XD Bros: Bangladesh’s first 3D animated web series
3D animation and animated shows are an unusual phenomenon in Bangladesh. Null Station studio intends to change that through their 3D animated web series named ‘XD Bros’
When we play the Yakuza video game or stream an anime, we instantly realise that they are set in a Japanese backdrop. It's the visuals which is the biggest giveaway. Co-director Ruhan, and his teammates at Null Station had a similar vision back in 2021. One where they wanted to create a first-of-its-kind web series which would have an art style, blended with a story, that would represent our very own Bangladeshi culture.
Enter XD Bros – potentially Bangladesh's first 3D animated web series. A show created by young, creative and passionate 'animators' from Null Station, which revolves around the daily lives of three best friends: Ratul, Rohan, and Annie.
Of course, we had to ask Ruhan regarding the name of the title. To that, he said, " 'XD' is a term that is a part of our contemporary lingo. It's embedded in how the 'Gen Z' communicate. We always use 'XD' in our texts. The story is of three young adults. Teenagers and young adults are our main target audience as well. Hence, the name."
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"Our goal was to produce something distinctive that has never been seen in Bangladesh," said an enthusiastic Ruhan. "We aimed to depict our Bangladeshi culture through graphics and aesthetics to demonstrate that stunning animated films could be produced in our country as well. The colour grading and texturing techniques we used produced a distinctive visual aesthetic that is uncommon in Bangladeshi animation."
"For example, the artwork we see on the back of rickshaws, the 'rickshaw paint' if I may call it; it is something that is inherently ours. And we wanted to apply such cultural references through our visuals," he added.
A sneak peek at the unreleased story:
Three close friends, Ratul, Rohan, and Annie, are featured in the series as they go about their daily lives. According to Ruhan, every character has a unique personality. The most educated member of the group, Annie is an attentive reader and a top-notch student. Ratul, on the other hand, is mischievous and frequently gets embroiled in weird shenanigans. Ratul uses Rohan as his innocent victim since he always falls for his friend's practical jokes. Rohan has a strong interest in technology, despite the fact that he may not be the sharpest tool in the box. The humorous mishaps that take place between these three buddies are the focus of XD Bros' first season.
"Our web series resembles sitcoms like 'The Office' and 'Friends', in that it is essentially a sitcom. In Bangladesh, sitcoms are not very well-known, but we hope to change that by introducing something fresh," said Ruhan.
Ruhan and his team intend to release 10 episodes in the first season of XD Bros. The run time of the episodes will be 10-15 minutes long.
Software nitty gritty:
For the project that is XD Bros, the team at Null Station studio primarily used Blender and Houdini as their major software tools. Blender is a flexible 3D graphics application that may be used for a variety of tasks, including character animation and visual effects. Ruhan used Blender to design and create the animated city and the characters that reside there.
"The facial expressions of our figures were greatly improved by Houdini. Additionally, we used ZBrush, a tool that simulates the process of moulding clay dolls while creating characters," said Ruhan.
"We rely on the Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) software bundle for our standard and frequently used applications. For video editing, Premiere Pro and After Effects were essential, and Photoshop was crucial for work involving photography," Ruhan added.
Even though there might be a chance that Ruhan and his teammates at Null Station are younger than most of you reading this, they are fairly experienced in their fields. They have been in the game long enough to have developed the abilities to create something on their own.
"We gained experience prior to XD Bros by participating in a number of commercial ventures. One was ADARNIA, a Japanese production that has won praise and the Best CG Animated Award at various film festivals. Additionally, we collaborated with foreign automobile companies like Doroni Aerospace to develop air taxis. We have also directed instructional educational content for Ten Minute School," concluded Ruhan.
