Japanese animation studio Graphinica, Inc., creators of innovative TV and cinema animation productions, set out to discover whether it\u2019s possible to produce theater-quality anime using real-time rendering. We collaborated with the studio to develop a proof of concept, then shared the results at Unite Tokyo.<\/p>\n
Graphinica, Inc.<\/span><\/a> has been producing 2D and 3D animation projects for more than a decade, handling most of the production in-house. This September, the studio released the animated film <\/span>HELLO WORLD<\/span><\/i><\/a> to theaters across Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n The majority of the <\/span>film<\/span><\/a> was made using traditional pre-rendering techniques, although the studio also used Unity tools to create backgrounds for scenes where the main character dives into a virtual space. This enabled the animation team to iterate faster, according to Nao Hirasawa, Graphinica\u2019s managing director. \u201cThe speedy trial-and-error enabled by real-time rendering software is indispensable for meeting increasing consumer demand for high-quality films delivered in a timely fashion.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Even before the film was released, the team wondered whether they could use Unity\u2019s real-time tools for more challenging scenes involving extremely complicated rigs, cinema-quality high meshes, and precisely controlled shadows, while still achieving the same theatrical quality.<\/span><\/p>\n Nao Hirasawa at Unite Tokyo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n To make it work, Graphinica teamed up with Unity Technologies engineers. The teams planned a proof of concept exercise to reproduce scenes from <\/span>HELLO WORLD<\/span><\/i> \u2013\u00a0but this time, with real-time rendering using animation production tools currently in development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This project mainly involved implementing two technologies: real-time ray tracing and shadow effect technology, specialized for limited animation. The latter technology, <\/span>Raytraced Hard Shadow<\/span><\/a>, made it possible for Graphinica to produce the same level of high-quality, highly accurate, pre-rendered anime-style shadow effects in real-time.<\/span><\/p>\n Technology for outputting complex high-mesh data from digital content creation (DCC) tools for real-time replay in Unity also played an important role. The VertexCache feature added to <\/span>MeshSync<\/span><\/a>, a live link for connecting to DCC tools, helped create a workflow for importing animations with complex rigs directly from DCC tools into Unity.<\/span><\/p>\n Watch the demo<\/span><\/a> Graphinica presented at Unite Tokyo to learn how they used Unity to recreate scenes at theatre quality.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUnity holds a lot of potential for improving the production process by smoothing out coordination between creators and engineers,\u201d said Hirasawa.<\/span><\/p>\n Hiroki Omae, Regional Director of Unity in Japan, said: \u201cThis is just the first step by Unity towards creating tech for Japanese anime, and we\u2019ll definitely continue developing these tools.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Take a look at the session from this year\u2019s Unite Tokyo<\/span> Keynote<\/span><\/a>, where Graphinica walked through the experiment, the solution, and the before-and-afters.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.unity3d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/image1-4.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nReal-time solutions for the Japanese anime style<\/b><\/h2>\n