Animation Analysis: Arknights 2024 Special Commemorative Animation PV

hey what's up everybody welcome back to another arcan nights animation analysis everybody wanted me to get to this 2024 commemorative PV as soon as possible I will also likely be getting to the 15minute long one the daggers one it's just it's a very long one and I expect it's going to be over or at least very close to an hourong video so I need more time to be able to do that one and basically give its own like two-day stretch of editing and figuring all that out but also as a side note this video is actually happening first because all of you wanted to see this before my interview with Robert wolf which I will be telling him about and you will feel bad about that making a grown man cry but Jokes Aside I'm actually really interested to see what this one has like I said so without further Ado let's go ooh ooh ooh the style there's that soft shading again like we talked in the last one [Music] good God the detail on this the shading is insane and in case anyone hasn't seen it I have already listened to this full song it has its own video so I will be focusing on the animation here oh my [Music] God the detail on some of these shots I mean all of them look gorgeous but some of them are [Music] very dude the stylization of this [Music] is It's a masterpiece trip where tomorrow where [Music] dude the amount of time on this one [Music] wow I'm going I wasn't expecting too much for 2 minutes but man they really poured every possible Penny into that didn't they they got everybody on their a class effort for this project holy [ __ ] so there are a lot of things I'm going to be going through on this video and I'm not going to focus on like shots like this for the record going forward just ones that are are pretty but they're mostly just Illustrated panning shots there's no real movement or anything I'm going to be focusing more on the movement ones so I don't want people thinking I'm going to be skipping over these beautiful works of art anywhere short of on purpose just because I want to focus on the animation these are gorgeous and they could have their entire own video on the shading methods the coloring the color theory done here these are gorgeous but I'm here to focus on animation so that's specific Al what I'll be doing so I'm actually going to be starting on this Frame here this entire shot while I just said I'm not going to be focusing on the short ones that don't really have much movement this one doesn't this one is a great shot that showcases in multiple ways on multiple faces of the characters here how they handled the shading the shininess of the skin the different qualities the oiliness the dryness everything from the angle of the light hitting their face to how sunken each of their faces are and how shaped so this is just really cool to look at because you see this one especially guy up here in the front you can see these hard lines of Shadow on his sunken uh cheek here his cheekbone is very shallow and you also see these Shines on his face showcasing that he has like really oily skin compared to the person right behind him who has clearly more sunken eyes and even the guy behind him who has a more defined face as well as even the character back here with the blue eyes he's piercing blue eyes that really stand out in the shot compared to every other color that's here being a warm tone you kind of feel this sadness coming from this guy he's got a very melancholy neutral expression that maybe showcasing his emotional placement in his mind at the time maybe it's just because he's a butler and he's trying to stay as neutral as possible because that's a pretty solid stereotype but I notic of course me of not really knowing the whole situation here with the lore of this world I'm wondering if the fact that they all don't have some sort of animalistic horn or ear isn't some sort of a repression some sort of a slavery to specifically like pseudo animalistic races in this world I don't know how that works if there is some sort of fauna repression going on in this universe I've never looked that far into it but that would make sense here if they're seen as lower standing citizens and you get these sorts of expressions with these sunken eyes sh how exhausted they are and there's just a lot that you can pull just from this one shot about maybe the placement of this world and that from a directorial standpoint is amazing and the shot is gorgeous as well in general because of the shading like I mentioned already so this is just a world class shot to Showcase some World building all in the matter of like a split second of frame time and of course you know we got to talk about the impact frame here so this one's pretty for a specific reason you're going through it's got the beautiful colors on here I love the contrast of the Blues and the oranges here it's just Peak contrast I've always enjoyed that especially in fire having all those colors swirl around you kind of get the magentas in there some lavender that's really just tying all those tones together you get those mids but right here when it actually does the impact you see a change in the perspective it doesn't stay at the distance which has been pretty consistent through all these frames leading up to it that fireball has stayed pretty Central and pretty stable in size it hasn't changed scale or anything until you see this and this column here this one that's like right in the center where that happened is immediately followed up by this much larger one and then you see it back off a little bit so it's like you're getting pulled in and right as the impact happens you're at the absolute Apex Clos that the camera would be before it immediately shoots back and then Cuts all the way out so this is a really really neat impact frame for the sake that it just emphasizes that explosion that much more by making the location and everything on screen much more palpable you feel that shock wave throwing you back all in the course of literally a blink of an eye it's maybe what four frames not even it's two frames there you go there is no no time between these two it's just boom bam you're all the way back and that's a really powerful explosion you don't get to see the camera fly back it just it's so strong it cuts I love how this blooms out it's very artistic especially because they're utilizing a character that has no clothes on you're able to see what exactly is happening it's using basically uh Fine Art nudity some tasteful nudity in order to show what is effectively a tragedy happening to this person you get to see the the fingers clench you get to feel that stress on the character that this is happening to it's not comfortable and all that is shown with some very small micro Expressions through the hands of all things usually micro expressions are shown in the face they can be hand Expressions though like when I talk with my hands that's technically a micro expression you're just talking with your hands it's a part of your speech pattern and this is kind of that you're feeling that you're cringing with the character here in this moment and that's just beautiful it's immediately followed up by the next thing I wanted to talk about which is all of these beautiful shots here of these uh natural disasters this twister tornado thing happening here there's a lot of cool going on here I love that like purplish tone on the electricity the lightning that's kind of coming down through you get these pulses of light that are happening and speaking of pulses of light these are so cool you get to see like veins like blood pulsing like neurons activating in the mind the way that they do those sorts of like CG models to show you how Pathways happen in the mind this is that sort of movement these pulsing balls of light that just lump their way through an otherwise very constricted area of space face and here we are again on this the hands here showing more expression in this case actually doing the parallel of what the uh originium was on the back it's blossoming it's showing you that there's pain there's stress happening here these are beautiful shots and I am going to just go out on a limb here all these look so perfect I'm assuming 90% of this project has some sort of a reference being used them recording themselves using that just like I talked about in a prior video that's very likely What's Happening Here the studio is utilizing that to really nail those small movements they're probably using interpretive dancers for some of this that especially would be a great thing for an interpretive dancer somebody who knows how the body really truly feels would be like hey can you do this with your hands they would do that they would then record it and utilize that as a reference later it could also just be an animator doing that because as an animator you are in a lot of cases the actor you have to learn how to do certain Expressions certain movements feel like a cartoon character you have to learn how they move and then record yourself doing it to be able to reference it later when you're stuck at a desk and you're not able to stand up and start dancing like a monkey but it's really common in the industry to do either or depending on what you have available so it's very possible this is either an actor that they had hired to do certain insert shots as reference material later or it is an animator doing it themselves and just knowing exactly what they're looking for and just recording it at the right angle so they can manage to reference it later so just in an addition here that's so much an animation thing but my thought of earlier seeing the Butlers all lined up and I'm thinking that there might be some sort of fauna repression this shot is from what I can tell all people who are mixed like that and I would not be surprised yet again every single shot Beyond here that I could tell had fauna in lowincome areas struggling for their next meal just dying on the streets having issues and I know that the originium which there is a shot here that looks gorgeous about that which I'm kind of just tabing through while I talk in order to reach it but every character I'm seeing that's like fighting their fight to these other characters is somebody with those ears or horns or something like that whereas the people they're opposing here are just like they've got these but I don't know if those are real or if they're there to taunt especially in the past where this is probably pseudo taking place in some sort of fantasy world that would still make sense they would do this sort of thing they would wear Effigies of the race they're against to mock them and make them feel like they're lesser to make them feel like they're not as in control as they would like to be it's just a psychological warfare thing and I'm not going to be getting into the sociopolitics of that this is just a thing I observed in this and would make sense in the context if true I could be entirely wrong there but it is neat and big if true I really like that attention to the detail those sorts of things to mess with the characters in universe is always neat and it's something that a director a visual designer a shot designer has to think about when they're setting these things up is what do we use and where where can we get away with making certain things more clear that's one of them so big if true but I might be wrong this is the shot that I wanted to mention again it's not animated and I'm not going to be talking about it it's just a couple of frames but this is gorgeous this is beautiful the hair is the only thing that moves but look at the detail on this face every wrinkle every shallow portion on the lip it shows age it shows struggle there's just wear and tear around the entire body the sunken eye on the one side because that's where all this is taking over and this side feels much younger and less repressed even down here you're seeing less of the shallow on this side and that's not just light this entire side of the face is tighter it's design-wise gorgeous to see the level of Decay on this one side of the face and angling them at this like 38 angle in order to see all of that deterioration versus the side that is less affected is just Artistry beautiful masterpiece I love this Frame alone this entire sequence this is going to be one of those long ones that I want to talk about because again I'm not super versed in the lore here I do know am's character just a little bit thanks to some people in comments in the past as well as my Discord there are some things here that I want to discuss that I think are really cool as far as the character motivation of this entire shot goes so I love that right here she's younger I know that all of this happened to her initially while she was younger and then she sees the doctor here and this is cool because the doctor is not in Focus there is definitely a blur going on here it's like she's realizing that there's somebody here that might be able to help but they're not literally in Focus yet like they're not close enough to be able to actually do anything their back is turned they're not looking at you they're not making that connection but you can tell that there's somebody that might be useful and just as that connection is made visually it snaps back to her older able to make that connection to make that happen to make the journey to meet this person to be able to utilize this person's connection and their abilities in order to maybe help the situation that she came from and then the old her fades in and she stands up again this echo of her past being there to just showcase the motivation behind this decision to start moving right she starts to run towards the doctor here and meanwhile there's an echo of her there's an after image that stays put maybe showcasing just a little bit of hesitation a little bit of that koi feeling of are they actually going to be able to help me should I do this do I make the leap do I make the run in order to catch up to them and ask them for help that sort of feeling of should I it's just an implication you don't even know that she's running to the doctor technically but after seeing that one cutaway of the doctor putting their cat on you're making that connection yourself you're going oh there's the doctor there she goes to meet them there is in all the same moment her motivation her trepidation and her action and that is [ __ ] brilliant I love this shot and with this sequence I also going to be going off my assumptions here because I'm not positive I don't know how the game works I feel like all that's happening here is basically summarizing the story beats in like chapters so like this is a summary of their first outing like her trying her best to get to that point to do her best and see what she can accomplish and then this would be like the next chapter in her Adventure here trying to figure things out doing more work seeing more tragedy going through more struggle and pain there's a lot of these character moments you see it in her face the characters that are on screen all just being there to symbolize what happened what the big thing that happened in that story beat was and how she reacted to it all at once and in the next sequence there's just her walking alone yes there's this cute thing happening behind her but she's worn down from what just happened and here after all that struggle she's still feeling really torn down literally just going into a fetal position here while sitting and just processing everything that's just happened and these images on the back may be just experiences she's been living through this whole time but what we're seeing of her on screen right now is what she was thinking at those times inside while she may have been surrounded by happiness and Good Times maybe some good moments in there there's a lot of turmoil inside that we are seeing we're seeing her walk we're seeing her back turned here there's a lot of that she's just not quite there and then we see this one pop up where she's still trying to reach that end this is full of great symbolism and I'm not sure again how accurate I am on any of these but this is so chalk full of some great symbolism and here's another favorite part of mine I love this bit I said that a few times I really love this one her coming in singing putting her into the plant of these lyrics where is our tomorrow and having her say that puts you immediately into the perspective that this is her song she's singing it right now and that specific line is very important to this sequence and how it relates to aia's Journey she's going through a lot you see this character wondering this question the same question that Amia is having and at the same time is opposing Amia it's pressing against her there's a lot more pressure here and you're seeing these Echoes again behind Amia of where she's been in the past this one of her being like turned around not facing the screen the her on the floor on her knees struggling getting back up falling down picking yourself back up again constantly in and out that struggle day in day out all the time time never giving up against this opposition pressure here this pressure is so cool to me purely because she's fighting through it and you see this in every single frame that's happening on screen she's just going through it and as we get to this point where she gets closer to this other character whose Name Escapes me and I'm sorry you see the character pass her she's finally pass this hurdle whatever was done is now done their paths are no longer crossed what I love especially as she passes you see this character right here her mouth changes just like aia's face goes down her expression lifts up she smiles like she knows that she did just what she wanted to do she wanted to be the one to make her go forward she was like no I'm going to give you a reason here I'm going to help you find the courage Your purpose your motivation to keep going and that is such a beautiful moment I love that you especially see it in the payoff here as all of these oppositions start to show up and you're like oh no she's going to be going through quite a bit how is she going to handle that she could not give less of a [ __ ] I mean look at that expression that is the face of somebody who's been through everything down and out and is starting to realize realiz that there's nothing that can get worse so why the hell would you let it get to yourself she walks literally right the [ __ ] through this big guy's hand he didn't have a single effect on her she was like no we're done with all this we are moving on we are getting to where I'm going I am going to make this happen and that is so beautiful all in that one sequence there is of course some cool stuff coming up here I love that they start having the names pop up you start to see these connections between other characters this support that she's growing and of course all that comes to head here where you start to see all of the characters all of the support she has her family now who are doing all they can in order to support her literally just being there to back her up she is the head she's at the peak here it's gorgeous all of them here in this triangle here just showing the direction the focus where they need to be who they need to be looking at we haven't seen who that is yet albe it of course we know at this point I also love he that this is creating the Rose Island like symbol that's so cool all of the names of all the characters here everywhere and of course all of them are pointed and looking in the direction of the Doctor Who finally after what we saw earlier of him putting his jacket on has turned around and is there and that connection's made the acknowledgement has happened this is a full motion all of this is gorgeous The Narrative of this commemorative animation is insane and I absolutely love it in every way shape and form from the animation to the narrative all the shading the lighting the coloring every bit of this is some of the best animation I've seen in recent memory and I couldn't ask for more but yeah that's pretty much it sorry if that kind of felt like a walkthrough by the end there was just so much narratively that I wanted to talk about the way that it mattered in shot composition and how it portrayed every emotion and movement there was just a lot to talk about there so beautiful animation like I said some of the best I've seen in recent memory hands down but with that said I hope you enjoyed this video if you want to see more animation analysis stuff like I said I might be getting to the daggers one at some point this month fingers crossed and otherwise if you just like this video and you want to see others like it you know how to follow me and support me and I will see you all in the next video goodbye [Music]

Channel: Catharsis

Views: 12,327

Keywords: music, drum, CatharsisDrums, drums, drummer, reaction, reacts, review, reactor, animation, animator

Id: XLrKgIoXR1A

Length: 23min 48sec (1428 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024