The Bond of Four - Third Tutorial Session

   So, the one thing that stood out in particular from this tutorial session with Mat is the fact that we will be presenting our Pre-Production work by the 17th of March, which is in about 2 weeks time. Of course, I had to be honest and inform Mat that I was at least 1 week or so behind on my work (When checking back to the schedule/gantt chart that I had put together for myself way back) due to some personal matters that have gotten in the way, but I am hoping that I will still have a chance to catch up over the next few weeks.

   Rough storyboarding is at least 80% complete and I should be able to put together a quick animatic over the weekend so that I will now how long its entire duration will be, which will then allow me to know whether I should actually cut out any scenes. To keep to my desired level of animation quality, it is a necessity not to go over the initial duration I had planned for this animation. Sometimes, sacrifices just have to be made, despite how you may love and wish to include everything... and while I am not looking forward to that, it must be done.

   Once that is done with, I will try to insert in more (If not all) polished images before sending it to Luke so that he can begin composing the music for it. And speaking of music, Cara brought up a wonderful idea of intensifying the final scene, along with the music itself. Meaning, a slower but nonetheless 'epic' style of music will play for the majority of the music, but at the very end, things get absolutely intense as the fight scene reaches its supposed climax... I'm terrible at describing these things but I hope Luke will understand what I am talking about when I tell him about it.

   While all main characters have been designed, I still need to design two more characters that will be included in the animation. This does not include the background characters, but that shouldn't be as time-consuming as the main character designs themselves. If there is time, I would absolutely love to put together a few turnarounds for some of them, as well as expression sheets.

   I was gently requested to have some form of animation test done from the fight scene itself as my proof of concept for the presentation itself. Not that these lists have been of great use to me based on past experiences, but here we go, a little list on the key things I should try to finish up before the presentation day itself:

1. Character Designs
2. Storyboard
3. Animatic
4. Some Background Designs
5. Last Few Research Posts
6. Animation Test/s

The Bond of Four - Second Tutorial Session

   It feels nice having Mike and Mat again to help us out for this module (It honestly feel like forever since I have last seen them, to be quite honest), and it was last Friday where I shared with Mike my idea and progress, just as I had with Annabeth and Mat. By speaking to my third and final lecturer, I felt that everything has now been established once and for all, now that all of them have approved of my idea and what I am planning to produce at the very end of it all. While I might have already repeated this in several other posts, it only seems right to keep hammering it into my head so that I don't end up steering off like I normally do. An animation of the utmost quality (I'm definitely going to go all out) of 1 to 2 minute duration and a concept art book will be done for this project. 

   In terms of progress, it was during that same day where the bulk of my script was finished as well as the last of the main character designs. It was from there that we agreed that the very next thing I should be working on is the storyboards and the animatic itself, which I hope to finish over the next week. A few animation tests should be done too if possible, at least for one of the main characters. A few simple scenes will do, just so I can get started somewhere. There are a couple more character designs that I need to finish, but they can be done in between storyboarding and such.

The Bond of Four - Character Designs 3

   Whew, so it's been awhile since I updated. But so far so good in terms of the character designs themselves, while I still have at least two more to go (Excluding background characters), all the main characters have been designed by this point and it's finally time to move onto storyboards and perhaps a few animation tests. I am really hoping to get all of that done by next week and send an animatic over to Luke so that he can begin planning for the music itself. My Tumblr blog has also been shared with Rosy and all concept art is available for her usage when she begins designing the title sequences for this animation.

   I have seen many people regard their creations as their children, and perhaps, I am starting to understand exactly how they feel. Being a huge fan of assassin characters, Date quickly became one of my most favorite designs. Granted, he was definitely a pain to polish and update (Especially when I had to look back to my 6 year old illustrations) because of how much details I had to take out when I have to consider the fact that I have to animate him in a fight scene…

   So there’s not much variety going on with Date as compared to the other characters, but I really just wanted to keep his outfit as simple as possible. So of course, the chainmail and little patterns had to go! I am most likely going to stick to the black and grey color scheme for him, though I’m still considering keeping his scarf a greyish blue color. Details probably won't be that much of an issue considering the fact that the fight will take place at night with lots of shadows covering up most of the details.

   While all of them were pretty much had closed eyes and missing mouths and noses in the old illustrations, I found myself keeping the closed eyed look for Prince Jubei... well, at least in this concept piece (In a rough sketch of mine, I actually gave him rather lazy if not slanted down eyes when they are open). Prince Jubei may seem like the laziest little bugger the kingdom has ever seen, but the majority of the royal family are well aware of the sharp intellect he possesses, as well as the immense potential as a political leader. Which makes him the top runner up for the throne.

   I then put together a quick character lineup to see how they all looked together. Jubei definitely needs a little more work (But at least I got his outfit figured out) in terms of the art style used. It is pretty apparent that not all of them are done in the same art style.

   The next character design I worked on after that was Ohana the Witch (She's practically floating in this concept, hence the way her feet are positioned). While she is seen in a really brief scene in the animation, I intend for her to play a much bigger role in the story itself... and so found myself putting a lot of love into her design. I was still able to keep all the little details for Ohana the Witch, seeing as she was going to be in one short scene in which she barely moves in (Save for her face and hands).

   I was going to do up one really quick reference of her (I was simply going to go with her original design, which is the second piece shown here) but ended up getting inspired by several gorgeous Indian and Thai traditional costumes that I saw on my dash… So, as compared to the other concept art where I simply messed around with different color schemes, I ended up designing a few different outfits for Ohana the Witch, while keeping to the same (Or similar) color scheme throughout.

The Bond of Four - The Script

   During the last Extended Practice session, I found myself struggling with writing the fight scene itself. In due time, I realised that I should have simply penned down the key scenes (Such as the assassin having his mask smashed off by his opponent) that I would most definitely want to feature in it and simply storyboard what I am able to visualise in my head. Unfortunately, I really am not the best when it comes to writing and properly describing a fight scene (I mean, I am still learning), and so a lot of time was wasted trying to write it in great detail. 

   What made it all the more challenging and time consuming was how I attempted to divide and spread it all throughout the animation. The other scenes where characters were being introduced did not take as long to write (Even the alternate versions themselves) and were in fact completed within an hour or so had I not been so distracted by the fight scene itself. I was able to consider whether they would be too difficult to animate and so wrote in a few simpler alternate scenes as well.
  
   But thankfully, as of now, I think I can finally begin storyboarding. I am planning to storyboard the fight scene as one whole piece first before dividing and spreading it among the other scenes where the key characters are introduced.

The Bond of Four - Character Designs 2

   I managed to get Princess Hanabi's character design done, as well as experimented with a few other hairstyles for Ayami (I really liked the last few ones, but they would all be too difficult to animate). Princess Hanabi's design is obviously meant to contrast Ayami's in every way. She is meant to be your typical princess, who is full of rainbows and sunshine (Well, most of the time), and while some people may find that annoying that about the naive woman, people cannot help but be drawn to her as well, seeing as she is a genuinely sweet and caring person. Sometimes, it's not all that bad having someone like her around...

Princess Hanabi

    Hanabi's original design sported a lot of little gems on the hems of her sleeves and dress, obviously, I had to remove all of that as shown above (Still, I will probably do up a nice portrait of her with all those details included in) for the animated version. She was also the most fun to experiment with in terms of color scheme (I actually want to do a few more, but I feel that I should move on for the time being and get the other characters done first).

Alternative hairstyles for Ayami. 

A closer look at Hojo's facial design.

   As I had mentioned in my previous post, while Hojo's design is much simpler as compared to the rest of the cast, there are also some little details added in there to still make him somewhat memorable. He is the only character that has heterochromia, and while I was almost tempted to chosen more outstanding colors for his eyes (Such as green or blue, though, I notice that a lot of character designs tend to go for that combination when it comes to designing heterochromatic characters), I decided to go with something a little more subtle.... It's still going to stand out either way, especially during close ups.

The Bond of Four - Character Designs 1

   There are a total of 9 characters that will be featured in the animation (Excluding background characters), progress is still a little slow but I do hope to finish up most of my character designs by the end of this week (Something tells me that I might have to multi task and get a little storyboarding done too). Thankfully, most of their designs have already been somewhat established from my original project with them. There aren't many changes, some details are simplified so that it will be easier for them to animate (So I ended up removing lots of decorative patterns from their clothing, or changing an accessory to something much simpler to draw, or have it removed completely).

   I did mess around with some alternative hairstyles as well... you will see why.

Aoyi

    While these characters were designed more than 6 years back, I have gone through the rather exhausting experience of hearing people comparing one my main characters to several anime characters that have come about in recent years (Particularly Ryuko Matoi from Kill La Kill and Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan), and that just wouldn't do. The first thing I thought about altering was her color scheme. While she would originally be the 'red' sibling (With that fancy scarf of hers), my friend and I found ourselves liking the orange scarf look, and perhaps, the darker colored coat. That scarf is meant to look like the most valuable thing on her, and it seems to me that the brighter orange makes it look just that as compared to the original red scarf that she wore in the original designs.

   I did try to experiment with some alternative hairstyles for her as well, but I found that none of them really suited her or the setting as much as the one I had originally chosen for her (The mohawk is cool and all but... yeah, it would be pretty out of place, unless I created a whole bunch of other characters that sported something similar). Of course, these hairstyles can now be recycled and applied to a bunch of background characters.

Ayame

   There is going to be that one character that you will always enjoy drawing as compared to the rest, Ayame just so happens to be mine. Seeing as she will be fighting in the animation, I wondered for awhile if whether her outfit was still practical enough for such movements. I also didn't want to necessarily give away the fact that there is much more to her than a voluptuous concubine. One particular detail I definitely to change for animating sake are the beads around her waist, I had to change them instead to colorful bindings (Hoping that they will still go with the rest of her outfit).

Hojo

   It saddens me that Hojo was a design I struggled with for a great deal of time, despite its simplicity compared to the design of my other characters, it remains one of my least favorite (But NOT because it is one of the simplest ones). He was also the first character that I actually designed for my first project... While the details can't be seen here, I will show what I have in mind for his facial designs to make him stand out more.

   While rather awkward when it comes to the way he interacts with other characters, there is still some form of elegance to his overall look, hence the noticeably more flow-y robes (Especially when compared to Aoyi and Ayame, and honestly, the others characters). I pondered for awhile about whether I should completely remove that part of his costume... before deciding against it as that is another detail that just made him who he is. While Aoyi is stealthy and athletic, Hojo is most definitely the brains of group (I obviously forgot to mention earlier that his robes are based on chinese scholar robes).

The Bond of Four - Working with Rosy

   I mentioned way back that Rosy will be working with me again on making a title sequence, and here's the progress so far on that.  About a week or so back, she asked me, along with a few others some necessary information needed to get the ball rolling. So, this isn't all that different to what I included in my Statement of Intent, but there's definitely some new information in here too:

1. What am I making?

A short story/teaser concept that should be around 1.5 to 2 minutes (This will be full confirmed once storyboards and an animatic are done)

I was especially inspired by these few examples (Particularly the first one):
https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/124313553
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5H9KqYZXiY (First 30 seconds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5H9KqYZXiY (Updated version since the project met its goal on kickstarter)

Might be doing a little research write up on each of these examples in the future.

2. What sort of theme do I have in mind?

So, to summarise this animation, it's definitely going to be pretty… anime. I will definitely throw over a bunch of concept artwork to you that won't be in the animation itself, so there will actually be different content seen in the titles, just like in Lurk. It might be good t0 show a teaser preview of the characters themselves in the opening title (Like, don't fully reveal them, show close ups of parts of them that will make them stand out as a character each. The closing can have more stuff of scenery and whatnot?

3. What duration is the animation?

Around 1.5 minutes, that example might have been almost 3 minutes but lol, I'm not gonna kill myself like that. At most, it will be 2 minutes. Once you add the titles to it, it would definitely be around that 2min 40 sec mark, wouldn't it?

The Bond of Four - Tumblr Blog's Up

   As mentioned in my statement of intent, I will also be posting most of my concept art, animation tests and whatnot on a Tumblr side blog I created for myself, I obviously named it after the series itself (And I am pretty glad that no one had actually taken it).  It seems useful seeing as this will be a series that I hope to continue even after this module ends. There obviously isn't much going on right now (Seeing as I was focused more on the research side in the previous two weeks, and still sorta am, actually), but things will start picking up eventually. I will probably pick a nicer theme for it too eventually, which really won't take long once I get into it. Hopefully, I can get that bit done tomorrow.

   ... This is the shortest post I have made in my entire life.

Seirei no Moribito

   Seirei no Moribito or Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (2007) is an anime series based on Nahako Uehashi's first novel of the same name. The series was animated by Production I.G. (Known for Ghost in the Shell, Sengoku Basara, the animated sequence in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 1, and many more) and directed by Kenji Kamiyama and premiered on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

   The story takes place in a fictional universe where Balsa, a wandering spear wielder. vows to atone for eight deaths in her past by saving an equivalent number of lives during her journey. She eventually rescues a Prince, and is tasked with becoming his bodyguard (With his father, the emperor having ordered for his assassination). The two begin a perilous journey to ensure the prince's survival. And in the midst of complications such as Balsa's own past coming to light as well the rising of a legendary water spirit that has the power to destroy the ki-- whoops! ... Anyway, in the midst of all that, Balsa and the Prince also begin to bond throughout it all...

   Production I.G was founded on December 15th, 1987 by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. Aside from various anime television series, OVAs and theatrical films, the studio is also involved in video game design and development, particularly being know for developing intros, cut-scenes and artwork for games (Such as Tales of Symphonia). Not only that, the studio has also been known for music publishing and management. Needless to the say, Production I.G. is one of Japan's most prominent studios.

   The studio is one of the forerunners of digital animation techniques, and while they are not exclusive in their usage of computer technology, they are given praise for their advances in digital compositing, digital effects, digital image/storyboarding, and digital color grading. The film Ghost in the Shell (1995) marker the first ever overlay of computer generated visuals onto a hand drawn background. Surprisingly, however, many of the digital looking effects in the film were laboriously hand produced.

   BUT, back to the series itself. It is pretty apparent that many quality series have come about from this studio (Sure, there's bound to be a few failures every now and then, but so far, nothing that really stands out when it comes to Production I.G) and Seirei no Moribito is a prime example of that. A deeply underrated series, it is not just one of the most beautifully animated series that came out in 2007, but also one of the most well written (This credit obviously goes to Nahako Uehashi, but we will definitely have to thank director Kenji Kamiyama as well for being able to properly translate into a decently paced anime series).

   It is always a pleasure to see a strong female character like Balsa (Again, hat's off to you Madam Uehashi), who is just so well rounded from the very beginning (Especially when it came to her backstory) and STILL continues to develop as the series progresses. She is strong, independent, brave, stubborn... and this is sort of where a well written male character comes into play, and while the Prince turns out to be an amazing character as well, he is not who I am talking about. While it could be said that Balsa's childhood friend is simply written in to be a love interest for Balsa, I find him to be just as well written as Balsa, and plays a much more important role than simply harboring a crush on her. Being a seemingly mild-mannered but still sharp witted herbalist, his relationship with the Balsa the ferocious warrior is played beautifully off one another. And do not get me started on Balsa's mentor... If I end up talking about all of these characters, this post is going to turn into a novel.

   So, much like the Sword of the Stranger (2007... they both came out in the same year, what are the chances of that?), let us once again get down to the fight sequences in the animation. 

   I am probably the only idiot here that had initially thought that the story took place in a real-world setting and not a fictional one (Ah, I can still remember the look my friend game me when I admitted this to her...). But truth be told, you have to give me a break here when I say that the characters and settings are just so believable that it is able to briefly fool idiots like me into thinking that this took place during some obscure part of Japan history... until we read the summary that is (And how many times do I need to apologise for making this mistake?). 

   As the title suggests, there is of course a more mystical side that is shown later on as the story progresses, but honestly, I will always remember this series for its amazingly crafted world, one that I believe could have taken place in the real world... an alternate side to Ancient Japan (Or some other Asian country, but it's pretty obvious that this series has a lot of Japanese influence to it) history. None of these human characters possess super human powers (Even the ninja-esque characters still come off incredibly realistic as compared to so many examples seen in the past), they are just all so... real, so human. They are strong and skilled simply because they trained themselves to be since birth, and that is something I absolutely love about all these characters.

   Not that I have gone all out to look for them, but I don't think there are many anime series that featured spear wielding characters, let along ones that are given such incredibly detailed animation sequences once they do start dishing out the thrusts and stabs. There is just so much thought put into every fight scene, they strike, they block, they parry, they distract, they do everything that has to be done to survive in a real death match. Each character has such a different fighting style to one another as well. Even if they happen to be wielding the same weapon, there is notably more grace in one character as compared to the other (The little things, people, the little things). There aren't many anime series that would go that far when it comes to the choreography of their fight scenes.

   I am really hoping that the other novels will be animated one day, especially as I have heard from my friend about how interesting the story gets. But yes, if you haven't checked out the series yet, do take the time to binge watch it. Beautiful animation, well-written characters and a decent storyline, what more could you ask for?

The Bond of Four - Writing the Script

   While the duration is pretty short and there isn't any dialogue in this animation, it did take me a little longer than usual to write out a script I was somewhat satisfied with.

   As I started writing it about a week or so back, I began to realise a few things. Sure, before that, I did put together a list of things that I needed to carefully consider when implementing them into the animation itself. The usual such as characters, settings, key scenes and... a small preview of the story without giving too much away (But, seeing as this is such a short animation, no one is really going to know what is going on). But, I soon realised that I needed to remove quite a few things to keep it under 2 minutes (Going over that with my intended level of quality when it comes to the animation's aesthetic would not be realistic). 

   A few characters especially have been removed and will instead be featured in the artbook itself. I needed to make sure only the most important (Had to add in 'most' there, seeing as so many if not all of feel really important to me) characters are focused upon in this little teaser animation. These characters are especially detailed in design (With two of them wearing some pretty snazzy armor sets), and I cannot begin to image how painful it would have been to animate (I am already doing a lot of simplifying for the characters that will be featured in the animation after all, which I will talk about in another post).

   Another challenge was to make sure that the animation still... flowed. One scene in particular (That being a fighting scene between two characters) get divided into several bits and will be spread out over the entire duration of the teaser. It will start with the fight scene AND it will end with the fight scene, this is at least one scene I am very sure in keeping.

   Once I finish touching it up a bit more, I can hopefully begin storyboarding it and get an animatic sent out to my composer. He definitely needs more time to compose something proper for this as compared to my Context in Practice 3 project.