So now that I'm home, I can talk a bit more about the
FMP IV PV and how my reaction is a bit different after seeing it multiple times. I figure I should correct some things for the record. Also people can actually see the frames I'm talking about. First off, I was wrong about Kurtz's hair looking like Mio, from Keijo.
I think the color correction for that projector in LP3 (where Funimation's panel was) was off. The yellows look more normal than I remembered from the first night. The coloring looks more like Argevollen than anything to do with Keijo.
Some of the shots such as above look better than I thought, I again blame it on the projector. Mostly because it seemed more blown out than it really is. Not that the shot is still particularly good but it's less flat and has more shadows than I initially reported. I just wanted to clear that up.
These were the shots I was thinking of when I said the backgrounds look worse compared to TSR. The textures on the building look kind of low resolution and the books seem kind of generic in the background. I understand modern settings are hard to do but I was hoping for a bit more. There looks to be more CGI in the backgrounds and I'm not really that enthused about it.
This shot looked good though so hopefully the art director steps it up a bit. I'm hoping this isn't a scenario where the character art and mecha animation look great but the backgrounds are poor.
Character art is about the same caliber as TSR. The hair designs are a bit softer and less angular. I like the redesigns except for Kyouko. RIP bae Kyouko. I have to see how the character animation holds up though. I skimmed through TSR and there is a LOT of great character animation. There was a good cut of Kaname shaking her head in the PV so maybe that might turn out ok.
I wasn't joking about that Arbalest shot.There's no way Xebec's mecha team can keep this level especially when it gets action heavy. Animators will die. That Arbalest shot is Unicorn tier. I'm wondering if that shot of Tessa and the Arbalest is CG though, it sort of looks like it. It'll probably be more apparent when it starts moving. I'm curious whether Nishii is going to save the 2D cuts for closeups and CG for the action scenes or just try and touch up everything with 2D and just use the CG for the underlying models. I want to believe but goddamn there's no way they could keep that level for a TV show.
On a final note mecha-wise, the Tuatha is no longer embarrassing. It took three studios to finally get it right.
I guess they did have an UI shot in there. The color scheme looks like it's from the UI in Fafner and somewhat does look like Takashi Aoki. Aoki is almost certainly working on the show so that's no surprise, the big question is again whether he's director of photography.
It's amazing that I've seen a PV and I still don't know how this will turn out. It doesn't look as scrubby as I initially thought it did but I'm still worried about the background art.
