At
Katsucon in February, character designer Tsukasa Kotobuki mentioned that
his designs for Saber Marionette J were so intricate that they were difficult
to animate. One of the animators who struggled with those designs was Hidakazu
Shinamura, who had to rework the Kotobuki drawings for animation. When adapting
an existing design for animation, "The most important thing is to allow the
illustration to be mobile and preserve the original elements of the illustration,"
Shinamura said. "At the same time, since the illustrators and comic writers
express themselves in a single drawing, it's our job to preserve that art."
Part of Shinamura's work has been the redesign of the Angel Sanctuary designs
for animation, a hard job because he was limited by the original manga artist
in the changes he could make to those designs. Since Angel Sanctuary was
a popular work in Japan, Shinamura had to go along with the original artist's
wishes.
Cel
collectors despair: the rise of digital animation has stopped ink and paint
work, so you won't be able to buy cels of Shinamura's work in the future.
"For the people who are doing the actual drawing, their job hasn't changed,
but the coloring has changed. Instead of using actual paint we use digital
paint." Animation coloring is more expensive for studios because they needed
to purchase workstations and software for each artist, but that system is
easier for artists, he said. One big change with the digital is that animators
are no longer restricted to a limited number of colors for each series, since
they don't have to mix paint to get their colors. However, the digital change
does not mean more three-dimensional animation, which is typically used to
make only mechas and cars for anime series.
Shinamura
likes to compares himself to a child who wants to make stories that he enjoyed
when he was a child, while the people with the money to pay for the series
are the adults in the animation world. Storytelling is a commercial thing
in anime, where the story moves in the direction the sponsors want. "The
most important thing when making an anime series is the age of the target
audience," he said. "Even if the material is the same, how you express it
can be different. After that, we bring in the series themes such as love
and friendship. We have to consider the studio and the sponsors - we'll get
together and decide what direction to go in. The preparation stage is one
of the most difficult ones for creators to go through."
At
Katsucon in February, character designer Tsukasa Kotobuki mentioned that
his designs for Saber Marionette J were so intricate that they were difficult
to animate. One of the animators who struggled with those designs was Hidakazu
Shinamura, who had to rework the Kotobuki drawings for animation. When adapting
an existing design for animation, "The most important thing is to allow the
illustration to be mobile and preserve the original elements of the illustration,"
Shinamura said. "At the same time, since the illustrators and comic writers
express themselves in a single drawing, it's our job to preserve that art."
Part of Shinamura's work has been the redesign of the Angel Sanctuary designs
for animation, a hard job because he was limited by the original manga artist
in the changes he could make to those designs. Since Angel Sanctuary was
a popular work in Japan, Shinamura had to go along with the original artist's
wishes.
Cel
collectors despair: the rise of digital animation has stopped ink and paint
work, so you won't be able to buy cels of Shinamura's work in the future.
"For the people who are doing the actual drawing, their job hasn't changed,
but the coloring has changed. Instead of using actual paint we use digital
paint." Animation coloring is more expensive for studios because they needed
to purchase workstations and software for each artist, but that system is
easier for artists, he said. One big change with the digital is that animators
are no longer restricted to a limited number of colors for each series, since
they don't have to mix paint to get their colors. However, the digital change
does not mean more three-dimensional animation, which is typically used to
make only mechas and cars for anime series.
Shinamura
likes to compares himself to a child who wants to make stories that he enjoyed
when he was a child, while the people with the money to pay for the series
are the adults in the animation world. Storytelling is a commercial thing
in anime, where the story moves in the direction the sponsors want. "The
most important thing when making an anime series is the age of the target
audience," he said. "Even if the material is the same, how you express it
can be different. After that, we bring in the series themes such as love
and friendship. We have to consider the studio and the sponsors - we'll get
together and decide what direction to go in. The preparation stage is one
of the most difficult ones for creators to go through."
