x10 Studio & Fusion Studio Bring Monster Hunter 4G’s World to Life

At the studio, which works on commercials, games and anime, and carries out services for exhibition and projection mapping, co-founder and CGI directorAstushi Matsumotosaid, “Because the director of the project wanted to reveal the hunters’ enthusiasm for hunting, this time we tried to depict more ordinary aspects of their life, such as eating and drinking beer together.”

In order to improve the team’s efficiency, Astushi built a workflow that involved making various types of basic composites for each shot in the early stages of production to help the designers visualize the final look, so that they would be better prepared for last minute changes. For example, a colour image was made for all shots. After adding CG lighting, Astushi would ceate the room or environment in Fusion Studio with light sources of different colour temperatures.

Then later, when the animatics were complete, he created a base composite for each shot that was based on the animatics. While one designer was creating CG for a shot, he could update the composite data using CG material from the other designers, which meant everyone could share work on the looks of the final composite. “For sizzle shots of the hunters eating meat, for example, I imported the CG of the meat with animation as anFBX file, and added shading and lighting in Fusion,” Astushi said.

“In one scene, light sources from the ceiling lit objects in a room. Because I hadFBX files of camerasfor all shots, I could use Fusion’svolume maskto adjust the position of those CG cameras,” he said. “With this workflow, we could concentrate on the more creative side of the work. This has major advantages for a small studio like ours.”