Live2D Euclid Gives 2D Anime A 3D Body To Swivel In

[Hellravager]

Not sure if this is the right spot but yea lets do this. Wall of text incoming, thoughts?

Source: http://www.siliconera.com/2015/01/02...-to-swivel-in/

Japanese software developer DigInfo has released a video showing off the features of its new animation technology software Live2D Euclid which, simply put, brings 2D illustrations to life in 3D space.

To demonstrate the capabilities of Live2D Euclid, DigInfo used an anime character that has been drawn by an illustrator in 2D, which the technology then renders in 360-degrees while maintaining the drawing’s original characteristics at all angles. The issue that Live2D Euclid specifically solves, then, is the downgrade in the quality of 2D illustrations when realized as a 3D model.

“Imaginary, creative ideas unique to 2D, where you can draw freely, couldn’t be reproduced in 3D,” said Tetsuya Nakajo, DigInfo’s CEO. “For example, you couldn’t make the corners of Astro Boy’s hair look good from all angles. My vision is to make Live2D into a tool that enables even movies to incorporate things that couldn’t easily be done by hand or in 3D, like the ink-drawing touches of the manga Vagabond.”

Live2D has been around since 2009 allowing for 2D illustrations to maintain the integrity of the artist’s original drawing when translated to 3D models (the company has even collaborated on Hatsune Miku projects before). However, its use has been limited as before it was only capable of moving 2D drawings through 30-degrees horizontally. This new Euclid system, as said, allows for a full 360-degrees.

This means that, where Live2D has been great for producing more dynamic visual novels before, it should now be open to a wider range of uses, especially in full 3D games and perhaps interactive anime, and definitely in use with the Oculus Rift for virtual reality games.

DigInfo's next target is to allow for 2D illustrations to be moved vertically so that they can be viewed from the top and the bottom, as well as spun horizontally.

[Edge-]

Waifu simulator ahoy. I guess there may be a reason to get a Rift after all : 3

[Medusa Cascade]

Bye bye real life.

[Terahertz]

Yesh... Yeshhh..! My future waifu and laifu is near! *snort*

[Remilia]

Welp, where's the Oculus Rift / Morpheus.

[Baelic]

You can tell when the software switches mesh to keep the illusion of a 3D object. Not sure why you don't just use 3D models for 3D while keeping 2D for 2D.

[Deleted]

Not sure if I'm going to regret this or not but can someone explain to me the whole waifu thing?

Having never watched anime or followed Japanese culture in any real detail it's a bit lost on me.

[Voltarus]

This is the reason we've born. The reason why this age is the superior one.

The glorious waifu age will start soon.

[stellvia]

This is a bit disingenuous I would think, as you have to imagine it will still take a decent amount of tweaking to work properly. At the very least, a front and back illustration, while then tweaking the seams on the profile view. To say nothing of needing to adjust the mesh deformation for body type of characters.

I would assume this is what Compile Heart used, or at least a similar technique, for their Neptunia games. Character dialogues involved mesh-deformed 2D illustrations.

Still, if its affordable, I could definitely see using this on game design projects. I've been dreading the idea of all the hours that would be required to properly learn Z-Brush and Maya, or the cost involved in hiring a 3D modeling artist.

[JohnBrown1917]

W-will my waifu become reality?