What Scanner Do They Use For Japanese Animation
I recollect it's both important and fascinating to larn most the fundamentals of the medium we all love, and one of the most critical questions is: how is anime made? For me, peculiarly recently, that'due south been a called-for question that I ended upward researching in item. For the sake of other anime fans with the same question, I idea I'd share my findings. And then, if y'all want ammunition to render burn the next time you lot find yourself caught in an argument well-nigh the merits of anime, or desire a fresh way to look at anime, I hope this article volition be useful. Over the last twelvemonth or and so, my increasing interest in this side of things has really opened my optics to the talent, artistry, passion and beauty that can be found in Japanese animation. The article will focus on TV-anime production, but the same general process applies to movies and OVAs every bit well. That said, there tin can be a lot of variation betwixt studios and individual productions.
The process of making an anime is a complex one, with many steps and stages. This nautical chart from AIC's English website is a good visual overview for what I'll exist discussing:
Pre-product:
This procedure depends on who's pushing for an idea and who is backing it up, information technology can exist animation studios themselves forth with sponsors, just many anime are adaptations of manga or calorie-free novels, in which case, publishers front costs (including the costs of having it shown on Telly stations). The production visitor (e.g Aniplex) gathers staff, sponsors, and looks at advertizement and merchandise. While many people describe studios as being cheap, only effectually half the budget is oft given to the anime studio, with the rest going to broadcasters and other contributing companies. The broadcast costs are surprisingly high – according to blogger, ghostlightning – at about 50 million yen for a late-night timeslot beyond 5-7 stations for a 52 episode serial. Yous can run into why anime can be an expensive business organization. For example, Full Metal Alchemist, which had a 6pm Sabbatum slot had a total budget of 500 million yen (earlier additional costs).
When the core staff is arranged, they meet and plan out the anime, work on serial limerick (how the anime will play out across each episode/over the course of the series), and select further staff such as character or mecha designers. 1 of the nigh crucial core staff is the managing director. To understand the role of directors, you could call back of them like directors of a movie, merely instead of dealing with actors, they deal with the animators who make the characters movie. Their interest is generally to nourish meetings and make decisions in society to manage the schedule, budget and quality of an anime.
Following the early panning sessions, designs (character, mecha, costume, etc) are and so created. Designs are obviously an important factor in creating a good anime. Graphic symbol designers either take the chore of simplifying manga/illustration designs so that they are suitable for blitheness, or, in the case of an original anime, coming up with a new set of characters based on descriptions from the director/producers. Character designers often continue to advise animation directors on corrections to animation that should be made to stay shut to their graphic symbol models (in which case they are generally credited as Chief Blitheness Director for the series).
One time the story and designs are mapped out, the beginning episode is tackled.
Production:
The outset stride is to write the episode scripts. Following the episodes synopsis/plans, the full scripts are written, past either i person for the whole series or by several dissimilar writers based on the outlines from the overall script supervisor (staff credit: series limerick). The scripts are reviewed by the manager, producers, and potentially the author of the original work earlier beingness finalised (after iii or 4 drafts, often). The episode manager, supervised by the overall director then takes this courage of the episode and must plan out how it will actually look on screen. While the director has the final say and is involved at product meetings, the episode director has the virtually hands-on involvement in developing the episode. This stage is expressed as a storyboard (a visual script), and the storyboard marks the beginning of actual animation product.
Storyboarding:
Frequently the storyboard is created by the director, this means an episode is truly the vision of that director. But normally, mainly in TV-anime, carve up storyboarders are used to actually depict them. This is because storyboards usually take around 3 weeks to practise for a normal length TV-anime episode. Fine art meetings and production meetings are held with the episode director, series director and other staff about the episode should look. Storyboards are drawn on A-4 paper (generally) and comprise most of the vital building blocks of an anime – the cutting numbers, actor movements, camera movements such as zooming or panning, the dialogue (taken from the screenplay) and the length of each shot (or cut) in terms of seconds and frames (which nosotros'll explain after). Considering the number of drawings bachelor for an episode is frequently fixed for the sake of upkeep direction, the number of frames is also advisedly considered in the storyboards. The storyboards are roughly-drawn and are really the cadre phase of deciding how an anime volition play out. Cuts refer to a single shot of the camera and an average Tv set-anime episode volition usually comprise effectually 300 cuts. More cuts don't necessarily imply a better quality episode, but information technology will generally mean more work for the managing director/storyboarder.
Example storyboards from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. Anime storyboards take five columns. From left to right: the cut number, the layout, the activeness, the dialogue, and finally, the running time (in time and frames). The layouts are only drawn roughly, considering they are handled by other artists in the next step of product.
Layouts:
Less well known is the layout process, which marks the beginning of fine art production. In simple terms, developing a layout is almost positioning the cels that will be used in the cut and the background art that will be needed, giving the definitive blueprint for how the final shot will wait. The cuts are drawn up to the same size equally the animation paper and the details of cel placement, precise descriptions of camera movement, and other decisions are included. In collaboration with the manager, and peradventure producers, the senior animators draw the layouts (or sometimes staff are specifically credited with layout drawings) and the shots are chosen about where the cels/characters are going to be situated and the way a cut is going to be framed. The basic structure of the background art is drawn in (ie. a tree here, a mountain there), and elements of the storyboard are expressed on the layout to help describe the cutting. Sometimes multiple stages of the storyboard tin exist expressed on a single layout cartoon as long as it isn't too disruptive. Cels are shaded in warm colours, backgrounds are shaded in cool colours.
After being approved by the director, these layouts are and so duplicated and given to the background department (who get the originals), and the fundamental animators. The art director and assistants work on painting the background artwork based on the rough drawings of the layouts while the residuum of the product process continues concurrently.
Now the form of each cut has been decided – the positions of characters, the setting, what they're going to do, and how the shot is going to exist captured (camera angle, zooming and panning). But one of the most expressive and vital parts of production remains: the blitheness!
Animation:
To its credit, anime is one of the few places left that you can even so find 'traditional blitheness'! I recollect there has been some confusion amongst many anime fans about just how digital anime production is, so I'd better go far clear: commercial, mainstream anime is still fundamentally hand-fatigued, and that'south why information technology remains such a groovy creative medium! Traditional animation allows for more individuality to be expressed. Certain, computers do come up into it in a big way (and I'll explain that a bit later), simply the crucial thing is that the frames are withal initially drawn by mitt, and no in-betwixt blitheness is simulated past a reckoner. There are some animators who draw 2D animation directly onto computer, merely in anime this is largely restricted to in solo animation productions rather than commercial anime. The industry prefers this because the animators are generally more comfy and able with this method, and information technology allows easier checking and correction of frames under sometimes tight schedules. Here's how the blitheness is done:
Key Blitheness:
Based on the storyboard, the fundamental animators start work, creating the animation drawings. They are assigned a sure number of dissimilar cuts by the person in charge of key blitheness. Cardinal animators draw the essential frames that mark a distinct position or expression of a cel/character. For example, a character starting to kick someone equally one fundamental frame, and then the kick landing as the second primal frame (if information technology'south a fast kick!). In other words, they draw the structure of the animation. The number of frames that a key animator draws for a motility volition depend upon the intentions of the primal animator and the nature of the cut, with time, and budget constraints considered. These drawings also include lines which direct where shading will occur. Around 20 central animators can be working on a single episode of anime, each in charge of a separate part (sometimes several cuts). Although it's already decided what a movement volition be, it is up to the key animator to express that as animation. That is why a talented and hard-working central animator tin actually steal the show, going well across the requirements of the storyboard and imbuing a scene with their own mode. Some animators get the opportunity to deviate from storyboards as well (which the likes of Yoshinori Kanada was known to practise, to bang-up effect).
There is a subset of the anime fandom who are enthralled by keen animation works and animators, 'sakuga' fans. Sakuga technically refers to the drawings in an anime, but is extended to describe the blitheness as a whole. People follow their favourite animators, and keep track of the cuts they practice, besides compiling them into anime or animator-specific music videos. The cadre of the sakuga online fandom is the 'sakuga wiki' (in Japanese), and a huge array of 'sakuga AMVs' can be plant on youtube. Even a brief wait over these videos inspired me with a real appreciation of the graphic symbol and presence that individual animators can impart. I remember this culture of appreciatimh outstanding fundamental animation is i of the most fascinating arenas of the anime domain.
2nd Key Animation is also emerging lately, but I'm not as well clear on what this ways (if anyone can explain, delight exercise!)
(Hironori Tanaka MAD)
Only what about consistency? While emphasis on this varies from product to production, in general it is a skilful idea to make sure your characters wait the same from i key animator's portion to the side by side. This is handled by an animation director.
Animation Manager:
This is i staff role that I suspect many anime fans oasis't learned about, because it's not very self-explanatory. The animation managing director's cardinal role isn't to 'direct the animation' per se (although they accept varying levels of input depending on the person, studio and schedule). Their position is basically near consistency. They check all the central frames being created for an episode and make corrections where necessary so that the drawings are as shut to the models for the series every bit possible. In some cases, they may take to redraw entire frames, or make adjustments to timing and motility (mostly, this happens for OVAs and movies). They are i of the iv core staff positions for an episode (screenplay, episode director, storyboard, animation manager). Key frames may as well be checked by the episode managing director.
Animation directors tend to be more experienced animators and are paid more than for the role. All the same, information technology is their responsibility if things go wrong with the blitheness, making it a potentially very stressful job, especially under time pressure. Often, an episode of anime will have more the 1 animation director, and this can be a sign of scheduling problems, with more than people needed to complete the episode satisfactorily and on time, or even a sign of many poor drawings needing correction. Information technology tin also be because animation directors are being used to their specialties (ie. an blitheness director brought on to handle a mecha sequence, or to handle drawings of animals), or an indication that it was a difficult and demanding episode with a lot of drawings.
Other than the episode blitheness director, anime present take an overall animation director (generally too the character designer), who often works alongside episode animation directors to continue the character models consistent throughout the entire bear witness. They mostly focus on the faces of characters. Some series place less importance on this, or, as was the case with Noein, didn't utilize a series animation director at all!
In-between Animation:
We accept our canonical key-frames for a piece of animation, only now to complete the animation, so that it moves fluidly, more drawings have to be completed to get between the key frames. This is called in-between animation. In-between animation is handled past less experienced animators, and is very oftentimes outsourced (largely to Korea). In-betwixt blitheness is paid more poorly than key blitheness, and is commonly merely a temporary position in an animator's career. Y'all could depict this as grunt piece of work, because in-between animators don't take a chance to imbue their work with individuality. They receive (particularly when it's oursourced), clear instructions from the primal animator virtually what the in-betwixt animation should do, and simply make full in the gaps with drawings. They also have the task of neatly tracing the key frames.
Often key animators, particularly famous ones, or for important sequences, volition practise many of the drawings themselves, to minimise the number of potentially junior in-between frames. There are many examples of this, merely i of my favourites is Yoshimichi Kameda'due south sequence from FMA:Brotherhood in which Mustang is burning Lust, for which he did all the in-between frames himself. I doubt frames fatigued past other people could have matches his impressive drawings for that scene!
The in-betwixt frames are too checked/corrected if need be. With the drawings from the central animators and in-betweeners combined, yous have the 'animation' that goes into an anime!
Generally, especially for Goggle box, anime will be animated at ii:s, which means ane drawing lasts for two frames (equating to 12 drawings per second), but sometimes animation is done at ane:s (24 frames every second) or 3:s. If every second of an anime was animated at even 2:s that would involve using around 15000 drawings for an episode! In reality, considering many shots have cels as static, or because many scenes don't necessarily require fluid movement, the boilerplate anime will have around 3000 frames/drawings. That's even so a lot of drawings! Often (especially lately), directors or producers will boast that their anime has "10,000 drawings for an episode!" or something to that outcome, which is fairly impressive merely doesn't necessarily hateful the episode is amend. For case, apparently the commencement episode of Evangelion used only 700 animation frames, while Angel Beats used around 11,000 in episode i! A good director can work wonders with fewer frames using interesting scene compositions and shortcuts. Frequently, directors or studios will manage their budget by putting a limit on the number of drawings that tin go into a single episode.
Some other cadre factor is the trade-off between detailed, consistent designs and more fluid animation. Y'all can see how faster blitheness drastically increases the number of drawings required, and sticking to detailed character models tin can exist expensive and time-consuming. Fluid animation is easier to practise with simpler designs OR if the requirements for consistency are less strict. With fairly tight budgets, the anime medium has long been a struggle to remainder these issues with shortcuts and compromises. This truth is the ground for a lot of attack on anime from Western blitheness fans, simply the fact is, with skilled plenty animators and the correct project you tin have your block and eat it too! Anime has certainly produced some of the almost detailed AND fluid animation sequences y'all'll be able to find!
Compositing / "filming":
It is commonplace for the frames to be completed on a computer. After they are fatigued and checked, they are digitized. Once they are on the reckoner, they are painted with a specified color palette by painting staff (by and large a low paid job). They use the shading lines drawn past the key animators to exercise the shading colours. This digital equivalent of the 'ink & paint' stage of production, which used to be done by manus, has allowed some more interesting visual styles to come through in the colouring, such equally the apply of gradient shading or fifty-fifty textures. These would have been too difficult to do back in the day. It has also saved considerable time and coin in the process. These become the concluding "cels" that go into the animation.
Once all the frames are coloured and finished, they can exist processed as blitheness using a specialized software package. "RETAS! PRO" is used for approximately ninety% of anime currently aired in Nippon (for cartoon sometimes besides)! Before the utilize of digital 'cels' (digicels), drawings (printed onto cels) were actually filmed over backgrounds. At present, cuts are completed digitally, and the groundwork art can be added on the estimator. Initially, when digicel was first existence picked up by studios (around about 2000), it had real bug matching the fineness of detail in hand-drawn and painted cels. But present, anime studios have actually perfected the digital cel, giving u.s.a. anime with just as much detail and more vibrant colouring. The digicel historic period has at present streamlined the production process such that repeated cels and clip/recap episodes are basically a thing of the by. Some still adopt the rougher expect of pre-2000, but I've certainly moved on.
While it doesn't employ actual moving-picture show, the compositing process of calculation background art and capturing the animation digitally is still referred to as "filming". The CG characters and machines are also generally added to the composition during the filming stage. The use of 3DCG is also now common-place in anime now for mechanical things, like mecha, cars, or fifty-fifty background characters. Its role is expanding and becoming less and less intrusive. During compositing, the effects are too applied to the cuts.
Effects! This might audio like a piffling thing when y'all're talking nigh anime, but it tin can be a vital component of the visual manner of a serial because it incorporates basic things similar ambient lighting, flare, backlight, the glint on a sword, blur, and many other things integral to giving depth and atmosphere to 2d drawings. Then there'due south all the flashy things you'd usually think of when someone mentions special FX – magical attacks, explosions and the like. These are typically paw-drawn but then rendered with effect CG for their glow/shine. These effects tin be merely added to the compositions using digital masking. The ease of this step now has resulted in one of the biggest distinctions between anime a decade ago and the anime of today.
In short, the digital age of anime (in virtually cases) has meant several things: physically filming cels is replaced by computer-based composition of the hand-drawn frames/art, painting no longer has to be done by hand, and the more effective integration of CG and digital effects. All of these things accept saved time and coin, and so that Telly-anime now use many more drawings and don't need to recycle cels or have clip/flashback episodes.
After compositing is completed for all the cuts, they take to exist to the timing required for circulate, so that the episode doesn't lag overtime. With the completion of the editing footstep, the episode moves out of product and into mail-production. I won't become into much item on this, just it substantially encompasses calculation sound (dubbing), both the music and the vox recordings, and last editing (cutting the episode with space for advertisements). Visual effects may likewise be added at this late stage also.
(Raw genga Birdy Part 3: Shingo Yamashita & Ryouma Ebata )
Japanese terms:
Animation Director: Sakkan (Sakuga Kantoku) [作画監督]
Drawings of anime: Sakuga (作画)
Primal Animation: Genga (原画)
In-betwixt Blitheness: Douga 動画
Overall Animation Director: Sou-Sakuga kantoku (総作画監督)
Sources for this post:
Production I.Yard – Tokyo, Anime production process – characteristic film link
Steps in Anime Production link
Wao's highly informative posts on anime staff on Animesuki! link
AIC – :: Introduction of anime production :: link
Sunrise – The Making of Animation: link
Nurse Witch Komugi omake on anime episode production:
Digital Paitning on Tonari no 801-chan
Other, forgotten sources.
Sakuga Resources:
Ani no Miyako blog
Sakuga Wiki (Japanese)
ワゴンの神様 web log (Japanese)
Follow my blog, or simply the sakuga tag!
Hopefully this post provided a detailed overview of the animation production procedure that goes into anime, along with a general description of pre and post production! It's important to remember that this is a description of your average anime. The truth is, approaches vary significantly betwixt studios, production companies and directors. But I promise this gives a solid idea of some of the staff and production processes that are used. If y'all discover whatever errors in the post, can contribute any more detail on anything, or take any questions, delight comment! In any case, I'd like to hear people'southward thoughts and experiences on the topic.
Source: https://washiblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/anime-production-detailed-guide-to-how-anime-is-made-and-the-talent-behind-it/
Posted by: gossforproing.blogspot.com
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