On April 18, Hara Shin released a new PV short film "Snow Ji Feng Chun", which gave players a surprise without any warm-up. After the release of the short film quickly appeared on Weibo, b station, Zhihu three lists of hot search, as of press time, B station has been played more than 5 million times, ranking first in the same period of time in the whole station; YouTube played nearly 3 million times, Twitter also forwarded more than 10,000.
After the PV was launched, it quickly occupied the B station and Weibo popularity rankings, and at the same time received a lot of attention overseas
This 3-minute short film takes the duel between Ayahua Shinri and her brother as the starting point, and uses the technique of flashbacks to depict the story of the family's sense of responsibility and affection that prompted Ayaka Shinri to grow up. In the change of time and space, the personality of the characters and the storyline are perfectly integrated, which has triggered the forwarding of more than 80 B station creators.
In addition to the story, what surprised the author even more was the technical power shown in the short film. Many players mistakenly believe that Hara Shin did a 3-minute hand-drawn animation. But in fact, the PV still uses the live2D production method, but the fluency and expression are almost the same as the animation, far exceeding the player's expectations. Non-professionals, basically can not see the difference.
In the author's opinion, the live2D short film released by the original god this time is not an accident or a "big move", but a normalized industrialization result. For more than a year, Mihayou has been experimenting with technological innovation and content innovation in the field of live2D, and each PV has made a little progress, and finally converged into this debut.
The PV of subtle progress, and the industrialization embodied behind it
Turning back the time to the Wendy EP in September 2020, the original god's live2D technology at that time is more in line with the cognition of players and the industry, that is, through the drawing rendering technology to make the paper people simply "move".
Source: Wendy's Character EP – "Winds of Hope"
This live2D effect, although it meets the content display needs, but does not bring too many surprises, the use of music EP form, dynamic content less, the form is relatively single, popular point is to put PPT, and the combination of plot and content is not vivid enough.
But over the past year, the PV forms of the original god have become more and more abundant, breaking the player's understanding of live2D in many ways.
First, the paper people really moved, no longer a simple circular float. The live2D in Yorama's character PV "Late Night Tavern Encounter" has a very large number of movements compared to Wendy PV, drawing wine glasses and sneezing. Even if you slow down to 0.5 times, you can't see your fingers clearly, which is very silky.
Image source: Yura character PV - "Late Night Tavern Encounter"
At this point, the project team has been able to make live2D make complex actions in space by splitting multiple parts. Even in two-dimensional manufacturers known for their live2D technology, this level is not common.
With the maturity of technology, the original god "shows off" more and more frequently in subsequent PVs. A year later, in the PV of the xiagong character, the xiagong can not only swing his arm to pick vegetables with chopsticks, but even make a turning back movement.
Source: Tsukigu character PV - "Symbol of Summer on NarutoJima"
That's pretty amazing. Generally speaking, because the vertical painting of the paper person is 2D, live2D is often only one-sided, and it is very difficult to turn over the surface. Obviously, at this time, the original god has mastered the complex spatial action of live2D.
The second is lip-sync. Some players have noticed that in the character PV of Maple Plains Manba, the mouth type and dubbing of the live2D animation are completely matched, and since then, the mouth type has also entered the normalization. Before that, the character was at most open mouth and closed mouth two states.
Left: Kaedehara Manba's character PV Right: Zhong Li character PV
Third, the expression is full of delicacy. At that time, after the shenli Ayahua character PV "Egret Returns to the Court" was launched, many players were shocked. A smile is full of details, this look is delicate, is the live2D paper people can do it?
Source: Ayahua Shinri character PV - "The Return of the Egret"
It was these multifaceted advances that eventually converged into this hand-drawn live2D short film ,"Snow Ji Feng Chun". This PV focuses on all the advantages mentioned earlier. For example, the character is turned over, and the film appears 3 times, showing the sense of power of the sword swinging quite well.
Image source: PV short film "Snow Ji Feng Chun"
There is also a delicate change in expression, and just by the change of eyes, Ayahua's determined intention can be vividly displayed.
Image source: PV short film "Snow Ji Feng Chun"
In the comments section, some players mistakenly thought that this was a hand-drawn or 3-burn 2 animation, while other knowledgeable players marveled at the original god's technology and called the official "death" of the second creation.
As far as the author personally asked the relevant professionals for advice and speculation, Mihayou's PV, whether it is storyboarding or picture performance, should use the production logic of animation. The fight action, such as large turns and combat effects, may use at least 10-20 images for each shot, and then use live2D to make it together.
For the industry, more important than the specific technology is the industrialization ability displayed by the original god behind the PV. In order to ensure the coherence of the content and the performance of the picture, the original art of this 3-minute short film usually exceeds 10 people. Then in order to ensure the unity of style and level, it is necessary to have a clear supervision process and method.
And considering that the immersive experience of animation is created by two aspects of audition, including characters, pictures, music, atmosphere, and so on. Therefore, multi-departmental collaboration such as art, liv2D, music and IP is also indispensable, and such efficient communication and cooperation and project management are also indispensable.
In fact, live2D is just a link, and the entire project of The Original God reflects an industrialization capability. The original god has been online for a year and a half, and has produced a lot of content. Just like the first 2D CM short film released in version 2.5, the 44-second pure hand-drawn two-dimensional animation also reflects the steady progress of the project team not only not "tired of running", but step by step under the remaining strength.
This small-step attempt, experimenting with new technologies while steadily outputting content that exceeds the player's expectations, gaining each other and constantly cutting off, obviously proves that the project is running very orderly.
Illustration: Version 2.5 CM animated short film
At the same time of high productivity, the game also presents a high degree of unity and matching from the top-level world view, to the plot, content, copywriting, and then to the terminal publicity material. For example, the previous shinari Ayajin character demonstration filled in a pit half a year ago about why the rebels suddenly appeared. The connection between the early sacred relic texts and today's contents, such as the crane view plot and the Thunderbird Mercy Set, the layer rock giant abyss and the thousand rocks are firm, all show that a year ago or even earlier, the original god designed everything.
As many players have lamented over the past year, the progress of the original god is really much faster than imagined, and people can't help but wonder how far Miha will go on the road of technological progress. If this momentum is maintained, we will certainly see higher quality works in the future.
Players with "Techno House Saves the World"
So, is the industrialized system the only reason for Mihayou's progress?
Many people should have heard the slogan of "secondary two" printed by Mihayou on the company's LOGO - Tech Otakus Save The World. In the App Store in-depth story, Miha you explains the technical house this way: "home" represents focus and love, and "technology" represents the confidence and faith to move forward.
If we say the word technology, it means a slightly cold industrialization. Then the focus and love represented by "Home" is actually to reveal another pillar of Mihayou's progress - players. Players who love the original god accompany the original god to grow up together.
Mihayou can be said to have a very open attitude towards player creation. On the basis of stipulating a clear red line, the standing drawing and modeling of the original god were opened up, creating an excellent creative soil for players. At the same time, a large number of player two creation activities were held in the hope of presenting more players' high-quality works.
On the B station, you can see a large number of original god two creation videos playing more than ten million and millions. There are remixes of game PVs, adaptations based on other classics, handwritten books made by players themselves, and original animations that are almost professional. The original god official number also often "can't help it", bubbling up in the comment area to interact with players.
Because some folk masters have done too good animation, and even in the player group has become a stem, that is, "the pressure has come to the official side", players often joke that the official is compared.
In a sense, the release of "Xue ji Feng Chun" told the player that the original treasure is still very strong, and the pressure has come to the side of Erchuang.
However, not only domestic players, but also overseas players have become the driving force for Mihayou's growth. Last year, Harashin's overseas achievements can be said to be full, not only becoming the most viewed game in 2021 reddit, but also winning the TGA Best Mobile Game of the Year, Sony's PS 2021 "GRAND Award" and other awards.
But more than the results, it is worth paying more attention to the recognition of overseas players for the original god content. For example, at the beginning of this year, the opera-themed "Goddess Split View" PV received more than 4 million views on the overseas platform YouTube. In the video, the game character "Yunyan" is inherited from the Chinese culture, conquering the vast overseas audience and arousing their desire to understand Chinese opera.
There is also Hua Guanglin based on Zhangjiajie Tianzifeng in the game content, Hua huachi based on Jiuzhaigou, and month-by-month festival based on the Mid-Autumn Festival. These are the inheritances of Chinese culture. The plot of this year's Sea Lantern Festival has once again made the world truly understand the "New Year's taste" that belongs to China. This understanding and recognition, no doubt, will inevitably urge the official to make better content.
epilogue
To sum up, the continuous progress of proto-god content is inseparable from both industrialization and player recognition. What kind of enlightenment can this bring to the industry?
In the author's opinion, live2D or animation is good for the content and the expression of the story. While Mihayou pursues technological progress, the content is not solidified and rigid, but lets technology become the wing of the content and makes it fly higher. This kind of content marketing method, I believe, will bring positive help to the entire industry. Other companies can see here that making quality content has positive benefits for the long-term operation of players and their own projects.
On the other hand, the affirmation of the player is also the basis for the original god to dare to invest more and more and dare to continue the production. The quality of the content is bound to make the players of the original god have higher requirements for the quality of the subsequent PV, so the author is very much looking forward to what surprises the follow-up PV will bring to the players and the industry.