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Tomo's Manga Videos

75

http://www.vimeo.com/12686066

Rounin writes:

Haven't seen any articles on this, but a user by the name of Tomo has posted some pretty neat character animations. It's looks like Tomo has been testing this out with Blender for a while, but he's been showing some more polished videos recently. I also think that this is one of the best 3D anime character models that doesn't shout out 3D. The toon shader/render in my opinion is really good. If anyone can read Japanese or know Japanese check out his site. Make sure you check out his other videos on his Vimeo channel. Be warned though, the cute factor is at 1000%.

http://www.vimeo.com/12132913

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

75 Comments

  1. AAARRRGGHHH!!!! TOOO MUCCCCCHH FLUFFY CUTENEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!

    Very well made animations though! The anitmation and style is terrific.......

    Now I'm going to find a cat to kick, just to counter balance the cuteness!

  2. Aaaagh! My eyes! I read the comments, and played the video without fully appreciating that these were not lighthearted jokes, but deadly serious health warnings!

  3. 3dementia (reformed n00bie) on

    Come on, who doesn't love cute little anime girls? I think the style and execution is excellent.

  4. wow, that's awesome!!! I don't understand a single word of Japanese (:p), but I love the fact that you can see it's manga, but it's also 3D-manga, and you get these moments where it's in between, and you're not sure if it's 3D or 2D animation...

    the animation is totally cool :D love the walk cycles, and the dance, and the effects...

    great work on the Toon shader and animation, looks totally awesome :D

  5. One can dislike manga & anime stuff. Question of taste.
    But technically, those animation are just great IMHO.
    They could be openning or ending of anime.

  6. The character is from an anime/manga/novel called ?????? which translates loosely to The Familiar of Zero. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Familiar_of_Zero

    Remember in Japan they are much more open to using copyrighted characters in fan based productions. Even allowing the fans to sell the things they create.

    Also you can download one of his/her blend files here: http://sites.google.com/site/tomoasks/anime.blend?attredirects=0

    He put up some instructions on the settings he used as well:
    "Through trial and error this is what I arrived at: The point is to use a "diffuse model" with a "size" set somewhat large and a "smooth" at 0 and "bias" turned off. Create the "edge" using "multiply" on the extracted lines from contours of a "z-depth-map". Use "multiply" on an image with "AO" excluded and an image with "AO" set to "2 gradient". Create the "edge alpha" so that even with alpha taken out exterior contour lines don't disappear."

    This is a poor translation as I just did it on the fly and I don't know Blender much nor the compositor at all so I can't really understand the terminology. The Japanese is no problem though ;-)

  7. The music is too sweet that makes me sick and all this pink, Blharrrg ! But the animation is great. And the toon shader is the best I've ever seen.Does anyone have a link to a shader tutorial like this?

  8. In continuing with the consistency of the usual exports from that country we have the color pink, and an upskirt shot at :53.
    Amazing.

  9. This is THE BEST CG animated manga I've seen. I'm no fan of (rather I really hate) CG manga because it's like a cheap way to make profit with cheap characters that looks like tacky and cheap CG.

    But this one looks totally hand drawn. The only giveaway is the smooth natural motion of CG. I think anime studios that are doing CG characters has a lot to learn from Mr. Tomo.

  10. unfortunatelly the only reason i liked these were because i love anime type stuff and becasue it wass blender...but i didnt see the "1000% cuteness".
    not trying to be maen or anything but also i had to skip through it it was o boring to me
    Welll happy Blending

  11. I really don't understand why some people keep their findings hidden away in a limited language zone instead of sharing it with the global community - the community that made the program possible in the first place.

  12. I'm really not interested in Manga / Anime stuff but this looks great!
    Most of the time it indeed does rather Manga than 3D which seems to be rather hard to archeive, as far as I've seen 'till now (which isn't much of course)
    Really well done :)

  13. good work on this, the only thing is that the number of animated frames per second seems higher than 2D cartoons, I think that some run at 14 FPS, it looks so smooth that it's clearly CG...

  14. WOW totally blown away 0_o
    This guy must be working full time on this!

    The animation is ... DOHHH.... has he used motion capture or what?
    Making a CG character dance believably is a nightmare... at least for me.

    And as a fan of Japanese anime, the visual style is .... DOHHH.
    It's very hard to fake the manga style in 3D, but he did it.

    I agree: 10 to 15 fps might look even more hand drawn.
    And I'm not a big fan of moving cameras, but for a dance show, I guess it works.

    GIVE ME AN ENGLISH TUTORIAL, NOW!!!! X(

  15. trinitrotolulene on

    On Tomo's Twitter Stream, "Nani Yateirru no- link to this page." What are they doing!! A link to this page.
    and then "doumo doumo Comment no he taishite" Thanks very much for the comments.
    "Blender de Ichiban okii community da yo!" Blender has the biggest community !!

  16. GENIAL :)
    estupendo unico
    solprendente admirable
    el creador el mejor

    ........ solo es superado por un grupo, los creadores de sintel
    ................................pero el creador de esto ya los supera genial

    biennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
    excelenteeeee

  17. It's "too cute" because the category of this anime is about "for 4-7 years old". It's a girlish style anime, so don't judge it so hard ;))
    I like shaders and most of movements!
    Just want to add a little spot of tar to this sweet honey: hair is bouncing like rubber - I never seen this in anime... Is it stylish? Once I seen a real armature in a girl's pigtails but it was not like that. Anyway - it's easy to fix if need some.

    Tomo - you are awesome!!!

  18. I am amazed how many seemingly skilled artists nowadays end up wasting their time on this horrible crap that is anime and manga "art".

    Please.

    Keep stuff like this out of our blendernation.

  19. @Sophiesalt: Whoa! I understand if you don't like anime and manga but no need to get offensive. Some people do like manga style of art and not all of it is crap. No need to "Keep stuff like this out of our blendernation."

  20. Amazing toon shader and animation, I'd love to make something like this too. My only critique is that in the second video, the skirt goes through her left leg at 1:07, but I'm totally in awe of your videos anyways!

  21. Amazing good anime rendering and control of shadow / light... I have nothing to say ; the result is just perfect in my opinion for the targeted style. I'm really impressed with this anime result in Blender. Good job Tomo , I guess there is hours and hours of work to get this perfectly smooth and well calculated settings.

    I hope to see this kind of rendering in a future open-movie project.
    Really inspiring !

  22. 24 episode manga plz!!! (easier said than done)
    that is really well done! I didn't know blender could produce this style... I guess you learn something every day ^.^

  23. @Sophiesalt Manga/anime style does require skill. You can't just rationalize something as 'poor' because its common/popular. Its not only 'some' who likes manga/anime style, most do (hence popular). Maybe you are tired of it, but never say something like that. It displays non professionalism and arrogance. If you prefer other styles, be it, but say so in a more dignified manner.

  24. I was not about the technical quality of the work but the purpose behind it: Why do we need to be watching underwear of oversexualized young girl? This is definitely not targeted to 4-7 years old and everyone familiar with japanese entertainment industry should know it.

    This internet movement of perverts is really creeping me out. Are people just so incomprehensibly lonely these days they go to such ridiculous heights creating the Ms Frankenstein for themselves?

  25. Let me just say as a longtime anime fan, I agree with Sophiesalt to a degree. In the 1980s, the word "otaku" began to be used to describe loser anime geeks with no life, no social skills, creepy fetishes, etc. Nowadays, those teenagers are grown up, and they're spending enough money on what they want that their spending power has effectively hijacked a portion of the industry, and contaminated much of the rest with countless maid costumes, cat ears, or whatever the obsession du jour happens to be. I hate that. I see what's being produced sometimes, and wonder "Who in what world are they even making that for?"

    But no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The 1970s and 1980s had a ton of great, beautifully-written shows that were the reason a fan movement began in the first place. And great works continue to be made, though sometimes a bit of creepy content gets jammed into something otherwise mainstream, figuring that A) most normal people will at least tolerate it, and B) you-know-who will be more likely to buy it.

    As for the videos above, I'm not a fan of the content, but I sure as heck downloaded the guy's blend and settings, since I've tried and failed many times to get a useful toonshader going. If I can get this working, I want to animate something at a lower frame-rate to see if it really can pass as hand-drawn, or if something additional needs to be done to add in fake "human error."

  26. This really nice. The quality is amazing. Getting that hand drawn look without it looking too 3D is amazing.
    I wanna see he/she do the an intro for Bleach or FMA:B. That'd be awesome.

    @Sophiesalt

    Get over it. We get it you don't like anything anime and manga. Calling it not art is absurd. I guess western comics and cartoons aren't art as well. "Why do we need to be watching UNDERWEAR of oversexualized young girl?" Huh what? Why are you looking for these.

    "These internet movement of perverts" There's always been perverts even on the internet. It was never a movement. And don't just put the blame on anime, manga and the japanese culture about pervertism (is it a word). Blame it on society and companies in general.

  27. I've been to Japan and know how things are going on in there. I even attended anime club events when I was in highschool and downloaded (illegally, back then nobody did care) anime and manga off bittorrent.

    At some point I started to think about it and realized how absurd and sick the whole deal with japanese Otaku-industry is. At that point I quit with the whole thing and started campaign that everyone else should know about these issues seeing the trend was rising.

    For me it seems most commenters are very new to to the whole anime and manga thing, being fascinated how different it is from western animation and fail to understand the full context. Yes, japanese society and greedy companies after money are the ones to blame but anime and manga are products of these, how should they be any different?

  28. Argh, a weeaboo attractor... Ok, despite my personal preference not matching the style, I have to agree that it is well done.
    I'd probably even watch an Ewoks episode, if it were made with blender ;)

  29. Hey, people! Some skilled troll was detected ;) Why you just don't ingnore this? Don't give 'em "food" and they'll go off. Just have your own opinion without need to prove it to somebody.

  30. @Sophiesalt Then go say it at the industry not at the artist. You are the one who fail to see it in the whole context. For one this is not done by those industries your talking about. This is personal work so your rant doesn't count.

    Also the issue you are talking about has been with art all along... it has been with humans all along. Leonardo(The artist of the Painting 'The Last supper'), Matisse(a famous artist of Fauvism), Dali (the artist of the famous painting 'Persistence of Memory'), Schulz (the artist of famous comic strip Peanuts), and other well known artist are all also known for making art to make money!

    Also Western animation fell in the same 'money making' scheme. And so are book illustrations, game graphics, movies, portraits, music, songs, interior design, furniture design, fashion, and whole bunch of fields where art is applied.

    Its quite understandable. The artist has to make income to live, to buy supplies, to pay for the rent, and what-not. Every artist I known, even I, had always this something, the desire to earn income from doing things they liked, from making art. I wonder if you never had that urge yourself, which I doubt very much.

    You are the one who are very new to the whole 'Art' thing and the whole 'Money' thing. You are the one who are very narrow minded and never see the whole thing. I'm very much horrified by your ignorance and your pretentious display of righteousness.

  31. @Moolah I kinda get frustrated at Sophie somehow. I was rather angry for Sophie for saying that things people do that is a waste of time and saying to keep it out and for such matter as personal opinion! Sophie never seems to think how would it feel to be told like that for your works. I sure have known how it feels and the pain still remains. How could such people just came and hurt well meaning people like that. They just came and force their ideals in rather crude way. I do understand Sophie's view but I really hate the choice of means of expressing it.

  32. @Sophiesalt
    true, there is an unfortunate portion of anime that is more "underwear orientated." There is anime out there wihout it though, that are pretty high quality in story and animation.

    With most things, there is the good and the bad. It just depends on opinion and how well it is balanced. (more good than bad? More bad than good?)

    I think the whole world is going a bit mad. =P

  33. WOW, looks awesome! I wonder how to animate those eyes, and how to make that edges and toon shader -.-" I wonder too much tut! lol

  34. It's a bit too Loli IMO, but in the jap anime market it amounts to harmless nothing. But it truly is pretty impressive, how it looks completely like cel shading and none of the 3D feeling at all. If the framerate was reduced or some frames dropped, I reckon it'll look exactly like traditional animation in Japan. Wow.

  35. Stamjen Vkotyak on

    Urban dictionary defines "loli" as "hentai that contains underage females in sexual situations." The second video is titled "happy loli." Both videos feature a young girl in a short skirt, highlighting her legs and even include an upskirt shot where her panties are visible. It is disgusting that Blendernation.com would highlight child pornography and give the "artist" free publicity.

  36. The character in this is actually supposed to be about 17. She is in her second year of what would account to a Japanese High School in the real world (in Japan you graduate at about 18 after three years). Which is past the age of consent where many of you live.

    Oh, and I don't watch the anime I just thought I should learn what I was talking about before making comments.

  37. Also the song's name "HapiLoli" is the name of the song. The anime's main character Loiuse sings it on a soundtrack album. The woman singing it is 31 years old.

    http://www.animelyrics.com/jpop/kugyu/hapiloli.htm

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rie_Kugimiya

    Also look up the term "gothloli" in google to see that in Japan the word "loli" does not mean what it means western cultures. It simply means "cute girl".

    It took me about 3 minutes to find all of this information.

  38. @Stamjen Vkotyak: accusing someone of publishing child pornography is a very serious allegation. I suggest that you do a little more research before saying such things next time.

  39. Stamjen Vkotyak on

    @bart, Colin - The video is self-evidently a sexualized depiction of a child, no matter how you slice it. Child pornography carefully couched with manipulation of language and cultural stereotypes is still child pornography, I suggest you do a little more research before posting trash.

  40. @stamjen Vkotyak: I guess you can say then that those young girls wearing cheerleading outfits or ballet attire is child pornorgraphy too because you know there is "self-evidently a sexualized depiction of a child" with their small outfits and dancing. Or how about kids putting up videos of themselves dancing like beyonce, Brittany, Mylie, etc. Or how about companies making clothes that are too revealing for kids. Guess what, these are with REAL children.

    Oh yeah, if someone thinks of sex when they see the videos above, you seriously need some help.

  41. Nice. Good job on the shaders. Theyre spot on. Animation on average was good even a few excellent moves. The hair looks off though, a little stiff compared to how it looks in 2d and a little glitchy. But not much you could have done about that. Thats Blender's dynamics for now. Im having similar problems at the moment.

    Its nice to see more professional looking animations made in blender.
    Cheers,

    Keep up the good work.

  42. AllNamesAreRegistered on

    Trolls and haters: GTHO
    "Sex sells" is not exclusively a Japanese animation concept so shut up! Gosh.

  43. (I am Poor at English Korean)

    In Japanese culture,
    cuteness and beauty have the same value.

    Therefore

    In Japan,
    expressing the beauty of women

    Cute women are represented.

    Therefore,

    Women in Japanese Animation
    Age, it is difficult to measure.

    Extreme example
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zR49Kl9NFs

    Linked to Animation of
    The main character is
    a teacher
    in the late 20

    Therefore,

    In view of the Japanese
    Beautiful Women
    In view of other cultures
    Lolita pornography can it be.

    In other cultures, from Japan........

    I do not know how it happens to be.

    I want to say so
    "It's their culture"

    I wonder the Japanese are thinking.

  44. In Japan
    Otaku is a .........

    Cartoons of the market in Japan
    Demand is very high compared to supply.

    Therefore,

    Many cartoonists and animators have a very miserable life.

    Otaku's dictionary meaning
    Means a person who likes Anime and cartoons.

    But

    The real meaning of the words
    Is a failed artist.

    In this social background,
    Manga is the emergence of Japan.

    With very high technology
    Animator and illustrator
    To start drawing porn

    Very high levels of
    Animation began to produce pornography.

    It formed a very large market.

    They seek to
    Money.

    This
    Became a social problem in Japan.

    Anyway

    Japan
    Animation has the largest market.
    Therefore,
    A lot of good animation is produced.

  45. AllNamesAreRegistered on

    Don't get me wrong, I do not advocate the use of sex in media. I find it annoying and wrong.

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