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©Yasuda Phenomenon/Xenotoon/Make a Girl Project
Creator, director, screenwriter——Motoaki Yasuda His creative journey began online. He focused on what he could do and shared his animated shorts with a growing audience on social media. He gained attention with his solo work on Fox Girl and Robot on his YouTube channel, which attracted hundreds of thousands of views.
His latest work is a feature film, be a girlan extension of his make love The animated short film is scheduled to be released in Japan on January 31st. at his own studio, based on his own script, while also managing directing duties. We spoke with Yasuda about his journey from a one-man show to a larger team, as well as his advice for other creators looking to build an audience.
Can you talk about your early work? make love and how it transformed into be a girl?
Motoaki Yasuda: Compared with the previous short animation, we mainly focus on the points that need to be explored and processed in depth when drawing a long animation. be a girl It tells the story of the protagonist Shui Yuming’s scientific creation of his girlfriend. He was not interested in love to begin with. Even if he takes steps to get a girlfriend, his disinterest remains. But his actions and thoughts were deeply intertwined with someone’s calculations. We were able to fully flesh out the character’s backstory.
compared to make lovehow are your animation resources “upgraded”? What animation tools or software were used to create the movie?
Yasuda: period make loveI am an independent creator, and since my goal is to constantly share my work online, I attach great importance to speed and sacrifice each task to achieve a certain level of quality. But for this feature-length film, we assembled a team of eight people (albeit a small one). This way we were able to give each task special attention and, most importantly, the expressive research on each task area that I did by myself progressed eightfold. I feel the joy of teamwork when I see the finished product created from ideas I wouldn’t have come up with on my own.
I usually use Blender (an open source 3D software) and Adobe’s After Effects to create my work. As a former indie creator, Blender has been a godsend.
Creating a girlfriend is a classic anime premise that hasn’t been seen in modern shows for a long time. Are you interested in the premise of girlfriends created by scientists and labs?
Yasuda: In Japanese, the word “finding a girlfriend” literally means “getting a girlfriend.”
“Make” itself has many meanings, so I find it interesting that the phrase “make a girlfriend” can be used in many ways. In addition to having a girlfriend in the traditional sense, what about having an artistic girlfriend? How about letting her get philosophical? Or maybe it would be a good idea to make her scientific – that’s the fun I have thinking about this subject.
What would you say are your main artistic influences and inspirations?
Yasuda: I am deeply influenced by works with a strong science fiction feel, such as Madoka Magica and Steins;Gatethe problems the protagonist must face are redefined. I used to work for the company that made these pieces nitro plusso I’ve always been a fan of it.
exist make love In a nutshell, we see the birth of Zero, her conflict with Shui Yuming, and her capture by mysterious assailants. Can we expect the new film to follow the same narrative path? What changes or additions can fans expect?
Yasuda: be a girl is a story based on make love. but as make love is a two-and-a-half-minute short animation, as mentioned earlier, be a girl Contains a character’s backstory whose intentions deeply influence the protagonist’s actions. In addition, exciting action scenes and character expressions have also evolved from the short films, allowing you to fully enjoy everything from deep meaning to superficial entertainment. I hope you look forward to it!
What was the process of redesigning a character for the film?
Yasuda: Because I’m not satisfied with the design inside Youtube Based on the short-form animation, I really wanted to redesign something for the feature-length animation.
Since I had always been trying to create animation on my own, I was anxious about not knowing enough about design. Fortunately, for be a girlwe were able to enlist the help of professional illustrators; for example, adding labels to the parka as part of the design gave it a real feel, so we were able to explore more detailed characterisations.
So I think we were able to add variety and realism to the character’s visuals.
How important do you think it is for an independent artist to have a large following on social media for success?
Yasuda: I think this is very important.
Whether you’re getting a commission or getting the chance to create a feature-length animation, it’s important to market your creativity and win the hearts of those in charge. Social media is a very direct form of marketing that anyone can use; gathering followers there will lead to an equal number of possible opportunities.
If you had access to the same technology as Shui Yuming, what would you create?
Yasuda: I want to create a self-organizing garden.
I’m currently obsessed with traditional Japanese dry landscape gardens dry landscapebut they are very difficult to maintain. Even if I had such a garden in the future, I have full confidence that I would waste it because of the difficulty of managing it. Now, if that Japanese garden could clean itself up, no matter how busy I am making animations, I could still enjoy a beautiful garden – wouldn’t that be great?
The important thing is that I want to get it dirty at least once. Only then can I appreciate the changes in the garden, so having a garden that can tidy itself up after getting dirty is ideal.
But I think people like me who can’t even enjoy a neat garden are probably not qualified to have a Japanese garden.
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the majority shareholder of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
