I was actually super impressed by your art direction when it came to the aot animation when I saw it ! The backgrounds looked great, and the use of negative space was impresive
The new Bleach anime has some mind blowing backgrounds. What needs to feel grandiose FEELS enormous, with tons of intricate detail in them. They perfectly elevate every scene, even those that otherwise don't have much going on.
As of recently the first show that comes to my mind when talking about fantastic art direction has to be Heavenly Delusion. It elevates basically everything about a scene
a deep parallax is one of my favourite kinds of cuts. There are some insanely deep parallax shots in the made in abyss movie. There's also plenty of just 3D shots in makoto shinkai movies, you'd be surprised if you watched one and paid attention to how the backgrounds move, how many of them move in a three dimensional space, yet still look painted, with plenty of objects on billboards and layers inserted into the scene to create that detailed look. Trying to achieve this style has been a hyperfixation of mine for a while.
MiA art direction was always off the charts, which is great because the story specifically calls for it. Also yes, Shinkai uses tons of 3DBGs, I just focused on the 2d ones due to the topic of this video. I have seen every single Shinkai film, and his use of 3D backgrounds throughout the years has been fascinating. They were surprisingly polished, even in his earliest works.
@ That's fair. I felt it was good to bring up because some of the shots you showed during that section were probably done using a mix of parallax and 3D instead of just parallax :) I'm sure you also know that though
I picked those scene while booru surfing, so I might've messed up, but at a cursory glance, the shots I used looked like they featured illustrated, 2d backgrounds only. Do you have any specific examples? Because mapping 2d assets out in a 3d space still falls under the 2d art direction category. If any of the clips I used use an actual 3d background model, that would be a mistake on my end.
@@ProbablyPretentious i believe 9:23 is 3D, and the rest were 2D :) The trees I think are parallaxed/on billboards, but the buildings, ground and lamposts all look 3D to me. A 3d software was certainly used to map painted assets or textures onto the buildings, but if that still falls under 2D art direction then that's my bad, I'm not in the industry so these little distinctions are far from something I can grasp ahaha If not I don't think it's a bad mistake to make in this video, even if it doesn't fall under 2D art direction I appreciate the coverage of this side of the wider scope of background art as it's often overlooked
Art direction is not always about background, sometimes its the coloring tone, sometimes its the mood, sometimes its the music, sometimes its the flow of the scene. Your view of art is narrow and your understanding of art is confined to a smaller scope.
My favorite art direction or background is The infinity castle itself and the way yuichi terao and ufotable use it. The fact that place is going to be a three part movie is insane.
Ok, i admit, i was an animation nerd with no base knowledge about "art direction" & this video really opened up new doors of thinking for me. Now i can shut my animation nerd side of brain & still enjoy & & appreciate the thought & passion put into "art direction". W video bro. W. please try to make next quotation series video as, " well written " I don't know how it fits into the anime production side of talks in quotation series but, yeah, ani-twitter loves to spam "well written",
This is very helpful info! This is the aspect of Anime I usually appreciate, especially in low-budget Anime since it shows that someone among the staff knew they can still make something look and feel better than it should despite having limited resources. Although, I tend to just give credit to the "director" without specifying which specific one it is. Now I know. Thank you!
You are wrong.. Art direction is responsible for the visual style of the animation which decide how the characters, props and environments are going to look and provide a basis for the rest of the art department to work from. While character design is basically the concept for the character in what they wear, tools, etc. This is usually what you would see in model sheets for characters, background, objects and how its designed/created for animation.
Not entirely the same but It truly upsets me how some anime fans will see abstract CHARACTER art and say "eww this looks bad and lazy" Despite that not being the case. For example Mha s7 ep 19, Shuu Sugita worked on an All Might Vs AFO cut, it had minimal movement but good character acting looking at All Might thru AFOs perspective. I loved the raw kino soul, the whole scene was very appealing to me in its own way. Yet I go on twitter and find a bunch of morons who know nothing about art and animation complaining about how it looks bad or unfinished, not enough "movement" smh.
As someone who's mostly worked in background I'm glad this is finally being talked about. As much as I love animation I'll usually be pausing to admire background art 🤣 Frieren was probably the highlight for me last year. The background art in that was gorgeous and the perfect balance between detailed and simple.
Really surprised you didn't mention Monogatari, without a doubt in my mind it has one of the best if not the best art direction I've ever seen in an anime
Art direction is not always about background, sometimes its the coloring tone, sometimes its the mood, sometimes its the music, sometimes its the flow of the scene. Yоur view of art is narrow and your understanding of art is confined to a smaller scope.
Coloring, music and flow(direction i think you are referring to) all have different directors who all work together 😅😅, atleast what I belive from what PP said😂😂
One thing that always got me confused was the backgrounds with "water coloring" aesthetic (Example of My dress-up darling ep8) , Since I kept comparing them to more realistic BGs, I felt they looked bad because they seemed to lack detail . I love that you talked about stylized vs photo-realistic approaches. Although I struggle at times to distinguish between intentional artstyle and backgrounds that were rushed out (JJK S2 ep16 vs ep17 comes often to mind)
How are the backgrounds actually made? I know they used to be hand painted but most contemporary TV anime art direction has a particular look to it. It's not like Makoto Shinkai where it's like hand-painted but photoshop, but it's not like cg either.
I was watching the most recent season with one of my best friends and the moment the sky changed color to suit to the tone of what was happening it made every single moment have more impact for both of us. I know that it changed because of in story reasons but it helped so much honestly.
@@mrcuccob honestly yeah it felt like they finally understood and made season 7 background change according to the atmosphere it was so good, it def is my fav season since season 3
Will you eventually make a video on how anime is made? Like going over pre-production, production and post-production and what happens in all three of those stages to get the final product. Or do you think that video might be a bit too long and you prefer to keep your videos shorter?
Im not as knowledgeable as you in BG animation But would be able to help articulate in your own words as to why it seems Atlier MUSA seems to struggle when it comes to working with Studio Bones on MHAs bg art? Because we've seen MUSA work on other anime before and the BG art is nowhere near as bad as in MHA at times. Don't get me wrong I love the MHA anime but sometimes the BG art comes off as just ugly
one of my favourite executions of good art direction come from vinland saga season 2 and heavenly delusion
Heavenly delusion is exactly what comes to my mind when someone talks about art direction and backgrounds, amazingly atmospheric and immersive bg art!
Studio ghibli has some of the best backround art period
Would you make a video on compositing and photography in anime?
Eventually, yes.
@@ProbablyPretentious Yes please, I would love to have your opinions on compositing in particular
@@ProbablyPretentious TYBW's gonna catch a stray, I can feel it in my bones😂
@@STarman-k9p rent free
Very glad you mentioned Dorohedoro, Kimura’s style worked perfectly for the ‘dirtiness’ of its world
Bros jawline is immaculate 😭🙏🏼
We got mogged the moment we clicked the video
Look mum, that's my name in a big TH-cam video
GOAT
I was actually super impressed by your art direction when it came to the aot animation when I saw it ! The backgrounds looked great, and the use of negative space was impresive
The new Bleach anime has some mind blowing backgrounds. What needs to feel grandiose FEELS enormous, with tons of intricate detail in them. They perfectly elevate every scene, even those that otherwise don't have much going on.
As of recently the first show that comes to my mind when talking about fantastic art direction has to be Heavenly Delusion. It elevates basically everything about a scene
a deep parallax is one of my favourite kinds of cuts. There are some insanely deep parallax shots in the made in abyss movie. There's also plenty of just 3D shots in makoto shinkai movies, you'd be surprised if you watched one and paid attention to how the backgrounds move, how many of them move in a three dimensional space, yet still look painted, with plenty of objects on billboards and layers inserted into the scene to create that detailed look. Trying to achieve this style has been a hyperfixation of mine for a while.
made in abyss movie mentioned, goated
MiA art direction was always off the charts, which is great because the story specifically calls for it. Also yes, Shinkai uses tons of 3DBGs, I just focused on the 2d ones due to the topic of this video. I have seen every single Shinkai film, and his use of 3D backgrounds throughout the years has been fascinating. They were surprisingly polished, even in his earliest works.
@ That's fair. I felt it was good to bring up because some of the shots you showed during that section were probably done using a mix of parallax and 3D instead of just parallax :) I'm sure you also know that though
I picked those scene while booru surfing, so I might've messed up, but at a cursory glance, the shots I used looked like they featured illustrated, 2d backgrounds only. Do you have any specific examples? Because mapping 2d assets out in a 3d space still falls under the 2d art direction category. If any of the clips I used use an actual 3d background model, that would be a mistake on my end.
@@ProbablyPretentious i believe 9:23 is 3D, and the rest were 2D :) The trees I think are parallaxed/on billboards, but the buildings, ground and lamposts all look 3D to me. A 3d software was certainly used to map painted assets or textures onto the buildings, but if that still falls under 2D art direction then that's my bad, I'm not in the industry so these little distinctions are far from something I can grasp ahaha
If not I don't think it's a bad mistake to make in this video, even if it doesn't fall under 2D art direction I appreciate the coverage of this side of the wider scope of background art as it's often overlooked
Art direction is not always about background, sometimes its the coloring tone, sometimes its the mood, sometimes its the music, sometimes its the flow of the scene. Your view of art is narrow and your understanding of art is confined to a smaller scope.
Twitter is such a blessing at times lmao.
Deja Vu
TH-cam community notes when?
Lmao
My favorite art direction or background is
The infinity castle itself and the way yuichi terao and ufotable use it. The fact that place is going to be a three part movie is insane.
IT'S NOT A WALL????
My favorite example of art direction is from Frieren. It really looked amazing
Ok, i admit, i was an animation nerd with no base knowledge about "art direction" & this video really opened up new doors of thinking for me. Now i can shut my animation nerd side of brain & still enjoy & & appreciate the thought & passion put into "art direction".
W video bro. W.
please try to make next quotation series video as,
" well written "
I don't know how it fits into the anime production side of talks in quotation series but, yeah, ani-twitter loves to spam "well written",
It's always fun to learn something new from this channel.
5:24 new lore???
You can make a video about Fx animation
Great video btw
This is very helpful info! This is the aspect of Anime I usually appreciate, especially in low-budget Anime since it shows that someone among the staff knew they can still make something look and feel better than it should despite having limited resources. Although, I tend to just give credit to the "director" without specifying which specific one it is. Now I know. Thank you!
Bro's thumbnail and title is so genuine that it seems clickbait.
You are wrong.. Art direction is responsible for the visual style of the animation which decide how the characters, props and environments are going to look and provide a basis for the rest of the art department to work from. While character design is basically the concept for the character in what they wear, tools, etc. This is usually what you would see in model sheets for characters, background, objects and how its designed/created for animation.
not sure if you're just joking about that tweet or being serious
Nice Joke
Really interesting. Thank you.
Not entirely the same but It truly upsets me how some anime fans will see abstract CHARACTER art and say "eww this looks bad and lazy"
Despite that not being the case.
For example
Mha s7 ep 19, Shuu Sugita worked on an All Might Vs AFO cut, it had minimal movement but good character acting looking at All Might thru AFOs perspective.
I loved the raw kino soul, the whole scene was very appealing to me in its own way.
Yet I go on twitter and find a bunch of morons who know nothing about art and animation complaining about how it looks bad or unfinished, not enough "movement" smh.
As someone who's mostly worked in background I'm glad this is finally being talked about. As much as I love animation I'll usually be pausing to admire background art 🤣 Frieren was probably the highlight for me last year. The background art in that was gorgeous and the perfect balance between detailed and simple.
Can you talk about western animation like castlevania Nocturne(netfilix anime), scavengers reign(hbo max) etc.
Really surprised you didn't mention Monogatari, without a doubt in my mind it has one of the best if not the best art direction I've ever seen in an anime
can't believe he still doesn't have 100k subs
PARSHWA MY GOATTTT
Art direction is not always about background, sometimes its the coloring tone, sometimes its the mood, sometimes its the music, sometimes its the flow of the scene. Yоur view of art is narrow and your understanding of art is confined to a smaller scope.
Coloring, music and flow(direction i think you are referring to) all have different directors who all work together 😅😅, atleast what I belive from what PP said😂😂
@@Saprana it's a joke based on that one comment on twitter
@Vivek-wy2ji damn I fell for it sorry
U should make a video about how kizumonogatari movies look so incredible
One thing that always got me confused was the backgrounds with "water coloring" aesthetic (Example of My dress-up darling ep8) , Since I kept comparing them to more realistic BGs, I felt they looked bad because they seemed to lack detail . I love that you talked about stylized vs photo-realistic approaches. Although I struggle at times to distinguish between intentional artstyle and backgrounds that were rushed out (JJK S2 ep16 vs ep17 comes often to mind)
How are the backgrounds actually made? I know they used to be hand painted but most contemporary TV anime art direction has a particular look to it. It's not like Makoto Shinkai where it's like hand-painted but photoshop, but it's not like cg either.
feel like this video was made due to that one twitter user
Kinda was, yes. I'm always looking for topics to explore.
Nanatsuma is great art direction anime
Oh wait only background
Then ... definetly anime called another
That is a lot of video
😂
mha's blue sky.....
I was watching the most recent season with one of my best friends and the moment the sky changed color to suit to the tone of what was happening it made every single moment have more impact for both of us. I know that it changed because of in story reasons but it helped so much honestly.
@@mrcuccob honestly yeah it felt like they finally understood and made season 7 background change according to the atmosphere it was so good, it def is my fav season since season 3
Which series do you think has the best art direction?
Chainsaw man
@limewolf-x4jchainsaw man
@ mybad
Watch it in 1.25x speed for better experience
What are you going to call the 'overall' direction in anime then?
Will you eventually make a video on how anime is made? Like going over pre-production, production and post-production and what happens in all three of those stages to get the final product. Or do you think that video might be a bit too long and you prefer to keep your videos shorter?
Where's the art direction here?
You forgot the gods of art direction, Go(d)hands.
So you are working in a fan-animation of AoT that isn't Requiem?
Im not as knowledgeable as you in BG animation
But would be able to help articulate in your own words as to why it seems Atlier MUSA seems to struggle when it comes to working with Studio Bones on MHAs bg art?
Because we've seen MUSA work on other anime before and the BG art is nowhere near as bad as in MHA at times.
Don't get me wrong I love the MHA anime but sometimes the BG art comes off as just ugly
Sir ji will there gonna be a bleach cour 3 animation break down 😢?
Link click season 3 animation breakdown ?
2nd comment
I didnt watch failure frames but from the clips i've seen it had some of the worst art direction from last year or in recent years
Failure frame did its title justice by being a failure at several aspects, if anything, the art direction was the least of its worries lol.
@@ProbablyPretentious ye the constant 2d and 3d change with the characters were jarring and unnecessary at times
I'm going to have to unsubscribe if there isn't a reason why you haven't spoken about castlevania nocturne!!
Fr