Breaking Down The Legend of Korra's Incredible Animation | Animator Spotlight

once upon a time there were two shows named avatar in 2004 jm animation started work telling the story of my adventures with the avatar but unlike other cartoons they were given way more creative freedom with the animation and that made the fights even cooler and the jokes even funnier [Music] in 2010 the staff of avatar created studio mir a powerhouse of design direction and animation and they immediately set their eyes on creating my legend welcome to the canipa effect this is an animator spotlight on the legend of korra [Music] avatar the last day of bender wasn't easy to make it was an entirely new production system and a story much larger than anything the creators had tackled before this is something they detail in their book avatar the last airbender art of the animated series it was released in 2010 and to assemble it art director and co-creator brian konitzko spent a load of time re-familiarizing himself with all the production materials from the show and inspired him to work on something brand new and when the offer from nickelodeon came in he and mike dimartino jumped on it a new story a new city a new avatar but then an iceberg i mentioned that the last airbender was a challenge but cora cora was a series of challenges each threatening to sink the show iceberg number one the animation studio konisko and di martino worked successfully with jm animation on avatar the last airbender just a couple of years prior offering them unprecedented creative freedom in transforming the storyboards to a final animation and of course to keep that spirit alive they contacted jm animation again to create korra but things turned south quickly over in korea the ceo wasn't paying the staff working on the show and despite the studio being named after animation director jim yoo he had little power to change things in fact he even sold his car just so he could pay the artists out of his own pocket but it wasn't enough and so the staff left creating studio mir a team led by jaime young built on respect for the artists and their work nobody would devalue them ever again with them now becoming not just an animation studio but storytellers in their own right providing storyboard and design work as well studio mir would become the pinnacle of korean animation taking on the rest of the world on the way but there was still a contract saying that jm animation would be making korra this prompted six months of legal debacles that while it gave time for studio mir to set up it meant they were stuck in pre-production one iceberg slowly demolished but then came a second one remember this is all in pre-production they haven't even begun to make the show yet and this second iceberg was located in the us nickelodeon wanted this avatar sequel but they believed that the female protagonist cora wouldn't appeal to boys whom executives presumed would be the target audience but once again korra didn't sink and the creators stood behind her with even studio mir asking nickelodeon to reconsider it froze production yet again but eventually nickelodeon relented another iceberg demolished and cora sailed on into production i mean thank you all for believing in me in my last airbender video i introduced ruki hun a designer and animator at jm animation who helped redesign aang for the show along with designing jets gang in book one but in 2006 vue was offered a six-figure salary to move to the united states and work there this led to him working on spectacular spider-man avengers scooby-doo and eventually back home on cora but this time as director character designer and supervising producer vue is the secret ingredient that connects the animation team in korea with the pre-production team in the us and it all started with designing cora herself between vue brian and co-director joachim de santos they spent months rallying back and forth between ideas but ryu had a talent in drawing action and so korra was formed through images like these establishing not just how she looks but how she moves as well korra is genuinely one of my favorite designs in animation viewers able to establish not just that she's strong and athletic but he was also able to establish her personality as well through expression sheets and the animators at studio mia loved her as well she was a pain in the ass to draw due to how detailed she is but even so they were excited about her and excited animators make exciting animation view hun has a hand in almost every major character design of the show and while he has a habit to go a bit far with the exaggeration for instance this is his original design for berlin the results of his collaborations with the other designers always come out great even if it's just drawing the expression sheets he understands on a personal level what the animators need to be able to do their jobs well and for book 1 studio mir wasn't just doing animation this time but instead were drawing storyboards and designs themselves for example the lovable vagabond gomu was designed by ill kwan kim over in korea remember how i said that nickelodeon was hesitant over core at the start after seeing just the completed first episode nickelodeon's parent company immediately decided to greenlight it for four seasons this deciding episode was also important to studio mir as well this wasn't just animated by them but storyboarded by them as well based on mike and brian's script this wasn't just a success it was validation episode one basically shows everything great about book one and introduces some of the advantages that time has granted them firstly it's 16x9 we're able to see so much more of these backgrounds helping establish republic city as a character in its own right avatar has always had the help of great background designs but now with the help of talents like unsung young and jung-soo lee they've been able to show so much more detail and with more capabilities in digital compositing the show feels entirely different a battle under the beaming lights of the arena is able to give off a very different feeling to the night or underground scenes [Music] the fighting has changed as well in the last airbender the crew enlisted the help of martial artist sifu kisu who assigned each element with a particular style in this way it felt like there was some logic to the bending but part of the story of korra is that bending has changed the world has changed the ending isn't used for battles between nations but instead for sports in pro-bending and to capture this new style they brought on ufc fighter mack danzig an expert in mixed martial arts to choreograph some of these new kind of fights and as usual the staff don't make it easy on themselves pro bending are battles between six people it's difficult to storyboard and difficult to animate with several characters fighting on screen at any given time and like with the backgrounds the compositing has helped with the battles as well particularly when it comes to elemental bending in the legend of korra the water shines in the last airbender it was up to the animation and coloring teams to give the water texture but now the compositing team has a role in making sure it's always reflecting the light in the scene or in the case of fire lighting up the scene it's not there to cover up or replace the 2d work but instead to highlight what's already incredible about the animation and to reiterate it is incredible in particular the chi blockers are animated in such an intimidating way taking tylie's unique fighting style from avatar and applying it even to the equalist grunts one of korra's first encounters with them was animated by insung choi an animation hero of book one in addition to this high tempo fight choi also animated the opening of the show the yutaka nakamura inspired escape from tarlox prison and tenzin's assault on an enemy mech tencen's scene is particularly outstanding because i mean just look at him cora designs in general are pretty complex but tenzin was particularly hard for the animators to draw not only do older characters require more line work but he also wears a three-layered robe that requires a ton of secondary action animation so it's not just a case of animating him but making sure the robe is constantly reacting naturally to both his movements and the force of its airbending it makes both his and ang's flashback fight scenes look almost majestic but the result is one that's not at all easy to accomplish we often talk about animation quality in terms of just the result and book one was one hell of a result in design storyboarding and animation but all of those difficulties built up and the outcome was an animation team that was massively overworked it's going to be all right cora no it's not animators would regularly sleep under their desks there were small beds in parts of the studio it was too much when studio mir was offered the chance to work on the boondocks an animated sitcom with much simpler animation they made the decision to quit korra in their place nickelodeon hired studio piro in japan in fact the original plan for avatar the last airbender was to bring on the japanese studio so it almost seemed like fate but it wasn't the dream collaboration they'd been hoping for here's something that's important to understand japanese anime is famous for limited animation it keeps costs down while still being able to handle detailed work a lot of animators have become incredibly skilled at delivering amazing sequences of animation with a smaller amount of individual drawings there's no true average but an anime episode will generally have around 3 000 to 5 thousand drawings with plenty of outliers both below and above that number there's also a trend of going all out for the first episode my hero academia brags about having around 7 500 drawings in their first episode and famously angel beats braggs about having a whopping 10 000 drawings in their first episode but here piero wasn't signing up to create an anime the legend of korra book 1 has an average of 18 000 drawings per episode across the season no wonder the team at studio mir were overworked and no wonder fans noticed the difference in animation at the start of book two led by yuri askagawa who had his name misspelled in the credits pirro achieved something that on its own would be celebrated especially for the work of animator mata hirosato who is believed to have created many of this season's standout moments but the episodes as a whole struggled to catch up to the quality that fans were used to to put it simply book two was just difficult in the season art book brian said that the team felt like they were being kicked while they were down on a daily basis and it took longer to complete than anything he'd worked on before around the halfway point piro buckled no longer able to keep up desperate nickelodeon went back to studio mir and asked them to help complete the series and even though they were already working on boondocks they went ahead and did both their reasoning was that korra was their show from the start and korra's success was their success too and so they made one hell of a return starting with avatar beginnings name is juan and i will show you how i became the first avatar [Music] these episodes are exceptional pieces of animation removing all the established rules of korra and creating something that feels more like an animated historical painting in addition to all the weird and wonderful spirit designs each element both looks and moves entirely different with the focus on these painterly spirals and it's surprisingly consistent not only is this aesthetic a major part of the washed out background art but even when one hits the ground or water splashes they never forget to include these spirals i would have killed for an entire show like this but we had to get back for a stunning season finale let's go studio mir was worked to the bone but they didn't let it show remember what i said about tencen's robe about how extra moving fabric makes things harder to animate but also makes the action more fun to watch cora doesn't wear a multi-layered robe but she does have hair and for the season finale it gets unleashed there's a ferocity to her movements that are reflected in the way her untied hair thrashes about during battle and it has to be constantly moving because otherwise it would come across as too stiff the results are ferocious battles between cora oonalok and vartu with expert choreography and effects that keep you on the edge of your seat it showed the true capabilities of what studiomir can achieve with effects and character animation it proved that they were the best team to work on the show but even this level of quality wasn't worth destroying the lives of their artists i'm willing to try anything at this point yes that is the kind of enthusiasm i like to hear so when they went to sign the contracts for books three and four they made some changes throughout book two brian had been building an in-house team of talented designers and storyboard artists studio mir were doing great work in pre-production but it was decided that henceforth they would be focused on doing just animation like they did on the last airbender and during this animation process they would have the help of the smaller studio rev a talented crew of animators who would be able to help with the workload without any drops in quality for studio mir cora was their launch pad a show that represents their capabilities as animators and they cared deeply about making it the best it could be even returning for book 2 when they knew it would result in all-nighters but with these concessions they could return to deliver an unforgettable book 3 without having to destroy themselves in the process and to celebrate they flexed those animation muscles metal vending champion i've got to mention the secondary animation again in book three these guys were just showing off in the first episode zaheer debuts with long hair a long beard a robe and all of the white lotus guards have caves just for the hell of it this is the first time avatars had an air bending villain and they take full advantage of this by having as many moving parts on screen as possible flapping about this synergy between the choreography storyboarded by konitsko's in-house team and the animation delivered by mia is a burst of confidence for this new production environment throughout books three and four kinisco's new art team created storyboards and designs that entirely take advantage of the skills of the korean animators it was still difficult to make but now it was manageable and they could pursue overly ambitious visions that pushed but didn't break studio mir don't you think you're being a little hard on them don't worry they can take it you'll see and that part's important the relationship between show creators and overseas contractors has often been too focused on the outcome they often don't care if the animators are being overworked or underpaid and treat it like it's someone else's problem and that's why i have so much respect for the creators of avatar and korra they built lines of communication visited the team in korea and developed lifelong friendships so when mir asked to bring on help of course they got it book 3 has one of my favorite fights in all of animation the clash between avatar korra and zahir with her hair loose chained up this scene starts with an expertly storyboarded hallucination by yukihun using extreme close-ups that really make you think this isn't a kid's show anymore is it she proceeds to thrash out of her chains repel the red lotus's attacks with ease and chase the hair outside for a super-powered aerial battle storyboarded by joachim de santos the portrayal of speed and power here is unmatched it's the closest cora gets to an ang vs ozai fight and it nails the combination of furious character acting and furious elemental effects animation and guess what a lot of this was animated at studio rev the group specifically brought on by mia book three proved that this production system worked by letting meer recruit their own help they were able to achieve an entire season of great jokes and great fights and these were lessons that the team brought onto book 4 as well making the production a march to the end rather than a crawl it was hard to watch cora get beaten down by kuvira but the rhythm of this fight once again storyboarded by joachim de santos is captivating the choreography is addictive as kuvira definitely evades korra's assault with expert martial arts [Music] throughout korra all of these creators grew to become better artists storytellers and teammates every time they broke through an iceberg the ship got stronger they started out ambitious from the very start but every season they came back with new ideas unlike anything you'd normally see on your saturday morning cartoons and like with studio rev extra help was accepted and celebrated one of my favorite new faces was christy seng who joined in book 2 helping out with the design for avatar 1 but really stood out with her cute spirit designs in book three and eventually my favorite version of cora in book four and it's not just character designs either cora's always had great mechanical work but book four pushed these designers to create complex mechanical designs that felt unique to the show and then those designers had to provide all the information to the cg team on how it moves and how it's built down to the nuts and bolts the results are scenes like the finale where all of these elements come together to create a believable battle on a large scale cg elements 2d animation backgrounds color lighting all created by separate teams all around the world and expertly brought together by the compositors there will never be a show like legend of korra again even with the extra help the show was still massively difficult to create after it finished dreamworks offered ryuki hun and joachim de santos the chance to move over to create a new voltron series and instead of letting dreamworks hire a team for them they just brought as many cora creators including studio mir as they could and to prevent overwork they made the decision to cap off the amount of animation voltron legendary defender would have no more than 11 000 drawings per episode would have simpler designs and would feature more 3d the result is a show that managed to go for 78 episodes without burning its artists out today cora's creators work across the industry empowering world animation unfortunately brian and mike have been locked away working on the last airbender live-action show for netflix until recently but joachim de santos will be directing the upcoming spider-verse 2 while yuki hyun now works as executive director for netflix animation he's currently back in korea working with studio mir on a brand new show with netflix japan and i can't end this video without talking about all studio mir has achieved in the last decade cora helped the team find a place within us animation not just as animation creators but as designers and storytellers themselves after korra they worked on the aforementioned voltron helped animate big fish and begonia returned to dreamworks for kippo in the age of the wonderbeast started pitching their own original show koji and is now working on both a witcher film and an unannounced project for netflix these artists will continue pushing animation forward wherever they go and even though we say that america's given up on 2d animation korra and its spiritual successors prove that it still has an unbeatable appeal that can't be matched [Music] thanks for watching the caliper effects i want to give a thank you to both michaela murphy and janet varney for agreeing to voice the intro it wasn't a normal request but i appreciate their trust this video is a follow-up to the last airbender video i released in august so i also want to thank everyone for their patience but before we go i'd like to thank these incredible people for supporting the channel in particular i'd like to thank austin hardwick dedemeet edwin shale frodken jacob bosley jawburst jr pictures julio awares matthew grunsel my own mother nolan soga and that one artist if you'd like to support future animation spotlights please feel free to visit patreon.com the canaperfx [Music] you

Channel: The Canipa Effect

Views: 217,559

Rating: 4.9723883 out of 5

Keywords: Anime review, anime reviewer, canipa, anime, The Legend of Korra, Avatar, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Bolin, Mako, Korra, Aang, Tenzin, Asami, Studio Mir, JM Animation, Avatar Wan, Zaheer, Kuvira, Fight, Action, Animation, Animator, Pierrot, Studio, Korea, Japan, Sakuga, Analysis

Id: iVcHW50nTUk

Length: 23min 0sec (1380 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/yelsamarani]

Studio Mir are heroes, and are on their way to become an animation institution in South Korea. Good on them, and hope studios from other countries get their own opportunity.

[u/Candide2003]

No disrespect to Studio Pierrot but I was kind of dreading season 2 when I heard they were going to switch to them. As much I loved Naruto at that age it wasn’t the most consistent show animation wise and I loved ATLA and LOK’s animation so much