by FilmInk Staff
Blackmagic Cloud workflow and scripting streamline post production.
Blackmagic Design announce that the television series Neko Oji: The Guy That Got Reincarnated as a Cat, broadcast on Fuji TV affiliates in Japan, was edited and finished using DaVinci Resolve Studio and the Blackmagic Cloud workflow.
Neko Oji: The Guy That Got Reincarnated as a Cat is a short anime series based on the manga of the same name currently serialized on X. The heartwarming comedy follows a middle aged office worker who is suddenly reincarnated as a kitten and ends up being taken in and doted on by the president of the company where he once worked.
Animation production was handled by Studio Eight Colors in Kochi Prefecture. Editor Nao Omachi from Noovo Inc. worked remotely from Tokyo together with the director.
“The director wanted to build the project around a cloud based workflow, so we decided to use Blackmagic Cloud,” said Omachi. “I first created a project library on Blackmagic Cloud and shared clear rules with the staff regarding media management. Studio Eight Colors created the video storyboard in DaVinci Resolve, which we were then able to share via Blackmagic Cloud.”
Once the video storyboard was completed, the team moved into the cutting stage. Since the voice recording had not yet been completed, Omachi and the director adjusted the timing of each cut by reading the dialogue aloud while playing back the timeline. After recording, the voice tracks were added to the DaVinci Resolve timeline for further precise timing adjustments.
“While the voice recording process was underway, Studio Eight Colors shared colour animation materials with us. I placed those on the timeline and continued refining the edit,” Omachi explained.
Because preparatory work was carried out at Omachi’s home rather than at the studio, the benefits of Blackmagic Cloud became even more apparent. His Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini 8TB network storage solution at home was synchronized with the studio’s Blackmagic Cloud Pod network storage solution, and the team accessed the shared project library through Blackmagic Cloud, enabling seamless collaboration regardless of location.
“While I was on a business trip in Kyoto, I suddenly received a request to replace some cuts. Fortunately, I had the media on an SSD with me, so I connected to the hotel Wi-Fi, opened the project, and was able to make the changes immediately,” Omachi said.
To match the cat themed world of the series, the team also created custom transitions.
“I designed wipes based on paw prints and cat face shapes in the Fusion page. I created the shapes as SVG vector data, imported them into DaVinci Resolve as paths, and used them as masks. By using Fusion’s Anim Curve, the motion maintains a natural sense of speed even if the transition duration changes, so I barely needed to use keyframes.”
The 48 episode series required a highly efficient workflow. To avoid repetitive tasks, Omachi also implemented custom scripts.
“Materials delivered by the compositors include an eight frame slate containing information such as the cut and take numbers. Since that portion isn’t needed during editing, I wrote a script that automatically sets an in point at frame eight and an out point at the end of each clip in the open bin. This automated a simple but repetitive task. I used several other scripts as well to streamline the editing process.”
“Because the series has so many episodes, I created templates for transitions and the ending sequence, and customized DaVinci Resolve extensively using scripts. Its flexibility allowed us to build a workflow that was perfectly suited to this project,” Omachi concluded.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com/au.
