- CG World: January 2006

- Zoids Genesis Interview

In Zoids Genesis, the Zoids look cool in CG, and the boy's story is carefully crafted and depicted with a strong sense of structure and direction.

Zoids Genesis, which has a separate setting, has completely renewed the image of the previous Zoids series depicted in recent years. It's an epic adventure story of a young boy set in a world reminiscent of the old civilization era. We'll be featuring the production and a huge number of CG cuts.

Interview / Text: Takagi Sadatake, with assistance from Yorifusa Yamaguchi (Shogakukan Music & Digital Entertainment)

- An Explanation Of The Story

Zoids is a historic series that has been developed through various genres such as manga, games, toys, and anime, for over 20 years. In producing this work, which is the new work of the historic Zoids series, director Kazunori Mizuno first wanted to create a completely original world.

"I wanted to portray a world that wasn't just sci-fi with robots, but one that was more like an older civilization, where there's suddenly something unknown. I wanted to create a new world that was different from the previous ones."

The director then started building a new world view together with Satoru Nishizono, who worked on the composition and screenplay. With Tsuyoshi Togetsu as the concept designer, they created the unique visuals of Zoids Genesis, which was said to be an old civilization with a fantasy taste that was depicted as a world undergoing reconstruction after the collapse of the mechanized civilization.

Within that world, the director tried to draw the story of a young boy's growth. Mainly because recent animes tended to have shorter broadcast periods, so he figured "There's almost no other works for children that tell a story like a traditional epic drama."

"I felt a sense of responsibility to make something along those lines. I made the Zoids look cool. That's an important part of it, of course, but as long as we were working on it over a long period of time, I also wanted to properly depict the characters and develop the story."

The story of this series reflects the director's intentions, and features a number of realistic situations that would be hard for elementary school children to imagine, such as the conflict between one powerful country and another country that plans to conquer it by force, the invasion and resistance, and guerrilla warfare and organizations. However, these complicated situations are just the outer moat that depicts the main theme. "I wanted to depict the main character, a boy, growing up and learning about the outside world by meeting new people, traveling together, and becoming more socially aware."

He said "I wanted to depict a child with a complex who overcomes that complex one step at a time. In doing so, we could achieve a form of catharsis. I didn't want it to be about teaching them what war is, or which side has justice. So, although the story is set in a war situation, there's no need to depict the dilemmas of the enemies or any unnecessarily realistic deaths. There's just no point."

The director was careful about including these sorts of situations when making the story.

"I'm trying to make it so that the viewer feels pulled into the story, rather than like they're viewing it from above. For example, there's a character named Ra Kan, who's like a master to the main character. However, he doesn't tell the protagonist to do this and that. Instead he's a character who warmly watches over the protagonist's performance as the situation evolves. In the same way, I think we should move forward with the story in a natural way that doesn't preach any more than necessary."

In the midst of a war situation, they had to provide a simple and easy-to-understand reason and purpose, creating a long story that could be understood by children without feeling preachy, while including battle scenes with the Zoids in every story.

This good balance is probably the reason why both children and adults can enjoy Zoids Genesis.

By the way, the TV show has passed the halfway point, the story is finally reaching its conclusion. Now he says that it seems to be in a state of "figuring out how to gather all the hints that we've sprinkled throughout the story thus far, and move forward to the finale", but also that "I think there'll be more highlights to come, because it'll develop into not only the one-on-one battles that we've seen so far, but also big group battles. I'm not very familiar with 3D, but I think that the 3D of Zoids Genesis is quite good. I hope people will look forward to it."

- The Elements That Form The World Of This Work (1)

- Modeling

Mr. Ayumi Hasegawa
(CGI Modeling Director)

A model with fine details.

The Zoids series is all about battles, and Zoids battles are all about CG. In this work, just like in the past series, the visuals of the Zoids are almost all CG, and they were all created using Maya.

Ayumi Hasegawa, who was in charge of almost all of the modeling, says "I created each Zoid while thinking about how the joints would look if they were actually right in front of me. In this work, there's not only new machines, but also existing ones that've been recreated from scratch. In particular, the Murasame Liger that Ruuji's piloting has been recreated from the ground up. Most notably, the internal structure of the Murasame Liger that Ruuji pilots has been reworked so that it can cope with any damage to the mechanisms that may occur during the show. In this work, the enemy side features Bio Zoids with an organic look, but it was created as a visual contrast to the main character's Zoid, which is clearly drawn differently."

	Modeling images of the Murasame Liger. As with the original design, the structure is more complicated than the other Zoids because it's wearing removable armor, and every part is detailed.
	The new Bio Zoid "Bio Volcano" was introduced last month. Each of the skeletons of these organic-looking Zoids is carefully crafted.
	A modeling image of the Zoid "Bamburian", which gives the impression of weight and solidity. The bottom parts of it, which are rarely seen, are also fully detailed. On the right is the Elephander.

Notes

	Ruuji Familon. The main character of the story, a curious boy with has a strong sense of justice who grew up in a family of Zoid riders. When his village was attacked by the Digald Empire, he boarded the Murasame Liger, which had just been pulled up from the sea, and fought them. Since then, hes been piloting the Murasame Liger (right). Zairin. One of the senior officers of the army, he's a genius Zoid rider, but he has a lot of pride as a Zoid Rider and continues to fight for strength (left).
	The Murasame Liger that Ruuji pilots. A Zoid that's both fast and strong.
	The friends who fight alongside Ruuji. From the right: Ruuji's sword master Seijuurou, Ra Kan, a central figure in the Anti-Digald Movement, and Re Mie, Ra Kan's niece and the girl who pilots the Lanstag. Across from Ruuji is a mysterious woman, Kotona Elegance, and Thunder Garaga, the former leader of the Anti-Digald Resistance Army. There's also Ron Mangan, a former public trader.

- Information

Broadcast Date / TV Tokyo Kyoto System Nationwide: Every Sunday 8:30~ * The "Zoids Genesis DVD SPECIAL BOX Vol. 1 with Murasame Liger", which includes a transparent Murasame Liger, the "Murasame Liger Holotech", whose body is made of clear parts, will be released on December 7th (29,400 yen, tax included). For more information, please visit http://www.shopro.co.jp/tv/program/zoids/ or http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/zoids_g/.

- Story

On Planet Zi, there's something left behind as a legacy of the old world civilization. The mysterious "Generators", huge facilities scattered throughout the planet that still remain in operation. And then there are the technologically-advanced beings that are being unearthed as relics: The mechanical organisms known as "Zoids". The excavated Zoids are able to be manipulated by humans as long as they're compatible with one another, so they've contributed greatly to the development of civilization in various regions. Excavation was so active that eventually a new profession, "Zoid Digging" was born. However, the ability for Zoids to be used as a military force isn't the same as the ability for humans to control them.

- Director Kazunori Mizuno

Worked on other TV series such as "Dokkiri Doctor" (Director), Yu Yu Hakusho (OP, ED, Main Story, Content Director), "Ninku" (OP, ED, Main Story, Content Director), Midori no Makibao (OP, ED, Content Director), etc.

- Staff

Director: Kazunori Mizuno
Series Composition: Satoru Nishizono
Original Concept Director: Tsuyoshi Togetsu, Osamu Kobayashi
Character Design: Kyuta Sakai
Mecha Prop Design: Satoshi Iwataki / Shinobu Tsuneki
Art Director: Shinichi Tanimura (Studio Easter)
Director: Norio Matsuda
Color Setting: Shigenobu Kaiho
Editing: Junichi Uematsu (Production IG)
Animation / 3DCG Production: Shogakukan Music & Digital Entertainment
Producers: Toshihiro Nakazawa / Yorifusa Yamaguchi
Production: Shogakukan Productions

- Part 2

The Elements That Form The World Of This Work (2)

Those Who Created The New World of Zoids

	Shigeki Hayashi (CGI Technical Director)
	Hiroshi Saito (VFX Director)
	Minoru Tsukamoto (CGI Assistant Producer)
	Munehiro Nishiyama (CGI Producer)
	Naotaka Nakamura (CGI Production Progress)

- Simplification of Work For Progress Efficiency

As Mr. Tsukamoto, who is in charge of CG production says, "The average number of cuts per episode is well over 100", a huge number of CG cuts are made in this work. Naturally, the number of CG staff is also large, and in order to maintain the high quality and uniformity of the show while reaching a consensus among such a large number of people, it was necessary to create a workflow that's as simple and easy to understand as possible. In addition, since the setting is an old-generation civilized world, we had to find a texture that would blend in with the background cels while maintaining its luster. In particular, the main mechas of the enemy side, the Bio Zoids, have a silvery metallic body, and great care was taken to make them blend in.

Seiki Hayashi, the technical director, said "While we wanted the texture to blend in with the background, we didn't use any special plug-ins, and instead used only standard Maya shaders. We decided not to use any textures in this work, aside from some markings. For the parts that are absolutely necessary, we used procedural textures. We also created an original tool using MEL script that allows us to manage elements such as episodes, cuts, objects, and motions by assigning numbers and other formats, and to read and output them in a single step, so as to minimize human error such as file name mistakes at each work site. We put a lot of work in, especially in building this kind of workflow."

(Mr. Hayashi)

Mr. Naotaka Nakamura, who's in charge of 3D production, also feels that these tools have improved efficiency.

In addition to some character set-ups, Mr. Hayashi was mainly in charge of basic motions such as walking and running during the first half of the work, 3D production, and most of the basic CG parts. However, while taking advantage of the fine details and movements that can only be achieved with CG, as well as the directing advantages of such tools as a camera wraparound, Mr. Hayashi said "I was careful to express the machine-like movements and weight of the characters, including their gimmicks and details".

The 3DCG that was created in this way and combined with other elements, as well as the effects created by Mr. Saito led the way to creating an even bolder scene.

- Notes

Basically, the texture was created by combining Maya's standard shaders with contour lines. However, procedural textures were used for special textures, such as the scene where the Murasame Liger is pulled out of the sea, to express algae and moss that's attached to the body while it's being lifted out. Incidentally, the buoyancy bags wrapped around the body was also created with CG, rather than drawing it, in order to blend it in with the screen. Not only the Zoids, but also parts related to their movements are often created with CG. The prop that the Zoids hold onto, the passageways of the city, trailers, and so on.

The VFX staff, led by Hiroshi Saito, creates effects like the dust and smoke, rays of light, fireballs, and the effects of the Bio Zoids turning to bone. Each Zoid has its own unique expression, and every detail of the screen has been carefully worked on.

- Scene

The scene in the first episode where the Murasame Liger is pulled up by Ruuji and the others (some excerpts are shown) is a great example of the complex combinations of 3DCG and other drawn elements.

- Zoids

Here we have the Bio Tricera which is piloted by George (first), one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Digald Empire, and the Bio Raptor (second), the mainstay Zoid of the Digald Empire. The Bio Zoids of the Digald Empire have a texture contrasting the Murasame Liger's (fourth) and Lanstag's (third).

- Animation

Three tools, the Scene Create Tool, Rendering Tool, and PartsHyde Tool were created for Zoids Genesis (the image is of Scene Create Tool). Scene Create Tool allows you to select various parts for building a scene from a database that you've accumulated over the course of your production, as well as to select simple light settings, backgrounds, etc., so that you can start creating right away. Rendering Tool automatically creates scene files for each rendering after you've layered the elements in the scene and selected whether or not to mask them. After this, the batch rendering is done, and the data is ready to be delivered to the team to be finished up. Parts Hyde Tool is a tool that simplifies the display or lack of display for selected parts. Useful for complicated animation settings. (Cooperation: Sim Image)

The basic run cycle of Murasame Liger (some excerpts are shown).

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* Disclaimer: The translations on this page rely on machine translations and may contain mistakes.