How To Animate an 80s Anime Ship

This one's dedicated to my glorious patrons (who I hope enjoyed the early release). A step-by-step rundown of how I combine 3D and 2D to animate speceships, cars, planes, etc. I hope it's helpful!
www.patreon.com/otaking77077
OtaKing77077
Music used:
Allister Brimble - Lightforce www.remix64.com/track/allister...
Amok - Cybernoid 2 (SID-Lead-Mix) www.remix64.com/track/amok/cyb...
Bitcrusher - Turrican 2: The Final Fight www.remix64.com/track/bitcrush...
More details on TVPaint's multi-plane camera (since I brushed past in without an explanation!) - • FX : Multiplane Camera...

[@giantstingray]

People who animate mecha have my deepest respect. The opening shot of Unicrom from the 1986 Transofmers film always puts me in awe.

[@TheDGAF06]

Ah yes Transofmers. With Scumbletree and Floptimus Lime

[@_TheJp_]

@@TheDGAF06 lolz

[@nadiamayer7559]

Unicrom Transformaiom was baller too

[@kyroush4686]

Bro, just one word i gotta say for you, Evangelion ... That shit is in another level of aesthetics and animating mecha things right ?

[@zumoojack8913]

​@@TheDGAF06 ❤ Www W W 😂w

[@HinokasArabfan1]

Calls it crappy, 99% better than what I see and draw

[@noisemarine561]

He is a Perfectionist.

[@sethleoric2934]

True my people look like f%@£ plastic man without strerchy powers

[@Baamthe25th]

Wow, you must really suck, then. Kidding

[@Fatsaver]

There's something about the 80s 90s sci fi animes that just has that weird vibe connected to them that is almost impossible to make nowadays. You achieved that good job.

[@overciy9thquadrant992]

Gods Universal love is the ONLY vibe that animates the aesthetic in life of reality

[@hangonsapto2338]

Not impossible, but not have intention. And lazy !

[@liquid74]

"weird vibe" more like literal vibe. Each line is handdrawn so there's line wiggle/boil so it's imperfect and not sterile.

[@NoobNoobNews]

no computers. real film. It is something that you cannot replicate with computers.

[@sunso1991]

i think whats missing from today's animation compare to 80s and 90s is passion and love. Ota's work have that missing spice! everytime i watch his Starwars T-fighter short i am just blown away

[@SteffDev]

To be honest, as a programmer, I don't think I'd ever have the patience to do animation, watching this has shown me what people have to go through to make all the animated shows I love, and I now have massive respect for the work you do!

[@NikkiTheOtter]

I dont think I could do the animation thing...I don't have the patience for it...but for a webcomic, most of these techniques still apply. Map the scene in 3d, render in sketch, color, use individual frames.

[@baburik]

Local man tries to save anime from his backyard! The anime industry doesn't care.

[@sinephase]

because people are probably buying that shit up in numbers like never before

[@thexangelolight6693]

F

[@reinisrorbahs6575]

Does anyone read that in a cartoony last century announcer voice?

[@mvksk3809]

@@reinisrorbahs6575 I did and I regret nothing.

[@robjabbaz]

local nobody struggles with his troll game.

[@TikiShootah]

1:40 says he starts off by making a really really basic model. Then cuts to a low poly masterpiece 😓

[@spyrelle3970]

"Really really basic" For 80's anime standards.

[@suspiciouscheese4518]

TikiShootah It’s like the “add details” step in one of those kids drawing books.

[@sinephase]

yeah LOL he just whipped it up like nothing. I'd be impressed with myself just for making that shit LOL

[@PiterburgCowboy]

This is so much better done than Studios do when using 3D animations in anime, incredible.

[@anlexaify]

Well thats because those animes use the 3D models as the final product, and not render it out as black and white lines. Not only that but they have a tight schedule.

[@BassLiberators]

Because anime studio's often have 1-2 weeks per episode. They'd never be able to do this on a weekly basis.

[@user-hu7dr8iy4f]

@@BassLiberators they have 3 months to make 1 episode they don't actually make whole episodes in 1 week

[@edentheascended4952]

@@user-hu7dr8iy4f depends on studio

[@PO1PLE]

@@edentheascended4952 no it doesn’t, this isn’t a fricken South Park episode, while depending on the studio it does vary *slightly,* it never does it go down to 2 weeks

[@1Chitus]

I LOVE the 80's Mecha esthetic. Those ships were amazing to look at.

[@Eatmydbzballs]

Sir! We lost the frontal lens flare generators! Damn it Sulu! Otaking, switch to manual! Yes Sir! *"Cracks Knuckles"*

[@hazelthepoet]

When I saw how much work was needed, my lazy-ass self decided this was not the solution I was looking for. I watched to the end because that would be the least I could do. Much respect to you for your skill and your work ethic. Absolutely stunning workmanship!

[@adamross2208]

The ship looks killer! Getting some wiggle on your 3d line drawing will make it feel a lot more hand drawn. If you have After Effects you can use turbulent displacement to simulate a hand drawn wiggle. I would also recommend you diving more into multi pass rendering out of C4D. You can save a lot of time filling in flat colors with some object buffer passes or even an rgb matte.

[@EckhartsLadder]

Amazing dude, so cool to see how you make your art

[@leftadnan007]

Admiral Eckharts is here!?! 😮😮😮

[@OtaKing77077]

Thankyou! I actually had some of your videos on in the background whilst working on this.

[@EckhartsLadder]

@@OtaKing77077 wow! That's crazy to hear man, I'm a huge fan of your work. If there's anything I can do to help out your or your channel let me know!

[@starsilverinfinity]

Lol what a coincidence XD - to of my favorite channels interacting

[@jonathanswavely7259]

This is surreal. It's weird to see popular channels actually using their account for more than just posting videos.

[@mokangbeats1707]

This level of patience isn't a virtue..... it's a superpower

[@aquamelon0087]

I shall have you know the otaking is omnipotent and all knowing in the ways of cool animation stuff He doesn't need piddly superpowers when he has the powers of anime on his side

[@UnofficialCyane]

christians have been worshipping the wrong guy this while time

[@leirameirarc]

If 3D animation is a superpower, what is hand drawn animation, godlike?

[@ThisShitIsDumbAndYouKnow]

Yeah, Austism will do that.

[@tle90]

This honestly looks so damn good and quite close to the original animations found on VHS tapes. It’s like watching a HD version, so a filter to simulate a lower res, slightly scuffed look would really sell it! Amazing work man 😊

[@AFoxinSpace]

This is all amazing. I love everything you do.

[@mazimadu]

You could have just made one SUPER DETAILED drawing and then PANNED that across the screen. That always works!

[@Jhakaro]

Unless it's just a straight forward moving shot from side to side with no perspective involved, it'd be extremely difficult to do so. For a shot like this you'd have to do one huge drawing that is itself warped in perspective to the extent that panning it along makes it appear as though it's going from the front to the side and then the back of the ship which requires pretty masterful understanding of perspective. And you'd have to break down bits into different layers for overlays and so forth. Never as easy as it seems.

[@kcdodger]

@@Jhakaro oh my god he was making a joke about how so often in anime, you'll see one super detailed drawing just... Move flatly across a screen for a "wow" shot. Jeeeeesus.

[@Jhakaro]

Alright, calm down there Dodger. It was late, I was tired. Mistakes were made. Not the end of the world.

[@mazimadu]

To be fair, I enjoy my super detailed shots. Even Gundam OVAs use them. Eva, with it's more organic looking mechas don't though

[@jonathanswavely7259]

@@Jhakaro It's always the end of the world *spontaneously combusts*

[@Ryukachoo]

Idea; parameterize your model so it's dimensions can warp very slightly from frame to frame, it'll give that kind of organic motion to old animation where the ship isn't drawn exactly the same every frame. Notice how your hand drawn details seem to wobble and vibrate as it wooshes pass, you'd be programmatically replicating that with the while model

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Yeah, that is exactly my thought. The one thing that is still too "perfect" with CG, not that it looks bad, just not the same.

[@revsnowfox5798]

Exactly, 3D animation is too perfect in terms of coherence of geometry through time, it needs randomness introduced to emulate hand-drawn 2D animation. This is the reason I don't really like most 3D animations, they are too sterile and shiny, the main reason I think Pixar movies look like each other.

[@Gustav_Kuriga]

@@revsnowfox5798 Oh god, the "it needs to replicate the mistakes of artists to be correct" school of thought.

[@revsnowfox5798]

@@Gustav_Kuriga For it to look 2D animation. You might have noticed it, but our world is analog, with a lot of imprecisions. Many people like traditional 2D animation because the imprecisions show through. "Mistakes of artists", are you sane? No artist can draw 100% realistically or 100% visually consistent, especially not by hand.

[@vesle4150]

a tiny gaussian blur & 5% noise in video editing software can also help sell the effect. and if you are very adventurous, export as 720p and upscale it back to 1080p also blurs things a little bit and reduces details in the frames.

[@blainepounds5786]

Going to be honest, I love this medium style so much. It looks new and high definition like modern animation while having the 80s hand drawn feel to it.

[@JoelOman1980]

As a BIG mecha mobile suits / space opera fan (growing up in the 80s) this is SO impressive!! The amount of dedication and stylish additions to the shot is nothing short of amazing! 😳 Loads of kudos to you @OtaKing (Animation), you truly are an artist that should be hugely recognized! ❤

[@OtaKing77077]

Apologies for my scratchy ASMR voice on this! I was just getting over a nasty cold and could barely roll out of bed when I recorded it. I hope you like it anyway.

[@davidmedina3031]

No problem, your voice is sexy.

[@murphinators7589]

Feel better soon!

[@BSOE3058]

I got same thing, 2 nights in slighty colder room, and my voice is shit

[@357Sneak]

Hi, Otaking! I was just wondering how you were doing!

[@peterd6584]

Dude... you are my hero! Out of curiosity, what amount of time do you think you would be able to animate a Star Wars type of show that is 13 episodes and or 26 episodes long using this software?

[@DragonSkyRunner]

13:20 It's certainly far closer than most (is there anyone else legitimately trying?) to trying to emulate the style, but I think the things that are adding to the "Fake and digital" look, The rendered linework obviously has perfect motion and uniformity by design, if there's some way to ever so slightly randomize the line placement and thickness between frames, and add a touch of line wobble where it'd probably be free-handed, (as well as not having any line corners be sharp, because pens can't really do that) that'd make it look far more hand drawn. The line thickness especially, it's night and day with non-animated drawings the difference adding varying lineweight does in comparison to having uniform line thicknesses. Everything looks hyper sharp, like digital artwork tends to. While that makes working with it far easier, even 4K scanned old anime has a hint of softness to it, probably mostly because of the film the cels and backgrounds are composited on. Adding film grain and scratches may help to that end, but usually in a restoration job the latter is what you're trying to avoid at all costs. I assume you sample colours straight from old anime, but for some reason despite that all of your stuff looks really digitally sharp and harsh in the colour department, while old anime has a softness to its colours, whether that's because of the linework influencing that or not I'm not entirely sure. There's also the fact that physical paint is only 99.99% uniform unlike the fill bucket tool, despite the best efforts of the colourists in the 80's and 90's, not to any point that anyone would be consciously able to tell, but enough that when it is absolutely perfect it feels off. Maybe add a slight cel shadow as well? I see people who do that tend to go a tad overboard, but if done subtely it does add a lot to the feeling of physical cels. I think going out and either looking at cels physically or buying your own if you don't have some already would do wonders to trying to match the look. I hope for the best for future endeavors and that we can see more of this kind of stuff from both you and anyone else who'd try and take up the mantle.

[@grinningtiki220]

You said exactly what I was thinking about the line variances. I wonder what kind of paint was used for the coloring for the classics. The backgrounds for sure feel like watercolors because of the way the gradients blend and bleed into each other.

[@fivemeomedia]

you could image trace the frame in illustrator and add some width to the strokes and even fleek some lines maybe even copy the strokes and add a inked brush so it looks hand drawn?

[@kullenberg]

Illustrator is complete garbage for emulating traditional linework. Clip Studio Paint is the way to go. The EX version has an animation feature aswell so it would probably be possible to rotoscope it

[@navbuoy]

To get the classic look he needs imperfections. Think the easiest thing he could do in this case is to take some random computer linework cels, erase the more detailed portions and rotoscope/free hand before colouring. Concentrate on the beginning and end shots of the scene where the eye really gets a chance to focus. Disney and Bluth rotoscoped their vehicles in the 70's/80's giving them a Xerox look. I actually love the scene as it is since the mistakes of the details used to bother me watching them as a kid...I had no clue about deadlines and pressure back then...lol.

[@TheZebinatorofficial]

Now that I think about it you could probably render the scene several times, with every version having a different line width and then randomly splicing them in the editing softare when you drag them over, you could even go so far as to "split" the image in half or whatever, so every frame is actually two or more images just cut together, it will be the same frame in the animation ofc but the line thickness will vary even inside every frame, it might be possible to do :D

[@heartajack]

This is really nicely done. I think you've struck a good balance between hand drawn and CGI. A real labor of love.

[@Panteonthemaster]

This reminds me of the method that Disney used to animate Tarzan and the Treasure Planet. I think it was called Deep canvas. Loved the video, keep up the good work!!

[@SenorEuphoria]

You don't need to simulate dust and scratches on every frame. Just record your animation onto a VHS tape and record it back into your computer. That would probably cover up the digital fakeness as well.

[@pseudonymous1382]

This really wouldn't work very well in terms of quality preservation. VHS is fairly noisy and there's the obvious limitation resulting from the fact that analog formats such as VHS don't have pixels, but lines instead. That being said, the original artwork done during that era can clearly be seen to be of very high quality when viewing a BD of any given series produced then. The only real "problems" I can see with OtaKing's methodology is that the linework is too crisp and it's missing the characteristic grain that results from the amount of ink or paint used.

[@SenorEuphoria]

@@pseudonymous1382 VHS can be higher quality than you would expect from seeing trendy vaporwave. To get that "lo-fi" noise effect for both audio and video, you have to re-record the same material onto the same tape. And even if the quality is poop, you can probably use your typical video effects to mask out different video elements. You could pretty much do anything you want if you have the original copy.

[@pseudonymous1382]

@@SenorEuphoria Eh. Agree to disagree. VHS can be higher quality than one would typically expect, but that requires higher-end recording equipment than regular consumer-grade. Besides, the whole point here is merely to emulate the style of animation. There's no emphasis here on "lo-fi aesthetics," just on trying to match as closely as possible the flat 2D perspective from a 3D model. In this specific instance, grain might be a nice added detail, but if you were going for something post-2000, then grain and line sharpness wouldn't be a concern because of the transition to digital animation.

[@GiubileiFernando]

Megalobox did something similar and it looked good

[@revsnowfox5798]

I'd say a single analog gap would probably help. Instead of copying to and from VHS, you could just point a digital camcorder at a digital display showing the material. The introduction of the light phase means that there is a digital>analog>digital conversion without the introduction of things like VHS tape wobble and noise artifacts. One could even try it with multiple generations of re-recording, but with a constant, high encoding bitrate.

[@TaranVH]

Really impressive! But one of the tricks to make stuff look hand drawn, is the imperfect foreshortening. If you got some footage of a hand drawn 80s mech, and made a 3d model of it, and animated the 3d model in the same motions as the hand drawn one, and placed them on top of each other, you could see exactly how the foreshortening is inexact. And maybe some algorithms could be written to simulate that imperfection...

[@cannonfodder4000]

I agree, and that's exactly what Guilty Gear now does! though it's obv done by hand and not an algorithm

[@brandonden795]

One day AI will simulate that to the point where you might not recognize the original from the generated. And people will still complain 🤣

[@Steelpoly3dJ316]

In blender, I found setting the camera to render in orthographic view makes a lot of difference.

[@gibsonflyingv2820]

That wouldn't work, heres why. The idea that its imperfections by someones hand? discounts the reality which is that the layers of analog tools used for something like a cel animation yield a look unique to that form in the same way that a pencil sketch can be differentiated from something thats a digital sketch. So even if you add in those imperfections frame by frame, it won't matter. Your eyes are much harder to trick than you might think. Plus I never understood that thought process anyway, because honestly? most anime are still drawn by hand just with a digital tool rather than a analog tool, the imperfections are still there, quite frankly they dont matter at all.

[@gibsonflyingv2820]

@@brandonden795 Not how that works bud, AI does not simulate animation only the references of digital artists lines and brush strokes. Even then it looks horrifically ugly when AI generated, it's not able to create its own lines, only patterns from other already generated lines. That's not really something you can replicate, Cel animation since its all analog tools. Don't believe me? Try doing a pencil sketch then do a sketch on your best digital drawing pad. Then tell me they look the same, you can't. Ones pixels, the other is shades of light processed biologically.

[@professorkatze1123]

its like the perfect compromise between cgi and classic animation. great work

[@gabrielschroll3824]

I love it! Thanks for sharing!! As for the final shot, although yes, it definitely looks like 3D, you've really made it look more natural by hand-painting the highlights and details like the panel work. Because it's hand-drawn, it's not PERFECT. Those imperfections are what make it look less digital, and it's a great touch! Very impressive! I'm saving up for TV Paint myself, and have purchased some of Aaron Blaise's tutorials, but what you do is truly fantastic! What passion!

[@playererror4044]

Dude has anyone told you you're a mad genius? Emphasis on the mad. I mean granted your method looks a hell of a lot better than any of my efforts with shaders but still... you've got a lot of dedication to your style... (Also I'm not jealous)

[@masterofthelag8414]

Heh, look who we have here, guess you had seen this one then.

[@RupeeRhod]

Couple of notes for quicker work flow and less digital looking animation, speaking as not an expert on animation, I just know a fair bit of software. 1. you could have all you detailing done on your model by using a texture and rendering that out as secondary lines, i.e. a texture with all the details on it already. Will look more digital but also give you a real quick representation of where details would go. 2. In Star Wars from 1977 when they shot the models the backdrops of the stars didn't move consistently with the shot, because they didn't have this digital cube maps and all that jazz, but what it brings is a more complex composite movement, as the backdrop either rotates, moves contradictory, or not at all it will simulate gliding, spinning, etc. of a ship with very few means. 3. Dependent on what you have available you could have the lines of your ship thicker based on the angle between the faces the edge has, additionally it could be affected by the depth buffer so things in front have thicker lines. 4. I don't know what you have available, but additionally if your line art exported frames of the 3d model used a drawn line filter to introduce wobbliness, unevenness and slight curves to your exported lines, it would look less digital and sterile. If all else fails I'd use something like Premiere to add some wave warping of subtle sine curves and noise waves pulling on each frame to make the outlines a bit weird. Not entirely sure how to do this in a video editor but using Spatter and Accented Edges (in that order) on black lines on a white background in Photoshop gives a more classic pencil style line. If you're a wiz with automation maybe Photoshop could simply be used. 5. To make things look more 80s or even 90s Channel offset can be your friend, remember how VHS and old media have that red outline smudge on the left of sharp lines and vice versa green on the right? Happens on old film rolls, VHS, anything not digital, can really help sell the classic look if you do it right. Just doing slightly subtle in your video editor afterwards can do wonders. Usually called channel offset or RGB offset, but buzzwords like VHS can help find tutorials too. Hope that helps you or anybody else.

[@vesle4150]

great info for others in the future. i'll just add on to his list and fix a small mistake you made. 1. this is great piece of advice! this can help tons of people, including me, cause its always a struggle to keep details not jittering about from frame to frame, with a texture map as reference you are able to trace the details perfectly for each frame. 4. wave warp wont do the trick here, it'll look too generated and fake even if you do a lot of keyframe automation. I would however get some VHS noise stock footage (black bg with white tracking lines) and use Adobe After Effects to create a distortion map from that, it will cause the lines to wobble and slightly distort where the white parts of the noise is only, which gives a lot more dynamic and authentic VHS feel. if you also use the the original noise stock as an overlay (blending modes Lighten and Screen works best, sometimes soft light and overlay can work too) it will give the effect that the visible noise is affecting the video and pushing pixels around. 4.2 Wave warp is however great if you want to create that bad tracking smearing that normally happens at the bottom or the top of the screen on old VHS tapes. for this just duplicate your footage and on the top set the wave to go along the bottom across the footage, but not high waves. play around with settings so you get a good smear. then just crop the footage so only the bottom is visible, and then add a feather to the crop so the footage blends in with the footage below with no hard edges. 5. its called an RGB SPLIT and you can do this by seperating the color channels and moving them right/left. alternatively in Premiere Pro you can use the Color Balance (RGB) to isolate colors. I would recommend to add a small gaussian blur to the RGB split shots as to soften up the edges so its not just a red/blue/green hard crisp line. 6. reduce framerate to 24 fps, remove half of the frames and slow down video by 50% to effectively animate "on two's" (each image is on screen for 2 frames) will give a more cinematic animated feel.

[@MozTS]

Also export multiple passes from the 3d render for base colors, alpha mattes, maybe even lighting for referenc

[@BastiaanOlij]

Dude, that is just amazing! I had seen your tiefighter sequence some time ago but only just discovered what else you do. Blown away !

[@MaitlandJones]

One thing I noticed between your work and older animation. Your linework is very sharp, while theirs is hand drawn, you can see the inexactness of the flow of ink from pen to paper and the variances in line thickness where the artist bared down on the pen. It also adds to the value shading, thick in dark areas and thin to nonexistent in highlighted areas. I don't know if your tools had it, but when I didn't have a tablet, I'd use the line tool in paint tool sai which had a feature to allow me to select points and adjust thickness. Just spitballing ideas for getting the hand drawn look for lines. All in all dude, great work!! You've accomplished much, and I wish in my heart of hearts for a revival of this style and that soulful hand drawn look anime used to have.

[@murphinators7589]

I like this method. It’s like you get the smoothness of cg, but retain the incredible amount of organic looking hand drawn detail.

[@nextg]

I love this kind of animation style that gives us the best of both worlds. I have nothing against CGI in two-dimensional animation, provided in particular that it's aesthetically pleasing-which this certainly is more than most uses of it these days in actual anime! It's basically along the lines of what I would do if I was making this kind of animated film or other project because I love the old styles so much and really want to take it to a new level for the modern era. Also, regarding what you mentioned at the end about making it look more like an actual filmed celluloid, I've experimented with telecine (i.e. dust/scratches/gate weave) techniques in After Effects for a few projects. It's kinda tough getting everything just right to make it look almost like a genuine film transfer, especially with dust particles because a lot of them were too big and cheap-looking, and thus had to be adjusted A LOT. I'm not sure what's out there for the programs you normally use, though.

[@crimsonmask3819]

I believe the main problem with cel-rendered or rotoscoped 3D is its use with fast and especially _arcing_ motions. In those places, there needs to be either a morph or warp applied in the renderer to _bend_ the model with the motion and create "squash and stretch" extremes or a conventional artist should step in and create distorted and/or creative smear frames to simulate those visual illusions we are used to in real life (like that deal where you can hold a rigid pencil between your fingers and teeter-totter it at speed until it appears to be bending like rubber). Conventional animators use those effects a lot, especially if they have to work at 12fps like older TV anime. I even remember seeing animators use composition to enhance the effect by making the motion flow toward or away from the screen-plane along an _arcing_ perspective line -- toward or from an on-screen vanishing point (either mirrored in the background art or along with a complimentary abstraction like speed lines), so even though there may not have been enough clear frames to really convey the motion, the viewers' eyes would have a guide to help comprehend the full arc in as little as one or two frames. Without properly mimicking that kind of stuff, 3D animation starts looking jittery or mechanical and throws us out of the immersion. And it can never be as fast without becoming incoherent.

[@StarWarsAnime]

@@crimsonmask3819 Yep, I tried animating 3d at 12 fps and it looks terrible!

[@jakecass43]

"I have nothing against CGI in two-dimensional animation" You do realise that they're using that dogshit to replace 2D anime?

[@otabot4036]

@@jakecass43 Followed by "provided in particular that it's aesthetically pleasing" :/

[@jakecass43]

@@otabot4036 I know he said that but it just doesn't look the same man. Full 3DCG and mixed media shows shouldn't be allowed to replace 2D anime.

[@joshdavidson2448]

its just really good. the layers of hand drawn detail and movement blur really sell it

[@AssassinGT]

What an insane amount of work. I have even more respect for your tie fighter film. Love it!

[@bpkdasbaum]

Mesmerizin, I miss the oldschool animations from the 80s so much, especially macross. Thanks for this.

[@nightwatchm4n]

Have a couple suggestions you might consider to help continue reduce the 3D effect. As you noted in your video having excess detail in a 3D model can cause issues for the process of converting to 2D so you might try making 2 versions of your 3D model: a detailed version for closeup camera shots and a more basic version for your wide angles. Now this will create more work on the front end of production but it would hopefully improve the workflow on the 2D side and also help reduce 3D nature of the work by transitioning between the 2 models depending on their proximity to the camera -- think along the lines of your reference clip of Unicron where his model detail drastically increases as he flys by the camera but then is reduced again as he gets further away. Also another thing to consider is selective motion blur. A lot of 80s space opera anime will partially distort certain parts of ships, mechs, missiles as they fly past the camera. Its not accurate to how motion blur works in real life but it simulates the effect for the human eye while retaining a lot of model detail. One of the biggest hurdles for capturing 80s style anime is simulating the celluloid grain. There are plenty of plugin filters on the market you could explore for that. Also something to bear in mind is the deep color contrast present in 80s anime. Most space opera anime in particular have very deep shadows but then skew lighter with their midtones. Hope this is helpful feedback for you. Love your stuff, keep at it!

[@maximeteppe7627]

I agree with everything you said. About the choice of color, the subtler shadows is something I like about more recent anime, I think it adds unity to the frames. That said, color contrast is a tool and all styles can work well for different moods. going all the way to black shadows can look awesome, like in the movie Redline for instance, which combines lots of fluo and light colors with full black shadows and thick lines. And some old cool rotoscoping of vehicles.

[@nightwatchm4n]

noobenstein Yes, that is perfectly possible. I can't speak for Ota's choice on the matter but I would hazard a guess that it's a combination of having more control over the color palette and personal preference. Also bear in mind that a lot of 80s anime have color fluctuations from either celluloid deterioration or from colorists making occasional mistakes -- so Ota's manual method is more in line with emulating that aesthetic.

[@maximeteppe7627]

@@nightwatchm4n it would save him a lot of time if he could just add the highlights and shadows afterwards. Adding some variation is still possible and faster than the tedious use of the paint bucket on every frame.

[@ThomasPrz]

Really good advice dude with both model , one with some details and the other one with just a basic version , but how can you do a "transition " between both when you animate ? because there will be a sudden change from one second to the next between the two models ? thanks you

[@Baamthe25th]

Such a reminder of the sheer/massive amount of work that goes on behind the scenes is always appreciated

[@luskays]

okay..I was curious how to emulate the "old anime style", and stumbled upon this. I did not expect to be completely mind-blown, that's some incredible work man

[@anvi7572]

Jesus Christ, I swear traditional animators (and what you are doing by extent) are among the most respectable people to me. I can't fathom how much dedication you must have to your craft to produce this wonderful stuff. I'm so glad you guys exist. Thank you so much.

[@ThotPran1]

0:37 UNICRON!!!

[@mockernick4745]

ORSON WELLS

[@wartscmort6199]

@zzz43452 song name?!

[@jayeisenhardt1337]

When I see it I still hear the music. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXu1l3R4rbFniJo about 20 seconds in like a robotic heart beat. Then you think of a galaxy out there that is eating three of it's neighbors or how we are gonna collide with another in a billion years or something. lol

[@CybernerdShua]

Exactly what I expected, that being rotoscoping + detailing. A method I think is the best balance between aesthetics and efficiency. Excellent job!

[@vazak11]

This was incredible, thank you for sharing, I love the premise and concept and the execution is stellar, I think this is the start of something revolutionary!

[@jmalmsten]

CG and before that, physical models have been part of anime mech animation since at least the 80s. And in extreme cases you could even go to the methods found in films like Heavy Metal where they would build models, paint them white, draw on black lines on the models and shoot them on top of white backgrounds using high contrast black and white film. And then print those frames out as animation cells. The more common techniques fir the lovely anime mechs we loved would be to build rough 3D wireframe models and use them as reference but still keeping all the lines hand drawn. My thinking here is that instead of using the cartoon shader renderers output in 24fps you could have rendered it in 12 or 8 fps to mimic the limitations of the time and then by hand draw all the lines and artistic smears. Because the final result you did get, while looking good does still feel a bit too smooth in its motion, the lines too correct. It ended up looking a bit too much like CG to my eyes. It's the artistic imperfections and limitations that really sells the 80s and 90s anime look for me. Slight color bleeds outside intended lines. The subtle unintended movement of cels. The exaggerated angles during the flybys. The way they were forced to utilise stills sliding over detailed backgrounds and such. Those are my humble thoughts anyway.

[@Welsed]

Shifting the line weight in the outline as it goes from frame to frame would get a more hand drawn animation look. Those old Macross style animations, since they were so dependant on fast hand drawing, often have inconcistencies in line weight and exact line placement. Because a 3D model keeps the continuity of outlines so crisp, at a high frame rate, it looks TOO perfect, thus losing that analog feel. I'd say play with adding line weight in some places of your 3D model outline, or even erasing entire lines and redraw them just for effect. The fact that not all animations during that time were completely accurate to perspective also could be taken into account. Having some planes not completely in absolute correct proportion or perspective in certain frames would help with getting that nuance. It's much like the wobble or pulsing of old reel to reel tapes. Those slight inaccuracies gave particular tape recorders a "color" that was added to the sound of the final product. Great tutorial! I learned a lot!!!!👍 👍

[@austinmitchell2652]

Absolutely amazing. I love 2d and 3d mecha animation, and I think you bring out the best of both styles

[@nimrath]

I love your Macross inspired style man. keep up the good work! Your shorts are awesome!

[@youtubeisapublisher6407]

This is really spectacular looking and I actually prefer this combination of effects to either old school fully hand drawn animation or more modern full 3D modeling. While the slight tweaking in old animation to keep them fluid does look beautiful it also looks a bit weird on objects which are supposed to be rigid like ships, robots, buildings, etc. To have a 3D model which has that rigidity and retains it's shape through long panning perspective shots while still having the surface detail that the artist's hand brings to it looks absolutely great. Your ship looks real and solid and grounded because it's shape isn't distorted and constantly changing slightly as perspective shifts, while the light sources, tiny details, rocks and hand made backgrounds flow like classic 2D hand drawn animation does.

[@Eseres80]

LOL! "A very basic model", you say? I think it looked pretty damn good, and with some good texturing and bump maps it could look amazing! You make everything look so damn easy, dude! I've tried some 3D modelling myself, and honestly, I barely understood anything of what I was doing. Texturing, bump maps and displacement maps however, THAT I can handle! I guess that my biggest flaw when it comes to any kind of work, is that I can't learn by intructions and tutorials, but by copying what I see others do step by step while they're doing it. I've been told by so many people that working with and designing in 3D isn't all that difficult once you understand the basics! To me, that is close to being bullshit LOL! I think it is some damn complicated stuff, and I really admire those who can wrap their heads around this with little to no effort at all! I strongly encourage you to keep on with your awesome work, but I think I'll stick to making textures and stuff as far as the 3D related stuff goes LOL! Keep on being awesome, dude!!! And thanks for sharing ;)

[@MatthewStevensOrMattDave]

Unbelievably well done. I love the end result, I'd say this kind of "workflow optimization" is something the industry desperately needs.

[@Menace1-5Tactical]

You are doing THE LORDS WORK, more animators need this in their playbook

[@radweld]

Just makes you appreciate the effort that goes into making animated TV or Movies. The shear effort involved for such a small shot was eye opening. Thanks for the video, it was awesome.

[@SilentG07]

We'll never see anime like this ever again. It's quite sad really. Which is why all existing 80's and 90's anime must be preserved for future generations.

[@isaiahdaniels5643]

You wanna hear sad? They might not care. Titans like Akira will become Mozart or Bach. Unappreciated by the people of the "modern time". Relegated to a dusty shelf. I hope not, but I worry sometimes that most everyone is becoming too fuck-tarded to appreciate anything besides the thing that gives them that immediate dopamine rush.

[@isaiahdaniels5643]

And because the culture is becoming strangely both more insular and co-dependant on cults of personalitites the chance of exposure to the classics drops off like a cliff to whole groups of people.

[@noisemarine561]

So it's up to us to use the classics for inspiration and bring it back to the modern age.

[@isaiahdaniels5643]

@@noisemarine561 Mm, yes. A small niche can totally change the culture. Unfortunately it still requires marketing and luck aside from the obvious hard work. But hard work is the final decider. I assume you're talking about personal animation projects that pay homage to the era, or are in their own right sharp and high effort.

[@noisemarine561]

@@isaiahdaniels5643 Cant really say, but Ive got something big planned. I just happened to discover this animation trick... But for now Im still in the early stages of development.

[@kumrogames]

Awesome video, i love how you show your work flow as i'm looking to mimic your approach for a new video game intro i'm starting to work on! this was very helpful for how i should tackle it.

[@Tomcat_Coyote]

That's the kind of stuff i want to learn in our Animation lessons ! And we do use TVpaint as well , but our teachers are ... ugh ... borderline incompetent . As soon as my studies are over in a couple months , i'm picking TVpaint up by myself , you've motivated me to do some animation ! :D

[@lucwarfel]

HOW ARE YOU SO AMAZING?!?

[@isaiahsmith7123]

I love the hand drawn designs and styles of late 70's and 80's anime, so to see someone putting so much love into recreating the style while innovating digitally is awesome. BTW big ups to you for the LOTGH shots. It's like my favorite anime of all time. God they just don't make them how they used to.

[@nightfr09]

Love love love you having tve references/ sauce for your sources

[@Eppideem]

Every time I thought that's it, done, you added another tweak, another refinement and it looked even more incredible.

[@TsaiAGw]

for people who think _just_ reduce frame rate to make 3D looks more like 2D *That's totally wrong* The main difference between 3D and 2D animation is 3D animation is a projection of 3D space but there's no projection in 2D, it's just animator trying to mimic perspective in a 2D space in other word, perspective in 2D animation is not 100% accurate but it looks fluidity due to how inbetween is created animator can deform object a little on paper or adjust timing on exposure sheet to compensate low frame rate, creating a fluidity animation in 3D animation, perspective is 100% accurate but looks laggy in low frame rate because object is following an already set up path. without additional timing adjustment, a low frame rate 3D animation will looks like a laggy computer game driving you mad ---- please do check "12 basic principles of animation" about how to create an animation

[@truthseeker1995]

That's exactly why many all cg shows fail, they use a low frame-rate! If a Naruto or Dragonball game running IN REAL TIME looks better and more fluid than your pre-rendered TV show, you're doing something wrong.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

The 2D hand-drawn stuff is often not perfect in terms of perspective, especially in movement. Not that it makes it worse, just different. If they had the man-hours to draw everything in 50 or 60 fps back in the day, they would, and it would look amazing.

[@GiubileiFernando]

Yes, thank you! Deformation is the key difference, an artist can use it to exagerate proportions for effect too.

[@0criticalHit]

To me it's the perfectly computer drawn lines that set it off, there should be some filter that randomizes line "distortion" to some extent while exporting the .mov file to make it seem like they were hand drawn. Also, using less uniform brushes should help give a more natural feel to the frames. Hope I'm not wrong

[@takahashierik]

In Spiderverse and DBFZ they make the characters moving in 3D space follow the camera movements animated on 1s to emulate 2D without looking laggy. So if you watch it in slow mo the characters are "sliding" along the camera to compensate for the low framerate, like they usually do in anime

[@marcelinio9988]

Honestly I have to say you have achieved a pretty good balance in my opinion. This looks way less out of place than cgi and probably would not look out of place at all if paired with a similar style like the one TIE Fighter video of you.

[@mikhail5428]

*I stumble across this video by a recommendation from KZbin, and I'm glad, I always like to learn about animation, and how to make my life easy while I'm trying to create my own*

[@UNIVERSE_X_STUDIOS]

Anime is one of the most beautiful forms of animation, and is also the hardest form of animation. this is incredible even if it's had help from a computer software. you obviously have a lot of patience and talent you have sir is beyond me. you are a big inspiration for me! thank you for these amazing videos!

[@VitorMiguell]

Why aren't you more famous?? You're top5 best animators on KZbin

[@namesurname624]

who are the other 4?

[@VitorMiguell]

@@namesurname624 Harry partridge,psychicpebbles, hotdiggetydemon. In that order.

[@Overdoseplus]

Otaking saves Anime! More news at 10.

[@inceptional]

I think you have exactly the right idea for how this stuff should be done going forward. There's no need to lose that beautiful hand-drawn look just because we're using more advanced technology and 3D and so on now. I love this style you've went with and would love to see more feature animations use it in the future.

[@darkthiefdarek6459]

Really amazing tutorial and inspirational work! I really like the look and feel of the combination of 2D and 3D work flow. ^^

[@adfdasfadfdaaaa]

Try to export the black lines on transparent background and then run it through After effects, using the Roughen Edges effect. Depending on it's settings, it should make the lines somewhat less consistent in their thickness, giving them more natural look. Also, to get closer to the 80s reference pictures, some blur should help. Lot of the lines on the reference footage is blurred to the point where it mixes the black with the filling color. So at the end the linework is not perfectly black (except larger black areas). Also, great work! I really like what you have managed to do in this video and I am looking forward for your next pieces!

[@id104335409]

I bowed down so deep for the King, my nose bled for the rest of the day!

[@charlesballiet7074]

such brilliant work. I love the style your working on

[@EOBgraphics]

Man this is stunning. Really enjoying your videos. Great recommendation from KZbin.

[@nicosarea]

Holy crap... great job! This looks amazing!!

[@kayinnasaki]

This is awesome. I remember reading about Guilty Gear XRDs methods for faking 2d with 3d. A lot of it isn't applicable because it's game engine technology and some things like "lowing the FPS" might not be desirable but one note was using mesh distortions pretty much every frame to break up the perfection of the 3d model juuuust a little bit to break up that out of place 3d perception.

[@namreh72]

_ exactly..I suggested/mentioned it also... hopefully he can apply that look he's shooting for...his work is amazing.

[@Chuck8541]

Just amazing, dude. I love that your inspiration for this is MACROSS. For me, that was peak space animation, and a personal fave anime. Bravo! 👏👏👏👏

[@hukebein92]

I think you are amazing, I adore how you brought this animation that remind me the manual drawings of 80's and 90's

[@YVZSTUDIOS]

Pretty impressive! :^) I've even learned something new. So, about getting that "classic" look: I'm studiying old cel animation for some quite some time now and figured out that there are a lot of elements to it. What you need now is basicly: - lower the fps maybe. To simulate it being animated on 2s. The final fps of your video should be 23,976 (which is the standard. 24 is for cinema), but scenes with 3d dropped to 12fps. In AfterEffects there is an effect that makes it very easy (you can find it in the time category (Or you just render out your video in 12fps). - blur yor video by 1px. Trust me. This makes a huge difference and gets you closer to the classic look. - add some film grain to it. There are a lot of ways to do this. I reccomend using a monochromatic medium fine noise pattern - an overall soft glow to everyting - using an old schol aspect ratio like 4:3 or cinema aspect ratio if it should look more like a film. 16:9 is unusual for this style. The closes to 16:9 is the 1.85:1 ratio used in some films, which adds some very small black bars on top/bottom

[@finnigan16]

Amazing job!!! Please keep the tutorials coming!!!

[@iaia5368]

really good intermedium between 3D and Full 2D drawing. makes a sensation of "the designer make a hard work for this the product is good." like 70-80s cartoons, drawings, animes

[@consoleoftexas]

As a 3d Animator, I have the utmost respect for the old school cell shading done for hours on end. Truly a dying art form.

[@tropicalwargaming688]

I have to congratulate you. Your animation looks more fluid than many commercial anime I watch. Look at the recent Fist of the North Star anime, totally lack of frames in the render.

[@GiffysChannel]

2nd that

[@charsfm5203]

13:35 I feel like this could be easily fixed by adding some filter to the lines of the 3D render so they have a varied width, this would more accurately mirror the older style of artwork

[@briandyar8576]

It is definitely worth your time I actually glad that you make this animation I have never seen animated like this in years it's good that's someone Is still like the old classic anime from all way back from the 80s please keep up the good work I am a big fan of your artwork and anime.

[@cheezmeeofficial]

I love the background music! Wow, that was awesome! Congratulations!

[@RaimarLunardi]

Using 3D the right way! Nice job! too bad today they have less than a day to make such animations like those...

[@kaysha]

Outstanding work

[@tukangiseng]

this "Warmth" that hand drawn animation/line drawing have is because our hand slighly presses/depresses the markers, it create minute/almost unnoticable weight differences in lines that 3d software struggles to replicate. However with today's shaders capability, you can introduce a bit of of it by properly scripting a bit of guided randomess into it.

[@bujin5455]

Impressive. The work that goes into animation is truly insane. I'm really surprised anyway does it at all. Let alone that we live in a world with so many great animations, and people do it on their own.

[@lddevo88]

Absolutely amazing rotoscoping and texture work here, the one thing I would add to help blend it all together is a subtle film grain and maybe even organic lens flares to mesh all these elements together. Also you could finesse the camera movements in Cinema 4D to make it feel less robotic. Other than that this is brilliant work of a classic aesthetic reacreation with modern technology!

[@fen4554]

That is a fantastic process. Still... Workflow. Optimization. Needed. There must be a way to intelligently fill a bound area. Adobe is all over this kind of thing.

[@Digitalfiendscom]

What an awesome vid - I was a kid when shows like Robotech, Voltron, Astroboy, etc came out in the 80s and have always loved the look and feel of those cartoons. I stumbled upon your Tie Fighter Remastered video one day and was really curious as to your workflow process to achieve that hand-drawn-yet-still-modern look. Now I know! :) Thanks for sharing...subscribed!

[@SLAVKINGRED]

this was awesome, glad i found this channel again after years.

[@Mulletmanalive]

I think that if you could do like you can in blender and applied a layer of grippling and grime to the ship, but then rendered it separately with a focal distance blur, you could then composite it on and do a light paint over after the base shading to get more of that detail that we see old shots. Also, you need to tweak your settings in 4d; the lines seem too consistent across the frame to be hand drawn, as an artist would try to put varied strokes as they worked. Is there a way to quickly distort the thickness of you highlight and darks lines in your paint program? The only other thing I can think of is the smoothness of the motion of the camera; CG tends to look fake because nothing in nature is ever that smooth.. Tiny vibrations would help a lot. There IS also the possibility that your missing something to approximate the natural atmospherics effect caused by stacked cells on the nearer vs farther objects... Worth playing around with, perhaps a very slight blur and a lightening/desaturation. Anyway, bloody impressive implementation, to the point where it's really on the edge of that classic look.

[@sebastianfranco1507]

I'm a programmer and thinking like one,. One thing that could be made, is an algorithm so that you can make the ship as detailed as you wanted to and when you zoomed out tell the render to not render small lines and that would look even more like a drawing and I'll make everything faster

[@sebastianfranco1507]

Also I'm pretty sure I could make an algorithm to shake a little bit the sharp lines drawn by the renderer and give them any effect you wanted to, like small irregularities. P.D. fucking amazing.

[@sirsteadyeddie3478]

this is utterly awe inspiring. thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your creation and your creative process.

[@godninja]

This was beautiful! I'm a sucker for the old 80's macross style art as well, and I always find it hard to appreciate 3d mixing with anime. This was great, hope you can reach your end goal and bring back the old school!

[@xakrich]

Before I started watching: Well it must be some fancy celluloid style cartoon shader for 3D software now where's the download link? After watching this: Holy sh- that's serious skill!

[@paperbaganimator]

Great video! Super helpful. I'd say one thing that could help give you a more authentic '2D' feel is removing every second drawing so that it all animates on 2's. Also cuts the workload in half!

[@Zictor]

You are an absolute madman! That process was nuts!!!

[@inoroth2001]

I know you mention trying to emulate older styles, but this is it's own new style, and it looks *good*. I've been a huge lover of how incredibly unique and vibrant this style is ever since I stumbled upon your TIE Fighter animation, truly stunning stuff. Keep up the good work, and maybe don't forget to love what you have already achieved just because you're trying to make it look like something else... there are definitely people out here who think you've already reached a fantastic point in your style and I would hate to see it die out.

[@barrybend7189]

Nice you know about Five Star Stories.