CGI Veteran Hiroyasu Kobayashi Breaks Down How He Mech-ed the Magic Happen In Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

When it comes to mechas in anime, especially Gundam gquuuuuux and Evangelicalblends CG animation and 2D animation. exist gquuuuuuxCase, it mainly relies on CG animation. How do you deal with fusion of different visual styles Mobile suit Gundam exist gquuuuuux?

Kobayashi: In fact, gquuuuuux There is also a mixture of hand-drawn animations and 3D animations of mobile suits. Another really great thing is that the guys in charge of mechanical animation are very talented. Maybe it’s hard to say one of the reasons it actually switches from 2D to 3D maybe because they’re so good at drawing mobile suits. We are with gquuuuuuxThe mecha is no different from the work we do Evangelical.

Are there specific challenges in designing mobile suits gquuuuuux Using CGI?

Kobayashi: CGI Model Director is responsible for mobile litigation based on 3D modeling Ikuto Yamashitadesign. However, I believe that as far as I know, Yamashita and the people who are responsible for the construction of 3D models based on his designs have done a lot of back and forth to try to make the details and various contradictions that exist in the original 2D to make it authentic in 3D.

Speaking of Yamashita-san, in a previous interview, the mechanical designer mentioned that the team deliberately deprived the “character-like” quality of the mobile suit. director kazuya tsurumaki Tell me that the instructions are to make these mobile suits very active in the universe and point out that he likes sensors in eyes that look like human faces. Can you share insights about the mechanical realism of mobile suits balancing the aesthetic of a style with fans Gundam series?

Kobayashi: This is very difficult because how mobile suits and mechanical designs are very different gquuuuuux Compared with character design take. The character design is very abstract and stylized. Then, you have all the mobile suits and machinery [whose] The loyalty and authenticity of an attempt to be a mechanical device is very precise and intentional, and the two almost conflict in the same job.

My work specifically involves adding details and trying to patch various visual elements together to make the two more blended together. I tried to make sure the contradictions weren’t that dazzling and that the introduction of the two was still pleasant.

The techniques you mentioned earlier Evangelical In some ways, gquuuuuux. What methods are used to ensure that the mecha’s CGI enhances the intensity and fluidity of the combat without feeling out of place with the visual consistency of its hand-painted elements?

Kobayashi: Regarding trying to reduce the differences between the 3D part and the 2D character animation part, it involves animation, fluidity, and more [Tsurumaki] There are hands-on ways.

Abstraction of character animation and detailed clips, stylized segments [have a] The main difference, we try to blend them together. Even in the background – some backgrounds are very detailed – others are quite flat, bland, just grades, etc. One of our team’s jobs is to figure out how we have the details of the bridge between these two style directions. We went through a considerable pre-production process, in which we were trying different techniques to see if the method and detail of clicking the entire process within the same film framework is enough to make the entire process sufficient. Overall, though, the easiest answer is that we keep adding details. This is also a big part of the Khara Studio style.

In the West, CGI in anime often has a unique stigma because fans are more than traditional 2D animations relative to digital counterparts. This preference is partly due to the sometimes harsh vibrations that CGI juxtaposes with hand-painted backgrounds or characters. Has this emotion echoed among Japanese anime fans? gquuuuuux?

Kobayashi: I think it reduces a lot and hesitates about it. One of the things that happened recently is that there are many game franchises iDolm@ster. All characters iDolm@ster It is rendered in 3D. Then, there is anime showing these characters. For references, at least, you’ll see 3D CG being merged into the rendering process even in some segments of the show. This may sound clumsy, but decent 3D animation is something that people don’t poop when compared to poor hand-drawn animations.

It has to do with how much money it has to be spent. We are constantly aware of cost performance and make sure it doesn’t exceed budget. But, at the end of the day, it’s about how persuasive and satisfying it is to the audience. (laugh) Everyone likes it Genshin Character, isn’t it? This has a lot to do with how people appreciate artworks, and the means are not as important as they ultimately gain from it.

The production you mentioned earlier gquuuuuux It usually involves adding a lot of details to the show to find out what’s balanced with CG and 2D. Is the team effective in adopting any new CG technology or technology?

Kobayashi: It’s hard to come up with something truly innovative or groundbreaking in our work. But consider the different processes involved in production quiuuuuuuxI think different from a major segment we have done before are all the graphic textures and different visual assets associated with mechas, such as the mark of “police” in English, but in fact it says “official police” in Japanese.

Requirements for including these marks [on the mobile suits] Distributed to us by our director. If it is hand-painted, it will be very difficult. But, through repetition, the process gradually becomes something that expands our own style and it does look good. I was surprised how great it started to look.

I asked Tsurumaki, but I also want to ask you: Is there a specific mech you like the most in all mobile suit designs, and why?

Kobayashi: What did director Tsurumaki say?

He mentioned that one of his favorite characters was Chalia Bull and told Polygons That Gelgoog is his favorite. But, he and the screenwriter YōjiEnokido There is a lot of debate about whether GM or Rick Don will win in the fight.

Kobayashi: (laugh) I think the original gUNDAM has a unique position. Its simple design has a strong sense of heroism. To me, white is also an important part of its identity.