Inside Framestore's VFX Work On Netflix's One Piece Season 2
Let's take a closer look at how the beloved reindeer's highly anticipated debut was made.
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One Piece Season 2 had a lot working against it, but it continues to earn acclaim as one of the strongest live-action anime adaptations to date. With Netflix already confirming a third season for next year, the spotlight now turns to the VFX Artists whose work helped bring the world of the series to life behind the scenes.
Framestore once again handled VFX for Season 2, refining the Devil Fruit abilities of Luffy and Buggy and introducing new powers for Smoker and Wapol. It also played a key role in realizing Tony Tony Chopper on screen, ensuring a sense of realism and energy throughout. The team completed more than 570 shots, supported by over 250 artists. Here's a closer look at Chopper's production:
Framestore
"Chopper's development followed a full asset pipeline, from concept design through modeling, rigging, and look development, with particular attention paid to preserving readability and emotional clarity through his fur and silhouette.
To support this, developed new proprietary tools in our animation pipeline to help with quality control before shots were delivered to the client. The tool gave animators real-time feedback on how Chopper's groom affected his silhouette and facial performance, which meant they could quickly adjust poses and expressions while they were working rather than discovering issues later in the process. The character's flexibility was key: appearing across varied environments, undergoing physical transformations, and interacting with practical elements like pink goo, all of which required significant R&D to execute seamlessly."
Smoker also posed a unique challenge for the team, and for transformation sequences, they even drew inspiration from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Wapol's execution was technically complex, with multiple actors interacting with a single CG asset at the same time. To make this work, Framestore built a flexible jaw system using overlapping panels that could bend and react to physical interaction.
Read more about Framestore's VFX work on OPLA Season 2 here, and check out its Season 1 breakdown:
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