A Study of One Piece Animation

[Crossword]

I'm back, with caps from the latest episode, done by Masahiro Shimanuki. I'm nowhere near as familiar with him as I am with the more well-known animators, as he's only done three other episodes solo, but I didn't find his stuff bad. Wouldn't mind seeing more of him in the future. Also, no Heavy Point Chopper in this set; you'll have to make due with his disgustingly cute, heavily-marketable form. Appreciate this, because I had to sit through the Straw Hats' horribly low standards of humor multiple times to get these! (Not a fan of Brook being a loon. Sorry.)

Shimanuki:

Spoiler:

Week after next we have a guest animation director, Yukiko Nakatani. According to ANN, she's worked on Binbou Shimai Monogatari, a slice-of-life show in 2006, and Hakujaden, which is a movie from 1958. Which would mean that she's around 70.

[o-chan]

I'm back, with caps from the latest episode, done by Masahiro Shimanuki. I'm nowhere near as familiar with him as I am with the more well-known animators, as he's only done three other episodes solo, but I didn't find his stuff bad. Wouldn't mind seeing more of him in the future. Also, no Heavy Point Chopper in this set; you'll have to make due with his disgustingly cute, heavily-marketable form. Appreciate this, because I had to sit through the Straw Hats' horribly low standards of humor multiple times to get these! (Not a fan of Brook being a loon. Sorry.)

Shimanuki:

Spoiler:

http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/5430/msluffyzd5.jpg http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8816/mszorock9.jpg http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/9126/msnamiwf1.jpg http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/3640/msusoppzz9.jpg http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/6/mssanjien2.jpg http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/6...chopperke0.jpg http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/6172/msrobinlw3.jpg http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6516/msfrankyfw9.jpg

Week after next we have a guest animation director, Yukiko Nakatani. According to ANN, she's worked on Binbou Shimai Monogatari, a slice-of-life show in 2006, and Hakujaden, which is a movie from 1958. Which would mean that she's around 70.

I just finished the episode (and I'm rewatching 380 because I'm ADDICTED to Bink's Sake) and his work is pretty consistent with some Ide-ness to his style. So next week we're getting a vetran newbie from the caps I've seen his style looks nice but seriously...hot springs, a waterpark, and Foxy?!

I'll return soon to finish the rest of the animators I'm working on a few art projects right now before my college campus town closes down and I don't have access to Photoshop for a few weeks.

O-chan

[XMURADX]

If I'm right about the rota being 2 good, 2 bad...Then I think the guest supervisor is gonna be good.

[Crossword]

Actually, this week we have Ide (who's apparently begun to incorporate Tate-esque movement in his work), and then the week afterwards, the 27th, we have Nakatani.

[XMURADX]

I know...Indeed the preview looked promising with nice animation.
Ide's improvement is not because of him, but because there is new animators who are working under him. Even Inoue have new animators who are working under him and you saw the result of the improvement in his Thriller Bark episodes.
Plus the budget have increased.

Supervisors that saw major improvement in TB:
Eisaku Inoue = Great improvement, specially to animation and details (347)
Naoki Tate = Great improvement in animation (369).
Takeo Ide = Great improvement in animation, his art is still average (373).
Masayuki Takagi = Great improvement in animation (370)
Masayuki Fujita = Animation improvement, his art still sucks (372).
Kazuya Hisada = Animation improvement, his art degraded a bit in 374 but saw major animation improvement. (346)
Kenji Yokoyama = Little improvement to his animation. Art is still the same.

Naoki Murakami = his art is decent but his animation is still really bad.

So, TB Animation have really improved compared to previous arcs of One Piece, ignoring some ugly episodes at the middle, but they were not that important anyway.

What One Piece lacks at the moment is great art. The absence of Katsumi Ishizuka is really worrying me. Since He is the one who did the last 2 openings.

[Crossword]

All right, new animator. Yukiko Nakatani, who did 383. Her style is best described as a watered-down version of Tate mixed with Inoue's shading and boobs. Tate was also a key animator for this episode, which explains why Luffy's Gigant Ax looked like it was 100% Tate.

Nakatani

Spoiler:

[img=http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9981/ynchopperdi3.jpg]

There weren't any good shots of Chopper at all, so I had to make due with what I got. Same with Robin, though she came out better. There was another shot of Sanji that I wanted, but I couldn't find it, so I gave up and went with what I had.

[Chibi Luffy]

Wow you guys are all amazing. I have noticed a ton of variations within how the characters look. And it's always strange watching flashbacks. I like the way the art has evolved though. Especially Luffy.

Okay, so sometimes, I don't know specifically when, Robin is drawn so strangely. Like her forehead grew or the top of her head. That bothers me a lot.

I'd like learn more about this. Haha, I had no idea how animation worked in most anime and that the animators switch between episodes.

[XMURADX]

I hate it when people nitpick about Naoki Tate and say Fujita have better art and animation than him...

Looks like the majority of One Piece fans have no idea about animation.

[Crossword]

Okey doke, we had a new guy for 387, Shigefumi Shingaki. Will he stay, or is he just another one-shot wonder? I hope he sticks around. He wasn't bad and had some good expressions. He used some noticeably jagged lines, and Luffy and Usopp looked a bit scrawny without their shirts at times.

Anyway, there weren't any good shots of mini-Chopper, so there's just Heavy Point in here. He looked like a plush toy though. More than usual.

Shingaki:

Spoiler:

Next week we have Takagi, and I haven't taken any caps from him yet, so I guess he'll be next. Then I get a nice break~

[Psycho_Kenshiro]

I have a question about One Piece art/animation quality in general.

I have up to episode 339 from various groups, ending with VegaPunk. It all looks good.

Then, starting with 340 I've watched subs from Instantz and Nakama. I notice starting with 340 the lines all look much thinner, and less smooth. Everything looks a bit more "high contrast" in general.

I've currently downloaded up to around 370, and I've noticed from both of those groups that this somewhat diminished quality is still there, with the thinner odd looking lines. It's sort of like the lines before looked smooth, like they were on the "anti-aliased" setting in Photoshop. Now they look jagged, the lines looking like they are not anti-aliased, so to speak.

Anyone know if this is a problem with the raw files the groups are using, or if this is just a change that happened with the art between episode 339 and 340?

It's just interesting that this change in art quality also coincided with a change in sub group.

Thanks.

[Goten2255]

i had no idea on so many teams and head animators worked on each epsiode wow thats really awesome.

anyways yeah i noticed that One Piece once it went to HD it became more brighter and more usage of colors.

i also have to wonder when does this change happens from the regular style to the wonderful colorful bright almost movie quality HD and was this a good change or not?

also was this also a change because of Oda's art style has improved i heard something about that?

i am sorry for the many questions but this impressed me.

[Crossword]

Anyone know if this is a problem with the raw files the groups are using, or if this is just a change that happened with the art between episode 339 and 340?

It's just interesting that this change in art quality also coincided with a change in sub group.

Hm, if there's a contrast difference, I'm going to guess it has to do with the RAW used. While I'm not familiar with the technical terminology, I think I get what you mean about the jagged lines. I'm going to guess that it's because Vegapunk uses the HDTV quality RAWs, while Nakama Fansubs and Instantz used the regular HQ RAWs. We usually get multiple RAWs each week, some better than others. I suppose they just took the first decent-looking one availible.

I'm sorry if this doesn't help or is confusing. This isn't my area of expertise.

On the art front though, I can answer without trouble. 339 was done by Masayuki Fujita, while 340 was done by Masayuki Tagaki (Whom I have yet to add here...), and Tagaki is the stronger of the two. Though really, the beginning of Thriller Bark wasn't drawn all that well all across the board, if I recall.

[Psycho_Kenshiro]

It's kind of subtle, but here's a comparison, episode 339 on the left and episode 340 on the right. Looking at the lines on Nami's nose for example, much more jagged in 340 and beyond, for whatever reason.

[Crossword]

Okay, that definitely looks like differences in RAW quality to me.

[Psycho_Kenshiro]

Someday there'll be a giant Treasure Chest boxset of the entire series, and I'll buy it.

[goty]

Yeah, 340 was definitely better looking than 339. There's obviously some quality issues in the 2nd pic. It's not the encode, but probably due to different codecs.

[Psycho_Kenshiro]

They both use the H264 codec, and are 1280x720. 339 definitely looks a lot better than 340 though.

I hope if Vegapunk catches up, they use their magic to make these episodes look as good.

[goty]

They both use the H264 codec, and are 1280x720. 339 definitely looks a lot better than 340 though.

I hope if Vegapunk catches up, they use their magic to make these episodes look as good.

This is how subbed 340 looks here:

Spoiler:

and raw pics by Crossbones

Spoiler:

Both art and animation are easily better than on 339, there's not even comparison really. Judging by the pic you posted, the issue could be on your end.

[Psycho_Kenshiro]

I'm just comparing the release of 339 from Vegapunk to the release of 340 by Instantz.

The implication I'm thinking here is that Instantz uses worse RAW files than Vegapunk does, or they just don't re-encode them as well.

Since all of the groups use the H264 codec for their HD releases, there's no way my personal configuration would make one group's releases look better than the others. The problem is not on my end. I don't have a problem, honest.

Also, I blew up the pictures in that comparison to make the jaggy effect on the nose in 340 that I was talking about more noticeable, which is also how they'd look fullscreen on my monitor. Here's a straight up comparison, it's subtle I know, but the difference is there:

Spoiler:

339 from Vegapunk



340 by Instantz

I'm not saying the new releases are terrible or anything, but the thin lines just don't look as good as they do in Vegapunk's releases for whatever reason.

[XMURADX]

396: Tate (A)
397: Takagi (B)
398: Fujita (D)
399: Shimanuki (C)
400: Yokoyama (C)

Back to average and bad animation...Just right when the action starts. -_-

Credits to Geg.