so…) and he recalled how much having FantaSound affected his screening: when the bells rang, he could hear them coming from the back of the theater and slowly course their way up front as their power grew. It was an awe-inspiring moment that took the Bald Mountain experience one step further into reality.

The bells and the rising sun drive Chernabog and his minions back into the mountain and the restless spirits return to their graves. In the misty morning a procession of pilgrims glides through the woods like a parade of tiny lights, and thus the Ave Maria begins. It’s one of the rare times Disney has gone overtly Christian. Maybe Walt wanted to get back into the God-fearing American public’s good graces after the sorcery, paganism, devil worship and evolution theory we’ve witnessed in the past hour and fifty minutes. It does relieve the tension from the previous turn of events.

The first pitch had the march enter a cathedral, but Walt didn’t believe recreating something people can already see in Europe. So instead they move through a forest with trees and natural rock formations resembling the Gothic architecture of a cathedral. It’s the stronger choice in my opinion. The implication speaks greater volumes than a specific location, subtly connecting nature to the divine. It’s difficult to make out most of the hymn’s words, but regardless it sounds beautiful, especially those final triumphant notes as the sky lights up over a view of the verdant hilltops.

“When the sun hits that ridge just right, these hills sing.”

And with that, Fantasia comes to a close.

Really, what else can I say about it at this point. I keep forgetting this movie came out in 1940. It’s virtually timeless, and a must-see for anyone who loves animation and classic film and wants to jump into either one.

Fantasia was a critical and box office success…sort of. Despite the praise and high box office returns for the time, it sadly wasn’t enough to make up for the cost of putting it all together. Like Pinocchio before it, the war cut off any foreign revenue. And not every theater was willing or able to shell out for that nifty surround sound so the effects were lost on most people. Then there’s the audience response, which is the most depressing of all. The casual moviegoers still viewed Walt as the guy behind those wacky mouse cartoons and called him out for being a pretentious snob, while the highbrow intellectuals accused Walt of debasing classical music by shackling it to animation. The poor guy just couldn’t win.

Fantasia marked the end of an era. Never again would Walt attempt a feature so ambitious. His plans of making Fantasia a recurring series, with old segments regularly swapped out for new ones, would not be seen in his lifetime. There’s been the occasional copycat (Allegra non troppo), a handful of spiritual successors (Make Mine Music, Yellow Submarine), and of course the sequel which I’m sure I’ll get to eventually, but through it all, there is only one Fantasia. And no amount of my ramblings can hope to measure up to it. Fantasia is one of those movies you simply have to experience for yourself, preferably on the biggest screen available with a top of the line sound system. I know it’s a cliche for Internet critics to name this as their favorite animated Disney movie, but…yes, it’s mine too. It opened a door to a world of culture and art at a young age. The power of animation is on full display, and it’s affected the way I look at the medium forever. Fantasia was, and still is, a film ahead of its time.

Thank you for reading. I hope you can understand why this review took me nearly three months! If you enjoyed this, please consider supporting me on Patreon. Patreon supporters get perks such as extra votes and adding movies of their choice to the Shelf. If I can get to $100, I can go back to making weekly tv show reviews. Right now I’m halfway there! Special thanks to Amelia Jones and Gordhan Ranaj for their contributions.

You can vote for whatever movie you want me to look at next by leaving it in the comments or emailing me at upontheshelfshow@gmail.com. Remember, unless you’re a Patreon supporter, you can only vote once a month. The list of movies available to vote for are under “What’s On the Shelf”.

Artwork by Charles Moss. Certain screencaps courtesy of animationscreencaps.com.

To learn more about Fantasia, I highly recommend both John Culhane’s perennial book on the film and The Lost Notebook by John Canemaker, which reveals the long-lost special effects secrets which made Fantasia look so magical.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be spending the rest of the month with my handy dandy garlic, stake and crucifix and pray Bill Tytla doesn’t visit me this Walpurgis Night. I suggest you do the same.

March Review: Fantasia (1940) And now we come to the final piece of Walt Disney's original animation trifecta, Fantasia, and it's one I'm both anticipating and dreading.

[wackygoofball]

I really like your moodboard/aesthetics and they’ve been inspiring me to try my own hand at creating some. Only, I’m not sure where to start? Would you have any tips?

Hi, thank you very much, @idontwantto10! ♥

Glad to hear that my little moodboards sparked your own creativity. The more the merrier, after all. ☺

To give this fair warning… I don’t have a particular technique or anything, I mostly just play around with effects or themes until something comes out that I enjoy.

So… I will start out saying what I tend to do, and maybe you can take something from that:

The first step is to get an idea for the theme (at least that is my starting point). Sometimes, I will have an idea in the back of my head already. Sometimes it’s a fanfic I actually have in mind, so it’s rather fleshed-out and I will have specific ideas of what it will look like, which can be both a blessing and a curse, because that may be limiting when you can’t find images that correlate with your mental image. And sometimes… I don’t know what I am up to, so I just start brainstorming.

I keep lists of ideas, that helps a great deal - because I tend to forget a lot. Sometimes it’s just a key word or the basic plot for the moodboard-story.

But if I don’t have a plan? I just check out pictures to get some inspiration. Or I google movie lists to get an idea for an AU.

1. Image Hunt

The first step in the actual creation process for me is finding fitting pictures. I normally use pixabay.com because they feature a whole lot of free images. I also recently started using some Pinterest images, but for those, I include the links to the pins in the “Additonal Image Sources” section featuring in most of my moodboard text posts. On that same note, I try my best to link to the image sources I have available to me. The one thing where I normally don’t have the image sources anymore is the Nik and Gwen images I have because I just have soooooooo many of them in my files that I can’t keep track anymore, to be honest.

Generally, I have a huge file full of all kinds of images, so I have a base to fetch from without image-hunting *everything* over and over again. So when I have an idea for a certain theme, I will start out searching for images relating to that specific theme. If we take the military-themed moodboard I did ages ago as an example, I will search for images about “war,” “soldiers,” “guns,” “rifles,” “training,” etc. (whatever key words I can come up with) until I have a workable number of results. Naturally, that depends on the size of the collage and how many images the collage requires. Those images, for me, are the way to transmit the theme to others so that they know what that is about even without having to read the text post below.

Then I ask myself the question: What are the emotions of the characters (in my case… JB always, duh). Are they depressed somehow or at some point? Then I may want to include images transmitting that. Is this a happy moodboard? Then maybe I wnat to look for images that show Gwen and Nik laughing (or free images of people looking similar or where you can’t really tell what the person looks like).

Beside that, my JB Moodboards, for the sake of their sweet, sweet love, will also require images that give me the romantic vibe. Hence, having a solid base of images of kisses and hugs and all that is almost inevitable for my way of moodboarding.

And yeah, JB image hunting... that’s a thing of its own. I have soooo many imgaes saved to my computer by now, it’s pretty insane, but naturally, you can’t make a JB moodboard without them (unless it were solely book!Jaime and book!Brienne related). So yeah, a solid base of them is also necessary. I am always looking for images that display different kinds of mood and emotions or feature different settings.

So now, after the image hunt is over and stored on the computer, the next step is in place.

2. Piecing Together

Generally, what I do is decide on how I am going about this. Do I want to include gifs or just still images? If I include gifs, I have to think about the file sizes, I have to think about how to fit it with other images. If I want to include still images, do I want to piece them together individually or do I simply want to have them made into a collage (for which there are numerous websites out there that will do the job for you)?

As for my personal prefences, I like mixing up the way of arranging singular images, that some are bigger, some are smaller, some square, some rectangle. Others may enjoy the more focused and reduced moodboards more (and I love them as well, but for the story-themed moodboards, those work best for me personally), but I like to have some variations between the collages, especially since it allows for aligning the text (later step) in different ways.

But yeah, that’s a thing of taste, really.

So, for the sake of making an example, let’s stick to the idea that I want to do (another) military-themed moodboard for JB and that I want to have collages using a website. Then I piece them together on the website (depends on which one you are using) and see how things look harmonic to me.

Hence, I have to decide on how many Jaime and Brienne images I want per frame, how many theme-images I want to include in one collage, if I want to include a kiss or a hug picture in that image, and if so, where.

I I have a certain story in mind with the moodboard, I am trying to have a kind of narrative trajectory. I will start out introducing the theme (hence some of the themed images always go in the first panel) and link it to Jaime and Brienne, whom I will introduce (say, Jaime as the commander of the squad and Brienne as one of the team members). Then I may do another collage that shows their struggling (depressed-themed images) and then move over to mixing in romantic images in one of the following panels.

In the end, it depends on the images I find and how they look right to me. That doesn’t mean that they look right to other people, but that is then what I have in my mind.

After that is done and saved to my computer, the next step is in place:

3. Effects

Yet again, that depends on the programs or websites you are choosing. Googling around will give you a manifold of options to fetch from. I do a lot of editing with GIMP, though I also rely on websites where they have preset color-effects to fetch from. Again, it’s worth googling to see what you like best.

Anyway, sticking with the idea of the military-themed moodboard, that may set the color palette for most of the images. I would likely include collages that feature earth/green color tints or black and white images, or darker effects to help intensify the mood and unify the images of the moodboard (which is a great way to make it seem like they actually form a unity and aren’t just images you put together for the sake of it).

4. Text

That’s optional. I tend to add text to convey the story I am trying to tell. Yet again, there are online services that will do that, or you can use editing programs such as GIMP for the task. The advantage of GIMP etc. is that those programs will mostly offer a vast array of options to fetch from, since you can easily download fonts that fit your theme. For military-themed moodboards, all sorts of typewriter fonts look really well to me.

As I hinted at above, the way the collage is set up will in some way determine the way the text will be set. Personally, I like to use different fonts and put the text boxes in varied spots (sometimes I will have one in the upper left corner and one in the lower right corner, one time it may be at the center, another time it may be in the middle of one particular image within the collage, it really depends).

As to the content… well, it always depends on the moodboard itself, of course. I often like to include sort of “quotes” of what I believe JB would say in the story I am trying to tell through the images. I sometimes give further exposition by simply adding JB’s names and their function in the moodboard (are they officers, are they married, is one of them a scientist or a thief, etc.?).

Basically… it’s about making explicit those kinds of part of the story that the images cannot convey in its specificity or that help set the mood. The text can also link images together or bridge between one part of the collage and the next.

But yeah, in the end, it really depends on the story you want to tell and to what extent you want to explicitly narrate it through text. Sometimes just the images are more telling than any written text.

So… that is basically the motions I go through when piecing a moodboard together, but another chronology or take on it may well work better for you, so that really depends on your own preferences.

As to the technicalities… it yet again really depends on the programs you are using. My approach is always… trying things out, really. Do I like this effect they offer as a preset in GIMP? Do I like one from a website that offers effecs more? Do I want to overlay it with a blurred image to create this “bloom” effect? Do I want to add a bokeh effect? Do I want to layer it with a texture? Those are the kinds of things I can only advise to honestly try out (if you want to try them out - I mean… you can also simply put the images together, effects are not mandatory by any means). That is how I learned more about GIMP and how to use it. So yeah, it’s a bit of trial-and-error for me. I play around with effects and settings of text until I personally find it fitting.

In the end, it really is a matter of taste, so I can’t give any specific tutorial or walkthrough for how to get a nice moodboard. This is my way of going about it, yours may be vastly different.

But yeah, I hope this was of some help regardlessly.

Thanks another time for the compliment and that you reach out to me.

Much love! ♥ ♥ ♥

And I am looking forward to your own creations!

[claytonsarah1990]

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[kimberlylam1997]

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[thearkhound]

CGWorld: Monster Hunter World interview

The following is a translation of an article that was published on the Japanese site CGWorld Entry where they interview the character designers involved with the 2018 video game Monster Hunter: World by Capcom. The interview involves veteran designer Shin-ichi Shiohara and newcomer Mika Mekada as they discuss the process of coming up with characters for the game, as well as the training process that new hires must go through before joining Capcom’s design department.

This was part of a series of articles published by CG World Entry aimed at amateur CGI artists who wish to create characters at video game companies. The Metal Gear Survive interview I’ve previously translated was also part of this series.

You can read the original article at the following link

https://entry.cgworld.jp/column/post/201802-c-capcom.html

Profiles

Shin-ichi Shiohara - Lead character artist. Joined Capcom in 1999. Has been involved in the development of titles such as Forbidden Ground (2005), Devil May Cry 4 (2008) and Lost Planet 2 (2010), as well as the Monster Hunter and Dragon Dogma franchises. He’s been involved in the latest entry, Monster Hunter World, designing characters, equipment, backgrounds and otomos, in addition to drawing concept art. He is currently working as a design section leader for a currently unannounced title.

Mika Mekada - A native from Nagoya. She graduated from the Aichi University of Art with a design major and joined Capcom in 2017. She’s currently in her first year of employment and is working as a character designer and modeller for an unannounced title. She is struggling everyday to come up with character designs that attract many people.

Capcom - Established in 1979. They’re currently headquartered in Chuo, Osaka, where they plan, develop, manufacture, and distribute PC/console games, online games and mobile content, as well as manage amusement facilities. They are responsible for numerous hit franchises such as Street Fighter, Resident Evil and Monster Hunter.

Monster Hunter: World - The latest entry in the Monster Hunter series, released on January 26, 2018. The player must hunt monster who live in various places. The design works of hunters, weapons, equipment, monsters and such that appear throughout the game will be covered in this article.

Be Sure To Give A Reason For Every Design

Let’s start by telling our readers what kind of work both of you do in the Design Section you’ve been assigned to.

Shiohara: Our section is responsible for designing the characters, weapons, equipment, props and such that appear in the game. Many of the artists specialize in certain field. I am the lead character designer myself. When I first joined Capcom, I was assigned to designing and modelling environments, but I transferred over to the Design Section since I wanted more variety in my work. Lately I’ve been in charge of designing many characters and their equipment.

So do you practice your design work while also acting as leader?

Shiohara: That’s right! Many of the artists at Capcom want to be creative in their jobs and don’t want to concentrate only on management. While it’s difficult to be creative while being manager, they also have privilege of assigning themselves the job they most want, so it’s fun in that regard.

Are the designing and modelling work assigned to different sections?

Shiohara: While there are indeed separate sections for design and modelling, most artists do both jobs anyway. Some people are already using 3D tools during the design stages. Particularly when designing monsters, many people find it a lot easier to use Zbrush to sculpt a form than it is to do a drawing.

Mekada: While I’ve been assigned to the Design Section myself, I do a lot of 3D modelling myself. Back when I was in school I used to believe that designing and modelling were two different careers, so I was surprised to learn that some people tend to do both jobs.

Was Shiohara-san in charge of the characters and equipment in Monster Hunter World?

Shiohara: Yes. When it comes to Monster Hunter, the equipment wore by the characters are no mere armors and clothes, they’re almost characters themselves. Because Monster Hunter is a series where you hunt monsters [of course], create weapons and equipment using materials you acquire and then fight stronger monsters, the designs of the monsters are naturally given precedence. We expand ideas such as wanting to play the game a certain way or bring about a certain strategy when confronting a certain monster and then stuff them into the designs of the monsters. For example, there’s a creature called Anjanath that lives in the ancient forest that is established as a very warlike creature that attacks other monster that invade its territory and will pursue the player everywhere once it gets angry. As a result, characters who wear equipment created from a slain Anjanath will also have a wild warlike look to them. Its weapons have also been designed as something that such a warrior would love to use.

Mr. Shiohara talking about his designs. In front of his hand is the costume design of a character wearing armor created from the remains of a slain Anjanath

Ms. Mekada also talking about her designs.

So all the weapons in the game have a basis in something?

Shiohara: We always try to give a reason to every design. Just drawing something because you like the colors or shape isn’t enough to convince the users or its surroundings, nor will it make for an interesting game. You will need a design that suits the characterization that you’re aiming for.

Can you tell us about the process that leads you to complete one design?

Shiohara: We started by drawing many rough designs in order to expand our image. In the case of the Anjanath gear we’ve mentioned a while ago, we also drew a rough design that invoke the image of a tribe from an undiscovered land that was even wilder than the finalized design. During this stage I try to draw as many rough designs as I could come up with and then show it to other artists in the Design Section to get their feedback. The final decision is made by the art director who oversees the game’s worldview. In the case of Monster Hunter World, that person would be Kaname Fujioka, who serves as the game’s executive director and art director. Once you narrow down the direction for the finalized design, we fill-in the details while keeping in mind the overall silhouette.

So everything from the rough design up until the finalized one is done by a single artist?

Shiohara: If there’s room in the schedule, we might have multiple artists working on various rough designs of the same idea, but usually we only have one artist assigned to a specific design from beginning to the end. The same applies even to newcomers like Ms. Mekada. We give no restrictions to rookies just because they can only do certain things, they’re responsible until the end. However, those artists who cannot complete a job because of their lack of experience will often be supported by their surrounding seniors and supervisors.

Are there artists who specializes in weapon designs, like there is for monsters and environments?

Shiohara: There are artists who specializes in a variety of things, but usually we have artists who specializes in weapon designs. There are a variety of weapons that appear throughout the Monster Hunter series and a great deal of them have a transformation functionalities. Specialized knowledge and technique are required since it is necessary to come up with a design that doesn’t collapse before and after transformation.

Realizing The Oddities in One’s Drawings

Ms. Mekada is currently in her first year Capcom. Can you tell us what you studied before joining the company?

Mekada: I’ve studied design at the Aichi University of Arts. During the first two years I studied a wide range of design styles from flats to solids, while during the last two years I’ve majored in visual communication design. I love drawing since I was a child, so I thought about learning how to design in order to make the best use of my illustrations. For example, I used to be interested in the Ainu culture, so I depicted their stories as illustrations, printed them on a pamphlet and distributed them around for free.

Why did you pursue a path in game development?

Mekada: I decided to purse a career in video games after studying various design styles at college and was wondering what to do. I love video games since kindergarten and I would often play with my sisters and other neighborhood kids who were also into videogames. I would cry so much when I lost, it would bother the other people around me. I wanted to draw videogame characters during my later years in grade school, but I wasn’t very skilled at all. I would practice by trial and error while wondering about how I would draw a cool character or a cute one. I also wanted to work on creating videogame characters since I love coming up with a character’s backstory.

It sounds like you’re working dream job.

Shiohara: I was interested in Mekada from the beginning, since I was the teacher for the rookie training program this year and she herself wanted a character designing job, so I transferred her to her current section by the end of July.

Mekada: Almost everything I learned from the rookie training program I’ve applied in my current job. At first I thought I was simply doing my best to learn new skills and knowledge, but later I realized that the people training me were trying to determine the suitability of the new hires and were already planning my future assignments.

How long does the Rookie Training Program lasts?

Shiohara: Around three months. Every year we even get graduates from art universities who majored in oil painting and sculpting that had never touched a 3DCG tool or even Photoshop. However, our lecturers are people who are active at the frontlines and are pretty good at teaching the new hires to make something up to a certain extent. In fact, Mekada was practically an amateur when it came to using 3DCG tools, but she quickly learned to use them.

What was the most impressive thing that you learned during your training period, Ms. Mekada?

Mekada: The Capcom-style human body drawing training was quite practical and educational, unlike the drawing examinations done in the art universities. Instead of drawing a nude model, they give you a stick figure with only a specified pose and you’re asked to flesh out and fill-in the details with your drawing.

Shiohara: Since we deliberately assign angles and poses to artists that they don’t usually draw, even those artists who are proud of their skills are forced to conceit and end up realize that they did not know the human body as much as they thought they did, usually resulting in a humbling experience. Thus, after we have a grasp of their understanding and abilities, they are trained in how illustrate the anatomy of the human body.

Mr. Shiohara and Ms. Mekada talking about the new employee training program. On a hand is a clear file containing concept art, rough sketches, CGI and such made during the training period.

Mekada: Because my major was design arts, I never had a formal education in human drawing, even though I had been drawing human characters on my own volition. I learned a lot from the training program, making me examining my own work and realize which parts of my drawings looked odd. It was a huge revelation. I wouldn’t say my art is perfect, but now I know which mistakes to avoid, what isn’t possible and where I need some practice, which helps in setting up goals in my own work.

How Much Fun Gameplay Can Be Suggested Within The Limits of the Game

Shiohara: During the training, I ask the recruits to design a character, turn it into a model, insert the skeleton, implement it into the game engine and then move it using existing animation patterns. In her series of assignments, Mekada designed a character, to the point that she even thought about the character’s gameplay style, and then provided a very throughout presentation.

So it’s not just about drawing a character, but also about thinking how you want players to use and enjoy your character. That’s why artwork and plans are made to communicate to other people.

Shiohara: That’s right. In fact, we often give presentations to the other staff members in our daily work in order to convey the idea that such a character fights in such a matter, such as by drawing a small scene like a comic strip or by mimicking the intended actions ourselves. We convey the values of designs and ideas through such explanations, which is how we increase supporters. Mekada was able to do it to an extent during her training period, which is why I thought she was suitable for the job. The enthusiasm of wanting to create the game you want is not something that can be taught during training. I believe the most important ability is knowing how to communicate with others.

Mekada: I was able to experience the process up of my design being into 3D and being implemented in a game on my assignment, so I made many new discoveries. For example, there is a limit to the amount of wavering objects, such as hair styles or accessories and apparel that interferes with the arm and leg movement of a character cannot be realized when it comes to fighting game characters. Therefore it is necessary to make it into a unique silhouette while making a costume that fits the character’s body to some extent. It was through much guidance from my instructors and a process of trial and error that came to realize the concept of a “form that doesn’t work no matter what.”

Shiohara: It’s important for designs to understand such circumstances in a game, but there’s also the drawback that if you end up learning too much, the amount of designs you can contribute end up being reduced. Designers are expected to come up with as much fun gameplay as possible, as long as they can be realized in the game. If your scope shrinks more than it is necessary, then your designs might not entertain or even surprise users. Art directors have pointed out to me that “you should keep the modeller in mind and do what you want without being too reckless”. First you try to draw what pleases you and then you discuss it with the modeller as you try to find a common ground that approaches the limit of expression. Given that it becomes harder the more experienced you become, you shouldn’t try to be overcautious when it comes to coming up with ideas either.

All artists who have worked for a long time have their own “Fetishes”

Finally, Ms. Mekada, can you tell us about your future aspirations?

Mekada: I want to create a variety of characters and perhaps someday create a character that will change the outlook and values of the player. I played many history-themed games during my years as a grade schooler, so I’ve experienced not just videogames, but also history. As such, I wish to convey new discoveries to the player through the characters that I create.

Shiohara: Mekada can be almighty when it comes to both, designing and modelling, but I really want her to think about what she can express best and try to show it to me. All artists who have worked for a long time tend to have their own fetishes that they try to express in their work whenever the opportunity arrives. When you show me your fetish, it’s easier to assign you a job by saying “this is Mekada’s specialty. If you rely on her, she will give you the best.” Once you get used to your current job, I want you to gradually refine your fetish and put it out there.