All posts tagged 26 martyrs

The 26 Martyrs – an exercise in character building.

A digital actor comes to life.

For the visual style of the animated short, “26 Martyrs”, we wanted to take a stylized approach, but we wanted it to have the look and feel of traditional Japanese art. The final designs also incorporated a strong element of contemporary Japanese art inspired by Anime and Magna graphic novels.

Character design was something we spent a lot of time developing, being very conscious that we were telling the story of men that have become icons to many around the world.

Character building – the faces of each character are “sculpted” and shaped using specialised software.

While exploring different ideas for the character design, directors Ian and Dominic Higgins were adamant about one thing, “for the character designs for 26 Martyrs, it’s important that the personalities are visible in the faces of the characters. We want memorable faces”.

View the trailer for “26 Martyrs” below.

The making of 26 Martyrs.

“26 Martyrs” is a sort of prequel to “All That Remains” in that it illustrates the Christian heritage of Nagasaki and is one of the stories that inspired Dr. Nagai.

As work on the animated short draws to a close, we’re busy preparing a promotional trailer! In the meantime though, we thought we’d post a link to this behind the scenes glimpse from the blog of directors Ian and Dominic Higgins.