Analyzing the Visual Feast of ZZZ

On July 4, the multi-platform public beta of the urban action-adventure game "Zenless Zone Zero" was launched, bringing an enormous change in the gaming industry. After the public beta, "Zenless Zone Zero" remained in the top three of the bestselling list and contributed to the App Store download list in 138 countries and regions for three days. Many themes rapidly became popular searches.

Zenless Zone Zero has generated a lot of conversation since its initial 10 million broadcast PV in 2022 because of its distinct style, which sets it apart from its predecessors, Genshin Impact and Honkai Series.

In this piece, I attempt to describe the "visual feast" behind the exquisite appearance of "Zenless Zone Zero" by shifting the perspective only to the art and animation elements.

1. A retro-trendy street show with diverse art and images

To be honest, my initial thoughts on Zenless Zone Zero are mostly characterized by three words: street, retro, and American cartoon.

Zenless Zone Zero prioritizes the "urban sense" over the starry sky and coastal mountains. The artwork setting is based on a late 20th-century metropolis, and the story is set in the city known as "New Eridu."

Using curves, stripes, and artistic lettering, as well as pursuing individuality in shapes and color schemes, these retro-style architectural structures and storefront designs of video stores, arcades, and video game stores emphasize exposed functionality and avoid cutting corners when it comes to internal structures. Think of these designs as the Walkman to the iPod of today's fashionable aesthetics. The modern design has turned sentimental.

In the official Q&A, producer Zhenyu stated that he also chose the urban setting to help him establish a connection with the players and real-world experiences. The color scheme helps to visualize it as well.

The three fundamental properties of color are hue, purity, and brightness. There are a lot of complimentary or divided complementary colors in Zenless Zone Zero, and the characters, user interface, and special effects all take advantage of bright color contrasts. Combat also has a lot of quick, brilliant special effects, although the color blocks are often smaller and have a tendency to mix the colors in with the surroundings.

Sixth Street's brightness and purity should be purposefully reduced. Although the "high-grade gray" texture recalls the visuals of early 3D games, the entire design should not appear overly ancient because there are still a lot of dynamic effects and design elements remaining.

In the meantime, the design team has access to a variety of imaginative places thanks to the urban idea. In the main towns, we can witness a combination of western street culture with eastern town layouts: randomly parked vehicles on the side of the road and a screen full of big signboards, street graffiti, advertising posters, and video covers, all of which give a broad variety of areas for graphic design. I'm sure there are plenty of surprises for the players to discover.

Apart from the player's representative, "Proxy," the characters in the current game are mostly classified by faction, with each camp representing a distinct profession and origin. Victoria housekeeping shows effortlessly graceful charm; Belobog Heavy Industries style is more harsh; Cunning Hares street style is free-spirited and dashing.

As the head of the Cunning Hares, Nicole, the vibrant character at the center of the early visual art, embodies a spicy girl's archetype that is rarely encountered in anime-style games. She takes on a variety of commissions related to the investigation of the void; her striking hairstyle and clothing, along with the asymmetrical details of her adornments, epitomize a shrewd and adaptable demeanor that acts through the complexities of both the light and dark aspects.

Anby is quiet and calm in the same camp, wearing almost "functional style" clothes that are clean and well-groomed. She is a mysterious girl since she never talks about her background and has short white hair, which gives the impression that she is rejecting and separating her surroundings.

2. Taking Pictures to New Heights? Where does Zenless Zone Zero's animation get its "smoothness" from?

Stylized graphics to catch the eye is just the first stage; the aim of manual K frame creation is, in the production and character animation, to have the "Zenless Zone Zero" action module complete 60 frames per second. In the worlds of video games, movies, television, and animation, this is definitely a very uncommon try; gamers can easily enjoy a more immersive watching experience with more fluid action.

Specifically, the subsequent scene from the extravagant animation, which showcases Nekomiya Mana's first-ever episode, has generated a lot of discussion on international social media and video websites.

The animated performances accurately capture the slouching, shivering, and fur-licking habits of live cats with remarkable detail. The 3D animation's volume is also more prominent, and when combined with the character animation's 60 frames per second, the outcome is a celluloid rendering that is nearly "hyper-realistic" but still has a "super-realistic" appearance. The 3D animation is quite realistic.

The "squeezing and stretching" motion, which gives objects weight and flexibility during interactions like tugging and collisions, is another important aspect of the Zenless Zone Zero animation.

In particular, the animation of the adorable "Bangboo" character in the game is extremely Q-bomb. Insiders claim that the design team created over 40 action modules specifically for one kind of Bangboo.

Why is the texture of Zenless Zone Zero's animation so "smooth" and "soft"? There are numerous action elements, a unique acting style, and a 60 frames per second frame rate. Additionally, I'd want to begin by discussing a principle from the "12 Laws of Animation" that is comparatively seldom discussed: follow-through action!

3. Conclusion: From 'viewing' spectacle to 'immersive' experience, what are the'effective ingredients' of visual development?

One remark that said, "feel like if Pixar made anime" on a million-view YouTube video of "Zenless Zone Zero" left a particularly deep impression on me.

Advanced computer graphics (CG) combined with Pixar is one thing; anime, on the other hand, is a traditional workshop that still uses hand-drawn frames. Although the two appear to be at odds, there has been a growing tendency in recent years for people to learn from one another. Game content development is likewise, in a way, characterized by the conflict and intersection of these two types of production.

This is not limited to the way that "Zenless Zone Zero" combines the dynamic American animation trend with traditional secondary styling; during the concept's development, the industry claimed that improving efficiency through "industrialization". The division of labor would result in "Zenless Zone Zero" producing a great deal of complicated and unique animation. Of course, size has its benefits, but insiders at Mihayou say that it's also a "cost-effective" low-development route for them. However, these unique, hard-to-reuse artistic components are also what have gained them the most popularity.

The pace at which the gaming business is becoming "industrialized" and artificial intelligence is becoming more and more involved will further accelerate audience boredom and consumption. Commonplace artistic endeavors and design elements have two sides. Thankfully, more indigenous games are pursuing "immersion." Going back to Zenless Zone Zero, exploring content performance, encouraging style innovation, and releasing the creative potential of individual creators—perhaps this is the better path for "industrialization" to develop.