I love this style of animation,  and i'm trying to guess how they did it,  some of it is obviously 2D -  which could be done with CTA -  but some of it looks 2 1/2 D in that the characters look like they have a little depth -  like if you took a 3D character and flattened it in iclone

what tools / approach would you use to recreate this video ?    -  I already have an idea of how to do it,  but I want to be open minded and see how others think / analyze it.  I'm trying to do this with iclone tools only (vegas and hitfilm for post )-  i'm pretty sure this video was done in adobe after effects.

to me it's just ultimately looks like mixed media,  some concept art,  some game engine, some 2d and lots of compositing,  what has me unsure is the 2.5D look where i can't tell if it's a 3D character mixed with 2D footage or a specially lit 2D character.

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This is done in a compositing software.  Probably After Effects, but it could also have been done in Nuke or Fusion.  Advantage of the first is that it's easier to use the advantage of the other two is that they support 3D objects, though you don't need that to do this.  You can do this with flat 3d plates in AE.  These are all just animated paintings and there is some matte painting with photographs too.  Here is a good book on how to do this:
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Matte-Painting-Handbook/dp/0470922427

For some reason it's really expensive now.  If you search youtube you'll also find a lot of good videos on Matte painting.  The tools you'll need are:
Some painting software like Procreate for ipad.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe After Effects

oh ya,  I love matte painting -  what i especially enjoy about this video is the mixed media aspect of it,  truly artistic work of blending everything to make one video-  i'm really just trying to share some art that I find fascinating that has a ton of techniques and mixed media created by some of the best cg artists in the game industry -  I found it inspiring and wanted to share that
some of those techniques are hard to pinpoint, i suppose there's an AE plug in for everything,  but i don't have ae and I'm trying to come up with different techniques to get that look ( it's how i learn more techniques )....for example I have a software I got from a humble bundle package -  sprite illuminator that gives sprites that 2.5d look



a matte painting I made with mixed media

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Wow, that truly is a work of art.
It had a little bit of everything in there, Mattes, 2D, 3D, Particle Effects and lots of compositing and very detailed drawings.
Thanks for sharing.

Jeff



Get my Plugin Manager and TaskNotes plugins for iClone.
Check out EZColors and Other products for CTA/CA. EZColors: the easy way to change Render Styled (RS) colors!
See my CTA Tutorials on the YouTube channel CTAStepByStep

Yes, it could be achieved by compositing. After effect , hitfilm , combined with green screen video. Great work on this video, a real artist.


     

My pleasure,  I can see this done with CTA and Iclone -  but the real artistry is how they put it all together to make a story. - they made simple things look epic,  i can imitate the looks but the overall vision of how it was assembled is intimidating to me lol

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Yes, I agree, but also with some Hitfilm and Particle Illusion (or PFx) thrown in.

Definitley!

Very intimidating.

Jeff



Get my Plugin Manager and TaskNotes plugins for iClone.
Check out EZColors and Other products for CTA/CA. EZColors: the easy way to change Render Styled (RS) colors!
See my CTA Tutorials on the YouTube channel CTAStepByStep

As an alternative to AE you could use Natron:
https://natrongithub.github.io/
Natron is (as far as I know) a free clone of Nuke.
Blender also has a compositor built in and is also free:
https://www.blender.org/

Drawback is that Blender and Nuke (and I suppose Natron have a steep learning curve)

You can also use Fusion which is now part of DaVinci Resolve:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion/
There is a free version with some exceptions, but the full version is reasonably priced and its a one-time fee with free upgrades from there on.  No monthly payments like Adobe.
I'm disagreeing with Charly Rama though.  There is no green screen footage in this.  The only time you shoot green screen is to composite a live shot with another background.  I do not see any live shots in there.  It's all painted and some is matte painting utilizing some photographs.  No live action that was for chroma keying in this at all.  The compositing of this is actually very simple and easy to do.  The hard part is all the painted content.

thank you cinemy!    One of my hobbies is exploring off broadway type softwares, Natron looks really interesting!  I do the same with music.  It helps build a unique toolset that can give you a signature look ( or sound ).

Last I heard Nuke has a free version https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke/non-commercial   as does davinci-  but from the few tutorials I've seen it's learning curve is a time eater. I'm using hit film,  and mainly the plug ins it has for Vegas at that -  https://fxhome.com/hitfilm-express  truth be told I avoid the time consuming things because my first goal is music,  and I started learning cg / animation to have an art department lol   

My current style is focused on drafting up nice looking ideas fast "Good enough" - i can certainly get into more detail but I haven't seen an occasion for it yet.   So far I've made it a point to develop more techniques than mastering any one software,  there's still more in iclone I haven't even begun to touch yet -  videos and - thought exercises like this thread help me figure out what techniques to use or learn -  basically training my eyes to notice details I'd need to recreate.   What i really want to learn from this video in particular - is the creative style of how they put everything together,  not so much the technical but the way they took simple stuff and presented it to look larger than life -  it's hard to pinpoint because part of the coolness of that video is pure editing and how they arranged the shots.   -  like if you watched that video and called out what software or technique to use as it plays out ...it would probably sound like   -   2d animation over matte painting, crossfade with an overlay,  particle effect in 3D,  particle effect in overlay,  2D,  crossfade with overlay to game engine 3D over matte painting -   I get dizzy just trying to map that out lol!!

I've seen behind the scenes footage from arena net in how they make these videos,  in the end it's the sum of a very talented art department each chipping in parts and ideas. in reality we are watching the sum creation of a small army of very creative minds. 
A lot to learn from simply guessing how they made each shot and our own methods of how we could create same.

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I’m fine editing in DaVinci Resolve and also color grading.  Fusion and Fairlight inside Resolve I have not mastered yet but as a musician I’d assume you’d be fine with Fairlight as it’s “just” another DAW.  It’s my understanding that if you know Fusion you will also know how to work Nuke as the node system is similar.  You can get a full license of DaVinci Resolve on eBay for less.  Since Blackmagic gives away the licenses with their cameras a lot of people have extra than and sell them online.  You can even purchase a license that’s half a decade old, re-register it under your name and do lo the latest version.  That’s what I did.  The only thing is that Resolve needs a beefy video card.  Preferably Nvidia but I’d assume you have that as you are working with animation.