GET JIRO!: JIRO YAKUZA BODY TATTOO

GET JIRO!
WB Animation Character Design, GET JIRO!, Jiro Yakuza Body Tattoo Design.
Media: Digital Art.

Welly welly well! This was a pain for which I essentially volunteered, ironically. The production was still in its early stages, and there was indecision concerning many things in how to proceed on the design front. It was debated whether or not the greater percentage of design and animation would either be hand-drawn, or rendered exclusively by computer. Translating the extremely detailed body tattoos as illustrated by Langdon Foss for the original graphic novel was to be a beast of a challenge. I decided to step up to that challenge because I developed a fondness for my art director Jonathan Hoekstra, a true visionary, and I wanted to impress him. Annnnnd during this dark and depressing time in the industry, I wanted to strike a blow for the remainder of us still battling for our jobs doing hand-drawn illustration. I recall the old folktale of hero John Henry competing against the advancing machine era.

Anyway, using the rough 3D Jiro model, I went ahead and adapted the Foss tatt design, making corrections and extrapolations as I went. The underlying sushi theme was brilliant. But what utterly amazed me is that they managed to translate this sucker to the screen, and it looks incredible! The bloody thing moves on Jiro's body without losing any of the detail! This was done with a digital program, for sure, but the hook-up is insane! So, this proved to be a successful collaboration of hand-drawn illustration with digital animation. And there's still a place for old-school creativity.