Animator Recreates a Shot From Sousou no Frieren Opening in 3D

A couple of weeks ago, the second season of Sousou no Frieren, a hit 2023 series and, according to MAL, the best anime of all time, was announced, reinvigorating the community's interest in the adventures of a thousand-year-old elf and prompting many creators to honor the series once again with their incredible artworks.

One such creator was GACCHI, a well-known 3DCG Artist and Rigger, who celebrated the announcement by recreating one of the shots from Sousou no Frieren's first opening in 3D.

Leveraging Maya and a Frieren model made by Hiro, the artist thoroughly reimagined the shot of the main character looking somberly in the distance entirely in 3D. To achieve the natural movement of the character's wind-swept hair, the creator leveraged Hiroyuki Akasaki's boneDynamicsNode, a robust plug-in that lets you easily apply bone dynamics to joint chains in real-time and get smooth dynamic rigs that can shake in a lifelike manner.

The resulting 3D sequence came out so similar to the original 2D animation that one could easily mistake the two if it weren't for an insightful behind-the-scenes demo shared by GACCHI alongside the final piece:

We also invite you to compare the original and the 3D version yourself in order to appreciate GACCHI's recreation even more (timecode 1:22):

Speaking of boneDynamicsNode, previously, the artist also utilized this plug-in to set up an extremely fluid hair rig for a digital model of Fern, which closely resembled the original hairstyle in both appearance and movement:

And if you think that this Frieren model looks familiar, it might be because you saw it back in April when a whopping 32 Animators – ranging from aspiring creators to seasoned veterans – collaborated to produce a short fan-made movie featuring multiple cute and funny 3D animations, all brought to life using Hiro's character rigs and rigged by GACCHI.

You can also take a peek behind the scenes with GACCHI's exclusive breakdown, filled to the brim with insights regarding the animation's production pipeline and the rigging workflows behind the project:

See more of the artist's works here and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.