Crimson Sails

I'm excited to bring you an update on our newest project!  It's a stand alone episode for a sci-fi, space action-adventure that we may develop into a full series.  Since getting the workstations and office set up, I've been hard at work crunching on character/vehicle designs, refining the story and doing all the character setup in 3d.

I've always been really inspired and influenced by the first "Ghost in the Shell" movie.  I chose to reference that style because I felt it was closest to the aesthetic I'm trying to achieve.(stylized realism)

That's all I have for today.  Next time I'll have a bit more to show.

Until then, stay tuned!

The adventure continues...

Greetings!  It's definitely been a while since the last time we posted.  Big things have been happening here at Studio Gattai and we've finally gotten around to giving you all an update.  For those of you who didn't know, I have left my full time job in the animation industry in order to dedicate all of my effort towards getting Studio Gattai up and running.  I have a few updates today so let's get going!

ARAM...

First up I have an update on the announced series "ARAM".  We have decided to put the project "on the shelf".  This means that we're not quite ready to produce the series yet and we want to save it for a later date.  The truth of the matter is that the story just wasn't working.  Hopefully we'll be able to strengthen the story enough to bring the project back at a later date.

STUDIO GATTAI...

We've been able to set up a new studio space!  ShiroNinja and I have been saving our pennies up for this occasion and we were able to assemble some really nice computers.  Below are some pictures of the studio as it came to life:

Again, my apologies for the long absence, but hopefully now that we're working full time on our own original projects we'll have more updates for you to check out.

We've also opened a tumblr page where we'll feature more of our day to day art and work in progress reports as well as some silly stuff.  You can check out our tumblr here.

Exploring TVPaint Part 2

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After discussion with Shiro Ninja I decided to go back and play with the final look of my animation from Part 1.  I was trying to achieve a slightly sketchy look inspired by the "Origin of O-Ren" anime sequence in "Kill Bill".

I'm really glad Shiro Ninja encouraged me to push myself on this one.  It made me force myself to really concentrate on matching the desired look.  We'll be developing this style further and applying it towards a 'top secret' project currently in development here at Studio Gattai!

it's never ending...

-07-

To see Part 1, click here.

Exploring TVPaint

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Recently I've been using TVPaint to practice my traditional animation skills.  Shironinja and I are heavily considering using the program to produce a future project we're currently developing.  Right now I'm just familiarizing myself with the program doing short practice animations.  It's a great way to practice both style and motion while also developing my skills using the program.  Check out some of the work I've done inspired by the music of Digiflesh:

Rough lines:

Finished lines:

I still have to add some more line detail onto the "Finished lines" image.  After that I plan on adding color and a background.  I'll post another update soon.  Until then, feel free to comment or critique.

Intergalactic Pla.Ne.Te.Ree!

-07-

Update!  Part 2 can be found here.

Therapy Session

Written by:  Unit Zer07 and Shiro Ninja
Art by:  Shiro Ninja

Giant Robot anime

3d to 2d workflow - "Use the Tools"

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Making of:

 

(For the previous post about this process click here)

Densetsu no Kurotsuki Part 1:

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Greetings fellow robots! Unitzer07 here with a super ultra update!

One of our goals here at Studio Gattai is to eventually develop our own original animated series. Because we love both computer animation and 2D animation we have been trying to figure out the best way to use the strength of CG with the style of 2D. In the past, cell shading has always been disappointing, so I wanted to avoid that look at all costs. So the question remained...how do we combine both styles?

I recently re-discovered my college thesis animation called "Densetsu no Kurotsuki"(Legend of the Black Moon). At the time I was trying to create an Anime intro using CG animation despite having pretty much no practical CG or animation knowledge. (I'm ambitious, what can I say...) Watching my old thesis inspired me to use the characters as an experiment to test our new animation ideas.



I used the classic anime run cycle from my favorite "Naruto" intro as animation reference:

Then, I re-designed and re-created my character in CG and animated him to match the cycle's poses:


From there, I brought the animation into a 2D animation program called TVpaint and traced my CG character to create the animation you saw at the
top of this post.

This run turned out to be a perfect way to test both this "Draw-over" method of animation and a new way of rigging that I had devised. For you fellow CG nerds, there is no IK in this rig and the only FK is on the fingers and jaw. I had originally imagined this rig when I finished reading "The Animators Survival Kit" a few years ago.

Look forward to a completed clip of this run cycle animation as well as an extra surprise animated clip!!

beep boop,

-07-

Update:  For the finished animation, click here