Uhh...hup!
Hey Monty.
Hey Miles.
How ya doin'?
Pretty good. Whatcha doing?
Uh, well, I heard that today's RWBY production diary
was going to be focusing on artwork and such
so I figured I'd make a masterpiece of my own.
Why don't you tell the audience a little bit about what we're gonna be seeing today.
That's right.
This week, we're going to be focusing on concept, design, and modeling.
Miles: We're also going to be taking a look back
at Velvet Scarlatina's battle gear design.
Taking it from concept, to modeling, and to places unknown.
-We're really trying to cram art into every second in today's episode -Monty: Yes.
which is why I made this.
It's-- it's team RWBY.
Monty: Beautiful.
Miles: Thank you.
Monty: RWBY as a show, it needs to be a very unique blend of
fantasy and reality, but to keep it slightly above normal design I often add
just a-- a touch of fantasy to them, so it very often lands into, like,
um...contemporary or modern design plus.
Having a winner for the Velvet design contest, we knew that it would be subtle changes
that will compliment her weapon, compliment the rest of her team.
It really works for her 'cause it's very simple.
It's very nice, like, she has the bits of armor and stuff on her that denounce battle
but she's still...delicate, I guess is the way I'd put it.
Velvet's actually a mage
so it makes sense to have that elvish kind of armor to her, that fancy, but
dainty, delicate kind of armor to her.
So it really lends well to her character. Nobody else in the kingdom has an outfit like this.
The only thing we change is the color, 'cause we wanted to have a warmer air about her
so we changed it from green to a brown.
Monty: In considering the rest of her team
I needed something that matched it more, and also
although I really like the original color scheme, it...it was a little too bright for her.
We can build on simplicity, we can make-- and if that simplicity, in the beginning, is great
then there's very little that we do with it.
Monty: It can-- it sustains these minor changes that none of the designers could've anticipated
it's like we know what the character is, we know where we want it to go, we know what she wields.
Yeah, we loved where it was going, so it was just taking us to go
"alright, what can we do to just push it just a bit more to make her what we think of Velvet
and what we think she's gonna be."
So next up we'll be taking this process into actually making the 3D model
which I'm actually-- it's happening right over there.
Right now I'm working on the Velvet model.
We get a concept for the character, though most of it's already there for us
and we just have to translate that into 3D
but it's a 2D image, so when we bring that into 3D we have to make sure that from every angle
that character comes through.
Now that I've layed out all the polygons onto a flat surface
I'm...coloring those polygons in Photoshop.
This screen here is...shows like all the polygons layed out flat and organized into a square texture
'cause each one of those polygons on the flat surface represents a polygon on the 3D model
that way I can just paint on in a flat image and that'll transfer over to the 3d model
and it'll take all the color information from that texture, that flat texture
and show it on the 3D model.
When you look at a design, you have to take into consideration the fact that this person
will also be moving.
Even-- I'd even say to the non-winners of the Velvet design contest, there weren't losers.
There were a lot of winners among them, but there can only be one we choose.
(laughs) So this is what her weapon's gonna be in
we're not showing the weapon yet...'cause--
Patrick: Yeah, no.
You're not gonna see that yet, but we need something--
we need something for her to carry it in.
-The weapon is in the case. -Patrick: Yeah.
Gimme that case right now, just-- maybe a little thinner?
I don't know, it's just like...feels unwieldy. Yeah, that's right.
We talked a LOT about like straps and stuff and like how many pieces like--
Patrick: The belt is just mainly the decorations, we'll put pouches on the belts and stuff like that.
Yeah. Practicality for pouches is always important to me, so maybe she'll have a few pouches?
Patrick: Yeah.
But, the weapon itself, I'd say all--fit--would-- I gonna try my damnedest to fit it all in that box
and she just wears it around her shoulder.
Patrick: The personality doesn't only come from the characters, but it comes from the weapons.
And...the way they lend themselves to each other is...very unique.
The weapons tend to be a pretty big part of RWBY.
People were able to identify very early on unique aspects of some of the weapons.
One of the earliest ideas I had was a
giant, like, high-caliber sniper rifle with a blade attached, where it would use the kick
and when firing the scythe whilst the blade is hooked on an enemy, the kick from the gun would just
you know, take that blade and just like (explosion noise) like pull it through an enemy.
"Whoa! Is that a scythe?"
"It's also a customizable, high-impact sniper rifle."
Monty: The first version of the sniper-scythe is very similar to one of those giant sniper rifles you see in modern day.
I was like, "well, if I just attach a blade to this, I'm gonna get what I want."
The final version of Crescent Rose that you see
I took the barrel-end of it and turned it sideways because it matched the vertical shape of it more?
And so, in it's open form it looks like this. In it's neutral form it folds up to about this.
You know, when I think of the four girls as a team, I almost look at it as if it were an RPG.
So, they compliment each other in that they fill out a bunch of different classes that I would want on my RPG team?
People are gonna see some familiar locations that we visited in volume one, but we've already updated the look a little bit further.
The world of RWBY as a whole has evolved since last volume, it's gonna be kinda neat to see what everybody thinks about that.
Monty: When we had the need to have a concept artist for environments
I had one person in mind, and it was Kristina.
This year you're art director because we need a lot more hands-on and the environments are looking so much better now.
Kristina: I work one-on-one, mostly with the modelers.
It gets the job done really quick 'cause I get to see their progress
and then I can do-- I can ask them to do a really quick color change. If that's not working they can change it
I learned a lot from just...seeing how the modelers work, too, and how they can work with me
so they don't have do to, like, too many big changes.
"Now that you're awake, we can officially begin our first order of business!"
"Decorating!"
My job is to model and texture anything that
that doesn't have to do with characters or creatures
so, basically all buildings, some of the vehicles.
RWBY hits a very unique note where it's an animated show where everything's done in 3D
so I kinda have to, like, find an area where the art can actually sustain the concept.
Just communicate very-- very simply
Monty: Yeah Kristina: not too much distraction in the background
'cause I like to-- in my environment I like to communicate more with just silhouettes and shapes.
The thing that I understood from his less-is-more type design is that, in RWBY
it's very...a flat, but very colorful type of show.
It's not simplistic. In texture-wise, there's no real textures, it's mostly like gradients
and that kinda good stuff so you get all these really
...I guess the word for it is emotional, kind of colors to the show, or into each setting?
César: This is New Vale. The textures have been reworked. This season we decided to
give a little more focus to the characters, so the coloring-- not just in Vale but in the rest of the backgrounds
is, uh, a little more muted. So, whenever you see the characters, the backgrounds aren't gonna be
right in your face along with them.
We also added a lot of, uh, like, holographic assets into the scenes, so we're gonna see, like
holographic traffic lights, and uh, light fixtures and everything.
See, so there's different sections of Vale that we can get into. Like, I think we saw it last year when
Torchwick pulled up a map of Vale. We saw all these districts and stuff like that
so now we'll actually get to go into more of those districts.
Thank you, for joining us for another RWBY Production Diary.
Monty: Yes. Next time we'll be taking a look at the voice acting, animation, and motion-capture process that goes into making the animation for the show.
Miles: It is all very cool, it is all very technical, and it is all something we hope you can enjoy NEXT time!
So tune in again.
Yeaaah!
You guys are messin' up my mo-cap.
You're messin' up my day, Shane.
You're messin' up my day-- you c-- why does he have those?
(laughing) why does he have those?