¥akuza - Tuning
”Tuning” is the first single off of Yakuza’s debut LP “Ailleron”.
The band wanted to explore old arcade aesthetics and mix it with other gaming and anime references.
Their instrumental sound gave space for a lot of directions and the deadline allowed for a good amount of time to develop the visual style.
I was responsible for the full production of the music video, from narrative, through 3d animation, to final edit.
CONCEPT
The initial references for the project were Time Crisis, for the arcade aesthetic, and Initial D, for the “out there” energy and feel of the anime.
Nostalgic visuals and references wouldn’t suffice to maintain the viewer’s attention, so from there I created a simple narrative to span the 6 minutes of music.
After the general narrative is set, I move on to the traditional 3D pipeline of modeling, rigging, animating, …
TECHNIQUE
All 3D modeling, animation and rendering is done in Cinema4d.
Intro illustration and animation is done with Illustrator + After Effects.
Texturing with Photoshop, final editing with Premiere Pro.
The retro-arcade aesthetic is achieved by:
- No Anti-Aliasing, to preserve pixelated edges.
- 3D Rendering in a small resolution native to old arcade machines (512x384)
- Low-poly modeling and small texture resolutions
- Other video-game trickery, such as “cross-plane” trees.
