| From otaku to animator: that's the story of Tim Eldred. A lifelong
fan, Eldred drew American adaptations of anime such as Star Blazers and
Robotech/Macross before he moved into the animation industry as a producer
and director. Working for Sony, Eldred's latest work is the TV cartoon
version of the new American-made Godzilla movie. |
 |
| You say Godzilla doesn't look like himself here? That's because this
is a frame from an animatic, storyboards filmed in sequence to give producers
an idea of the pacing they can expect from the finished product. On a show
such as this, American animation houses use the animatics as a guide for
the key animation work. Then they send the preliminary animation package
to Asian animation houses which finish the work. Often, those animation
houses are the same companies that complete anime projects from Japan -
which means there may be less of a difference between anime and U.S. cartoons
than most people think. |
 |
| Farming out the bulk of the animation work cuts costs for U.S. companies,
but it also means the risk of disappointment with the overseas work. "Sometimes
you have to live with a sequence that doesn't come out the way you wanted
to. Sometimes you're surprised," said Eldred. If the American producers
don't like a sequence, it goes back to Asia to be redrawn. That means shipping
the material to Korea or China. The long distances also can lead to production
delays. Eldred admits that some shows are completed one day before they're
supposed to be aired. |
 |
| The hardest part of the Godzilla series for Eldred is getting the title
monster's sense of scale correct. The lizard is supposed to be huge, but
it's viewed in Japanese movies from the monster's eye level, well above
ground - which just made Godzilla look more like a man in a suit, Eldred
said. To increase the sense of viewing a behemoth, the recent Godzilla
movie showed the monster from a street level point of view - something
Eldred uses in his animated series. |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
