Ultraman: Rising: Achieving the Perfect Lens Flare and Ken Sato Hairdo [Video]

There’s plenty to gawk at in Netflix’s animated feature Ultraman: Rising, from explosive inner-city battles to adorable baby kaiju Emi’s cheeky smile… and her explosive poops. 

But another mesmerizing feature in Emmy Award-winning director Shannon Tindle’s latest animated achievement – up for Annie Awards consideration with voting this week – is Ken Sato’s hair. As if the heartthrob character needed yet another feature for viewers to drool over. 

VFX supervisor Hayden Jones sure thought so. 

“One of the things we knew we didn’t want was a full hair simulation, where every strand is there,” he says. “It would break the effect of the stylization.”

The animation design on the film, produced by Netflix Animation, Tsuburaya Productions and Industrial Light & Magic, falls somewhere between comic and cartoon, hand-drawn 2D and 3D graphics. The film – centered around main character Ken Sato who’s trying to live up to his father’s legacy as Ultraman while balancing his celebrity status and …