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Solo Leveling's CG producer has revealed how Sony's new motion capture technology, called mocopi, helped simplify the production of Season 1's most complex fight scene: Sung Jinwoo's widely praised fight against Blood-Red Commander Igris and his group of knights.
MyNavi hosted a conversation between Solo Leveling CG producer Nao Kudo and Shota Minami, Sony's director of planning and business development for mocopi motion capture technology. Sony asked Solo Leveling's animation studio A-1 Pictures to use mocopi and provide feedback, making it the first anime series in history to do so. Kudo revealed that this significantly simplified the production process for the crowd fight scene in Episodes 11 and 12 featuring Jinwoo fighting Igris and the other knights, analyzing the process.
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Using Sony's new technology in Solo Leveling allows for much faster production times
Typically, the animation team will create a storyboard (similar to a blueprint for animation), then a layout, which shows where people, objects, and backgrounds fit into a frame, before assigning the production of each aspect to different teams. Typically, A-1 Pictures uses 3D software to create CG characters from a storyboard or layout and animate each character there, which can sometimes prove to be extremely difficult. “The burden of drawing and animating a large number of characters by hand is huge,” Kudo says. “Traditionally, we would have a team of about 10 people first draw the characters by hand and then add their movements.”
Sony's Mocopi Offers Anime Creators an Alternative to Hand-Animating CG Characters
However, mocopi simplifies this by requiring the production team to wear its own small motion capture device. The team comes up with movements that are then fed into the 3D software, cutting down on animation time. “For scenes with multiple soldiers,” Kudo says, “we used mocopi to import motion data and then create three different animations. By allocating an appropriate number of soldiers to each scene and arranging them, and by alternating the times the characters perform the same motion, we were able to create a natural-looking fight scene where each character appears to be moving independently.” Kudo says she’s excited about mocopi and the possibility of similar devices that could offer an alternative to hand-animating CG characters. Motion capture data would provide more options than the libraries currently shared between studios, which Kudo says are “not enough right now.”
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Jinwoo's Shadow Monarch state will likely bring more mob fighting scenes in Solo Leveling
More mob fight scenes are a given now that Jinwoo is a Shadow Monarch. Fans can expect to see more use of mocopi in the series, with Kudo saying that the production team wants to use it more actively in future productions. Fans can also look forward to a greater focus on supporting characters in Solo Leveling Season 2. Crunchyroll is streaming Solo Leveling, describing the series: “They say that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but that’s not true for the world’s weakest hunter, Sung Jinwoo. After being brutally slaughtered by monsters in a high-level dungeon, Jinwoo is thrown back into the System, a program only he can see that helps him level up in every way. Now, he’s inspired to uncover the secrets behind his powers and the dungeon that created them.”
Single level
In a world of talented hunters and monsters, a weak hunter Sung Jin-Woo gains extraordinary power through a mysterious program, helping him become one of the strongest hunters and conquer even the strongest dungeons.
Release date January 7, 2024
Cast Alex Le, Taito Ban
Main category Work
Seasons first
Studio Image A-1
Creator Department of Public Works
Writer Noboru Kimura
Main actor
Extend
Source: MyNavi