Much more than just an anime! Exploring the depths of Re:CREATORS

Re:CREATORS is an anime with plenty of twists and turns. One of its peculiarities are the many logos, company names and advertisements appearing in this titles – and they’re designed by the art direction team, which includes Tomoyuki Arima.
In the last interview, we discussed what being a member of the art direction team implies. This time, we'll talk about how logos appearing in the anime were made, and talk with the graphic designer Shinichiro Miyazaki, who's in charge of the design of the magic circles, about the assets he uses in Illustrators and about his secret techniques.
■ The point is to make these designs memorable even if they only appear for a second
Tomoyuki Arima: when it comes to fictitious logos, it's important to emphasize the stereotypical side of them. You need to look at the storyboard, at the plot, and think about what elements are necessary to convey a certain thing.
Miyazaki: What I do is to add a couple lines of supplementary explanation to each logo I design. I always try to cover what kind of company I'm representing and what it does. Then I pass it on to the other designers.

It's meaningless to only focus on the appearance, and I think a certain theme can be conveyed even if switching between different layouts. It offers a reason to dig deeper into Re:CREATORS, I think.
It's important for the logos to have a story inside the mind of their creators.
Miyazaki: It's a talk we have every time we start a new project.
Sometimes we talk with director Ei Aoki about how to portray a particular logo once the cast is on board.
Once we confirm the general image with the director, we need to think about whether it's better to create as many as possible or if we need to trace its basic essence first. Also, are they gonna be used for cuts emphasizing reality?
When everything is clear, we need to avoid false-looking logos. That's what I think.

Arima: As a sponsor of the event, there are heavy industries, aerospace organizations, publishers, and even factional parties (laughs). The intention was to make the event lively, but there is also a clear statement that it would be good to devote resources there.
■ Approaching magic circles starting from the characters' personalities



Miyazaki: It's just like a funnel (laughs).
For this reason, I felt the need to design a chaotic circle instead of an ordinary one. I tried incorporating sharp impressions from her personality and costume design. However, it doesn't matter how many fan fictions a character gets, I feel like their fundamental traits are always conserved.
That is why I incorporated in the design some elements from the social game Eternal Wars Megalosphere, where Altair originally comes from.

Arima: Altair's magic circle is formed by the repetition of different elements. It's supposed to look like an annual ring. We also had some materials about it...

Miyazaki: The characters in the world inside the anime are different from those in the real world, and the language system in use is different. We agreed that creating a new system from zero would be the right thing to do. These characters are enough to give the circles a very magical feeling.
■ Let's practice creating magic circles!

I create many patterns and settle for those that are easier to use.
After that, for example, I experiment with adding oblique lines, o try creating radial shapes divided into equal intervals.You need to repeat those experiments.
Although it is a design with a considerably large amount of information, I think that if you keep the basic composition at its best, you will be able to interpret your own decorations later. By building it up with various combinations of shapes such as circles, triangles, and rays, it will become more and more precise.

Miyazaki: A glow effect is applied to it in the anime. It's nearly impossible to see the outline of the circle clearly.
We asked Miyazaki to show us the exact process he follows to make magic circles. A simple circle will become a complex geometric pattern in the blink of an eye... Are you ready to witness the magic?
[Video under construction]
■ So many secret backstories!




For example, when performing image processing, you can set the exposure time. If you shoot at a high number of frames, you can also perform slow-motion processing.

■ An elaborate packaging
Miyazaki: Also, the images of the packages on the web are CGs, not photographs.

Arima: I am aiming for something that doesn't look like a natural tone picture. When I actually saw the final result, I realized that it was exactly what I was hoping for.