KUBOTA FUTURE CUBE
Depicting the future and technology
with a vast, planet-scale
sense of scale.
On the theme of “the future Earth and technology,” we planned and produced content that lets you experience the future Kubota envisions while also conveying that it is a company contributing to life on a global scale. Set on a beautiful Earth, it combines low-poly-style full-CG footage, 2.5D illustration, interaction, music, and words to express a peaceful world of vast scale and many expressions.
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About the Client
Kubota Corporation
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Business
Centered on the manufacture and sale of agricultural machinery, compact construction machinery, and industrial engines, Kubota provides total solutions that globally support everything from food production to the conservation of the water environment, through infrastructure development such as iron pipes for waterworks and water-treatment facilities.
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Features
Centered on solving the social issues of “food, water, and the environment,” and firmly maintaining the technology and on-site focus it has held since its founding, Kubota keeps driving global expansion that answers needs around the world, along with innovation in agriculture and infrastructure through DX.
What the Project Aimed For
For Kubota, what matters is conveying its technology to graduate students — the excellent engineers of the future — and getting them interested in the company. However, there was a challenge: awareness of Kubota itself was not sufficient to begin with. So we aimed to have people intuitively feel the future Kubota envisions on the web, and to gain understanding of and empathy for its efforts. Thinking about how to convey Kubota’s appeal and vision not by explaining it in words but as an experience that resonates and leaves an impression, we focused on full-CG footage and interactive expression using WebGL. Through this, we aimed to provide an experience that yields understanding with a sense of conviction — including technical details and background — and to foster expectation and a positive impression of Kubota in the target audience.
Point 1 — Story design connecting Kubota’s technology with Earth’s future
Content Design
A plan design that embodies the figure of continuing to contribute for the Earth and for life
Kubota has a strong image of agricultural machinery such as tractors, but it contributes on a global scale in the categories of food, water, and the environment — water pipes, air-conditioning equipment for large facilities, waste processing, and more. In particular, as its brand statement “For Earth, For Life” states, the challenge of the plan was how to translate and design the figure of supporting life and continuing to contribute for the Earth, life, and living. We depicted the businesses and technologies Kubota is developing toward the future as various activities on Earth, and expressed them in full-CG footage. By preparing and editing multiple scenes for each theme, we evoked a story, and expressed the future Earth Kubota envisions with an overwhelming sense of scale and a peaceful worldview.
Point 2 — From sketches to concept art and 3DCG animation
Movie Direction
Producing footage with Unreal Engine, in collaboration with an illustrator and a CG production company
To visualize Kubota’s vision of the future, we first created multiple sketches, based on which Mr. James Gilleard illustrated them as concept art. Based on those illustrations, we recreated the work as 3DCG footage in Unreal Engine. We further developed and produced diverse stages such as cities and farms. Within Unreal Engine, we set times of day — morning, noon, evening, and night — and carried out angle hunting within them, cutting out the many expressions of the vast world as footage for the site. In the early stages of production, from the planning phase in 2021 we created a large number of mockups and conducted verification on both the technical and expressive sides. We carried out many verifications, such as lightening the load for experiencing it on the web, to realize the footage.
Point 3 — 2.5D interaction making the most of the illustrations’ appeal
WebGL Implementation
Developing an original tool that expresses illustrations as pseudo-3D
The 2.5D illustration cubes used on the detail pages were built by having James Gilleard create illustrations based on rough sketches, then loading PSD data layered by part into an originally developed tool. By adjusting the position of each object in 3D space and adding movement and motion, we realized an expression that is three-dimensional and feels operable. By utilizing WebGL, users can touch each element within the cube while freely moving their viewpoint, designed so they can intuitively gain a structural understanding of the technology and efforts that flat information presentation cannot fully convey.
Voices from the Makers
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Yonemichi
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When I saw James’s work, I thought, “This is it!” — I remember the summer nights when I was scribbling away at the proposal and rough sketches. From there, he drew up dozens of pieces of concept art and illustration, and I also remember the autumn night when, together with Yin and the jitto team, we advanced various verifications and got so excited seeing the vast Kubota world expressed in Unreal Engine.
And then, with Murai’s pleasant music added, the site was assembled into an even more emotional world.
It feels like sending it off with a “bon voyage.” Please do take a look. -
Okabe
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“They say there’s no night that doesn’t break into dawn, but…” — that’s what I kept thinking throughout the planning and production. I’m savoring the miracle that this site is being released.
Articles about This Site
クレジット
CLIENT: Kubota Corporation-
executive creative direction: Shingo Nishida (Dentsu) / creative direction: Daisuke Aoki (Dentsu Kansai) / project direction: Takuro Yamawaki (Dentsu Kansai) / copy writing: Takahito Aono (Dentsu Kansai) / account executive: Keiji Tatewaki, Yohei Yamazaki, Takahiro Takahashi, Naonori Yoshida (Dentsu Kansai)web direction: Jungho Im (mount inc.) / art direction, design, planning: Masahiro Yonemichi (mount inc.)/technical direction, development: Kenji Okabe (mount inc.) / design: Andreas Brian Utu (mount inc.) / development: Nana Terada (mount inc.) / design assistant: Reina Megan Yamachi, Suzu Yamazaki (mount inc.) / produce: Ko Yoshida (mount inc.) / project management: Sho Makino (mount inc.)concept art, illustration: James Gilleard (Folio Art UK) / cg direction: Takeshi Yin (jitto inc.) / cg design: Kodai Takiguchi, Zhu Keishu, Kazuyuki Sakamoto, Risa Suzuki, Hina Ishikawa, Tomomi Yoshida (jitto inc.) / cg produce: Tokihiko Tsukamoto (jitto inc.) / cg project management: Natsumi Maki (jitto inc.) / music: Satoshi Murai (MURAIMURA) / translation: Jeff Shigematsu
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