Series Recommendation: Dawn of the Eclipse – Episode Zero

If students can make this on his own, what is the limit for studios?

We have seen high quality productions of famous studios, we’ve seen amazing animations and key frames by legendary animators. And CG has also been progressing very well for the past decades, and the technology has progressed very far, to the point that it can be utilized by students to achieve greatness.

In 2022, at HAL – a professional CG training college in Nagoya, a group of 4th year students have presented their work at the Future Creation Exhibition. And it was a spectacular sci-fi mecha short film, it was “Dawn of the Eclipse: Episode Zero”. And boy, was it amazing!

You can watch it first before reading on here:

We started out with the year 25xx, where the Earth was invaded by alien hostiles. With no knowledge of the “object”, humanity declared them the “Black Knight”. Humanity was pushed to the brink, but somehow clawed its way back into an advantageous position. After a fierce war, a final operation was set in place to clear away the Black Knight’s mothership once and for all. And our protagonist – Haru – was tasked as the ace of the strike force. He charged into battles with his friends deep in his heart.

+ Plot: As a 16-minute short film, they have managed to setup A LOT of world-building, which is plenty to keep us engaging and wanting for more (though the prospect of that is slim). The story has just enough details to have a believable plot, and while the story and premise isn’t anything ground-breaking, for the scale of the film and the purpose of it, it was executed very well. The characters are likeable, and they aren’t one-dimensional either.

+ Animation: Yes sir, this is where the money-shot is! The animation is amazing. Although you can tell whenever human characters were on-screen that this wasn’t done by a proper studio, they still look okay at the least – way better than stuff like Ex-arm or Mars of Destruction – which was absolutely 2000s era PS2 quality. Dawn of the Eclipse look slightly worse than Knights of Sidonia – a big budget show. But then we come to the gorgeous mecha action. It is CG of course, but the overlay really makes it look like 2D, and without the amazing camera-work and crazy screenplay, we wouldn’t be able to tell. The action was high-octane, speedy and actually quite “realistic” in the scope of the series. The details of the mecha’s close-up was phenomenal – rivaling studio-work. These 16 minutes gave me more excitement and dopamine than the finale of Metallic Rouge.

+ Mechanical Design: The main mech of the series is the TKD-139 Type-B. The design is very similar to a Sleipnir from Aldnoah.Zero and Graze from IBO. The shield looks very like the Jegan’s shield from Gundam, The model includes rough edges on the upper body to simulate sturdiness and mass-productivity. The legs are fitted with aerodynamic curves and thrusters for high-mobility, since in the mech’s profile it is stated that the high-mobility mode can reach up to 2400% normal speed (which is quite insane). The production team have taken great lengths to create specs sheet, world building information to make the work more immersive.

+ Music: The soundtrack for the short film isn’t bad as well. It has some melancholic tunes for emotional moments, and some great intense piece for action sequence. Obviously there’s no amazing songs but this is more than enough to elevate the viweing experience.

+ Conclusion: Dawn of the Eclipse: Episode Zero is an amazing glimpse into the ability and possibility of CG animation. The fact that this short film is made by students further demonstrate that Mecha CG anime has every right to be good if done with love and passion. And 3DCG isn’t a replacement for 2D even though the current trend in the industry is swinging that way. It is a separate technique that can bring unique elements to a series that 2D cannot. All in all, this is a great short film and I wish the production team success in the future!

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