Awards season is entering its final stretch, and studios are beginning to offer closer looks at the films that defined the past year. Today, we\u2019re excited to share three exclusive behind-the-scenes videos from Sony Pictures Animation that break down how the studio built the year\u2019s breakout hit and current frontrunner for the animated feature Oscar, KPop Demon Hunters.<\/p>\n
Animation director Josh Beveridge and environments lead Rafael Lescano narrate the clips, which include a how-to on animating Rumi, a VFX breakdown, and a sweeping tour of the film\u2019s expansive take on Seoul.<\/p>\n
In the first video, we learn how the KPDH team designed Rumi, winner of the Annie Award for best character design in 2025. Beveridge walks through the stylistic decisions that shaped the character\u2019s multiple looks, setting up a design that will almost certainly anchor one of the biggest animated franchises of the coming years. Pay particular attention to his explanation of the Chibi system, which played a key role in helping the film connect with audiences worldwide who are used to more expressive animation styles than CG typically allows.<\/p>\n
The second video offers a detailed look at some of the film\u2019s most impressive VFX sequences. These effects were also recognized by the Annie Awards as the best in any animated feature released last year. Beveridge explains how the team balanced spectacle with clarity, and discusses the new tools and techniques developed to animate the hyper-stylized facial features and exaggerated emotions of the film\u2019s often over-the-top characters.<\/p>\n
In the third video, Lescano takes viewers on a wide-ranging tour of the KPDH version of South Korea\u2019s vibrant capital city. Authenticity was especially important in the environments, perhaps more than anywhere else in the film. Architecture, street layouts, and even the placement of power lines were inspired directly by the real city of Seoul, helping ground the film\u2019s world in a convincing sense of place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Awards season is entering its final stretch, and studios are beginning to offer closer looks at the films…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-315655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}