The 50th ceremony of the Annie Awards was held on February 25, 2023. Fox Renderfarm customer's work, Netflix series "Oni: Thunder God's Tale" won "BEST TV/MEDIA – LIMITED SERIES" and "BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN - TV/MEDIA". Congratulations!

Image via Annie Awards

ONI: Thunder God's Tale (Japanese: ONI ~ 神々山のおなり) is an original animation series that premiered on October 21, 2022. It tells a story that in a world filled with Japanese mythological oddball gods and monsters, one of the creatures' free-spirited daughters, Onari, is determined to follow in the footsteps of the mighty heroes of lore, but her unique powers are yet to be revealed. Does she have what it takes to fight to protect her peaceful village from the encroaching threat of the gods' mysterious enemies, the "Oni"?

The series was created by Tonko House, produced by Netflix, and directed by Dice Tsutsumi. Our amazing customer Megalis VFX was brought onto the project to produce all the visuals for four episodes, with a total running time of 2 hours and 47 minutes. They worked with another Japanese studio, Dwarf Studios, to come up with techniques to combine the stop motion and CG environments using deep images and compositing tricks. As a leading render farm in the CG industry, Fox Renderfarm provides cloud rendering services to this series.

According to Megalis VFX, after completing the pilot for ONI, it was decided that the project would be full CG animation instead of stop motion. However, the show would still retain the characteristics of stop-motion animation. To prove they could handle animated characters with their workflow, they worked on a very simple second episode, featuring a single camera with far and close action as well as with different lighting conditions.

This second episode helped to push the stop motion look across all the different departments, from assets to characters and camera. You can see from the example below – on the top is the art reference and on the bottom image is the final completed shot.

Image via Megalis VFX

The talented team of Megalis VFX has been using Arnold since its second year since inception. And being a Houdini-centric studio, Megalis VFX already had a robust Houdini pipeline. They build a relationship with SideFX and Autodesk Arnold teams who ensured they could fill all of our essential needs during pre-production.

Learn more about the making of ONI: Thunder God's Tale.

Image via Netflix

Watch the award-winning series on Netflix.

Episode 1: Onari's Kushi Power

It's a brand new day at Mount Kamigami and the feisty Onari preps for the first day of school — where she will learn her powers for the challenges ahead.

Episode 2: The Mighty Storm Gods

With a newfound sense of purpose, Onari tells her classmates how she'll beat the Oni. Meanwhile, an unexpected guest arrives at Mount Kamigami.

Episode 3: The Truth

Lost in the Oni village, Onari musters the courage to search for clues about her Kushi power. Back on the mountain, the Kami prepare for the Demon Moon.

Episode 4: The Demon Moon Rises

When Naridon's secret comes out, Mount Kamigami falls into utter chaos. Hurt and hopeless, a crestfallen Onari finds an unlikely kindred spirit.

Source: Megalis VFX & Netflix