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Studio Khara moving to Blender

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 9:54 pm
by eok
The new features and updates in Blender 2.8 convinced Studio Khara to jump on board. The "grease pencil" feature apparently is what helped their decision.

https://www.blender.org/user-stories/ja ... o-blender/

Re: Studio Khara moving to Blender

Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2019 4:43 pm
by Daxel
Interesting news, and I keep an eye on blender new features for 2D animation, but reading the article it seems like they are just going to use blender instead of 3ds Max only for 3D purposes, not for the 2D animation like I thought reading the title.

Re: Studio Khara moving to Blender

Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 2:09 pm
by jahnocli
Daxel wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2019 4:43 pm Interesting news, and I keep an eye on blender new features for 2D animation, but reading the article it seems like they are just going to use blender instead of 3ds Max only for 3D purposes, not for the 2D animation like I thought reading the title.
If that is the case, I wonder why the Grease Pencil feature was the clincher...

Re: Studio Khara moving to Blender

Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 7:28 pm
by eok
"HERO is a showcase for the upcoming Grease Pencil in Blender 2.8. Grease Pencil means 2D animation tools within a full 3D pipeline. In Blender. In Open Source."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKmSdY56VtY

The last few minutes of the video shows clips of how the animation was made and gives some clues of the utility of the 2D tools work in a 3D app. Pretty amazing, actually.

When I read the article in the link in my initial post, I envisioned at least three key reasons for Khara to make the move to Blender:

- Cost. Duh.

- Platform independence (runs on Windows & Linux).

- Attractive 2D capabilities.

Seriously, for a good sized studio, the complexity & costs of licensing and subscriptions when using commercial tools is often a big pain. A fully "free" opensource pipleline AND free OS (Linux) could make life so much simpler. But only if the opensource pipeline delivered the goods. Blender appears close enough now in this regard - at least to Studio Khara.

Re: Studio Khara moving to Blender

Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 11:42 pm
by Daxel
jahnocli wrote: Sun Aug 18, 2019 2:09 pm
Daxel wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2019 4:43 pm Interesting news, and I keep an eye on blender new features for 2D animation, but reading the article it seems like they are just going to use blender instead of 3ds Max only for 3D purposes, not for the 2D animation like I thought reading the title.
If that is the case, I wonder why the Grease Pencil feature was the clincher...
The article says "Khara and Anime/CG production company “Project Studio Q, Inc.” are preparing to switch their primary 3D CG tools to Blender. Blender will be used for some parts of “EVANGELION:3.0+1.0” they are currently working on"
And the first reason they mention is that it is free, but then they talk about grease pencil being very useful.

Re: Studio Khara moving to Blender

Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2019 6:46 am
by InfoCentral
jahnocli wrote: Sun Aug 18, 2019 2:09 pm
Daxel wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2019 4:43 pm Interesting news, and I keep an eye on blender new features for 2D animation, but reading the article it seems like they are just going to use blender instead of 3ds Max only for 3D purposes, not for the 2D animation like I thought reading the title.
If that is the case, I wonder why the Grease Pencil feature was the clincher...
You can draw lines in 3D space directly with a pen, and not only by making 3D models but you can also draw extra details in the animations themselves.

Onitsuka: “As for our work, we create an image in 3D, and modify it into each frame as ‘2D Anime’. Even a chief animation director directly modifies each frame manually. We also even add shadows with tools like After Effect afterwards. For example, if we wanted a more sharp elbow in a character, we had to modify the 3D model and insert custom rigs (skeleton) into them. This was time consuming. But Blender enables us to draw with Grease Pencil after the animation is finished. It may not be the way for photo-real CG but it’s a good way for 2D Anime. This helps reducing rigging costs.”