Mermaids… one of my favorite subjects.
This time, I’ll be creating Amagiri, a dolphin-type mermaid🐬
Since the base female prototype is already complete from creating the female character Barako🌹,I’ll remake and create this one based on that.
Looking forward to seeing how smoothly it goes.
Hello, my name is Sara Yano, and I’m a Japanese artist.
In this series, I’ll be sharing the production process behind my original manga, “Tabintail.”
The theme is: “An Artist’s Quest to Create a Manga Without Burning Out.” 🎨
By using 3D software (Blender) together with illustration and manga software (CLIP STUDIO), I’m exploring ways to create manga that I can keep enjoying—without exhausting myself as an artist
Up until last time
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Last time, I made a duck Kamomile!
Creative Journey Musings Notebook
【Tabintail Making #5】
The fascination with imaginary creatures🦄
I’ve always been strangely drawn to imaginary creatures since childhood.
Greek mythology, Norse mythology, fairy tales, Japanese mythology,
world and Japanese folktales, slightly scary mysterious stories, and so on.
Even though I regret it when I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I still find myself drawn to scary anime, shows, and movies.
I also found books on folklore and folk traditions fresh and interesting,
and I read the ones that caught my attention.
(I was just dabbling in various fields, so I’m definitely not an expert.)
Influenced by such things,even during my art school days,
I often created and drew mysterious creatures.
“The Incarnation of Roses,” “The Brook Fairy,” “The Struggling Water Spirit,”
“The Mud Doll Swallowing Fire (a symbol of heart or passion) and Becoming Human”…
(As a hobby, I also enjoyed creating mermaid paintings, animal picture books, clay sculptures, and ball-jointed dolls).
Let’s get to character design!🐬🧜♀️
The Nebuta-style helmet is probably made from future-tech waterproof washi paper & wire.
※[Nebuta] is a traditional festival float from Aomori, Japan, made of wire and Japanese paper.
Back in my student days, I had a class where we made Nebuta.
I suddenly remembered that and tried designing this.
I wonder if I’ll be able to swim faster soon.
When designing characters, it seems better to start by drawing a mini-character.
I saw a video about this on Saito Naoki’s YouTube channel before,
so I gave it a try.
When I tried it, it really was smooth…! I was stuck a bit, so I’m happy 🙌
Remaking a female model I created previously.
I’m changing her to a slightly more mature bone structure.
The outline differs significantly from Amagiri.
From Barako’s childish face, we’ll adjust the bone structure to look a bit more mature.
This part is fun clay play time! 🥳🥳🥳
The female character I made last time, Barako, was of average height, but
this time I adjusted her to be a bit taller.
(It’s hard to tell in the image since I changed her lower body to a dolphin’s after this step).
Kimono sleeves seem like they’d require some ingenuity in 3DCG.
The sleeves are weird and my elbows are pierced through💦
The rumors about kimono sleeves being troublesome in 3D were true.
They’re a pain when posing.
The sleeves collapse and get all mangled.
Fixing this is going to take time…
Since the final form is static in the manga, I’ll settle for a rough rig.
I’ll use one of the following methods to reduce the messiness.
I plan to draw and fix any parts that still look broken 🎨.
・💡Hide sleeve edges:
Mask Modifier ON (Pre-assign sleeve edges to vertex groups)
・💡Rolled-Up Sleeve Shape Key:
Set values from 0 to 1 to adjust the degree of rolled-up sleeves (^^)
It’s quietly fun, so I slid it around and played with it…
Done! ✨
The dolphin-type mermaid Amagiri is complete!
Since I already had a female base body made, sculpting was easier this time.
I was also able to focus on making the costume, which was great.
You can’t see it in the image, but the pencil stuck at the base of the braid is already being reused in another scene (the pencil Tabin holds). ✍🏻
The giant backpack and books I made are also great for reuse.
I can change colors or make minor adjustments.
It has this exciting, original doll-play feel to it.
Depending on the pose, some parts might appear to be pierced through.
But since I’ll redraw it when turning it into a manga, this is fine.
I’m happy to see more characters appearing (^^)
Let’s line them up.
That’s all for now. What should we create next?
Our creative journey with Tabin and friends continues!
制作クレジット／CREDITS
・企画・漫画ストーリー：
矢野サラ
・アートワーク（イラスト・3D・アニメーション）：
矢野サラ
・アイデアサポート（思考の整理や発想の補助のための壁打ち）：
Perplexity（2025～）
参考文献：『AIを使って考えるための全技術』（石井力重／ダイヤモンド社）
↑書籍掲載のプロンプトも参考にしています。
Planning, Comic Story：
Sara Yano
Artwork (Illustration, 3D & Animation)：
Sara Yano
Idea Support (Idea Bouncing for Organizing Thoughts and Stimulating Creativity)：
Perplexity (since 2025)
Reference:
All Techniques for Thinking with AI (Rikie Ishii / Diamond, Inc.)
Prompts published in the book were also referenced.
英語版への翻訳／Translation into English
制作スピード向上のため、以下の翻訳ツールを活用しています。
↓翻訳工程順
- 日本語原文制作：矢野サラ
- 英訳：DeepL or Perplexity
- 漫画作中の口調修正：Perplexity
- 英文最終チェック：矢野サラ
※作者は現在英語学習中です。不自然な表現があればご指摘いただけますと、今後の制作に活かせるのでありがたいです。
The following translation tools are used to speed up the production process.
↓Translation process order
- Original Japanese text produced by Sara Yano
- English translation: DeepL
- Correction of tone of voice in cartoon work: DeepL or Perplexity
- Final check of English text: Sara Yano
I am currently learning English.
I would appreciate it if you could point out any unnatural expressions so that I can make use of them in future productions.
Contents
Contents
“To Drink Sweet Water” [Independent Animation]
It is a short film lasting 3-4 minutes.
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About Comments and feedback💬
・You are welcome!🙏
We may respond to your questions in the article, so please feel free to ask. (Please note that we may introduce your comments.)
・Comments on social media are also welcome!🙏
We would appreciate it if you could tag your posts with “#Tabintail” or the account name below.
@tabin-s.com：Bluesky
@tabin_kurashi：X・Instagram
About replying to comments
It is difficult for me to respond at the moment, but I am carefully reading all of your comments. Thank you very much!
