Chapter 4 | Her and His Circumstances | Remake our Life!
Part 6
They went home.
Ever since we parted ways last night, I've been agitated. They were totally noisy.
Thanks to that, it is really too quiet now that they are gone, and I'm terribly lonely.
"You should feel what it's like to be left behind, Kyouya."
My room, which is just large and has few things, feels even emptier than usual.
That noisy share house where you could always hear someone's voice was very.
"Damn! That's why I didn't want to..."
Shaking my head vigorously, I shake off the memories that keep coming back to me.
Frankly, I was happy. What I had thought in a corner of my mind had become a reality. They, especially Kyouya, had not forgotten about me. I resisted like a child with my mouth, but inwardly I was happy.
"But... What should I do with it, then?"
There is no way that my father, who is a hard man and has never shown any interest in any kind of creative work, will change his mind about my decision to quit. He may not even listen to me.
How am I supposed to repay those guys under such circumstances?
In front of me was a bundle of paper that Kyouya handed me.
"I guess ... I have no choice but to read"
I don't think reading it will change anything drastically. If there was some secret strategy to attack my father in this book, there is no way it would be in there.
I wonder what he was thinking when he gave this to me.
I picked up the bundle and began to flip through it, wondering.
And,
"What's this"
When I read to the end of the paper, I held my head in my hands.
What was written was the plan for the video. It was a MV, not a drama. Of course, I knew that Meku and Nico-Dou were popular, but it wasn't about anything per se.
Content. The content of the project was too fragile.
Hashiba Kyouya was a guy who was good at building a solid foundation. It was the same with that doujinshi game. 'The objective is here, so you know what you have to do here and now, right?' he said. He was a frightening guy who would start a fight that he would not lose after blocking the escape route.
But the proposal in front of my eyes now was so rough that it stood out like a sore thumb. If it were Kawasegawa, she would be the first to bite back with a theory.
Maybe he did give a presentation with a verbal explanation of this, but if so, that doesn't explain why he gave me only the documents without telling me.
"Foreshadowing...? No, there are too few clues for that. Is there some kind of code in there?"
I don't know anything at this point. Not until they try to get me to do something with it.
In the end, even when I got to the last page, I still couldn't figure out what the project was intended to do.
There was something about the words scattered in pieces that did indeed catch my attention. But that was all. Unlinked, unconnected words were just words. At the very least, they could not move my heart.
"This is useless, I don't get it at all"
I threw the proposal on the bed. Have my senses dulled? No, I have not neglected to gather information, though not completely. I also understand that the culture of video contribution is interesting in a way that movies and TV dramas that are confined within a framework are not.
However, with no hints so far, it seems like they are trying to make it completely on the fly and in the mood. I don't mean to speak ill of image-driven creation, but if that's the case, I don't see why this should be shown to someone like me, who is the type of person who can construct a reason.
I was absentmindedly looking at the ceiling and thinking about what Kyouya intended to do.
My gaze went straight to the proposal that I had thrown away. The pages had just been turned and the back of the last page was facing me.
"...What's this?"
I looked at it and noticed it.
The last page of the proposal, which was printed on one side of the page. Only that page was printed double-sided, and it was printed on the real last page.
The content was simple. There was only one line of text.
"Upload date: September 1st".
◇August 23◇
Team Kitayama△'s video production was progressing at a rapid pace.
This work is a music video made by Nanako, as we decided earlier. A picture-story show using Meku arranged by Saikawa and a video using a typography with light motion.
The first is the original song.
When we went to Kawagoe, I used my free time to tell Nanako how the song was envisioned.
The theme of this project is "The Story of a Girl Who Forgot How to Sing and Meku".
"I think it's really amazing that someone who can't or doesn't like to sing on their own can still write songs with vocaloid."
Nanako's accurate description of one of the reasons why Meku was so popular led her to think about the possibility of a creative alternative.
In fact, when I talked to Nanako,
"Nice. It sounds interesting. I'm a little embarrassed because there are some parts about me."
She was embarrassed when she said that, but that was also one of her aims.
Even if the time setting is different or the world is a fantasy world, if one is able to relate to the emotions of the characters living there, realistic emotional expressions can be expressed in one's work. This is one of the reasons why love has been a theme in creative works for thousands of years.
This time, we chose a worldview that is a bit more science fiction and decadent. It is the story of a girl living in a future where the human population is one-tenth of what it is today, where there are almost no children of her generation left, and where she is waiting for a slow and gradual extinction.
(Well, that's nothing new...)
Frankly, I doubt if it is original. There must have been a lot of such settings in past science fiction and light novels.
However, since the birth of Meku, it has become a trend on Nico Nico Douga to combine this kind of decadent worldview with Meku. The closer the grammar, the lower the hurdle for viewers. That was the idea behind the setting.
So I asked Nanako to write a song for me once again,
“...Very good, no problem.”
The quality was so good that I can honestly praise it.
"R-Really? You're not lying, right? Kyouya, you're not just saying that to cheer me up?"
Nanako looks very anxious beside me as I listen with headphones.
"No, it's really good. No retakes, let's go with this!"
When I give the OK sign,
"Yay~!!! I-I'm going to sleep for about 3 days for the time being! And I'm going to karaoke!"
As I said so, Nanako was overjoyed and said 'banzai'.
After all, Nanako's previous song was immediately rejected and she had been in a slump since then, so it must have been pleasing for her to receive such an OK positive response.
In fact, the song was very well written. As I had ordered, the song started with only the vocal, and then the backing gradually grew in depth, and the flow of the song was perfect.
"But ..."
The moment I suddenly mumbled,
"Eh, eeeh, after coming this far, is there anything more to it? Kyouya, would you say such a terrible thing??"
Nanako snapped, asking if it was a retake.
"No, it's really great. I just need to put a little direction into it."
"Direction?"
I whispered to Nanako.
The characteristics of this video production and its characteristics as an assignment. And conditions.
The story I am trying to create is based on these considerations.
The lyrics, the music, and the development. I gave some instructions about them.
After hearing it all, Nanako's impression was,
"That... But are you okay with that?"
"Well, that's so."
She seemed convinced, but also very anxious.
"But this is fine. It's not deviated from the line I decided at all."
"Fuuhn..."
Nanako was nodding her head again, but I was very pleased with the quality of the music.
(Okay, next is the illustrations)
◇August 25◇
Influenced by Shinoaki, who turned into an illustration monster, Saikawa also spent many days shut up in her room.
But this one has yet to become a monster.
"Ah... I lack of Aki-san's nutrition... Kawasegawa-senpai, can you at least let me have some of yours...?"
"No, don't be spoiled"
"Cruel~! You promised to spoil me!"
"That's only when Hashiba and the others are not around! Hashiba, you should say something to this perverted girl!"
"Hey, isn't that a bit harsh!"
Somehow, they seemed to be getting a little fuss from time to time like that, but still, the work seemed to be progressing without a hitch. But did something happen to these two while I was gone?
Then, at the end of August, 25th, it was time to move on to the work of the video team.
"I-It's done... All parts of the illustrations, complete..."
Saikawa crawled out of her room, USB memory stick in hand. She had already taken off her glasses, as if she intended to fall down right away.
"Good job! I'll check right away."
"Oh..."
I gasped.
Saikawa's artwork is not originally in the cute style. It has a realistic touch and a high head height.
So, I asked her to create this design without changing the pattern as much as possible to make the most of that atmosphere, and it worked out beautifully.
With a fluid pen touch and bold use of primary colors. In addition, the use of textures and finishing techniques taught by Shinoaki have raised the overall quality of the work.
(As it is, it could be used for illustrations for a novel or something like that)
If viewed as a single illustration, it seemed to have enough potential to fight with Shinoaki even at the current moment.
"Kawasegawa, what do you think?"
Recently, I also check with Kawasegawa, who has become quite a professor of Meku for study purposes.
"... Amazing. It's a pretty bold take from Meku's original design. But it's a perfect balance, so I have nothing to say about it."
As she approached Saikawa, who had collapsed,
"Saikawa, you did a great job. Your illustrations are amazing."
She said, and patted her head.
"Uwh, uuwh, t-thank you~~~~"
Perhaps because of the tension from the work that had been done, Saikawa was moved to tears.
"Uhm, senpai, I have a request."
"What?"
"Could you give me a hug as a commemoration of the work being done, a hug..."
Without hesitation, Kawasegawa squeezed her with both hands.
"Mugya!"
Saikawa's face is pressed against the cushion.
"... When the video is finished, I'll give you a moment to do it."
"Uuwh~, but I like that kind of senpai~"
With a wry smile, I also called out to her for her hard work.
“Good job, Saikawa.”
Anyway, with this, the sound and the illustration are complete.
Now it's just a matter of how to put this best material together.
◇ August 27 ◇
With the money I earned after finishing the doujinshi game production, I took the plunge and bought equipment for video production. Since I had originally purchased a PC with good specs for production, I only needed to buy video editing software, effects software, and desktop publishing software to edit the text.
“Ah, stop for a second there. Don't just quickly insert the lyrics in one line, but break them up into sentences and make them come to life.”
"Should we separate them into separate objects?"
"I think so. Later, we might look at the balance and apply separate effects."
"Okay, I'll give it a try."
Kawasegawa nodded and quickly worked on them.
"Hashiba, can you see the motion over here?"
From behind me, Hikawa beckoned to me.
"Yeah, I got it"
This time, the presence of Hikawa was extremely helpful in terms of production. Until now, he had mainly been in charge of support, such as the assistant director position, but he was interested in it, so he was in charge of the special effects, and this was a big hit.
"I've been trying to part Meku's hair in layers so that it sways with her every movement, what do you think?"
Toward the end of the video, there is a cut that allows for a long pause in a single picture, but it was a 10-second video, and the character's hair swayed naturally in a wonderful way.
"Amazing... What kind of plugin did you use for this?"
In response to my question, Hikawa slapped his arm,
"I did it with brute force!"
He said happily. It was quite a painstaking process, like keyframing everything and moving it around.
Hikawa was a person who could do such things without slacking off. In the editing process, it is very helpful to have such a worker-type person.
"Haha, that was a big help. And the cut was going to be a little slow"
Honestly, I thought it would be tough with just lip-synching and eye-synching.
"I guess so. The opponent will come with full animation. We have to take as much time and effort as possible."
Hikawa folded his arms and groaned.
The Kuroda Team, which we consider our enemy, has declared that they will make an animated work. My guess is that they will make a full-length animated film.
That's probably why Shinoaki has been appointed, and if the work is to take the top spot in Kuroda's thinking, he will be looking for that level of impact.
"I wonder if we can win with this work"
Kawasegawa says a little anxiously.
On the focused screen, a still image moves like an animation with motion. However, this is a flat, two-dimensional expression. Even when depth is expressed, it is usually done in layers, using scaling and depth of field to make the image look "realistic".
I say,
"It's okay, with this"
In response to the unanswerable question, both Hikawa and Kawasegawa look at me with puzzled looks on their faces.
"It's all right"
Once again, I say as if to confirm, and stare at the monitor again.
The character that Saikawa created with all her might sang Nanako's best work, and we, the editorial team, were able to get it to move.
There was that one final way to breathe life into it ―― one way.
"That's where our fight is"
While praying that the message of this video, which is very close to a personal letter, will reach that guy who is about to fight.
◇September 1◇
Then came the fateful day, September 1, at midnight.
It was decided that this assignment would be uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in a category called "Nico Nico Summer/Autumn Vacation Homework". The videos were to be ranked, and the winner would receive prizes from the sponsoring publishers and game makers.
Of course, we were more concerned about the ranking of the teams in our department: there were 15 teams in the second year, and although they varied in number and size, we, Team Kitayama△ and the Kuroda group, had the largest number of staff members by far.
"Hikawa, are you ready?"
Hikawa, who was testing the encoding, sends an OK sign in my direction.
"It's perfect. It's going to be uploaded on time."
On this day, all of our team members and Shinoaki were present at the share house. After all the work was done, Shinoaki said she was tired all over and was having her shoulders rubbed by Saikawa, who seemed happy to see her from a while ago.
"Thank you, Minori-chan~ Thanks to you, I feel better."
"N-No, I feel good and I'm happy too!"
...I feel a little suspicious, but well, that's fine.
On the kotatsu in the living room, there is one laptop PC. This was used to check the uploaded videos, and the actual uploading work was done on the PC in Nanako's room, right next to the living room.
"I wonder what kind of work it turned out to be at Aki-san's team?"
Saikawa is looking forward to seeing it uploaded every now and then.
“Is this your first time seeing it as well, Shinoaki?”
When Nanako asked, Shinoaki slowly nodded,
"That's right~. When I told Kuroda-kun about it, he said he would keep it a secret until the day it was released."
Yes, the Kuroda group's work was not previewed within the staff, and all final close-ups, etc., were done by Kuroda.
"Wow, he's very secretive. Well, I guess that's how much time and effort he put into it."
Kawasegawa folds her arms and looks at the screen from a short distance away.
"What do you think?"
"I don't know, but... I have a bad feeling about this. I don't think it's going to turn out too good."
I hope it somehow turns out for the better, but I too think her hunch is correct. If we think we will lose the first round, but by too large a margin, that will be the end of it before we even fight the second round.
"Ah, it's the time!"
At the sound of Saikawa's voice, everyone's eyes turn to the PC.
"Okay, it's uploaded!"
With Hikawa's voice, our work was uploaded. And,
“Ah, Kuroda-kun's has been uploaded too ~”
The work of the Kuroda group, "Blue Forest" was also uploaded and released.
We all decided to view the work of the Kuroda group.
The setting was a forest filled with blue.
From a long, drawn-out cut, the picture gradually moves closer to a close-up of a girl flying freely through the forest. Only then does it become clear that the blue is seawater, indicating a forest submerged at the bottom of the sea.
The girl has fins on her legs and swims freely in the sea with the fishes.
The background art depicts various points of interest. Beyond the forest zone, what appears to be a city submerged in water can be seen. But it does not indicate what they are.
Finally, the five-minute video ended just as the girl jumped up from the sea to the sky and spread her body wide for the sun.
If you write it down in words, perhaps you will miss it.
However, the problem was that all of these were fully animated in color, and every part of the video, background art, sound, editing, and special effects were completely seamless, and were composed at a level that could be called theatrical animation.
"What a thing to make ... that guy "
I couldn't help but say it out loud.
The expression of water is terribly difficult even to the untrained eye. If one were to try to do this with moving images, one would need to have a high level of understanding of movement, drawing ability, mental capacity, and many other things to make it look like an ugly mess.
Kuroda, who thought he could "go for it" in this period of time, asked Shinoaki to do it, and succeeded in doing so, can be said to possess extraordinary decision-making abilities.
Of course, this is due to Shinoaki's outstanding ability. However, it must be said that it was the production's ability to choose a genre that interested her and challenged her, while also reaching completion.
"This is how it's going to be~ Isn't it amazing~"
Shinoaki was enjoying the video as if it were someone else's work. When she talked about how she enjoyed drawing water scenes and how she would draw and draw and still think she could do more, I was convinced that the vast amount of trial-and-error was an expression of water.
"Eh, this was really drawn by Shinoaki...?"
Nanako seemed to be still confused.
"Aki-san... this is, by Aki-san..."
Saikawa stands dumbfounded with her hand on Shinoaki's shoulder.
"Well... I'd heard it was awesome, but this is, by far, another level of awesome!"
Hikawa was so impressed that his frustration overcame his disappointment.
I felt the same way. This was honestly ... beyond my imagination.
And Kawasegawa had a slightly pale expression.
"My bad feeling was right."
She remains silent and nods her head.
Kuroda Takayoshi, and Shinoaki.
I wonder how powerful the combination of talents that go all the way can be.
I couldn't have been reminded of this in a better way.
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