Great job, Crossword! This is pretty informative.
A Study of One Piece Animation
-
-
Thank you Crossword. The amount of effort you put into this is highly appreciated!
Is it ok if someone posted it on reddit, I don't have an account there, but it deserves a wider reach, if only because of the sheer amount of work you put into it.
And again, really thank you for compiling this chart. -
It was actually me who posted it on reddit :)
And you're welcome!
-
It was actually me who posted it on reddit :)
And you're welcome!
Sorry, posted my reply before reading the entirety of your post
btw, I think Matsuda did all the profile shots in the intro of Film Gold, that could help you for Franky and Chopper, although the original designs are different which might create an incosistnecy between her drawings in the anime and the movie. -
Whoa! WoW!
Thanks for the great work!
Recently I was also planning to make a comparison, but the workload was just, well, never mind lol.
Here are some of my thoughts:
Ichikawa: I don't know why, but the Chopper shot wasn't that Ichikawa-like to me, maybe he only corrected a little in that cut or it was by another animator? I personally prefer these shots that had a noticeable Ichikawa's style:
!
By the way, it seems that the anime staff collected some of Ichikawa's corrections and shared them with animators. Here are some LQ scans of these corrections:!
By the way, since Ichikawa's corrections are everywhere in this arc, maybe we can add more of his works in the comparison chart? For example:
Hisada: Too bad Hisada has been too busy with designing the endless characters created by Oda, and because of which many of Hisada's episodes nowadays were rushed.I remembered that #669 by Hisada and Ueda had some Luffy shots which were really nice and might look better than the shot in this comparison chart. Additionally, the following shot was from #803 and I liked it a lot:
!
! (I think Ichikawa didn't touch this Nami shot.)
Takagi: I'm not sure because I haven't watched Takagi's episodes again recently, but It seems we had some better Luffy shots in his episodes in WCI arc? And maybe we'll find some better Sanji shots in the 2015 winter SP.Shingaki:
Really don't know what happened to him. Really.
S. Ito:
I remember that #762 had some nice Sanji shots by Ito. (I totally agree that it's really painful to find a decent Sanji shot by regular ADs.)
!
! (I only had this shot on my computer sorry.)Matsuda: Matsuda has learned quite a lot from Sato from Film Gold and Episode of East Blue, and her current style is more Sato-like compared to Hisada. Matsuda's recent works might be more representative.
!
!
!
!
!
K. Ito:It seems the Luffy and Nami shots were corrected by Ichikawa.
-
Thanks for the feedback. This is definitely a work in progress and I fully intend to continue updating it as more/better shots become available. Fortunately it's pretty future-proof and easy to update now that I have the layout down. I'll review a couple of those episodes you mentioned. A couple of people on reddit are commenting that they didn't even realize that there was any difference until seeing them all laid out like this, and that's precisely the reason I decided to tackle this project.
As for your point about Matsuda and Film Gold, you'd be right in that I'd rather not use something from there since the base art style is different from that of the TV series and that can potentially skew things (plus I haven't actually watched the movie yet, still). It was why I was reluctant to dip into the Heart of Gold and Nevlandia specials for Ichikawa and Tagaki material, but fortunately the art styles there are close enough to what they are in the TV series for me to decide that it was okay.
-
Thanks for the feedback. This is definitely a work in progress and I fully intend to continue updating it as more/better shots become available. Fortunately it's pretty future-proof and easy to update now that I have the layout down. I'll review a couple of those episodes you mentioned. A couple of people on reddit are commenting that they didn't even realize that there was any difference until seeing them all laid out like this, and that's precisely the reason I decided to tackle this project.
As for your point about Matsuda and Film Gold, you'd be right in that I'd rather not use something from there since the base art style is different from that of the TV series and that can potentially skew things (plus I haven't actually watched the movie yet, still). It was why I was reluctant to dip into the Heart of Gold and Nevlandia specials for Ichikawa and Tagaki material, but fortunately the art styles there are close enough to what they are in the TV series for me to decide that it was okay.
I guess that's telling of how well Ichikawa has been doing his job which is a great thing
One thing I'll say is that Shuichi Ito seems to not be drawing foreheads that huge anymore, his art looked very Ichikawa inspired in his latest episode
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
By the way, it seems that the anime staff collected some of Ichikawa's corrections and shared them with animators. Here are some LQ scans of these corrections:
! https://i.imgur.com/858vEpN.png
https://i.imgur.com/5PF1xBI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/kTauyQh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TKecCi5.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ja1NGOz.png
https://i.imgur.com/19qv4q1.png
https://i.imgur.com/FEsmf6y.png
https://i.imgur.com/F7zqKMS.png
By the way, since Ichikawa's corrections are everywhere in this arc, maybe we can add more of his works in the comparison chart? For example:Ah, so if they shared his corrections with the animators then that confirms that the other ADs are starting to draw more like Ichikawa now and in turn so are the key animators under them. The most recent batch of episodes has shown that the ADs are adopting more of Ichikawa's style to their own which is of course meant to further the general look that the show now has with Ichikawa at the helm of the animation
-
Shida was asked on Twitter who was working in the same room as him and he responded with this:
He is still working on his One Piece scene so I'd say that it's likely that these people are also working on One Piece too considering that Hisada and Yokoyama are also there too–- Update From New Post Merge ---In terms of confirmed news: Tu Yong-Ce, a really great key animator on Dragon Ball Super, has joined the One Piece anime team apparently
-
So Inoue is probably working on One Piece too like you said earlier and what do you think about Tate? There is a chance he will return to op or he will work on dbs movie? Can you give me link to this news where they say Tu Yong-Ce, join op anime team?
-
Shida was asked on Twitter who was working in the same room as him and he responded with this:
He is still working on his One Piece scene so I'd say that it's likely that these people are also working on One Piece too considering that Hisada and Yokoyama are also there too–- Update From New Post Merge ---In terms of confirmed news: Tu Yong-Ce, a really great key animator on Dragon Ball Super, has joined the One Piece anime team apparently
Indeed there is no connection between where the animator seats and which show he or she is working on.
-
I'm very happy that they have Tu on the team now, he was able to do some fantastic work on Dragon Ball Super and I have no doubt that he will be doing some fantastic work on One Piece too
-
I'm very happy that they have Tu on the team now, he was able to do some fantastic work on Dragon Ball Super and I have no doubt that he will be doing some fantastic work on One Piece too
Tu attended today's #832 for help as an 2nd KA :D
-
Tu attended today's #832 for help as an 2nd KA :D
Awesome that we're seeing his first piece of work on the series this soon
-
Given how enthusiastic he seemed to be in that interview I'd certainly hope so unless it ended up being an incredibly soul-crushing experience
The reasoning given about Toei's frame count averages being generally on the low end is interesting. It does fit with other stuff I've read about Toei treating their animators pretty well compared to other studios.
-
Given how enthusiastic he seemed to be in that interview I'd certainly hope so unless it ended up being an incredibly soul-crushing experience
The reasoning given about Toei's frame count averages being generally on the low end is interesting. It does fit with other stuff I've read about Toei treating their animators pretty well compared to other studios.
It makes sense. The schedule is going to be terrible, so it's best not to kill their staff trying to do complex animation. If they were smarter about their scheduling they could probably pull off heavier episodes more often. There's no reason One Piece couldn't have episodes like it did during Enies Blue and Thriller Bark again if they would just properly schedule shit.
-
I wanna ask something, someone write his name wrong and this is the same person or they are 2 different person? I mean Yoshinori Koyama and Yasunori Koyama. Because i want to know if Ito will work on ep 835 with the same guy that he was working on 829 or with someone else.
-
I think that's just a typo and they're supposed to be the same person. Like every once in a while I find myself typing "Shigenori" Shingaki instead of Shigefumi Shingaki.
-
The Tokyo One Piece Tower animation looks like it was done by Hisada, Inoue and Kimitaka Ito, maybe Takara too https://one-piece.com/news/detail/20180326_7055
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
Tu has stated that he's waited for a year and a half to be on the One Piece team and he is excited to be on it now. His debut was doing 2nd KA for when the cake appeared out of the ground
-
The Tokyo One Piece Tower animation looks like it was done by Hisada, Inoue and Kimitaka Ito, maybe Takara too https://one-piece.com/news/detail/20180326_7055
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
Tu has stated that he's waited for a year and a half to be on the One Piece team and he is excited to be on it now. His debut cuts were when the cake appeared out of the ground
The cake scenes were still not his own cuts since he only did the 2nd KA in this episode. (Have to say that I was not a big fan of those scenes lol)
By the way the SB and ED of #835 is Tokoro indeed according to the NewType, not Koyama.
-
The cake scenes were still not his own cuts since he only did the 2nd KA in this episode. (Have to say that I was not a big fan of those scenes lol)
By the way the SB and ED of #835 is Tokoro indeed according to the NewType, not Koyama.
Well it was rushed and he only cleaned it up so it's not indicative of what he's capable of, he'll show off pretty soon because he's been given the CAD reference sheets for key animation. He only did the cake appearing scene towards the beginning, not the ending
-
Well it was rushed and he only cleaned it up so it's not indicative of what he's capable of, he'll show off pretty soon because he's been given the CAD reference sheets for key animation. He only did the cake appearing scene towards the beginning, not the ending
Do you have a gif or something of his cuts in other series?
Thanks!
-
Well here's his small section on sakugabooru. Dragon Ball Super and Pokemon Sun and Moon are the only shows represented.
-
Now, when they are done with this animation for Op tower i hope we will see Inoue and rest of the people who work with this on Tea Party.
-
I'm really happy to see they're using the new color palette for all the additional animation like this. It's been a year since they changed it but it feels like yesterday. I'm still not used at the anime looking good again.
-
It's nice to see the change from the stale oda-like color palette that they've used since the timeskip. I was a little concerned when the opening one again featured everyone's favourite mustard-haired cook, but it seems like it's not exclusive to the TV anime. Now if only they'd go back to using jet blacks (Or just more contrasty colours like Umakoshi's MHA designs).
-
No such thing as per time skip or post time skip colour palette.
The colour palette had always been changing on a per arc bases.
Water 7 to thriller bark have to completely different colour palette.
Fishmen land and dress rosa have hugely different colour palette, hell even the designs are very different.
-
Well that's sort of true, but the difference after the timeskip is much larger. The slight variations in color palette pre-timeskip facilitate different lighting conditions, but after the timeskip they're sporting different skin colours altogether.
-
I'm really happy to see they're using the new color palette for all the additional animation like this. It's been a year since they changed it but it feels like yesterday. I'm still not used at the anime looking good again.
Where is this animation from?
-
Special animaton for Tokyo One Piece Tower.
-
Well that's sort of true, but the difference after the timeskip is much larger. The slight variations in color palette pre-timeskip facilitate different lighting conditions, but after the timeskip they're sporting different skin colours altogether.
Exactly. It'd be cool if you could add the current ones!
-
ANN put up an interview with Shingaki from Sakura Con: linky
It's pretty short, but he does have some interesting things to say and relate. He says that compared to other animation directors he likes to get involved in schedule management and that sometimes someone animating a certain scene simply comes down to them just asking (so we probably know why he was the one to draw the bath scene a few weeks ago heh).
-
Tu working on some Elbaf stuff it seems https://m.weibo.cn/status/4230953276956793
-
If they will keep pace with 1 chapter per episode then we will se him in 836-837 or start of 838.
-
Tu working on some Elbaf stuff it seems https://m.weibo.cn/status/4230953276956793
Can you explain ?!
-
Interesting, I haven't been able to spot any marine ship like that in the Elbaf flashback (The CP ship looks different atleast)
Enlarged character sheet:
Took me a while, but I think the character sheets are of this guy:
You can faintly make out the hair/cap/shoulder frills. Nothing is certain of course, but this guy is the closest (canon) character from Elbaf that I could find.
-
Is One Piece still animated at 720p? I've been told this in the past but haven't read any sources to back it up.
Quite hard to tell if it is an upscale or not just by eye. Various upscale methods may give misleading results, additional animation filters may make the video appear upscaled when it is in fact not.
-
@Yuugi's:
Oof, that'll hurt Dragon Ball. Then again, I guess this will also make it less likely that we'll get a Dragon Ball special, too. :p
Guts won't be working on the new Dragon Ball movie and I don't think they ever have worked on DB before so it should have no bearing on it
-
Guts won't be working on the new Dragon Ball movie and I don't think they ever have worked on DB before so it should have no bearing on it
The existence of a special will doubtlessly hurt Dragon Ball because Guts couldn't possibly do all 105 minutes of the special by themselves. In-house Toei Animation staff will definitely work on it.
-
@Yuugi's:
The existence of a special will doubtlessly hurt Dragon Ball because Guts couldn't possibly do all 105 minutes of the special by themselves. In-house Toei Animation staff will definitely work on it.
Episode of Luffy aired the same day Film Z was released, and it didn't hurt it in any shape or form.
As long as there's no intersection in staff, everything will be fine, for both. -
If anything wouldn't this hurt some of the second half of Whole Cake Island arc episodes? I'm sure Toei is prioritizing the DBS movie over everything else
-
@Yuugi's:
The existence of a special will doubtlessly hurt Dragon Ball because Guts couldn't possibly do all 105 minutes of the special by themselves. In-house Toei Animation staff will definitely work on it.
There are summer specials every year since 2012, and besides the specials there are also autumn movies of Precure. Don't tell me that you want Toei to cancel all the projects except for Dragon Ball and put all the resources to DB lol. Just kidding.
The special do will affect something, but it's the One Piece TV, not the DB movie. DB fans don't need to worry at all.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
Is One Piece still animated at 720p? I've been told this in the past but haven't read any sources to back it up.
Quite hard to tell if it is an upscale or not just by eye. Various upscale methods may give misleading results, additional animation filters may make the video appear upscaled when it is in fact not.
1080P I guess, but I'm not sure…
-
I hope this special will not affect One Piece so much and will stay strong and keep deliver us good episodes like the last one.
-
They will take some people who are working on one piece to work on special?
-
They will take some people who are working on one piece to work on special?
I'm assuming that they'll take most of the Tiger Mask W staff which isn't working on anything right now and take any DBS staff that isnt working on the new movie. They still have people like Kimitaka Ito that can easily fill in for Isochi's slot on the show until the special is done which I think is what he did when Isochi was working on Episode of East Blue. I think it'll be fine
-
They will take some people who are working on one piece to work on special?
What we know for the time being is that Guts was taken away from the TV series, but we don't know if other One Piece staff will attend the special.
But the only full outsourced special is Episode of Luffy. Even Episode of Nami (whose character designer were also from Guts) also took a lot of staff away, so animation/sakuga wise I think we'd better not expect the special this year to be a full outsourced one.
Besides, since One Piece have more than ten episode directors for the time being, the special will most likely take one or two episode directors away from the regular series.
-
Thanks for all the information, like i said, i hope one piece will still stay strong and we were getting good episodes until they end special.