Netflix: Lol Levante!

[solarrdadd]

i found this feature on Netflix, it's listed at 4 minutes runtime and i thought that was a mistake, it looked good and i gave it a try. well, it's 4 minutes like it said. it's good to me. it's about showing off the hand drawn style of anime with 4K/DV/HDR & ATMOS.

all are used to great affect too. i was wishing for a full feature length for the story, but, i was happy with what i got.

i will say that if you have an ATV4K*, a tv with DV/HDR and an audio setup that's ATMOS ready, you are in for a treat. ATMOS for audio is used constantly and very well. the 4K/DV visuals are very well done.

* that's how i get ATMOS from netflix via the ATV4K.

https://www.netflix.com/title/81017017

https://www.netflix.com/title/81017017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhJJsH2umek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnn8YavmcTo

also, when it's finished, check under "trailers/more" and there are a couple of short features about the making of it for both video and audio.

hope they make more of either this feature or others like it.

[SBux]

This one looks very nice! Thank you for the recommendation.

[Mangaranga]

For those interested in reading more about the production side and the difficulties faced, there's a pretty interesting post on Netflix's tech blog about it.

They've also made the raw materials (including the final 34.8gb ProRes file) available to download for free.

In order to help the industry better understand 4K HDR and immersive audio in anime, we’ve released the raw materials used in Sol Levante for download and experimentation.

Sol Levante is an experimental short anime project commissioned by Netflix in collaboration with Japan’s Production I.G. that sought to answer questions about the challenges involved with bringing 4K and HDR to the medium. These open source assets were made available from the project in order to allow further experimentation and self-education with anime workflow, 4K, HDR, and immersive audio.


If you have any questions about the materials, you can email creativetech@netflix.com.


The open source assets include:


1000 nit VDM,16 bit TIFF sequence and IMF
Selected painted in-betweens for traditional workflow (TGA)
Selected painted drawings for cutout animation (PSD)
Selected After Effects project with base comp
ProTools session (Final Mix)
ProTools session (Atmos deliverable)
Animatic (MOV) and Storyboard (PDF)
HDR10 asset in ProRes 4444 XQ format


This material is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The full license is included as a separate document.

[Gorgon]

^^ Agreed, thanks Buddy solarrdadd.
The show itself looks (and sounds) very lovely as well!

[professorwho]

I’ll check it out on my 4K HDR10 TV later and report back. I’m not expecting Space Adventure Cobra level HDR, but I am really interested in seeing modern anime in HDR (only other one I have seen is Mary and the Witch’s Flower- and it looks great. Not a revelatory upgrade, but definitely better due to the UHD format- it’s on a BD-100, has a STUPIDLY high bitrate of 90 mbps and the compression is slightly better than the BD)

[solarrdadd]

Originally Posted by professorwho

I’ll check it out on my 4K HDR10 TV later and report back. I’m not expecting Space Adventure Cobra level HDR, but I am really interested in seeing modern anime in HDR (only other one I have seen is Mary and the Witch’s Flower- and it looks great. Not a revelatory upgrade, but definitely better due to the UHD format- it’s on a BD-100, has a STUPIDLY high bitrate of 90 mbps and the compression is slightly better than the BD)

you got ATMOS?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by solarrdadd

you got ATMOS?

Nope. Don’t even have a basic surround setup- just use my TV speakers.

[TheSweetieMan]

I made a thread for this a few days ago in the 'TV Shows' sub-forum. I searched Blu-Ray.com to see if a thread had already existed, but the typo in this thread's title would explain why I didn't find anything.

But, yeah... this looks and sounds absolutely spectacular. The art and animation is breathtakingly gorgeous--and there seems to be quite an expansive use of tools used for such a short animation. Almost like it's flexing its creative muscles, showing the potential of anime being natively drawn, rendered and animated, all at 4K, with HDR integration. It looks fantastic.

I'm hoping Production IG will be using more of this in the immediate future. And, hopefully, it's something that will take off within the anime industry in general.

This short looked so good, that it invoked a feeling of a truly revolutionary step forward for the possibilities of the anime medium going forward. I hope this doesn't get 'dismissed' as just a tech demo.

[solarrdadd]

Originally Posted by TheSweetieMan

I made a thread for this a few days ago in the 'TV Shows' sub-forum. I searched Blu-Ray.com to see if a thread had already existed, but the typo in this thread's title would explain why I didn't find anything.

But, yeah... this looks and sounds absolutely spectacular. The art and animation is breathtakingly gorgeous--and there seems to be quite an expansive use of tools used for such a short animation. Almost like it's flexing its creative muscles, showing the potential of anime being natively drawn, rendered and animated, all at 4K, with HDR integration. It looks fantastic.

I'm hoping Production IG will be using more of this in the immediate future. And, hopefully, it's something that will take off within the anime industry in general.

This short looked so good, that it invoked a feeling of a truly revolutionary step forward for the possibilities of the anime medium going forward. I hope this doesn't get 'dismissed' as just a tech demo.

just caught that! Lol!!!!! couldn't change the spelling, Lol when i was actually Sol!

do you have ATMOS? if yes, did you enjoy the soundstage that was produced?

[TheSweetieMan]

Originally Posted by solarrdadd

just caught that! Lol!!!!! couldn't change the spelling, Lol when i was actually Sol!

do you have ATMOS? if yes, did you enjoy the soundstage that was produced?

I do have an Atmos compatible sound bar (the LG SJ9) but I probably can't give you as detailed of feedback as someone with a more theater-based setup could. However, what I heard, and based on other Atmos-compatible tracks on Netflix, I was very happy with it. I'm admittedly more of a video/PQ enthusiast more than anything else; But the combination of the visuals and soundscape, made it very overwhelming and enjoyable to take in.

As I previously stated, I don't want this to just be a tech demo of what anime 'could be'. I truly want to see more artists and studios to recognize the potential of this technology, and begin moving the medium forward in a way that it hasn't been able to in the last ten to fifteen years.

I would give anything to see what someone like Mamoru Oshii, Hideki Anno, Hiroyuki Imaishi, or even Katsuhiro Otomo could do with these tools at their disposal.

It seriously still stings that Satoshi Kon passed away years ago. I imagine the trippy visuals and sound designs he could put together with this stuff would be nothing short of extraordinary.

[cheez avenger]

I watched this over the weekend and it looked and sounded amazing. I am 4K DV/HDR/Atmos compliant, so I was good to go. It does play, more or less, like a proof of concept clip, without much context. I'm hoping Netflix fund this is a series or a feature film. THIS is the future of anime.

[DTG75]

The animation itself was stiff like cheaply animated using flash but digital effects were really good.

[cheez avenger]

This was drawn on tablets and computers. Watch the behind-the-scenes clips. There's one for the animation and one for the atmos mix.

[DTG75]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

This was drawn on tablets and computers. Watch the behind-the-scenes clips. There's one for the animation and one for the atmos mix.

I have seen it but it doesn’t change the fact it looks stiff.

[TheSweetieMan]

I wouldn't say it looks stiff. You can tell specific frames were used to show the higher resolution allowing for better spacing between foreground and background elements.

For instance, when the female character is running horizontally across the frame, that's clearly a technical showcase for presenting how everything has a more natural three-dimensional look to it with animating natively at 4K.

And there's a couple of sequences that have some outright jaw-droppingly gorgeous animation. When that tree monster does battle with the female character's companion, there is some really dynamic stuff going on there. Same thing with the black/purple bird flying across the waves of the ocean, only for that giant mutated shark to come snapping at it. That is about as dynamic as you can get in animation.

And as Cheez mentions, this was done entirely on tablets and computers, with a very limited team. It's not like an entire production staff was used for this short.

This still showcases what the immediate future of anime should be.

[Member-571539]

Originally Posted by TheSweetieMan

This still showcases what the immediate future of anime should be.

Isn’t most anime production already made using computers and tablets?

[TheSweetieMan]

Originally Posted by gloomranger

Isn’t most anime production already made using computers and tablets?

I'm talking about the production workflow.

4K and HDR.

It would be nice to see these tools become widespread within the industry, considering how amazing this short looks.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by gloomranger

Isn’t most anime production already made using computers and tablets?

Nope. Most animators still draw on paper, which is then scanned and composited digitally on a computer.

Yes, some animators- mostly the webgen animators- do draw via tablet, but the vast majority use paper.

[professorwho]

I watched it, in 1080p SDR because I remembered I'm not subscribed for UHD HDR, and I was surprised how ugly it looked. Honestly, the main artwork wasn't that great, and several shots looked like they were animated as minimally as adult animated shows on Western TV. Looking at the credits, only two people were credited for key animation, so it makes sense.

Now, I'm going to download the HDR10 ProRes file and see how it looks on my 4K TV, but I doubt the HDR will be as striking as Cobra.

[vallimar]

I didn't find this to be that impressive. It's rather short, even for a tech demo. It felt mainly like they were just throwing out colours and 3-D animation. It just really lacked cohesion. The colours had some pop in HDR, but the actual animation wasn't anything impressive and the character model was actually sub-par.

Most of Love, Death + Robots was far more impressive. I would even say the stuff that Polygon Pictures is doing already surpasses what this is trying to demonstrate.