Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1533763
www.postmagazine.com 28 POST MAR/APR 2025 Tell us about the layers and shading that you employed to achieve that look? Hayden Jones: "So, to create the look, you have to dissect all of the art images. Sunmin was fantastic in sending us the Photoshop layered files, so we could actually almost see her process in how she built them up. We could start to examine whether we could build up our images in the same way. "One of the big key pieces was this idea of Copic magic marker work. What we didn't want to do was to bake in too much of the lighting. Sometimes when you're working in a stylized world, you really want to bake in as much as possi- ble, so you have the stylization there and then the lighting just as a kind of light touch over the top. We wanted to go to the other side, where we were baking in as little as possible, and we were allowing the shader to take on most of the heavy lifting. "We created a technique where we used Kuwahara shading. This is a technique where it takes normal images and adds a kind of watercolor feel. It softens the edges. It'll preserve certain sharp changes of contrast, but it creates a very nice, soft feel. This was great, apart from the fact that if you just applied it to the whole image, it was complete- ly blurred. "So what we had to do was work out a system between look dev, shader design, lighting and comp to have information pass through about the model so that we could keep each piece of marker work just blurry to certain areas of the image — certain areas of skin or certain areas of their clothing, and really have fine, art-directable control over every aspect of the image. It was a tough challenge, but we had such a fantastic team at ILM across the whole group that really rose to the challenge." How were you able to bring Tokyo to life on-screen? Hayden Jones: "Creating Tokyo was a really inter- esting challenge. Shannon and John Aoshima, the co-director, really wanted Tokyo to feel authentic, so we actually had a cultural committee on the show of people who would literally look at every single aspect of our Tokyo model and advise us when road markings weren't quite correct. All the street furniture had to be the street furniture you find in that specific area of Tokyo. "Our build team put together this great library of parts that they could build Tokyo streets out of, but then the cultural committee would say, 'Ah, yes, but these parts only exist in this part of the city.' So we refined our process and we did a lot of com- munication, and we really pushed hard to make something really, truly authentic. "Also, my pet peeve in filmmaking is when you know a city and you know a shot has been filmed in two locations, and the filmmaker makes it feel like they've just turned the corner, and you know it's five miles apart. In Ultraman: Rising we tried to have Tokyo as our groundwork for each shot. Every shot is located perfectly in Tokyo. We never cheated where the Tokyo Tower is — it's always in the right place for the shot. So it always feels really quite authentic. Every detail was important to us." Can you share any career advice you wish you had known when you were starting out? Hayden Jones: "I think it's a really exciting time for artists at the moment. I think it's a scary time as well. There's lots of change happening. "Keep creating. Really push yourself to be not just trying to emulate what other people are doing. Try and also listen to your inner artist as well, because everyone has a voice and everyone's voice can be heard through art and animation. I think it's really important when you see artists have their style really visualized on-screen. "I often say that one of the hardest things when you're reviewing show reels is that you're seeing somebody execute someone else's vision. I also like to see not only that, but what their vision's like as well. Even if it's just drawing, painting or something else creative, showing that they have another creative aspect to their personalities is fantastic." The animation team preferred not to bake in too much of the shading. Ultimately, Ultraman: Rising is a story about relationships. Kuwahara shading gave imagery a water-color aesthetic.