From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman's Beryl is Scary in 3D
From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman's Beryl Looks Like a Deformed Potato in 3D
YAMATOWORKS' Ryo Tsunoda, Meiya Okuda, and Kaito Kobayashi explained how they warped Beryl's anatomy in 3D to achieve the right expressions in 2D.
YAMATOWORKS 3D team demonstrated their behind-the-scenes lookdev process for several anime titles, including From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman. In the sword battle between Fissel and Beryl, emotions and facial expressions get really intense. In the scene, we see a close-up shot of Beryl screaming in fury, and from a regular 2D anime viewer's perspective, everything looks fine.
However, it looked nothing like the badass expression of pure outrage in 3D. The scene required a whole masterfully arranged battle choreography, so the team used LightWave 3D to create it. Once the artists sculpted the character and started setting up the scene, they realized that the original anatomy failed to deliver the pose and expression they were going for.
Beryl looked awkward, and his expression lacked the rage the scene called for. So, to achieve the desired side profile, they had to tweak the character's anatomy in 3D to have a more powerful facial expression in 2D. To make it happen, the artists distorted some features, and here is what they ended up with.