Leviathan is one of the most exciting upcoming releases in the anime industry. collaboration between studios Pictures of Kubik and orangewhich unites artists from Japan and France to adapt the popular English-language YA novel series Scott Westfield Enter 3DCG animation. Otakon panel “Can Whales Really Fly?” staff from both studios join forces to discuss the upcoming series. They were greeted by a packed room of fans, many of whom loved Westfield’s original novel.
The team starts with a bunch of the usual suspects. Justin Leachexecutive producer Leviathanrepresent Pictures of Kubik. He introduced himself as an experienced 3DCG animator who had worked in Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. (When he starts working Lucasfilm”, he said, and there were only seven people there—not even David Filoni!) Leach joined in. Watanabe Yoshihirois a producer from Orange and a frequent visitor to Otakon. Watanabe expresses desire to unite East and West LeviathanDieselpunk aesthetic. this Leviathan The books include airships, daring escapes and even giant robots, he said. maybe already yes An anime.
200 meters away
Another voice on the stage was Katrina MinetteA producer at Qubic Pictures, she began her career at animation studio OLM. The panel audience gasped when she said she had previously worked on the 2021 anime classic additional tax. last but not least Leviathan director Christopher Ferreira. Comic readers may recognize his art Milo’s world,Depend on Richard Marazano and published in English Magnetic press 2019. Garden of Eden As a character designer.
Impressed with Ferreira’s contributions, Leach hired him as director. Since “Garden of Eden” is produced with CG, he hopes to go further in this direction next time and create better works. But Ferreira wasn’t sure. Can 3D animation really capture the charm of 2D animation? He insisted that if their next project had to be 3D, then the best would be the best. Little did he know that his future collaborator at Orange lived just 200 meters from his home in Japan. The solution to their problems is actually just around the corner.
Qubic Pictures and Orange are a perfect match. Qubic’s past achievements include launching Kick the heart—The first successful animated Kickstarter and gathering talent for the first season of the anime Star Wars Vision Animation Anthology. Orange, on the other hand, is one of the best 3DCG animation production studios in Japan. Watanabe singled out the studio’s lead producer and artist Eiji Inomoto for “spending every second of his life on Leviathan”. Ferreira calls the studio “an artist’s [referring to Inomoto’s contributions] I supervise from the outside.
Whatever I write next…they have to publish it
New guests continued to appear throughout the panel, dramatically emerging from the audience and onto the stage. The first one is Scott Westerfield; Leviathan. After thanking Qubic Pictures and Orange for “creating something incredible”, Westfield admitted he was Leviathansuccess. After all, this is a high-concept story set against the backdrop of World War I, or as he joked, “everyone’s favorite war.” Who wants to read about it?
Westfield came to realize that after the success of his children’s novel Ugly person“Whatever I write next…they have to be published.” He brainstormed a list of his favorite things, including biopunk, “girls dressing up as boys and doing cool things,” and Archduke Ferdinand The collapse of European diplomacy after his death. These concepts became Leviathan Trilogy.
Explain history
when Ugly person When the Japanese edition was published, Westfield noticed that the new edition contained illustrations. He couldn’t help but wonder: Who still spends time illustrating novels nowadays? A 12-year-old Internet fan introduced him to light novels, a young adult novel published in Japan. since Ugly person When light novels are published in Japan, of course there will be illustrations. why not?
After further research, Westfield discovered that illustrations also once played an important role in English novels. They also frequently write for newspapers and directories. If your house burned down, Westerfield said, illustrators would draw the burned house for the local newspaper. The birth of photography reduced drawing to an art form and put many people out of work. But even so, illustrators still have a certain influence. In the 1891 Strand Magazine serial, it was illustrator Sidney Paget, not Arthur Conan Doyle, who donned Sherlock Holmes’ iconic deerstalker hat. The Hound of the Baskervilles.
What kind of jellyfish is this supposed to be?
Westfield teamed up with artist Keith Thompson to create the illustrated edition Leviathan. Thompson’s illustrations look very much like woodcuts, immediately rooting Westfield’s story in the aesthetics of the time. Orange brought Thompson on board early in production to guide the show’s artistic direction. Even so, they must choose how to interpret Thompson’s illustrations. As Minette tells it, they spent a lot of time discussing what was going on at the beginning of production LeviathanThe Huxleys (jellyfish-shaped dirigibles) look like. “We had a lot of late-night meetings,” she said, “talking about, ‘What kind of jellyfish is this supposed to be?'”
Color is another topic to consider. While Thompson’s illustrations are in black and white, Ferreira and his team chose to color-code the characters and technology based on whether they represent the biopunk Darwinist (hot) or mechanical Clanker (cold) factions. They also simplified Thompson’s original character drawings to improve animation appeal. This may sound like a bad thing – why compromise on the details? But designs made for animation are always better than others.
Animation is exaggerated
Ferreira refused to compromise in other areas, though. One is to use 2D camera movement. Orange’s productions often feature elaborate 3D camera movements that take full advantage of the format. although Leviathan While the action sequences feature some 3D movement, Ferreira prioritized 2D movement. This also contributed to Ferreira’s insistence on detailed 2D backgrounds, which Yoshihiro Watanabe saw as a new challenge for Orange. In the past, he said, “Orange would cut corners wherever possible.” LeviathanBut judging from the background and future works, this will no longer be the case.
Another guest, Chief Producer Jie Qingtaka, also came to explain the animation production process of “Orange”. Waki joined the studio nine years ago to work on the series glorious place. He introduced in detail Orange’s process of producing 3DCG animation series in front of the microphone. One of the key elements is motion capture, which lead producer and animator Inomoto has done himself in the past. Another is the exaggerated timing and character actions. “Animation,” Waki said, “is all about exaggeration.” What struck me, Waki said, was his philosophy on using visual effects in animation. He said visual effects shouldn’t be viewed just as an extra detail, but as actors on screen being able to express emotion as well as any character model.
song of the sky
Last but not least is the discussion about music. The team wanted a sound consistent with its 1900s setting. They chose composers Nobuko Toda and Kazuma Jinnouchi, who had composed ” metal gear Video game series and Makoto Shinkai’s movies Suzume. For the opening and closing themes, however, they worked with composer Joe Hisashi: a frequent collaborator of Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki.
Diane Garnet is the lead singer of the closing theme and the last guest introduced. Garnet is from Washington and is a frequent visitor to Otakon. “It’s great to be part of such an international production,” she said. (She also insisted that “Sharp is an icon, and I’m sorry!”) Garnett concluded the panel by singing the ending theme and clips live. Leviathan. While we weren’t allowed to record this video, rest assured (although I wish the machine looked a little dirtier), it has as many exploding airships, sparklers, and sword fights as you want from a Leviathan Production. Not to mention, as Westerfield gleefully reminds viewers, this footage is only taken from the first two episodes of the series.
Anime has the potential to embrace anything, everywhere
Enter Leviathan During the panel discussion, I expected to be impressed by what Orange presented. What I didn’t expect was the way this project would unite people from all over the world. Not to mention that garnet and orange producer Watanabe is a regular customer of Otakon. For a moment, the lines between Japanese and American production teams disappeared, and I saw anime as a global industry that included not just Japan, but DC as well.
If Watanabe is to be believed, that’s what Leviathan itself is about: two corners of the world coming together. “Anime,” he says, “has the potential to be inclusive of everything, everywhere.” In the wrong context, this can be a threat. In this case, it’s a promise.
