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BELLE

july 2021 [CG]

INTRODUCTION

BELLE, released in summer of 2021, is the latest film by Director Mamoru Hosoda, whose previous credits include the film Mirai. This film is about heroine Suzu. Withdrawn in the real world, she steps into the spotlight as a songstress in a virtual space 'U’ on the Internet. Her interactions with the Dragon, a dark presence in U, start to link the real and virtual world and help her reclaim her self-confidence in the real world. The film runs in two worlds - the real world and the virtual world U. The real world is done with hand-drawn animation, whereas the world of U is done in full CG. Digital Frontier (DF) was responsible for creating the CG world of U and constructed a virtual space that far exceeded the virtual world "Oz" depicted in Summer Wars - a film released 10 years ago. Jin Kim, who was involved in character design for many Disney films, worked on CG character design of Belle and London-based architect Eric Wong worked on the environmental design of “U”. The result has been a piece of world-quality CG animation. We interviewed DF’s CG directors who created the world of U - Ryo Horibe and Yohei Shimozawa - as well as lead staff from each section and asked them to describe how the world of U, constructed with over 600 cuts, was produced.

(Interviewer・Text:Bit Pranks Hirokazu Okawara)

Lively facial expressions and actions create "Belle" who lives within the film.

A full 3DCG animation production team to take on the challenge

First, we asked CG directors Mr. Horibe and Mr. Shimozawa about the staff composition for the production of this film and about their roles and responsibilities.

HORIBE

This film follows workflow of full CG animation production, which is composed of a character asset team, animation team, background team, rigging team, and composite & Effects Teams for shot work. There were a lot of crowd simulations, so we also had a simulation team. We also had external support because there were a quite large number of shots. Mr. Shimozawa and I were assigned as CG directors, where I was responsible for character and animation-related parts and Mr. Shimozawa mainly for background, effects, composite, and other visual-related parts. CG Director, Ryo Horibe CG Director, Ryo Horibe

SHIMO-
ZAWA

Because of the sheer amount of materials, one director would have been unable to manage everything according to schedule. Even two people weren’t quite enough. Everything was moving in parallel (laughs). CG Director, Yohei Shimozawa CG Director, Yohei Shimozawa

The production period coincided with the coronavirus crisis, which must have meant that the production process was different from the usual. What was the production work flow for this film?

SHIMO-
ZAWA

The production started around the same time as the coronavirus pandemic. Aside from visiting Studio Chizu in the early stages of production for a meeting to discuss character and other design elements, production work effectively took place remotely. In hindsight, that might have resulted in less stress overall than coming to the office to work. It depends on the person, but speaking for myself, there was less stress than I usually experience working at the office.

HORIBE

Because screens are smaller at home, I thought it would be harder to check for errors and such, but things went better than expected. We use software such as "RV" and "SyncSketch" for animation checks. For other things, we also used "SyncSketch" when working with Director Hosoda. Working remotely eliminated visits for the sole purpose of checking, which was immensely helpful when we were in a time crunch.

How high can the quality of CG character acting go?

Asset production was set to begin in March 2020 and film production was scheduled to last about a year and a half. According to Mr. Horibe, retouching was done up to two weeks prior to the release in July 2021. What did the film director request in the production of the CG parts?

SHIMO-
ZAWA

The director most strongly pushed for quality of CG character acting. I think that was the biggest technical challenge in this film.

HORIBE

In previous films by Director Hosoda, CG production was mostly for "environment" involving crowd characters and backgrounds. Making the main character act in CG as we did for this film was something almost new for us, and definitely a big challenge. Prior to production, we discussed with the director how we should produce nuanced acting with subtlety of feeling and small movements of the eyes, as you would see in Disney's CG animation. During production, we studied movements of Disney’s animated characters.

How are expressive character designs brought into CG characters?

The character design of the heroine, Belle, was a very Disney-esque animation design. Using the cartoon-style look of toon shading, rather than shading, to represent the character must have been difficult. We asked how Mr. Horibe felt from a CG director’s perspective.

HORIBE

Exactly. When we received the character design from Mr. Jin Kim, I thought, “This is amazing!” and at the same time I thought, “If we created the character the way she is, she’d be so Disney!” (laughs). After that, CG Animation Director Takaaki Yamashita refined the design for a 3DCG model in the character sheet and the character finally looked more like one of Studio Chizu’s. Then we started creating a model.

  • Cap01:Character design of Belle by Mr. Jun Kim and Mr. Takaaki Yamashita

The world of U constructed with chaos and abstractness

U was designed as a vast space that had never been drawn for virtual spaces. There was much trial and error in capturing the images of the amount of characters that appear and the richness of the background and effects. What did the two CG directors aim for when constructing a worldview?

HORIBE

The U environment designed by Mr. Eric Wong was a conceptual design. Things like changes based on time of day in the story, Belle’s concert, and adding colors scene by scene required trial and error. Those were supervised by Mr. Shimozawa.

  • Cap02:Background design by Mr. Eric Wong

SHIMO-
ZAWA

I wanted to actively incorporate the atmosphere, the scale, and the highly intricate abstractness of the Internet that U carries. In the space of "Oz" depicted in Summer Wars (2009), things that would be found in an actual city were represented with the concreteness of storefront signs, brand logos, online services connected to specific administrative services, and so on. Ten years have passed since then. And if you think of today’s cyberspace from the user’s perspective, it is disorderly and confusing. I wanted that sense of chaos to be reflected in the space of U. I did make a conscious effort to give the space an abstractness that, rather than simply being disorderly, could be construed differently by different viewers, seen as anything they fit.

  • Cap03:The U environment with intentional disorderly abstractness

Challenges at the pre-production stage

BELLE is full of exceptionally challenging representations. What did development and testing involve during the pre-production stage?

SHIMO-
ZAWA

For the background, I initially wanted to do a lot of pre-production preparation, but what ended up happening was that worked bit by bit to figure out how to achieve the background and the look we wanted as I received background elements. When the final look was determined, the background team was given the steps to take in creating different variations.

HORIBE

Because the characters sing in this film, we used the Belle model in progress rather than the final version and rotoscoped a motion picture footage of an English singer to test how she looked during character production. This pre-production work did not amount to much in terms of design decisions made. We were figuring things out as we made cuts for character motions. For other sections, I think that there are many parts for which decisions were made while making cuts, rather than decisions being made in pre-production.

SHIMO-
ZAWA

The overall look of CG cuts was decided when the first trailer was released in December 2020. That was when we finally had the full picture.

HORIBE

It was the same for the characters. I was really nervous up to that point (laughs).

Film highlights from the CG directors

The CG part of this film is packed with highlights, but what are the highlights of the film from the CG directors?

HORIBE

I am pleased with the level of “character acting,” which was the most challenging point for us. We received some feedback that Belle’s acting was done well, so I think we did that right. When CG characters act, their movements tend to appear stiff. We wanted to represent Belle, the Dragon, and other characters with the lifelike movements of Disney and Pixar characters that make them look as if they are alive. I would be happy if people saw how vibrant and full of life Belle and the Dragon are in the worlds of this film.

  • Cap04:A scene of Belle singing

SHIMO-
ZAWA

We put a lot of energy into the backgrounds and drawings to enhance character acting while doing the background art and final images for the U environment. For example, the feeling of freedom is expressed through staging of a vast space. The dark side of the Dragon and his feeling of entrapment are emphasized by staging of his castle as an immensely personal space. We hope that viewers will notice these extra touches in image making we implemented throughout the film that build up the characters.

  • Cap05:The Dragon’s castle