DIO Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 If I just draw Lobster's basic armor design it's not too bad, even with the intricacies of the layer--although mind, I'm more of a painter and I usually just sketch out the shapes and then blob colors everywhere and I work quite differently from kozaki, who's more line-focused. But I'd imagine a lot of the more intricate details might be simplified down a bit. I'd cry if I have to draw like, 6? 10? Hoshido symbols in all of those panels involving Ryouma. Maybe he'll just save the super detailed version for closeup shots and leave it as simple circles otherwise, for one example I guess. http://40.media.tumblr.com/607466c770473a97563a9c80be119ed4/tumblr_nribicA50M1rgeqp5o5_500.png This is a sketchier version of what I'm talking about, anyway. That wasn't too painful to draw, though I'd imagine it'd be more so when you need to have clean lines. Compare to http://cuniculosus.tumblr.com/post/123284060121/in-ryoumas-3rd-route-support-with-elise-they, where I went the full way, it's much simpler to deal with, at least. Or he can be a more masochistic/with even more professionalism/idk and actually draw every one of those Hoshido emblems in. I personally wouldn't, but I'm not Kozaki, after all. I've experimented with painter-based artwork but I favor line focusing like Kozaki. I think you're right that some of the more detailed work like shading or folds will be simplified or outright erased, but yeah; who knows what kind of level of punishment/professionalism Kozaki will aim for.... Looking through your art makes me wish that part of the manga will involve making streamlined chapters of in-game supports (C-A condensed to like six or so panels with light or no dialogue, just showing the progression of the basic platonic support). I think that would nice supplementary material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor Odinson Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 I've experimented with painter-based artwork but I favor line focusing like Kozaki. I think you're right that some of the more detailed work like shading or folds will be simplified or outright erased, but yeah; who knows what kind of level of punishment/professionalism Kozaki will aim for.... Looking through your art makes me wish that part of the manga will involve making streamlined chapters of in-game supports (C-A condensed to like six or so panels with light or no dialogue, just showing the progression of the basic platonic support). I think that would nice supplementary material. That would be a fun thing to have, yeah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nocturnal YL Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Nice find! I'm glad to hear Kozaki's enthusiasm towards his work, FE or otherwise. Fire Emblem, où sa mission se limitait à dessiner les protagonistes sans pour autant en créer les armures I wish he could be able to work on the finer details, outfit and all. I do enjoy those Twitter pics he posted. J’ai aussi du créer beaucoup de nouvelles classes de personnages pour cet opus, auxquelles j’ai décidé de donner une touche de tradition japonaise, qui me tient particulièrement à cœur. Cependant, ce n’est pas parce que j’ai travaillé sur ce jeu que je ne peux plus l’apprécier, c’est même plutôt le contraire ; Je peux vraiment m’investir dans les personnages que j’ai créés moi-même. ​I've warmed up a bit to the Japanese-styled part, but I still like the European-inspired stuff better. Maybe because I've been with the series for so long that I'm used to the more traditional designs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NekoKnight Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Here's the artwork of various characters from his twitter account. ...I'm on the side of "Blame the art director" and not Kozaki, especially after seeing these. *Raises hand* Holy shorts, those outfits are fantastic. They actually look like clothes people would wear instead of fetish outfits. There are instances where I will accept somewhat unpractical designs on units if it makes them distinct and stylistic, such as pegasus knights, but I'd have much greater respect for the series if they followed the art design of Kozaki for the outfits. This artwork is gorgeous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 I just handed out a batch of warns that Integrity missed. They are a FRACTION of the points I could possibly give. If I see any complaints about them, here or in PM, I will automatically give out the rest of the points I could've given out. --- I wanted something better than Google Translate, but eh, that works too. Lucky Chloe got a lot of heat when she was revealed, to the point where Harada jokingly said that she'd be removed from the western versions of the game. Poor Kozaki, having to deal with multiple salty fans! The casual artwork of the characters is REALLY nice, and I'd love to see a cleaned-up version of all of them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aleqious Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) Am I the only person who's not bothered/complaining about the all character designs? I actually think they're pretty nice. Edited July 31, 2015 by Inusitatior Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidellCrimea Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 (Slightly off topic) So the art directors are the one who's responsible for outfit designs, right? Does that mean the awesome Tellius armors weren't designed by Senri Kita herself? God I feel bad for having been giving her way too much credit all these time. :P Anyway, kudos to the Tellius art directors. And Senri too, for drawing such beautiful characters and art works, sprites, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awakener_ Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) Can anyone if possible do a translation of the interview? There really nothing to discuss if we can't understand it. Edited July 31, 2015 by Awakener_ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DIO Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 -snipped- I wanted something better than Google Translate, but eh, that works too. Lucky Chloe got a lot of heat when she was revealed, to the point where Harada jokingly said that she'd be removed from the western versions of the game. Poor Kozaki, having to deal with multiple salty fans! The casual artwork of the characters is REALLY nice, and I'd love to see a cleaned-up version of all of them! The backlash that Lucky Chloe got on some of the site I used to frequent was a disturbing wake-up call to how insane some people can get over these things. I think it's an interesting design and while I don't know if I'll ever get the game, it looks like it would be fun to play as. (Slightly off topic) So the art directors are the one who's responsible for outfit designs, right? Does that mean the awesome Tellius armors weren't designed by Senri Kita herself? God I feel bad for having been giving her way too much credit all these time. :P Anyway, kudos to the Tellius art directors. And Senri too, for drawing such beautiful characters and art works, sprites, etc. The artwork pipeline could've been completely different back then, we don't really know. Can anyone if possible do a translation of the interview? There really nothing to discuss if we can't understand it. Best we have is a Google translate, so we can at least get an idea of what topics were covered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nocturnal YL Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 I can read a very small degree of French. Don't count on me for anything, though. French-to-English Google Translate is actually pretty decent (at least 10 times better than Japanese to English, if anything). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyborgZeta Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 And the fact that he's drawing the Fates manga should mean he'll get more creative freedom on the clothing. Fingers crossed for casual clothes? Hopefully. The casual clothing he drew in the Twitter drawings are pretty nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SapphireFalconWing Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Hopefully. The casual clothing he drew in the Twitter drawings are pretty nice.yeah, I definetly want to see his own armor designs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honey Bunny Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) Here's the artwork of various characters from his twitter account. ...I'm on the side of "Blame the art director" and not Kozaki, especially after seeing these. *Raises hand* Holy crap. I always knew that people were putting their blame in the wrong place, but I didn't expect Kozaki's designs to be that good. Before I was merely lukewarm to him, but now after seeing these you can consider me a fan. Takumi looks freaking awesome there, and if this is the quality we can expect from the manga I'll be sure to pick it up. Plus reading that interview he seems like a really great guy with a lot passion for his work. It's people like him that remind me to not be so lazy, and draw more. (Not that I typically do stop being lazy, but at least I might practice drawing more than once a month.) Edited July 31, 2015 by Honey Bunny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Respite&Nepenthe Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 The artwork on his Twitter is truly beautiful! I really wish the characters' in-game outfits could have been based off of those. The female outfits are refreshingly modest - simple, but quite pleasing to the eye - and the male outfits go beyond "muh battle armor" or the "sexy sorc gear." I was never offended by the character design, but this makes me a true fan of his work. Regarding the interview, he seems like a surprisingly cool dude! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The DanMan Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 First of all, the credit to collecting the artwork in one place and first posting it on this forum goes to Thane; I just copied what he posted in the Release Hype thread. And yep, Kozaki definitely seems passionate about his work. The complaints about Lucky Chloe's design are quite ridiculous, considering the same series has had fighters that are (a) a Siberian Grizzly, (b) two genetically altered Kangaroos, and © a velociraptor. I used to be part of the Kozaki hatedom, and I feel preeetty bad for that now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just call me AL Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) Holy shorts, those outfits are fantastic. They actually look like clothes people would wear instead of fetish outfits. There are instances where I will accept somewhat unpractical designs on units if it makes them distinct and stylistic, such as pegasus knights, but I'd have much greater respect for the series if they followed the art design of Kozaki for the outfits. This artwork is gorgeous.Amen. It makes me sad that Kozaki himself wasn't the Art Director. The twitter artwork definitely shows that his art could possibly rival Senri Kita's artwork. Edited July 31, 2015 by Just call me AL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclogia Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) I made an account to post my translation since my tumblr post will be drowned before long. Though from what I saw the translation on page 4 is, as somebody else said, surprisingly decent. [interview] Yûsuke KOZAKI and character-design: create and watch life Known as Kyoko Karasuma's mangaka as well as a character designer for every media, Yûsuke Kozaki was in France last month on the occasion of the Japan Expo. Journal du Japon took the chance to learn more about his approach of character design as well as his work on the Fire Emblem series. Feedback on an interview with a versatile enthusiast. [Kozaki and Aqua pic] Create a character and watch it take life Yûsuke Kozaki works as character designer since almost ten years, most notably in the field of gaming. His approach is both rigorous and personal: "Generally, when I am asked to create a character, I am quickly given his style and personality. So I draw accordingly, and I adjust the character's story with his personality, adding details as I see fit while staying in line with my requirements. However, I only create the character, I never work on animation nor setup." He also took part in a few animes and is the author of several mangas such as the excellent Kyoko Karasuma or Tokyo Karasu, his latest work: "I love the three equally. No matter the media, I foremost love creating characters, that they are given a voice, that they are given life." Which does not prevent him from giving life to his characters of choice himself in participating to Dôjinshi, amateur (sometimes semi-professional) fanzines. This method of publishing has so much success in Japan that a monumental convention takes place twice a year at the Tokyo Big Sight, the Comic Market (aka Comiket). Kozaki explains that "it is an occasion to meet fans (whi isn't possible when I work for editors), and it allows me to publish stuff I usually would not. Outside the Comiket, there are also events celebrating the release of a new game, but it is mainly Twitter that allows me to be in contact with my fans." [Lucky Chloé picture] Video game creation example with Lucky Chloé from the Tekken 7 series: "In her cas, I was asked to integrate a maximum of otaku culture. Therefore I suggested a woman with cat ears and paws, a headphone and who fights doing capoeira. The welcome was rather cold in America by the way. I was ordered an otaku, I did it, but not thinking of what Americans would like. However, it happens that she is rather strong in-game, so I though they maybe would not appreciate that a character representating this side of Japanese culture would be so strong." Finally, Kozaki was on Under The Dog, a crowdfunded anime, method that seems more and more widespread in this field. It is actually an original scenario written in 1997 by Jiro Ishii, Canaan's producer. It is about a reaction force developed by the United Nations to face a group of terrorists responsible of attacks during the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. Under The Dog stands out from the rest of Kozaki's career through his participation as character designer AND mecha designer, which strongly contrasts with his service for Fire Emblem in which he was limited to drawing the protagonists and not create the armors. [i think they mean characters as a whole, it would be rather strange if it was strictly protags] [under The Dog picture] Branded by the scarlet emblem Fire Emblem is a tactical turn-based saga which takes place in a medieval-fantastic universe. It is the flagship series of development studio Intelligent Systems, the last game of which, Fire Emblem Fates, is the fourteenth installment. In 2012 he became the official character designer of the thirteenth installment, Fire Emblem Awakening, and the series took a prominent place in Kozaki's career overnight. He also took part in the latest installment Fire Emblem Fates. "In front of the multitude of characters I was asked to create, I was very surprised! I was literally breath taken! (laughs) I also had to create many new character classes for this installment, to which I decided to give a touch of Japanese tradition which I hold dear. However, it is not because I worked on this game that I cannot appreciate it anymore, on the contrary; I can really invest myself in the character I myself created. Moreover, the gameplay is really fun and easy to learn, I like it a lot!" [E3 2015 Fates trailer] But can you still be surprised when you drew the entire cast of a game? Kozaki often explains that often, "I rediscover elements I planned in the beginning, not only with Fire Emblem by the way. But I sometimes also marvel when watching the characters I created evolve, or when I discover new plot points and the impact it has on their personality." Anyway, the adventure is far from finished for Yûsuke Kozaki since he does not hide he has numerous projects in sight: "For instance, I still work on Tokyo Karasu, a large volume is scheduled for next autumn." This series nothing less than fantastic which revolves around an urban legends club and isn't available in France yet. [Kozaki pic] Many thanks to Yûsuke Kozaki for his patience and his kindness, and to his interpret. Edited July 31, 2015 by eclogia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Water Mage Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 A little off topic, but is it true that Kozaki's favorite character is Hinoka? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ycine Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 eclogia, I was actually translated it. But you did a Fine Good work on this. Très bien joué, monsieur/madame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclogia Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) I thought it was way too good for google translate but there were some things that were left and I only skimmed through it, so when google was mentioned later I assumed that was it. I apologize deeply. I took some of your phrases when I didn't know how to word things, your translation was pretty nice! Thank you! *bows* (Mademoiselle ;p ) Edited July 31, 2015 by eclogia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrimeanRoyalKnight Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 A little off topic, but is it true that Kozaki's favorite character is Hinoka? Yep, and IIRC she's the one he enjoyed designing the most. Thank you for the translation by the way, eclogia. Really appreciated! It was a nice read, his passion is authenthic, but I still don't think his style fits FE. His colors are very cold, and his figures are so sharp, I can't see it work well for fantasy (especially the very sober fantasy of Fire Emblem), only for a modern setting or a sci-fi one. I hope he doesn't stick around forever :/ but it seems his style is the new face of the series... oh well, that's too bad for me, I guess. But really, I want to see a new artist for the next FE, someone who uses warmer colors, please, lol. His FE drawings on pixiv are very cute though, I must say. Is that FE1 rabbit-teeth Abel he drew?? That's rather awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceBuster573 Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) Seeing this divide between Kozaki and the art director for Awakening and Fates (?) always reminds me of that Iwata Asks Interview for Awakening where Masahiro Higuchi (who's been with the series since Genealogy) said this about the new art direction: Yes. But the changes were like never before, so I actually held my head, plopped down, and was like, "Are you sure we want to put that in?!" http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/fire-emblem/0/0 I don't think Toshiyuki Kusakihara has been credited yet for Fates though. Edited July 31, 2015 by IceBuster573 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Laufeyson Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Here's the artwork of various characters from his twitter account. ...I'm on the side of "Blame the art director" and not Kozaki, especially after seeing these. *Raises hand* Gosh, Camilla and Charlotte tho. I have only seen a couple of these so some of these i havent seen before. My headcanon of Camilla being fond of alcohol is canon! Looks like he really was trying to create these characters with a lot of life in them, but was held back by what the art director wanted. Am I the only person who's not bothered/complaining about the all character designs? I actually think they're pretty nice. Nah. Im ok with like 99% of them tbh. But i also understand why people are complaining about them. Some of the designs really dont make a lick of sense. While i may not be arsed, others are because they are tired of seeing the same old BS rigmarole of nonsensical representation. I cant really blame them? Silencing those voices is less than productive. Im actually fond of his style, Kozaki. I hope he gets to design for FE to his fullest potential in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacybele Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Yeah those Twitter designs are pretty neat, but why is Charlotte in a dress? I mean, I know Lissa wore a dress too, but she was a healer... Charlotte is a Fighter, right? I don't think a Fighter would wear a dress. xP Takumi looks eh to me though. I like his official design more, to be honest... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carefreejules Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 (edited) Yeah those Twitter designs are pretty neat, but why is Charlotte in a dress? I mean, I know Lissa wore a dress too, but she was a healer... Charlotte is a Fighter, right? I don't think a Fighter would wear a dress. xP Takumi looks eh to me though. I like his official design more, to be honest... I'm pretty sure they aren't supposed to be dressed for battle. I think Kozaki wanted to draw them wearing outfits on their down time; when they aren't in battle. I think it's charming because we get to see the characters outside of the battlefield because walking around with tons of armor looks a bit exhausting. Edited August 1, 2015 by carefreejules Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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