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canmom · 2 years ago

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Animation Night 137: Jidaigeki the Second

Hi everyone. Hope you’re enjoying any winter holidays that take your fancy. (Hanukkah sameach!) According to Annex 3 of Animation Night Policy we do not observe “christmas” - instead, let me tell you a tale of the past...

Mukashi mukashi... back in the distant misty era of 2020, an era of bloodshed and plague and impending social change (we hope), I wrote the longest Animation Night ever.

Which mostly wasn’t actually about animation at all, but an excuse to infodump about samurai. Armed with a book with the exciting title of Japan to 1600: A Social and Economic History, I wrote at great length about everyone’s favourite feudal landlord-administrator-soldier class, and the genres of fiction that portray them...

^ me, relating information to passing tumblr users

Japanese revision time! 時代劇 jidaigeki basically just means ‘period drama’, and it needn’t have anything to do with samurai at all. Indeed, just a couple of weeks ago we watched Rintaro’s adaptation of Teito Monogatari, which qualifies as a jidaigeki despite taking place entirely in the 20th century. チャンバラ (chanbara) is a little narrower, referring to samurai films with an emphasis on the swordfighting.

Animation Night revision time! On AN 24, we watched oldschool films like Namakura Gatana [1917] and Benkei tai Ushiwaka [1939] along with Sword of the Stranger and Afro Samurai, and a small sampling of Seirei no Moribito, Samurai Champloo. Elsewhen, on AN 100 we watched The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Winter Days and Mononoke-hime, on AN 91 we marathoned Naoko Yamada’s incredible adaptation of Heike Monogatari, and on AN 122 we did the same for animation milestone The Hakkenden.

So are we out of animated films about samurai? Ha! No we ain’t.

The occasion this time? I’m itching to show you all Inu-Oh, but Science Saru are holding it tight to their chest at the moment. But there is something else!

Nahoko Uehashi is an ethnologist turned fantasy author, known for her works like Seirei no Moribito (Guardian of the Sacred Spirit) and Kemono no Sōja (The Beast Player), both of which have been adapted to anime by Production IG. In the first, Balsa, a bodyguard atoning for seven deaths, is entrusted with a young prince marked for death by his father - a prince who is, unknown to all, incubating a strange force of spiritual renewal. In the second, Erin, a girl from a culture being genocided, inherits the skill to control animals through her music and thus finds herself drawn into feudal politics.

Neither is exactly set in historical Japan, but that’s in the same way that most Western fantasy isn’t exactly set in medieval Europe. Both have a kind of thoughtful, slightly oldschool tone - highly attentive to nature, and avoiding simple heroes and villains. And Production I.G. - despite being a studio known primarily for scifi - turned out to be a perfect match.

Well, earlier this year, Production IG released their latest adaptation of Uehashi’s works in the form of 鹿の王 Shika no Ō (The Deer King). Co-director Masashi Andō has been a key animator for many many years, and in that time managed to work with just about anyone you’ve ever heard of. He drew for Ghibli under both Miyazaki and Takahata on nearly everything, for Satoshi Kon on Tokyo Godfathers, Paranoia Agent and Paprika, for 4C on Tekkonkinkreet, for Makoto Shinkai on Your Name, for Mitsuo Iso on Dennō Coil, for Mamoru Oshii on GitS 2: Innocence, for Anno on Eva 3.0... A glance over his sakugabooru page will show you why: he’s an expert in the realist tradition, not quite as flashy as some of his peers like Ohira or Inoue, but with a fantastic sense of naturalistic motion and an ease at drawing all sorts of weird angles.

^ this guy’s in a lot of gifs, he seems important

The Deer King was Andō’s first time directing, so he was joined by Masayuki Miyaji, who worked himself up from being a production assistant at Ghibli to storyboarding on a whole long list of TV anime, and acting as one of two ‘assistant directors’ (not entirely sure what that entails) on Spirited Away, before hopping into the director’s chair with Xam’d at Bones in 2008-09. Miyaji is of the school that situations animation within film at large, taking inspiration mostly from live action - or at least he was at the time of Xam’d.

So what’s it about? In a feudal setting cut up by war and plague, a slave and a young girl survive an attack by plague-carrying dogs and make their escape, hoping for a peaceful life - a classic Uehashi adoptive parent situation. But with the plague running rampant, prejudice everywhere, and the empire’s doctors searching for a cure, they won’t get it. It’s a lot of novel to pack into one film, and I’m warned that it struggles a little to contain it all, but Ando’s enormous experience shines through to give a film full of subtle and expressive animation.

Anyway, it’s one I’ve had my eye on for ages, so I’m really eager to watch it with you.

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Now, let’s roll back the clock a bit. No, not quite to the sengoku jidai - 2012 will do. The Annecy International Film Festival is weighing up a massive slate, including a couple you may remember like Wrinkles (AN 87) and Children who Chase Lost Voices (AN 132). But there’s an odd little one tucked in there: a film by Toei, adapting the 70s manga Asura by George Akiyama. It’s a story set at the beginning of the sengoku period, where drought and famine wrack Kyoto, following a feral child who survives an attempted cannibalistic infanticide as he grows up amid all the war and devastation. Buddhas will be carved, symbolically. It’s that kinda thing.

George Akiyama was controversial in his day for his depictions of suicide, self-mutilation and cannibalism; ComiPress called him the ‘unstoppable king of trauma manga’. After making a serious impact with a bleak apocalyptic sci-fi story inspired by the infamous Maoist cult the Japanese Red Army, and even more so with an autobiography in which he revealed he had mixed Japanese-Korean parents (inspiring Big Racisms in those days), he surprised everyone by retiring. It didn’t stick. He moved from scandalising Shōnen Jump readers to adult manga, then back, uncannily anticipating the Aum terrorist attacks. He sounds like a fascinating guy and I’d like to read him some of that. Maybe it will be a Comics Comints one day. Hehe.

The most curious thing about Toei’s adaptation is the animation method. It’s very common now to place 2D animation in 3D scenes, but here we see the opposite: traditionally painted backgrounds populated by stylised 3D characters. Viewed with modern eyes, it has an interesting, uncanny look - certainly videogamey, but I’m curious to see how it works in a larger film. This CG approach may seem less odd when we consider director Keiichi Sato had the year before directed Tiger & Bunny at Sunrise, whose story of corporate-funded superheroes needed CG to plaster logos across the suits. Sato would actually later go on to mostly work in live-action film, notably the adaptation of Gantz we watched on Toku Tuesday 40.

I can’t guess what we’ll all make of Asura. It could be really great, a neglected classic like Birdboy - or it could end up being so exaggeratedly grimdark as to end up kind of goofy. We’ll find out! Animation Night would be no fun if we stuck to the well-known roads. At a brief 75 minutes, Asura is a pretty digestible size like an OVA episode.

After all that war and death, we probably want a breather. 百日紅 Sarusuberi (Miss Hokusai) looks at a different aspect of history - the renowned ukiyo-e painter Hokusai, best known for that one wave you might have seen here and there. Hokusai, it turned out, had a daughter called Katsushika Ōi, who followed her dad’s footsteps into ukiyo-e. Her story caught the eye of mangaka Hinako Sugiura.

Sugiura is another one I’ve got to have a look into. A manga artist with a deep interest in history, particularly the Edo period, she learned manga from Murasaki Yamada - not just a regular in the pages of Garo magazine, the fascinating alternative manga magazine, but a feminist essayist and a poet. Sugiura also debuted in Garo, drawing on ukiyo-e to great effect for her historical manga. She retired from manga in 1993 to focus on her research, and became something of a TV personality, supplying NHK with information on the Edo period for a comedy program.

The film intercuts Ōi’s life with her dad’s, a series of episodic stories in which we meet other painters from the period and watch Ōi growing up in the Edo period, working uncredited and trying to figure out sexuality. The animation comes from a studio called... Production I.G.... hmm I think I’ve heard of those guys?

So this time, the director was Keiichi Hara. While Masashi Andō was enjoying that wide-ranging career with all the big name directors, Hara was doing one thing, and that was directing Doraemon and Crayon Shin-Chan for Shin-ei. Two of the absolutely largest anime franchises in Japan, they don’t get a lot of play abroad - but then one is a kids’ series and the other leans heavily on Japanese wordplay so it’s not entirely surprising. From 1984 to 2005, Hara directed a movie for one of these two franchises nearly every year...

...I’m not kidding!

Anyway, it seems that in 2005 he decided he’d had enough (I can only assume) and from that point on he started directing non-franchise films. Quite a few of them actually - something for a future Animation Night, perhaps.

With Miss Hokusai, Hara could call on Production I.G. legends like Toshiyuki Inoue and Norio Matsumoto to realise a detailed, grounded Edo Period in exquisite detail. The clips I’ve seen look beautiful - I’ll try and have more than that to say later, but I am absolutely categorically out of time at this point.

So! Two Production I.G.s doing what Production I.G. do best, and a little oddity of Toei’s. If you’re willing to indulge me, please head over to -> twitch.tv/canmom <- for some mobies!

We may be up a bit late by UK standards, but I hope you can hop in for a bit, as suits! Movies will start in about 20 minutes (~21:20 UK time), modulo audience. See you theeerrreeeeeee!

#animation night

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emurim · 2 years ago

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地球外少年少女：磯光雄監督の魅力　天才的なアニメーター、エンターテイナー　井上俊之に聞く - MANTANWEB（まんたんウェブ）

"最後に井上さんに「アニメーターとして大切にしていること」を聞いてみた。

　「絵が動いていることの強み、“らしさ”ですね。動き、たたずまい……リアリティーと言ってもいいのかもしれない、写実的なリアルというよりも、“感じ”が出ていると思ってもらえることが大事だと思っています。実写を撮って、なぞって絵に起こ��ば、リアルは手に入るけど、それでは元の実写以上にはならないし、その実写が不出来な場合その再現以下のものにどれほどの意味があるでしょう。実写以上のリアリティーといえばいいんでしょうか、、磯君は、そこがうまい人なんです。アニメーションは本物以上の“らしさ”を出せるはず。印象派の絵は、本物よりも素晴らしく感じることがあります。『アルプスの少女ハイジ』のチーズが溶ける表現は、実際のチーズよりもおいしそうに見えます。余計な情報をそぎ落とし、いいところを誇張できる。磯君は、そういう可能性を気付かせてくれた。自分には不可能なことかもしれないですが、いつかそういうことができるといいなと思います。アニメーションの力を信じているので」"

─

[作画 MAD/AMV] Toshiyuki Inoue (井上俊之) Sakuga

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[作画 MAD/AMV] Mitsuo Iso (磯光雄) Sakuga

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井上俊之の方がアニメーターの理想形的な完成された作画なんだろうけど、。なんともアニメ作画の高みだ。

#アニメ #インタビュー #作画 #アニメーター #Youtube

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hannahp0calypse · 6 months ago

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@gamerlefay (making this a reblog 'cause I think this is useful info to put out there) Hey! You're not an idiot, don't worry - animation happens quite fast, and it can be hard to see the differences if you don't know what you're looking for. This video by @davidoneacre gives a pretty good quick rundown about animation on ones, twos, and threes (partic in 3d animation);

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And to explain my own vid at the top of the post; I'm using the same animation, rendered at different frame intervals, to demonstrate the visual difference in animating on ones, twos, and threes (in this case; 24fps, 12fps, 6fps). Though, as a note, my own animation is an imperfect example due to my own limited experience and the fact that I'm using essentially a filter to increase the frame interval rather than manually keyframing.

The "mixed" segments are just that- mixed! Rather than using a consistent frame interval I've increased and lowered it relative to the motion and action being performed. So, for example, when Sybil readies a kick I increase the interval to threes, and when the impact of the kick occurs I decrease it to ones. In my opinion, this adds an additional weight and heft to the motion that a consistent frame interval wouldn't have.

I can't go past this without mentioning the work of Mitsuo Iso - you can see some examples of his animation work right here - who animated in a mixed interval style referred to as "Full Limited". Check his work out for some much stronger examples of the mixed frame interval stuff than what I can put together.

To hopefully help with understanding & parsing my vid, I've uploaded it to YouTube so you can watch it a bit bigger, slow it down, etc. I've also uploaded a pre-slowed-down cut of just the different interval demos on their own, so you can really see where i misaligned the smear frames get a good look at 'em. I'll put those below a readmore - hope this all helps you or anyone else confused!!

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Also, wanted to use that pseudoregalia anim test to do a quick lil demo of Full Limited animation vs full and limited animations. I don't have the resources to do a full in-depth explanation so i hope this makes sense - I think it's a real interesting technique, and has a strong place in 3d as well as the 2d it came from

(funnily enough the original anim posted wasnt in full limited, i went and edited that in after i'd already posted it lmao)

#hannah does drawing #i'm putting that back into my tag for the added info and yt uploads #Youtube

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k00299539 · 10 months ago

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Movement Project Artist Research - Mitsuo Iso

Above: Trypophobia ass backdrop

Mitsuo Iso is a Japanese animator and director known for his work on popular series such as Gundam, Evangelion and Digimon, as well as for directing his original projects; Dennou Coil and The Orbital Children. Despite this impressive resume he is perhaps best known for his philosophy on animation, a style he innovated called "Full Limited Animation".

Virtually all animation is filmed at 24 frames a second. If I drew 24 frames of animation to convey one second of on-screen movement, this would be referred to as animating "on ones" and considered "Full Animation". Similarly 12 frames in a second is "on twos" (The standard in animation) and 8 "on threes", etc. When we consider how many seconds of animation go into even an short episode of television, we realise that's a lot of drawings.

Over the decades animators have come up with clever ways of cutting down the required number of drawings without losing that persistence of motion required for animation. Techniques such as reusing animation, holding on still shots, and animating on twos, threes or less being among them. These would be considered "Limited Animation". I feel obligated to mention here that more drawing do not equal better animation, and utilising these techniques is not an admission of inferior quality, but that's a bit beyond the scope of this blog post.

Generally though, all animation, whether on ones or twos or threes, is divided into keys and inbetweens (and breakdowns, etc. but that's another topic). Key's are the main action of a movement and inbetweens add life to that movement by filling in the blank space. Traditionally animator learned their craft by starting as inbetweeners. Since the keys have already been finished, the inbetweener essentially only has to follow instructions. Anyway, the whole point of this rambling prologue is that Mitsuo Iso chose to eschew inbetweens entirely, hence "Full Limited".

Iso made waves in the Japanese animation industry in 1989 with his work on Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. He animated in such a way as to convey the fluid movement of full animation through a limited number of drawings. His work appeared alive, full of dense sophisticated motion. This apparently shocked his contemporaries such that photocopied version of his key frames were circulated throughout the industry.

Above: Tumblr will only allow me one video, so I chose what's often regarded as his most famous bit of work; the berserk Eva sequence.

As far as how Iso's style pertains to my project? Beyond being inspired by his resourcefulness and ingenuity, Iso is ultimately all about movement. Every decision he makes is in service of how his scenes move. I knew I'd be animating something for this project and I wanted to try to successfully replicate some of Iso's philosophy at least, even if his technique might still be beyond my grasp. I've also included a link below to more of his work.

#lsad #movement #animation #research #art

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