Japanese software developer Live2D has released a video showing off the features of its new animation technology software Live2D Euclid which, simply put, brings 2D illustrations to life in 3D space.
To demonstrate the capabilities of Live2D Euclid, Live2D used an anime character that has been drawn by an illustrator in 2D, which the technology then renders in 360-degrees while maintaining the drawing’s original characteristics at all angles. The issue that Live2D Euclid specifically solves, then, is the downgrade in the quality of 2D illustrations when realized as a 3D model.
“Imaginary, creative ideas unique to 2D, where you can draw freely, couldn’t be reproduced in 3D,” said Tetsuya Nakajo, Live2D’s CEO. “For example, you couldn’t make the corners of Astro Boy’s hair look good from all angles. My vision is to make Live2D into a tool that enables even movies to incorporate things that couldn’t easily be done by hand or in 3D, like the ink-drawing touches of the manga Vagabond.”
Live2D has been around since 2009 allowing for 2D illustrations to maintain the integrity of the artist’s original drawing when translated to 3D models (the company has even collaborated on Hatsune Miku projects before). However, its use has been limited as before it was only capable of moving 2D drawings through 30-degrees horizontally. This new Euclid system, as said, allows for a full 360-degrees.
This means that, where Live2D has been great for producing more dynamic visual novels before, it should now be open to a wider range of uses, especially in full 3D games and perhaps interactive anime, and definitely in use with the Oculus Rift for virtual reality games.
Live2D’s next target is to allow for 2D illustrations to be moved vertically so that they can be viewed from the top and the bottom, as well as spun horizontally.
