I’m making a narrative driven short in the Ghost in the Shell universe! Considering the nature of the IP, I’m just doing my own take. This won’t be a direct recreation of any specific moment from any existing media.
I’ve written a script, hired actors, recorded all dialogue, and have begun vizdev.
Right now, I’m mainly figuring out what the hell a pipeline is gonna look like for scenes that have many complex rigs with all sorts of simulation. I chip away at storyboards whenever I can!
Here’s the current WIP model of Batou, the main character of the short.
And a rig test! [don’t mind the audio, I was messing with my friends in discord while I recorded this]
https://twitter.com/Greg_WASD/status/1484785954518753283
These shape keys will be the base of the other two character’s shape keys as well, transferred via mesh data transfer , which allows me to carry shape keys from one mesh to another if I have a channel with matching UV coordinates. This method was shown to me by The drivers are set up with the RBF drivers addon. Where is James Snowden? Did he drop the project? Is he alive? Can someone check on him?
If you want an idea of how long I’ve been working on Batou, the above is the second iteration of Batou. The first is in this animation test.
I’d worked for about a year to get to that point (not constantly of course lmao,) experimenting with all sorts of different workflows until a full character model formed. It’s not capable of doing what I need, and it’s way too complex to animate with. He’s got several layers of cloth by design, but baking everything 5 times in the correct order for every shot was just not gonna go well for me, so I’m working on putting together as many “fake” cloth alternatives as I can. 3.1.0 allows for proper tension maps via geometry nodes, so I can now have MUCH broader less detailed cloth sim and handle the high frequency stuff in displacements now. The face was way too dense polygonally to make convincing shape keys with, and animating it took FOREVER. It was also just a weird mix of joint and shape key based deformation, and I just couldn’t make that work.
Here’s some busts of other characters in progress!
unnamed antagonist!
Azuma! This is a character mostly known from the Manga. He’s shown up in the Standalone Complex TV show, but just for two episodes. He plays a much bigger role in the short.
and a WIP nice little lad
some 2d stuff
I walk a fine line between spoiling and revealing info for this project, so I’m gonna keep media sparse
A short vague summary for those who are familiar with the series: This is a short bit of action narrative that takes place after the Puppet Master incident. If you know about that incident, you know Batou’s a bit crestfallen. Something from his distant past has its leg cocked back to kick him while he’s down. The story is incomplete, as it’s presented as an episode of a running nonexistent miniseries. If something cool happens though and I can somehow muster more “episodes,” I do have material written for it!
The Manga has a more irreverent and “fun” tone to it, something no one would guess if they’d only seen the anime, and I want to reflect a bit of that in the short. I’m not going full on goofy slapstick reality breaking ed edd n eddy ass comedy like the manga does (it does! frequently!), but I’m not going so hard into the Star Trek-ish stoicism that has become a series identifier. This is just as much writing and directorial practice for me as it is asset creation and animation.
Ghost in the Shell has been in my life for as far back as my memory goes. My parents introduced it to me, as they were of the first generation of anime importers in the US (My dad worked at a video store in the 80s and had introduced the whole concept of anime to his community by having VHS tapes imported.) It’s one of the most important properties to me. The first film is a technical masterpiece. The second is straight up imo the best film ever made. Nothing shot on a camera has come close. So naturally, now that I’ve cultivated a small ounce of talent, I wanna give back! I along with a small team are making a tribute to Masamune Shirow’s constantly surprisingly accurate projection of the inevitable cyberpunk dystopia that we’re teetering towards. The release of the live action movie and the 3d netflix series have only served to galvanize my trajectory. I cannot in good conscience let those be the only bits of GITS media to be floating around right now. I was inspired to start my project when I saw this thread from a user named Lezley. You can actually see me in that thread with the lightbulb forming above my head, and I’ve been working at it ever since.
I’ll be updating this thread with technical developments as they happen! Feel free to ask any questions! I’m also open for taking tips as far as the macro Birdseye stuff. Project organization, scene organization, production management, etc 
