Context: as any anime nerd knows, Studio khara has spent the last 3 years woking on the final Evangelion movie (releasing June 2020), and recently it was announced they were were switching from 3DS Max to Blender along with their partner for the movie Project Studio Q.
Studio khara is all about pushing the limit of 3D CGI/2D hand drawn hybrid animation, so the news was pretty important for the industry and of course some publications in Japan interviewed khara about the decision process behind this switch. Original interview here.
Luckly, as usually this more technical discussions of anime never overcome the Japanese language barrier, this one was translated by Geekdom News. Some extracts.
The economical and production benefit of switching from 3DS Max to Blender
How Blender makes 2D/3D hybrid a lot easier
How khara is already in talks with other companies about switching to Blender
More at the link.
Studio khara is all about pushing the limit of 3D CGI/2D hand drawn hybrid animation, so the news was pretty important for the industry and of course some publications in Japan interviewed khara about the decision process behind this switch. Original interview here.
Luckly, as usually this more technical discussions of anime never overcome the Japanese language barrier, this one was translated by Geekdom News. Some extracts.
The economical and production benefit of switching from 3DS Max to Blender
How Blender makes 2D/3D hybrid a lot easier
And there was a key functionality that brought Khara to Blender as production studio of "2D Anime works". It was "Grease Pencil".
You can draw lines in 3D space directly with a pen, and not only by making 3D models but you can also draw extra details in the animations themselves.
- DO: "As for our work, we create an image in 3D, and modify it into each frame as '2D Anime'. Even a chief animation director directly modifies each frame manually. We also even add shadows with tools like After Effect afterwards. For example, if we wanted a more sharp elbow in a character, we had to modify the 3D model and insert custom rigs (skeleton) into them. This was time consuming. But Blender enables us to draw with Grease Pencil after the animation is finished. It may not be the way for photo-real CG but it's a good way for 2D Anime. This helps reducing rigging costs."
- Takumi Shigyo (Project Studio Q Production Department): "We are getting more artists that started by using Blender in Studio Q. We are also seeing more high quality works by Blender users from high school students in Award:Q [an annual contest for high school students aimed at finding the best young 3D animators]. I expect these new generations to be the majority working at studios in the future."
How khara is already in talks with other companies about switching to Blender
More at the link.
