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