Chinese English

GAINAX Animation Lectures Chapter 1 - Getting Started,

Getting Started, and Setting the Line
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Kazuya Tsurumaki

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

In video production, storyboards can be said to be “design drawings for scene

production.” In the first lecture, "Evangelion New Theatrical Version" director
Kazuya Tsurumaki told us about the common rules and methods for drawing
storyboards.

※ This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2008 for its animation production employees.

First of all, before I start, I would like to explain something: I have never learned the
formal storyboarding method, nor have I learned it through introductory books. I learned
how to draw storyboards entirely by watching and imitating them. So, if I were to give a
lecture at a film school, what I would say might be a little wrong, and maybe there would
be some things that are completely wrong. I hope everyone can understand that my level
is only that much before listening to me. When it comes to storyboard drawing, you only
need to follow some minimum rules, and the rest is up to you.
If Mr. Imaishi, Mr. Otsuka, and Mr. Anno were to draw storyboards based on the same
script, the things they would draw would be completely different. If I were to draw it, the
storyboard I draw today might be different from the storyboard I draw a week later. So
there is no fixed way to draw storyboards.

However, there is still a difference between "good-looking and bad-looking" storyboards.

If the storyboards are not good-looking, the director may change all the storyboards. You
have been working hard for so long, but you failed in the end. I guess you don't accept it
so easily, right? This is actually the same as the script and the original painting. To a large
extent, it depends on whether it meets the director's taste. The director of this work may
say: "The storyboard you drew is not good", but the director of another work may say:
"The storyboard you drew is really good!" So the task of drawing the storyboard is It
won't be so easy to leave it to a novice. Does it take about four weeks to draw the
storyboards for a 30-minute episode of TV animation? In this case, once the final
completed storyboard is not put into use, the producer will face great risks. This is very
different from asking you to draw 10 cards of original paintings.

Next, I first want to talk about the basic rules for drawing storyboards.

In fact, I think the basic rules are as follows:

1) Overhand and underhand

2) Think about the line [2]

As long as you understand these two points, regardless of whether the storyboard you
draw is good or not, judging from the rules alone, it should be fine.

1: Get started·Get started

I think this was originally a rule of theater or stage play.

From the spectator's perspective, the right side is the overhand and the left side is the
underhand.

Actors enter the stage from the upper hand side and exit from the lower hand side. The
same goes for the image, the right side of the screen is the overhand, and the left side is
the underhand. The character should enter the screen from the top hand and leave the
screen from the bottom hand.

Entering the screen from the top hand means that the character is performing towards
the left. When the character moves, it is basically from the upper hand to the lower hand
direction.
The most understandable example is probably "Space Battleship Yamato".

The Space Battleship Yamato sails to the distant planet Iskandar in order to save the earth.
The Yamato while sailing basically moves from the upper hand to the lower hand.
Although there are some lenses that do not comply with this rule, it is basically the same.
The same is true when moving away from the screen. Yamato first enters the screen from
a wide angle from the outside of the right screen, and then moves away from the screen
towards the inside of the left screen. Of course, when the flight attendant looks at the
direction of the Yamato, he looks to the left and downhand, just like the Yamato itself.
Because most of the 26 episodes of the anime depict the Yamato's journey to Iskandar,
the Yamato that left a deep impression on me must be facing to the left. The paintings
about Yamato that you have seen probably also face the left side, right? Interestingly, only
in the final episode of returning to Earth, the Yamato moves from bottom to top. When I
came back it happened to be the opposite direction.

In addition, not only the direction of movement, but also the direction of movement is
used. When a character wants to perform a certain action, it will proceed from the upper
hand side to the lower hand side. In "Star of the Giants", in the scene where the Star
Flying Stallion pitches, the Flying Stallion is on the overhand side, and opponents such as
the flower shape and the left gate are on the underhand side. Because the content of this
scene is not "the flower shape or the left door will hit the magic ball", but "the
protagonist Star Flying Stallion will defeat the opponent", so the entire action is
performed from the upper hand to the lower hand. When broadcasting a baseball game,
when the pitcher and batter are photographed from the center of the field, the direction
of the pitcher's pitch is somewhat to the right. This may be because there are more right-
handed pitchers, right? I don't know the specific reason. It's just that the broadcast of a
baseball game is neither a "story" nor a "performance," so I guess it doesn't need to be
bound by the "overhand, underhand" rule.

In the first episode of "Neon Genesis Evangelion", when the apostle attacks at the
beginning, he moves from the upper hand to the lower hand. But in the scene at the end
when Unit-01 attacks the apostle, the apostle is in the offensive position while Unit-01 is
taking the upper hand. So who is the subject of the action? The main body's movements
are basically from the upper hand to the lower hand. Just consider this as a basic rule.
As I said at the beginning, "top, hand, bottom" is the rule of the old drama. Recently,
many dramas have not realized this. After all, TV dramas and movies are not animations,
and there may be no need to be bound by this rule. However, whenever I see a
performance that violates this rule, I feel that it is inappropriate. So, as long as there are
no problems, I will always follow this rule when drawing storyboards. And when you
deviate from this rule, you must realize that you have not followed this rule, and then
arrange the performance of the character. This is also okay. But it is best not to use the
upper and lower hands separately.

2: Think about setting the line

For example, if there are two people A and B, when you look down at them, you can
imagine that they are connected by a straight line, and this line is the ideal line.

Then, we assume that the camera is shooting in front of the imagined line between the
two people at this time.

The rule of thumb is that the camera must never cross the dream line.
This may be a bit difficult to understand. For example, if A and B are facing each other at
the beginning, A is on the right and B is on the left, then when shooting according to this
rule, A will always be on the right side of the screen and B will always be on the right side
of the scene. left side of the screen. The same goes for BなめA [3] .

To give an incorrect example, A was originally on the right and B was on the left, but in
the next shot, A appeared in the front left of the screen and B came to the back right of
the screen. This means that the camera has crossed the intended line and gone to the
opposite side. In this case, the positions of the characters will appear confusing, and it will
be difficult for us to distinguish the two people intuitively. Suppose A and B are people
with red hair and blue hair respectively, then you may think: "You can tell them apart as
long as the blue-haired person talks." But even if the color of these two people looks like
the characters in the animation As vivid and clear as it is, you'll still feel confused and
uncomfortable while watching it. If you want to draw the composition of A and B, just put
A in the front right of the screen and B in the back left of the screen. In this case, the
camera does not cross the desired line. If you want to draw a close-up of B's ​front in the
next shot, you don't have to draw it from directly in front of B. Instead, you just need to
draw B's line of sight slightly to the right of the screen. In this way, the connection of the
lens will be more natural.

For example, in "Ultraman", Ultraman is basically on the upper hand side, and the
monsters are on the lower hand side. And when Ultraman and monsters fight, their
positions will naturally change. In this case, there will be a scene where the Ultras are on
the lower hand side and the monsters are on the upper hand side, but as long as their
actions of switching positions are described, it doesn't matter if they are in the opposite
position in the next shot. In other words, Ultras do not have to be on the right side. As
long as the camera conveys the information of position exchange, Ultraman can run to
the left side of the screen and the monster can run to the right side of the screen.
However, the camera must not go to the other side. Even if the positions of the two
characters are swapped, the storyline still exists.

If you must go beyond the desired line, you must not clutter the image.

For example, you can insert some lenses that are not directly related to reduce the sense
of inconsistency in lens connection. But if you do it over and over again, it's bound to get
confusing in the end. As far as I'm concerned, when I'm drawing storyboards, I definitely
don't think about crossing the ideal line. Then as I draw, when I find that I have to cross
the desired line, I think about crossing it for the first time. This may be a bit extreme.

These are the only two basic rules.

However, there is still the question of how to draw the storyboards beautifully and
complete the storyboards efficiently.

Continue for the second time! !

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.
2. ^ Since the translator did not know much about professional terminology, some Japanese vocabulary was
retained in the translation, such as "upper hand" and "lower hand". "Supposed line" is still a Japanese word, its
original text is "イマジナリーライン", please refer to the link below. The Chinese version entry is "180-degree
angle rule". http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%83%B3%E5%AE%9A%E7%B7%9A
3. ^ なめ, part of the character or object is on the side of the frame closer to the viewer. If A is in front of the
screen (close to the audience), and B is inside the screen, it is called "AなめB".

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:28

animation GAINAX animation production

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EVA Document Translation WeChat Official Account: Village Chief’s Column
GAINAX Animation Lectures Part 2 - The shots should
not be viewed in isolation, but the progression of the
shots
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Kazuya Tsurumaki

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a storyboard lecture by Mr. Kazuya Tsurumaki. The theme of the second
chapter is "Camera Movement in Scenes". "Scene" is something you must be aware
of when drawing storyboards or performing animations. The completion of the story
is inseparable from the completion of the "scene". In this handout, Mr. Tsurumaki
talks to us about the importance of completing a scene.

※ This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2008 for its animation production employees.

3: The shots should not be viewed in isolation, but as the shots progress.

In animation storyboards, there are painting instructions on each shot, but in the field of
real-life shooting, producers basically do not draw storyboards, but write shot instructions
directly on the script. This is text storyboarding.

There is a line drawn on the script where the shot is interrupted, so that the storyboard is
completed.

In the case of real photography, the composition (layout) is determined by the

photographer. Sometimes the director may give instructions for shooting a panorama,
but in fact, when shooting a panorama, it is the photographer who decides what should
be included in the frame and what should not be included in the frame. Of course, the
director will eventually check, but I don't think he will just move the camera to determine
the composition. Real-life shooting is not like just shooting the necessary shots like
animation. Instead, for the sake of caution, you need to shoot the same scene or
unnecessary shots in text storyboards from different angles, and finally complete the
image through editing. This is This is a very common practice in the field of real-life
photography. For example, changing the order of shots during editing, such as removing
close-ups of a character while retaining the lines he originally said. Creating scenes
through editing like this is a live action film. In the field of animation, this process has
already been completed at the stage of drawing the storyboard, and there is no extra lens
material to use during editing. So the storyboards of animations also serve as the editors
of real-life films. We must use storyboards to connect the shots and show the movement
of the shots in the scene.

This "transition" is a very abstract concept and it is difficult to explain it specifically.

Maybe everyone feels differently. Even when watching the works of well-known directors
in the live-action film industry, you may occasionally feel that there are some irregularities
in the shots. Let me explain it to the best of my ability. For example, the angles and
movements of each shot individually are very good, and the content and expressions of
the characters' performances are not problematic, but when you connect these shots
together, you But I always feel like something is missing. You may feel that the lens looks
stiff, or you may simply find it difficult to understand. Therefore, it is not possible to
consider the shots in isolation. You must connect several shots into a scene, and then
grasp the overall time flow of the scene. From my own perspective, sound is a very
important indicator.

Since sound is restricted by time no matter what, I think it is a very effective way to grasp
the flow of time through sound. Not only the lines, but also the sound effects and music.
If you can imagine the entire scene through these sounds and divide the scene into split
shots, I think you will understand what I mean by the movement of the shot. But this is
my personal feeling after all, others may have their own benchmarks. It's difficult to fully
master. In fact, I don’t understand it very well myself. Mr. Anno once said before: “Few
performers can perform through scenes.”

4: What is more important in the scene?

To extend what I’m talking about now, the most important thing is where in the scene
you most want the audience to see.

People who are not used to drawing storyboards may want to work hard to handle every
shot. But this is precisely one of the reasons for interrupting or delaying the camera
movement.

Where do you most want the audience to look? In order to turn the place you most want
others to see into the climax, keep something in front, perform some inconspicuous and
unemphasized performances, and then show the climax all at once. This approach is
necessary. Otherwise, the audience will feel tired when watching, and will feel bored after
watching for a long time, so the really key parts will not have the desired effect.

As a not-so-good example, baseball pitchers all have their own game-winning pitches.
Suppose a certain pitcher is better at sinking balls, and then he keeps throwing sinking
balls during the game, then the batter will grasp the path and timing of the ball, and he
will definitely hit the ball in the end. It would be a better strategy if he first uses other
pitches or pitches to hit some good shots, and then relies on sinkers to decide the
outcome. Therefore, it is very important to use your own winning shots in key places and
use winning shots in key places. On the contrary, it is okay to throw fastballs continuously
at first and then throw slow balls at the decisive point.

It’s not that only the final sinker is important, it’s all the pitches before that that make
up the progression of the shot in the scene.

The third chapter continues! !

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:29

animation GAINAX animation production

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GAINAX Animation Lectures Part 3 - Control of
Information Part 1
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Kazuya Tsurumaki

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a storyboard lecture explained by Mr. Kazuya Tsurumaki. The theme of the
third chapter is "Control of Information." How do animators convey information to
the audience through performances? Performers use various strategies in their
paintings. Mr. Tsurumaki explains these strategies to us through the key word
"information".

※ This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2008 for its animation production employees.

5: Control of information

What I want to talk about next is the control of information.

If you want the audience to see something in the picture, or if you think it should be seen
by the audience, you should show it explicitly. And don’t let the audience see things that
are not necessary for the audience to see. So the question is, what should be shown to
the audience? What should not be shown to the audience?

This question is not only raised from the perspective of performance, but also considered
from the perspective of cost control.

In the photos of idol stars that we often see, the backgrounds of the characters are
usually blurred. You can take this kind of photo by just slightly enlarging the aperture
when shooting with a telephoto lens. This is because due to the depth of field, the focus
is exactly on the person, so the background is blurred.

So what are the benefits of blurring? After blurring, the information on the inside of the
screen disappears, and all the important information is concentrated on the idol. This is
the shooting method used to highlight the idol. In other words, in photos of idol stars,
the streets or trees on the inside of the screen are information that does not need to be
shown in detail.

This is the same in animation. If both the characters and the background are drawn in
great detail, there will be an overload of information and it will be difficult for the
audience to know which part of the picture to focus on. So not all shots should be drawn
like this, as long as you can flexibly express what you want to express in each shot. For
example, if you first use a long shot to show the character's location and time, and then
let the character speak in a half-length shot, then in the background of the half-length
shot, there is no need for information such as "where the character is", right? ? Suppose
there is such a half-length shot: the heroine is standing in the school corridor and
speaking. Then in the background of this shot, if you draw the depths of the corridor in
detail, the viewer will feel it is very subtle. In this case, just use a blurred background.

For example, for something that must be seen from another angle, if you draw it
deliberately, the information will become loose. Therefore, since it is not necessary for the
audience to see this thing, it is okay if you do not draw it. it does not matter.

In addition, for the information that should be seen by the audience, or the shots that
should be drawn very carefully, we must draw them in detail. After "EVA", Meifeng [2] was
responsible for the background production of "The Story of Another Girl". At that time,
the director said to Meifeng: "Each episode only needs 10 to 20 shots that need to
describe the background in detail, and the rest will be enough." Just use a blurred
background.”

If you have watched "The Last One", you will understand that as long as the shot is from
the waist up, the amount of background information will be drastically reduced. Most of
the backgrounds are blurry or just plain color gradients.

A close-up of Yukino, the protagonist of "The Story of His Family and His Daughter". You can
see that the background is not very detailed.

In fact, the same is true for the original comics. In comics, depending on the shot,
sometimes the background needs to be drawn, and sometimes the background is not
drawn at all. I think the director did this to incorporate the atmosphere of the original
comic, especially the impression of the images, into the animation.

On the contrary, in some shots where there is only a background, the background is
drawn quite carefully. These types of shots basically have photos as reference, and the
background maker needs to draw the scene in detail based on the photos. This will show
the atmosphere and authenticity of the school.

However, if all the shots had to undergo such heavy work, not only would the production
cost exceed the budget, but there would also be a shortage of manpower and time. So
now that we have let the audience understand that this story takes place in school, there
is no need for us to explain "the protagonists are in school" in the background of all
shots.
 Of course, when we need it for a performance, such as when the shadow on the stairs or
the flowing clouds outside the window have special meaning, we must draw the
background in detail. When the background has no performance significance, we can just
like taking photos of idols, by reducing the information in the background so that all the
information in the lens can be concentrated on the object being photographed.

Of course, like comics, we draw animations as pictures, and we unconsciously control

information during the drawing process, but I hope everyone can do this more
consciously from the perspective of performance. .

Chapter 4 continues! !

WeChat public account: Village Chief Japanese, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.
2. ^ Miho Co., Ltd., animation background production company. Among GAINAX's works, he was responsible
for "Tian Yuan Breakthrough" and "Beyond the Peak 2!" 》 and other background production.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:30

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GAINAX Animation Lectures Chapter 4 - Control of
Information Part 2
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Kazuya Tsurumaki

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a storyboard lecture explained by Mr. Kazuya Tsurumaki. The theme of the
fourth chapter will follow the "Control of Information" from the previous chapter.
Professional animators must always work according to the conditions on the
production site. In this episode, Mr. Tsurumaki tells us practical methods for
"performing animation performances" and "improving animation quality."

※ This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2008 for its animation production employees.

In "EVA", there are often close-ups of the corners of the characters' mouths, as well as
long shots in contrast. In these shots, we don't know what the characters' facial
expressions are.

So why don't these shots show the characters' expressions? Because this allows the
audience to imagine the character's expression. For example, you may think: "This
character's lines and acting skills are relatively rigid. It would be interesting if he was
snickering." Or you may think: "The corners of his mouth look like he is smiling, but he
really Are you smiling?" In other words, the camera leaves the task of creating expressions
to the audience to a certain extent. When a certain line can be interpreted from multiple
angles, it is very effective to express it in this way. To give an unconventional example,
when Shin-chan in "Crayon Shin-chan" laughs, the angle of the camera will definitely
become diagonally backward to prevent you from seeing Shin-chan's expression. This
method can also be used when you don't want to ruin the character's image with extreme
expressions. Yuandu’s lenses may also fall into this category.

There is an impressive scene in "Neon Genesis Evangelion The Movie Air", which is the
scene where Gendo faces Ritsuko with a gun. Yuan Du seemed to have said something at
that time, but we didn't hear anything. This is actually a kind of information control. Under
normal circumstances, voice actors will lip-sync dubbing, so we can naturally hear the
sound. But the director lets us imagine it by not letting us hear the sound. As a result, we
were all drawn into it.
 The scene where Gendo and Ritsuko face each other in "Neon Genesis Evangelion The Movie
Air"

Which information needs to be shown and which information does not need to be
shown? This question, whether it is in the picture, the performance or the sound of the
characters, is all related to the performance. Simply filling in information will not produce
high-quality work. Removing information is a necessary step. In other words, the
performer must judge which information is necessary and which information is
unnecessary.

When storyboarding beginners draw storyboards, they often find that the number of
shots increases endlessly. Because there were so many things he wanted to express, he
expressed all the information without filtering when painting. The more information you
want to convey, the more character performances and shots you need.

Suppose there is such a plot: the character opens the door and walks into the room, then
crosses the room and sits on a chair inside. So do we need to draw all the actions here?

"Open the door," "walk into the room," "cross the room," "sit on the chair." Nowadays,
when rough painting is not allowed, expressing all these movements through painting will
be a considerable burden. I think everyone as an artist should be able to understand this.

If you want to express this scene, it is actually enough to draw the action of the character
opening the door and then sitting on the chair in the room. Although the action of
entering the room is omitted, these two actions already show the character entering the
room.

Or, you could show the chair in the room after drawing the door opening. Then the
character's footsteps gradually approach the chair, and at the same time the character
enters the scene and sits on the chair. This means that the movement of the character
across the room can be shown using only the sound of footsteps without using a
painting. This way the burden of painting will be reduced a lot. If you use close-ups in
these two shots that don't show the character's expression, you can allow the audience to
imagine the character's expression. At the same time, assuming that it takes seven
seconds to process these actions with only one shot, then if you split it into two shots and
omit some actions, it will only take three and a half seconds to show it.

But that doesn't mean it's a good show. For example, when describing a character walking
from a corridor into a dark room, the feeling of the camera can sometimes only be
reflected through the description of movements or expressions. Or when the character
walks through the room, you can use the time and the color of the room to convey the
feeling. The size and the way the character walks express the inner feelings of the
character. I hope you can judge which information is necessary, which information is
unnecessary but you want to show it, and which information doesn't matter if you don't
show it. .

What I’m going to talk about below is not an example for beginners of storyboarding.
The 38th episode of "The Mystery of Sapphire" has 427 shots, and the following final
episode including the ending has 480 shots. To be honest, according to the production
schedule at the time, it was simply impossible to do so many shots (laughs). If it weren't
for GAINAX, I might not have been able to complete it. Of course, this is also because the
director felt that everyone was capable of completing this task, so everyone was able to
do it. However, this possibility cannot always exist. If you are a studio with a tight
production schedule and strict cost management, you may not be able to make back your
money if you don't do well. Such a studio might delete 100 scenes from each of these two
episodes. Therefore, no matter how beautiful the storyboard is, if it is impossible to
produce, the producer will not make it so easily.
Not only the total number of shots, but also the number of paintings or the painting load
are the same.

"Tengen Breakthrough" actually doesn't seem to have a limit on the number of drawings,
but general TV animations definitely have a limit on the number of drawings. Not only TV
animation, but also theatrical animation. The total number of shots and the total number
of paintings are directly related to the production schedule and cost. The total number of
drawings in recent TV animations is around 4,000.

The slightly older Toei had even fewer copies, only 3,000 copies. In this case, naturally you
can't add scenes or plots that don't need to be shown in the storyboard. If you don't add
lenses carefully, you will exceed the limit in a short time. So this is not a painting problem.
Once the information cannot be controlled well during the storyboarding stage, the entire
production team will not be able to complete the production under strict restrictions on
the number of paintings and time schedules.

Speaking of cost, some people may think: "Isn't this just a matter of money?" However, as
long as the total number of shots increases by twenty, then one more original animator
must be added, and the shots must be corrected by the supervisor. will also increase
accordingly. So this is an issue related to the quality of the work.

No matter how beautiful the storyboard is, if the painting quality cannot be guaranteed,
then the beauty of the storyboard may not be reflected. In addition, there are also some
storyboards that have to be modified or even not used for reasons other than whether
they look good or not.

Chapter 5 continues! !

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:31

animation GAINAX animated movies

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Bloody Battle Season 2 is about to premiere

I have already figured out the concept of montage.
2020-05-08 ​ reply ​ like

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GAINAX Animation Lectures Chapter 5 - Storyboard
Collection
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Kazuya Tsurumaki

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

Continuing from the fourth episode, director Kazuya Tsurumaki of "Evangelion: The
New Movie" continues to explain to us the essence of storyboarding! The theme of
this episode is "Storyboard".

※ This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2008 for its animation production employees.

6: Storyboard

Many of the storyboards I drew have been published and you can read them through
many channels. Are Mr. Hayao Miyazaki and me the only ones who can publish the
storyboards of their own drawings (laughs)? In fact, this is just because GAINAX itself also
publishes some of its own works, and I drew a lot of storyboards for GAINAX's works.
That's it. It doesn't mean that the storyboards I drew are really excellent. I dare say that
even if your storyboard is not professionally drawn, as long as it is as understandable as a
comic, then it is possible to publish it.

I, or Mr. Hiramatsu (Masashi) usually draw the storyboards on the premise that I draw the
composition myself and add correction instructions to the original painting. At least for
me, I feel that what I draw is not just a performance instruction book.

However, half of this premise is conceived unconsciously, so I don’t quite understand it

myself.

When I am only responsible for drawing storyboards and not participating in the
subsequent work, the actual completed image is always different from what I expected. I
think this is not a problem with the original animator or the performance, but because I
drew the storyboards on the premise that "I will be involved in the work after the
composition." That is to say, when I draw storyboards, I consider not only pure
performance techniques, but also subtle things such as the brushstrokes and timing of
painting. But in fact, you don’t need to consider these things when drawing storyboards.
Storyboards should originally be just instructions, not blueprints.

Therefore, the storyboards I drew may not be suitable as a reference for those who want
to learn how to draw storyboards.

Producing "Over the Top 2!" 》, Mr. Anno also participated in the storyboard drawing
operation. To be precise, Mr. Anno first instructed the distribution and rough angles of the
shots, and then I added them to the scene. This is similar to the relationship between text
storyboards and camera operators that I talked about before. One thing that impressed
me deeply at that time was that Mr. Anno only showed one thing in one shot. Of course,
since I was also drawing the original drawings and had experience working on the show, I
could see that the storyboards drawn by Mr. Anno were quite simple. However, when I
saw him working on the script with my own eyes, I still haven’t forgotten the extreme
simplicity. If I had to use a metaphor, it would be as simple and plain as a tanka. Mr. Anno
uses only the bare minimum of techniques to storyboard, but there is a lot that goes into
the process. Moreover, his storyboards do not require subsequent work to show too many
details, and will not be changed due to consideration of subsequent work.

As a result, the composition and original painting work after storyboarding seemed to go
more smoothly than in other episodes.

Of course, just because his storyboards are so concise, some information may not be
shown, or may not be shown on the surface. A mistake in this regard could ruin the entire
script. If the director draws the storyboard himself, the director will definitely control the
presentation of the information. However, if mistakes are made during the storyboarding
stage, the person who drew the storyboard will bear a great responsibility. Storyboarding
is not about blindly showing what is written in the script, but showing the essence of it
based on understanding the script.

Of course, Mr. Anno’s storyboards also include shots that express a lot of things, or
shots that express very complex dynamic information. These shots will increase the
burden of acting and painting. But this also creates a difference in the density of the lens,
which creates a sense of rhythm and speed. The accumulation of these rhythms and
speeds can promote the overall development of the image.

These things cannot be understood just by looking at the finished storyboards. You have
to compare the script with the storyboards to understand.

Therefore, it is a wrong idea to think that you can learn to draw storyboards just by
looking at published storyboards.

There are many kinds of animation studios, and now we are in a production studio, so you
have many opportunities to see storyboards, scripts, or storyboards that have not been
used. I hope you can take advantage of these opportunities to learn.

Chapter 6 continues! !

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:31

animation comic storyboard Storyboard (film and television animation)

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GAINAX Animation Lectures Chapter 6 - Handling
Performances
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Kazuya Tsurumaki

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a storyboard lecture explained by Mr. Kazuya Tsurumaki. The theme of

Chapter 6 is "Processing Performance." How does the performance work in
animation work specifically? What issues must be considered? This time, Mr.
Tsurumaki explains to us how to handle animation performances from the
perspectives of acting and sound.

※This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2008 for its animation production employees.

7: Handle the show

The performance is divided into storyboarding and processing performance. Nowadays,

storyboarding and handling a show are usually handled by different people. To be honest,
what really makes people feel like they are working on the show is working on the show.
After you are familiar with the performance, even if you see the storyboards drawn by
others, you will think: "This is my own animation work."

When some painters want to develop into performances, they think that they can draw
storyboards once they know how to draw. This idea is very arbitrary. While you're drawing
the original drawings of the formal scenes, you're already working on part of the
performance. Because whether it’s the composition, the performance of the characters,
or the timing of the lines, it’s the original animator who creates them first. Only after you
have a certain foundation of original painting can you consider drawing storyboards.

When an artist is working on a performance, the editing and sound parts are probably the
most confusing.

Editing in animation production is different from live shooting. Animation editing only
performs a limited number of operations to a certain extent. After the images are
reviewed by the director, the images are arranged according to the order of the
storyboard instructions, and the number of frames before and after the shot is increased
or decreased to make the connection of the shots smoother, or adjusted to suit the
purpose of the performance. Of course, the length of the film must also meet the
prescribed time. Animated editing may not have the same impact as live-action footage,
but with the right editing, the image can become incredibly concise and beautiful. If you
have experience in this area, it should be easy to understand what I mean, but for an
artist who only imagines action in units of shots, it may be a bit difficult to understand.
Only after going through the editing process can you deeply feel how you, as an artist,
draw those useless original paintings. So watching the dailies before editing is very bad
for your heart and will make you break out in a cold sweat. Although you can understand
that this feeling will disappear after actually going through the editing, the process is still
really annoying. The feel of this lens connection is also important. I have said before that
"when drawing storyboards, you are already doing part of the editing work in advance." I
hope everyone can understand what I mean by "feeling" before drawing storyboards.

Then there’s the sound work. That is, adding lines, sound effects, and background music
to the finished image. When drawing the original painting, even if everyone can imagine
the lines, it is best for someone to consider the sound effects and background music. I am
like this myself. However, once you try to imagine the sound, whether you are drawing
storyboards or original paintings, you will find many problems that you have never
discovered before. When we paint, we tend to want to express everything through
painting. We all want to express situations, movements, and emotions in paintings if
possible. Painters often have this desire and feel that it is their responsibility. However, if
you understand a little bit about sound, you will find that this idea is wrong.

When people paint, they often hope that the expressiveness of the painting can reach
100%, but when you add sound to the image, you will find that the sound adds 80% of
the expressiveness to the image, so the expressiveness of the painting only needs to
reach 100%. Just 20/20 will do. In this case, you will understand that "because there is still
sound to help, painting to this level is enough." Just like what I said in "Control of
Information", painting may limit your imagination and weaken the expressive power of
the image. . For example, when you want to express loneliness and sadness, it is enough
to just use the voice without showing the character's expression. There are also things like
the thickness of paper and the hardness of glass, which are expressed better in sound
than in painting.

In addition, you will also find that "in some shots, we had to paint specifically for the
sound." For example, you draw an explosion shot of 12 frames (0.5 seconds). You may
think to yourself, "This explosion is quite shocking." But for sound, 12 frames (0.5
seconds) is actually very short and cannot express the shock of the explosion at all. It
must be 1 second, or 18 frames per second (1.75 seconds). Sometimes it may take longer.
Another example is the shot of the robot squeaking to its feet with very heavy
movements. This is the same situation. You may think that it only takes 2 seconds to
express movement, but once you add sound, you will find that it is impossible to express
the sound of heavy objects moving in such a short time. If you want to use sound to more
fully express the weight of an object, or if you want to add complex sounds like a
Hollywood movie, you will need a certain amount of time. A sound engineer once said to
me: "If there were 6 seconds, I could add better sound, but the shot you drew only has 2
seconds, so I can only add this sound." So sometimes We have to prepare extra shots or
time specifically for sound.

What I'm talking about can't be understood by just visiting the editing and sound
operations. From my experience, I gradually understood these things through the process
of giving instructions from the position of a responsible person and accepting other
people's suggestions. Of course, I think these experiences are very useful for
storyboarding.

There is also the position of "performance assistant" in handling performances. If you

learn to handle the performance and receive guidance at the same time, you can take the
first step. If you have the chance, please give it a try.

Chapter 7 continues! !

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to
GAINAX Animation Lectures Chapter 7 - Expressing
using Storyboards
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Kazuya Tsurumaki

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a storyboard lecture explained by Mr. Kazuya Tsurumaki. The theme of this
chapter is the text written on the storyboard. "Sound effects, lines, instructions." The
text on the storyboard is the design of the image. What information should the
performance convey to the production staff through text? Mr. Tsurumaki explained
this problem to us.

※This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2008 for its animation production employees.

8: Express it!

I've said before that storyboards are instructions.

Even if the person who drew the storyboard is not at the production site, all subsequent
operations must proceed smoothly. For this reason, in addition to pictures, text also plays
a very important role.

I often say this to the original painter: "Please imagine a complete picture with color,
background, and characters moving before you draw the original painting." But it is
actually very difficult to do this. I usually try to keep the picture in order while I'm
painting, and the same goes for storyboarding. When drawing storyboards, it's not
enough to just copy what's written in the script. There must be ups and downs, and you
must be able to control the dull scenes and the climax scenes. For this reason, if you can't
imagine the entire episode, just imagine the corresponding scene. Of course, what I mean
by imagination is not only the expressions, movements and lines of the characters, but
also the colors, shadows, sound effects and some sounds that can still be heard even if
they are not drawn. We must work hard to convey our imagination to the people who will
actually do the follow-up work. Because if you don’t leave instructions, some things you
take for granted may not be conveyed to them.

So leaving written instructions becomes important. For example, if you want to explain
that "the character's messy hair and expression in this shot are equally important," it
would be difficult to express it clearly using only drawings, right? However, as long as you
write "Attention! Loose hair is important!" next to the drawing, you can fully express your
ideas. For some common-sense sounds, such as the sound of a motorcycle engine or the
sound of scissors cutting paper, we may not need to include specific instructions.
However, for the sound of a robot emitting light, or the sound of an octopus-shaped alien
walking, if we don't add special instructions ourselves, the sound engineer will definitely
add the sound based on his own imagination. When storyboarding, if you have a clear
vision, you should give instructions. For example, like Mr. Anno, you can use the
onomatopoeia of "ギュオオオオォウゥッゥゥ" or "メキキッックオォォ!!!" to indicate the
sound. Of course, you can also express your imagination with a specific description like
"like the wet sound of tofu dropped on the floor."

What matters is whether you want to express it.

If you forget to express, then storyboarding is just an assembly line step in animation
production. If you work hard to express your imagination or feelings, you will feel a sense
of joy when the producers or the audience who finally saw the animation resonate with
you because they understand what you expressed. The pleasure of human joy. I hope
everyone can look forward to that kind of pleasure when drawing storyboards.

The seven-chapter "GAINAX Animation Handout: Storyboards" ends with this

chapter.

Although there are some contents that are difficult to understand, we hope that not
only general readers, but also those who hope to take a role in animation production
can read these handouts, so we have published the handouts intact. For those who
want to become animators, or want to learn how to make animations, we will be very
happy that these handouts provide even a little help. Thank you all for reading.

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:33

GAINAX animation animation production

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EVA Document Translation WeChat Official Account: Village Chief…
GAINAX Animation Lectures Chapter 8 - About
Composition
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Hiramatsu Masashi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

The lecture notes will start with the topic of composition at the beginning of this
chapter. The lecturer is Mr. Masashi Hiramatsu. Mr. Hiramatsu first gave the painters
a composition question, and then while checking the compositions they drew, he
explained to everyone the ideas and points to pay attention to when drawing
compositions.

※ This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2008 for its animation production employees.

Composition handout title: Please consider composition and acting according to the following
scenario: "A person is sitting at the table in the tea room, and another person comes in from
outside the frame with a pot, puts the pot on the table, and then the two start a conversation.
"The characters are free. Please draw the composition under the following two conditions: ①
 The composition from the front and side angles ② The composition from the angle outside the
window.

I am very happy that everyone drew according to the requirements of the question.

The painting method of composition is actually difficult to describe in clear language. The
same goes for original paintings and animations. At the beginning, everyone will pay
great attention to their own painting process, so they cannot objectively look at other
people's painting methods. But judging from the composition of everyone's paintings, I
found that everyone is not like this, which is quite interesting.

Next, I want to talk about "How should we think when drawing composition?"

The title provides you with a storyboard for reference, but this storyboard lacks a lot of
explanations. There is no setting, and the characters have no obvious characteristics. So
we must think about how to draw a composition in the absence of clear settings?

Will it be easier to start this way? In fact, this problem is still very difficult.

1: Observation

This question does not require you to draw a fixed thing, so it is difficult for me to
evaluate the composition of your drawings.

First of all, when you paint, the way you observe things will be reflected in your paintings.
Even a table can reflect how you usually see things. This time, since there is a real thing,
we can draw it by just looking at it, but if there are only settings, we can only look at the
settings and use them to imagine. Imagination comes from your observation of things. If
you don't imagine it, you won't be able to draw it. For example, the setting may be drawn
from this angle, but when the storyboard is drawn from an angle slightly to the right, if
the setting is not 3D, you can only imagine it in your own mind. The key is whether you
can imagine it.

Whether you can imagine it depends on the way you usually observe things.

Now, in our own living space, such as when we are at home, when we go shopping, or
when we go to a large place, we do not carefully observe the objects around us. But since
this is what we do, we must treat everything we usually do as work. Please observe
various things with this idea in mind.

For example, if everyone is sitting here now, then you should find a way to observe
everyone's sitting posture, and then draw it in your mind. If you persist in this kind of
training, you will be able to use your imagination to assist to a certain extent when
painting even if the settings are incomplete. But now I have a rough look at the
composition of everyone’s paintings, and I find that everyone still does not do a good
job in this regard.

2: The atmosphere and space of the composition

 GAINAX pantry diagram

Some people draw very sloppily, while others draw very carefully. This may be a bit
difficult to explain. Is it possible to express the breath of life and atmosphere as long as
the painting is very detailed? The answer is actually no.

So how can you draw atmosphere?

For me, the method I usually use is to "blend the characters into the background" or
"destroy the balance of small items."

In real life, the things around us are not always in a completely horizontal position against
the wall, so when I paint, I will draw them slightly off-center, or deliberately draw them in
an unbalanced place. If it's too unbalanced, it will look uncomfortable, so keep it in
perspective. But now everyone's paintings are still neatly arranged.

This time I gave two questions, one was to ask everyone to draw a composition of a
distant view, and the other I originally wanted everyone to draw a composition that is
close to a close shot, but there are less things that can be seen in the close shot, so I
combined the two. A topic can be set as a perspective. The floor is visible in the first shot,
but hardly visible in the second shot.

When I draw a composition, I often let the characters move around in the imaginary
space in my mind, and then draw based on the settings. As a result, the space of the
picture becomes larger unknowingly. In the compositions everyone drew today, many
people also drew very spacious spaces.

Why does the space become larger? Because it is easier to draw. When you want to make
everything in the picture easy to see, the space you draw will naturally become larger.
When drawing a composition, you must imagine what is on the opposite side of the table
or screen before you draw it. When you unconsciously want to express those things, the
space you draw will become larger and larger.

Continue next time!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to
GAINAX Animation Lectures Chapter 9 - Things you
should consider before starting composition work
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Hiramatsu Masashi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a lecture on composition explained by Mr. Tasayoshi Hiramatsu. The topic of

this chapter is about the preparation before composition work. What should you
consider before painting a composition? After understanding the content of the
preparation work, the painters gradually understood how the "composition work"
was performed.

※This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2007 for its animation production employees.

3: Things to consider before starting composition work

A strict composition must prepare all kinds of necessities for the original painting job.

According to the production process, the composition must first configure the
background and characters according to the art settings and character settings, and then
determine the position of the light source and the method of attaching shadows, etc. You
must add various information to the composition. Indicates subsequent engineering
operations.

However, through today's topic, I feel that when we draw a composition, we should not
draw the finished product from the beginning. Instead, we should carefully think about
what is happening in the scene and what information we need to express, and then draw
the composition. We must first think about "who the character is and what his words and
deeds are like."

For example, for today's topic, one person is holding the pot and the other person is
sitting. Then we have to think about what the sitting person is thinking when he is sitting
there? Did those two people come together? Or did they come separately? If they come
separately, then the person sitting there should not just sit there in a daze. He may have
been reading comics for a while, or he may have just finished eating. And that pot, is
there water in it? Are the cooking ingredients ready in the kitchen? Are the cooking tools
ready on the table? There are various elements in this question alone, and there are many
things to consider. So we should first consider what is happening in that scene and what
we need to express, and then draw the composition. I think this order is very important.

After analyzing it this way, I found that this is what I have always done. The state of the
objects in the picture, the range of vision, and the image of the characters or objects are
all the results obtained after consideration.

In actual production, because the shots are continuous, the conditions and conditions in
one shot may affect the next shot. In order to obtain this information, we cannot just look
at the shots we are responsible for. It is best to look at the shots before and after through
storyboards.

We need to think about a lot of things before drawing the composition, such as what
happened to this character before he came here? What should his expression be? After
considering these, think about what the background should be? What should the frame of
the picture look like? The shot in the storyboard may be closer, but wouldn’t it be better
to zoom out further? Or would it be better to look at it from a slightly right-of-center
perspective? If you don’t consider these issues, you won’t be able to draw a good
composition. Some of you here are already painting the original painting, and some are
working towards the original painting. I hope you can consider these issues before
painting.

After getting the storyboards, there are still a few days before I go to the performance to
explain the painting content. In these few days, we should consider how to draw while
looking at the storyboards. In some cases, you can even consider how to change the
storyboard. For example, you may think: "Although it is drawn like this in the storyboard,
can I change the action of the character to draw it?"

In short, the preparation before painting is very important. Composition work is not just
about reproducing the scene in the storyboard. It requires you to first understand what is
happening in the scene and what kind of performance the characters are performing. It
also requires you to communicate with the performer or supervisor. For example, through
the "observation" I just talked about, you may have these thoughts: "What is the
personality of this character? I can't tell it just by looking at the storyboard." or "Should
he have it in his hand?" What is better?" or "How about instead of letting him stand still,
let him put half of his hands in his pockets?" Then when actually discussing the painting, if
you say to the performance: "Standing still is boring. , let him put his hands in his
pockets?" Then the show may answer you: "No, he is not such a character, he is a
relatively honest person." Then you accept the show's explanation and do what he says.
Come and paint. In addition, don’t limit yourself to the part you are responsible for. It is
best to imagine its front and back, and then draw the composition. I think this is quite
important.

Continue next time!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:34

GAINAX animation production composition

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GAINAX Animation Lectures Chapter 10 - What is the
standard drawing method for composition?
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Hiramatsu Masashi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a lecture on composition explained by Mr. Tasayoshi Hiramatsu. This time, Mr.
Hiramatsu answered the questions raised by everyone in the handout. What is the
standard drawing method for composition? What requirements does it place on
painters? This is something of interest to painters who are starting from scratch.

※ This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2007 for its animation production employees.

4: What is the standard drawing method for composition?

Questioner 1: "I came here because I wanted to know the standard drawing method of
composition. I would like to ask what kind of composition would Mr. Hiramatsu draw
based on that storyboard?"

No, what I want to tell you is not the standard way of drawing. There is no standard
answer to how to draw a composition. As for today’s question, maybe what I drew is the
standard answer (laughs).

Perhaps it can be said to be a painting of performance hope? Although GAINAX's

performances are usually performed by artists, there is no need to stick to this. There are
all kinds of painters, and everyone has different painting methods. From a performance
perspective, even if what you draw does not fully meet the imagination of the
performance, as long as it is within the allowable range, the performance should allow
your painting to pass. Therefore, I think there is actually no need to pursue standard
painting methods.

This question made me realize this even more, because it is also a question where it is
difficult to find a standard drawing method.

Even in daily work, for example, when the angle of an object in the storyboard is very
close to the setting, you may think: "Can't I just copy the storyboard?" But in fact, you
don't follow the instructions. Storyboard to draw. When painting, it is necessary to slightly
deviate the object from its original position and raise or lower the lens. So rather than
saying that the show has standard answers, it’s more that it’s the job of the show to
put these techniques to use.
How come it comes to the performance (laughs)? But composition is also related to
performance. I think there should be no completely standard painting method for
composition. If someone says there is a standard way to draw a composition, then he will
definitely change all your compositions (laughs). He first says to you: "Draw it according
to your ideas." Then he changes all your drawings.

A book that I read over and over again before I became an animator and while I was
working as an animator was Mr. Yasuo Otsuka’s "Sakuga no Kana". I read it over and
over again like a bible. When I was an animator, I had few animator friends, so I could
only get information from places like this. In fact, if you suddenly come to my place while
I am working and have a chat like this with me, you will be able to learn from usual times.
But it was still difficult, so we set up a place like today.

Continue next time! !

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:34

GAINAX animation production composition

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EVA Document Translation WeChat Official Account: Village Chief…
GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 11 - Things
that must be drawn into the composition
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Hiramatsu Masashi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a lecture on composition explained by Mr. Tasayoshi Hiramatsu. The topic this
time is about what must be included in the composition. What needs to be drawn in
the frame in order to convey a message to the performance through composition?
Mr. Hiramatsu explained to us the requirements of composition for painting.

※This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2007 for its animation production employees.

5: Things that must be drawn into the composition

When some people are not used to drawing, they tend to draw everything in every corner
of the picture, so that what they draw is not the composition.

Things that can be seen and things in the setting do not necessarily have to be drawn. We
should prioritize how to make the composition easy to understand. In this case, we need
to omit some things that actually exist.

When you translate your visual feelings into paintings, how can you make the painting
look more comfortable? This requires you to increase the images of various objects in
your mind through your usual observation of objects, and then draw them. By practicing
this repeatedly, you will gradually understand how to draw. If you only look at the images
in the animation and draw according to the animation settings, the things you draw will
look fake and unrealistic. So I hope everyone can practice sketching on a regular basis. If
you increase the image of objects in your mind by constantly observing, it will become
easier for you to conceive when drawing for animation.

For example, if you are asked to draw a picture of a person walking, if you draw without
thinking about anything, what you will draw will just be a picture of a person walking.
However, as I just said, this person may be thinking about a problem while walking, he
may happen to hear someone calling him over, or he may just be walking aimlessly with
nothing to do. His actions should be different in these situations. If the storyboard says
"He is walking in a hurry", then you should think about what "walking in a hurry" is like.
"Walking in a hurry" doesn't just mean leaning forward. For example, if he has a bag on
his shoulder, he should hold the bag down to prevent it from dangling. These actions and
information need to be obtained and accumulated through daily observation. So for this
topic, because there is too little material, it is difficult for us to make this kind of
imagination.

I think everyone should understand that in order to make the composition easy to
understand, some things must be omitted. However, there may be some things that make
you feel that you can't do it without drawing them. What should you do at this time?

The massage chair in this topic can give you some inspiration. Because the title does not
provide a detailed setting, we assume that this is a scene where a group of people are
preparing to eat. In this case, we need to show a warm, or unrestrained atmosphere in
this scene. If we use a general composition to draw, then the front of the picture is the
backrest of the massage chair, and then the character is on the inside of the picture, but
the backrest in front of the picture will create a strong sense of urgency. When the
audience sees a backrest suddenly appearing on the edge of the screen, they may feel a
little strange, so just remove the backrest and there is no need to express it specially. In
short, it is not necessary to express everything. Even if some things have settings or exist
in real objects, if it is difficult for people to understand after drawing, it is okay to remove
them. You can try to draw it first. If there is no problem with the logic of the picture, you
can draw it in. The key is whether this picture and this composition are easy to
understand.

The first shot uses an angle that everyone can usually see, and the second shot uses an
angle that we can’t usually see. As far as the position of the camera is concerned, it is at
the window, which is a quite new angle. . You can't see it unless you actually look out of
the window, so I think there are many people who drew this angle based on their
imagination. After looking at the compositions everyone drew, I also found that everyone
was drawing the second shot. It was indeed a bit difficult at the time. I've said it several
times before that the reason why it's difficult to draw is because everyone still lacks the
training to 3D rotate the things they usually see in their minds.

Translation note: The first shot and the second shot refer to the following two pictures
respectively:

Continue next time! !

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to
GAINAX animation handout Chapter 12 - How to
increase your accumulation
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Hiramatsu Masashi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a lecture on composition explained by Mr. Tasayoshi Hiramatsu. The content

of this episode is still Mr. Hiramatsu’s answers to everyone’s questions. This time,
Mr. Hiramatsu explained how to input and output information smoothly.

※ This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2007 for its animation production employees.

6: How to increase your accumulation

Questioner 2: "Although I have been observing various things, I can't remember the
image of the object when I draw. Is there any way to help me remember it?"

It can only be practiced repeatedly.

Let me tell you about my method. I used to carry a sketchbook with me and draw
wherever I went. But if I see a beautiful girl on the street, I will go back to the studio and
draw her while reminiscing (laughs). If I find someone with an interesting posture on the
train, I will secretly draw him or her in the palm of my hand or in the air. It will be easier to
remember if you draw it this way. If you don't observe carefully, you won't be able to
remember it well, and you have to move your hands to do it. But if you keep doing this,
others may think you are a pervert (laughs).

If you only use your mind to remember without actually drawing, it will be difficult to
remember. So when you get back to your studio or home, you'd better draw something
you still remember, such as a passerby who left a deep impression on you, or a beautiful
building. After practicing this repeatedly, those images will remain in your mind, or you
will master the method of remembering them.

At first you may take a sketchbook with you every time you go out, but after repeated
practice, you will find that you no longer need the sketchbook. Just like typing, we need
to see which letter is in which position at the beginning. After we become proficient, we
can type blindly. In short, we need to practice this repeatedly.

7: Necessary plot

Questioner 3: “What should I do if I encounter a plot that I don’t like or don’t want to
draw?”

This is a different topic again, it depends on the requirements of the performance.

Suppose you draw a scene like this: a girl is running in a way that is impossible in reality.
Then you may think that such a person cannot exist in reality, but the performance tells
 you: "This girl is such a character." So how can you draw to meet the requirements of the
performance? This is where the difficulty lies.

I think everyone here has their own favorite type of painting, but when you first start
painting original paintings, you can't choose what to paint. Once you get a shot you don't
want to take, all you can do is endure it or run away. If you can do your job well, it's a
different matter when you get to choose what to draw. But when you first start, you
definitely can’t do it without drawing (laughs).

Continue next time!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:36

GAINAX animation production composition

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GAINAX Animation Lectures A seemingly insignificant Sort out the principles of You know what? Wha
Chapter 1 - Getting Started, little ruler is the key to WPF animation 12 rules of animation cr
Getting Started, and Setting the animation that all animation maste
Sort out the principles of
Line
A seemingly insignificant WPF animation You know what? Wha
GAINAX Animation little ruler is the key to… the 12 rules of anima
Lectures Chapter 1 -…
GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 13 - The
Vanishing Point of Animation and the Necessity of
Perspective Lines
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Hiramatsu Masashi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a lecture on composition explained by Mr. Tasayoshi Hiramatsu. This time, Mr.
Hiramatsu explained to us the painting method of composition from the perspectives
of vanishing point, perspective, and precision based on the works he has participated
in and performances.

※This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2007 for its animation production employees.

8: The vanishing point of animation and the necessity of perspective lines

Questioner 4: "When did Mr. Hiramatsu's performance characteristics become fixed?"

I haven’t decided to fix it yet (laughs).

In the beginning, as long as I could draw, as long as I could make the picture move, I
would find it interesting. The performance techniques I used at this time were slightly
different from those I used after I started acting. Probably it was after I participated in the
production of "The Wolf" that my acting techniques changed a lot. But what may have
changed is just the composition of the painting.

The most interesting thing about painting compositions for me is the World Masterpiece
Theater of Japanese animation [2] * (Annotation: Hereinafter referred to as Nichido).
"Romeo's Sky", "Heroes of the Seven Seas", "Famous Dog Lassie", etc. The foundation of
my performance characteristics should be laid during the production of these works.

Nowadays, when people draw compositions, they often draw full perspective lines on the
picture, but Nichido's painters are different. They draw perspective lines more loosely.
When there should be one-point perspective, their composition has two vanishing points
or none at all (laughs).

Vanishing point diagram

 A: Example of drawing a perspective line starting from the set vanishing point. Green text: sight
height. Red text: perspective line.

The perspective of picture A is slightly to the right side of the room, and the line in front
of the table extends inward from left to right. The table top looks wider and a lot of the
floor can be seen. The lens has a strong sense of perspective, and the eye level is similar
to a bird's-eye view, which emphasizes the depth of the room and looks a bit like a wide-
angle lens.

B: Example of no clear vanishing point even though the line of sight is at the same height. Blue
text: The vanishing point is roughly distributed here.
In picture B, the line in front of the table is nearly horizontal, the table top is narrow, and
there is less room to see the floor. The depth is slightly compressed, and the two people
inside are larger than A. Although the eye level is the same, the bird's-eye view of B is
lighter and it is an unreal telephoto lens.

“When priority is given to visual stability rather than lens accuracy, I personally
would use method B” (Hiramatsu)

When shooting scenery with a camera, the perspective line is very obvious. Perspective
lines will definitely appear after compressing the scene you see with your own eyes, but
when you look at it with your own naked eyes, in terms of feeling, the perspective lines
are not very obvious, and you will find it unexpectedly. Relatively loose.

I worked with Nishio-kun and Okiura-san during the production of "Werewolf". At that
time, I felt a cultural difference from them, because I found that they all drew perspective
lines very accurately. I was still the first I discovered that kind of painting method for the
first time. Even now I don't think about drawing perspective lines that accurately. This is
the difference between drawing what you see in the lens and drawing what you see in
your own eyes. Nowadays, everyone sets the vanishing point and line of sight height to
draw perspective lines when drawing. This is of course necessary, but you might as well
try messing up the perspective lines.

For example, when drawing a perspective drawing of a box, everyone usually sets the
vanishing point and perspective line first, and then imagines what the box should look
like when placed somewhere. If it were me, I would first imagine it in my mind and then
draw it instead of thinking from the vanishing point. If the perspective lines are drawn
very accurately, when the perspective lines are erased, the picture will appear very narrow
or rigid.

When drawing according to the perspective line, the intersection line of the ceiling and
wall of the room also extends in the direction of the vanishing point. In this case, in our
topic today, the room will appear very narrow. When viewed from directly above, the
room is not square but trapezoidal. In order to avoid this situation, we should make the
perspective line slightly deviate from the vanishing point, instead of having to use a ruler
to draw the perspective line, and then observe whether the picture is spatially reasonable.

In addition, in the explanation of perspective lines, we can often see patterns that are
evenly and continuously arranged into the interior of the picture like fences. I had painted
this kind of composition during the production of "Werewolf". I was very nervous at the
beginning and felt that I had to draw it very accurately, so I followed the textbook
method completely. But during the painting process I realized that this was just a waste of
time and completely meaningless. Once you've done this once, you'll understand, and you
don't need to do it again. Even if the calculation is correct, it is difficult to show a sense of
equality if it does not extend further inward. So don’t blindly believe in vanishing points
and perspective lines... This is what I learned while working at Nichido.

9: Image accuracy and atmosphere

Do you know "Little Chef"? The character of this work, Mr. Masahiro Kase, is also from
Nichido. There really is no vanishing point in the composition of his paintings. I remember
that he once drew a composition of an attic with a room entrance. No matter what angle
he drew it from, there was no vanishing point in his composition, but as a picture, his
composition was established.
For the same example, Utrillo has a vertical painting called "Corona Path". In the picture,
the buildings on both sides of the road give people a sense of height. Why? It's because
the perspective of this painting is not correct. If the perspective lines were drawn
accurately, the buildings wouldn't look so tall.

"Corona Path"

The same goes for observation. I hope everyone can observe various things, such as
artwork, photos, real-life movies, etc. When something makes you feel a certain way, you
have to think and imagine why it makes me feel that way. This also requires repeated
practice.

These are the things I think about the most when I am moving. For example, when I used
a ruler to draw a European street, I found that what I drew was different from what I
imagined, so I didn't use a ruler and drew it all with my bare hands. This is the same
method I just talked about to make the perspective line deviate from the vanishing point,
which can create a hand-made feeling. But if you want to draw a picture of tall buildings
in the city center, it may be different.

Whether the perspective lines need to be drawn accurately depends on the specific
situation. But first you have to know what you want to draw, and then choose tools and
methods. Anyway, one thing I realized during the sun movement is that perspective lines
don’t have to be drawn accurately.

Then, when I was working on Werewolf, I went back to a style where I didn't draw the
perspective lines too loosely. When I was working on "The Great Chef", I was too willful
(laughs). Of course, part of the reason is that the original painting is good, but mainly
it’s because I didn’t think much about the composition. I just thought it would be cool
and dazzling. After this kind of playful work, I participated in the production of Nikki
animation works, and drew precise compositions like "Werewolf" and "INNOCENCE". In
the end, my conclusion is that after participating in a wide range of work, my thinking will
become more profound.

It’s great to be able to participate in the production of various types of works. For
example, after working on "Tengen Breakthrough", which has a lot of action scenes, if you
 then work on a work like Nichidani's work, which has a lot of daily plots, you will probably
learn a lot.

Continue next time! !

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.
2. ^ Japanese animation: Nippon Animation Co., Ltd. (Nippon Animation Co., Ltd.), founded in 1975, formerly
known as Ruiying, is world-famous for producing world-class theaters.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:36

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Perspective drawing method: 【Drawing Tutorial】Scene What is perspective? Learn

Perspective Techniques:
making 3D animation in perspective painting tutorial! comics background from
Teaching the Steps of… Processing 2D mode Teach you perspective methods scratch!
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GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 14 - The
Importance of Fine Drawing
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Hiramatsu Masashi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a lecture on composition explained by Mr. Tasayoshi Hiramatsu. The theme of

this episode is the composition work done at the animation production site. Mr.
Hiramatsu explained to us how to perform composition work at the actual work site.

※ This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2007 for its animation production employees.

10: The importance of fine images

Questioner 5: "Regarding the level of detail in painting, for example, the compositions of
"To the Top 2!" are very detailed. What is the significance of this?"
 "To the Top 2!" drawn by Mr. Hiramatsu! 》Composition

I think it was drawn because the original artist wanted to draw it (laughs).

I think everyone just needs to draw according to their own ideas. Although the degree of
fineness of painting varies depending on media such as TV animation, theatrical version,
and OVA, it does not mean that the painting must be very fine because it is a theatrical
version, or that the painting must be rough because of TV animation. . After all, this is
related to time and money, and the approach may vary from person to person. If you
were asked to draw 20 shots of a TV animation with the same density as the theatrical
version, you might not even be able to earn a living. So you can draw some shots simpler
and some shots more detailed, and it's up to you to filter.

"To the Top 2!" "" and "Tian Yuan Breakthrough" are like this. Each original artist is
responsible for very few shots, so everyone works very hard and draws very carefully. An
artist who only draws 5 shots will draw all 5 shots very well, so "To the Top 2!" " and "Tian
Yuan Breakthrough" every shot looks very detailed.

In fact, rather than the artist's ideas, whether detailed painting is required depends on the
overall production schedule and conditions. Recently, I have discovered that the painting
density of some TV animations is very high. This is because the number of shots each
artist is responsible for is very small. But in fact, when selecting shots, the show, or the
production, and the original animator should pick out thirty to forty shots after thinking
about it, and then the show should tell the original animator which shots are needed
during the discussion with the original animator. Draw very carefully, for example: "This
shot is very important. You'd better draw all the details. For this shot, you can draw it a
little simpler." Because there are also some physical reasons, it is impossible for you to
draw all the details. If you spend too much time on it, you need to master the balance. For
example, for some very important shots, you can only draw one shot a day, while for
those relatively unimportant shots, you can draw five or six shots a day. This way the
whole work will look less laborious, and your efforts will be more felt by the audience.

11: The first original painting

Recently, everyone has begun to use rhythm tables [2] in the composition stage . Because there is no
special time for composition in the schedule, everyone is accustomed to making the
composition the first original painting [3]

But there is no need to do this. First of all, you only need to draw the background
accurately, and then convey the key actions and important places of the characters to the
performance, then it will be established as a composition. There are many artists at
GAINAX who paint the composition almost like the first original painting. There is nothing
wrong with this, but if too much time is spent on this, there will not be enough time to
draw the original painting, and the inspection of the performance will have to be
postponed. Often when this happens, the entire production schedule is pushed back.

For shots with very simple action, you just draw a composition with the background and
characters, then use arrows to indicate the action, and spend the rest of the time working
on the original painting. Even if there are only arrows, as long as the background is drawn
correctly, the performer or supervisor can imagine the character's movements. However, if
the storyboard draws two frames, then the composition also needs to draw at least two
frames. If there are five frames in the storyboard, but your composition is only three
frames, then the performer or supervisor will think you are being lazy (laughs). On the
contrary, if the storyboard is very sloppy, but your composition is very detailed to express
the atmosphere of the scene, your composition will not give people a bad feeling in terms
of performance. Because the show will check whether the original artist has imagined the
actual content of the storyboard. If you make a mistake, you will have to modify it, so
there is no need to make the composition the first original painting.

Continue next time! !

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.
2. ^ Original text "シート". If it is a 6-second rhythm table, make six tables that divide one second into 24 parts.
And write down the changes in celluloid, camera movements, photography instructions, etc.——GAINAX
Animation Lecture Notes Glossary
 3. ^ The first original painting, the original text is "ラフhara", which is synonymous with "一元". It refers to the
composition of rough movements using relatively rough drawings - GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes
Glossary. Due to the tight schedule of the production process and original painting work, there will be
situations where the original original artist draws a rough original painting, and then another original artist
traces it and turns it into a clear original painting. The former is called the first original painting (一元), and the
latter is called the second original painting (二元) - Japanese Wiki "original painting" entry

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:37

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GAINAX Animation Lectures Original character painting What? Animation black What? Animation black
hapter 1 - Getting Started, tutorial for the original artist, technology! No need to add technology! No need to add
etting Started, and Setting the master the design rules, and intermediate pictures when intermediate pictures when
ne easily switch between various making animations? making animations?
styles
GAINAX Animation What? Animation black What? Animation black
Lectures Chapter 1 -… Original character painting technology! No need to… technology! No need to…
tutorial for the original…

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head literature... Original artist wuhu animation space wuhu animation space
GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 15 - The
Balance of Composition
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Hiramatsu Masashi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

This is a lecture on composition explained by Mr. Tasayoshi Hiramatsu. This time Mr.
Hiramatsu explains to us what animators check for composition. After listening to
this lecture, we will find that the composition requires understanding the content
required by the performance, rather than simply reproducing the storyboard.

※ This handout was launched at GAINAX in 2007 for its animation production employees.

12: Balance of composition

Many people want to know the "standard answer" to today's question. In fact, from the
perspective of an evaluator, the performance will first look at whether the configuration of
characters and objects is balanced. Then you will also observe whether the character can
perform the actions required by the storyboard on the background you drew.

As far as I'm concerned, I basically don't care much about the configuration of characters
if the picture is of standard size [2] . And if the picture is a distant view [3] , I will pay more
attention. For example, when you want to draw the part above the waist of a character on
the screen, if it is a standard size, even if a small part of the head is outside the screen, it
will not feel abnormal, but if the head is all within the screen, it will not feel abnormal.
There will be a strange feeling. This configuration is a bit nondescript, so I think it is better
to configure it with the head exposed.
 Red frame: standard size Green frame: vista size ※The picture comes from the ゆんフリー photo
material collection http://www.yunphoto.net/

However, if you draw like this on a distant-size picture, because the picture is long
horizontally, the characters will divide the picture into two, leaving a lot of gaps on the
left and right sides, which will look very uncomfortable. The same goes for real-life
movies. In a distant shot, the top of the character's head is empty. In other words, if the
screen size is not too narrow and is relatively loose, it is better to arrange the space above
the character's head. Of course, this also needs to consider whether the picture is easy to
understand and its significance in performance, but the first thing to look at in
performance is your configuration.

What I am going to talk about may be off topic. In the past, after I accumulated a certain
degree of original painting experience, I worked in partnership with a certain performer
for a long time. One of the things I did a lot at that time was a storyboard. Because the
performer was not good at painting, when he drew the sketches for the storyboards, he
just used circles and dots to draw on A4 paper. Sometimes he wrote the lines and
sometimes he didn't. Then he gave me the sketch he drew, and I wrote the lines while
reading the script, and drew the background while reading the settings. In a sense, what I
was doing was similar to drawing the composition of an entire episode. Because of the
tight schedule, I had to stay up half-night for two full days to finish the painting. However,
I did learn a lot while communicating closely with the performance and concentrating on
my homework.
 Examples of sketches for storyboards (drawn by Hiramatsu as a sample)

All in all, the most important thing is whether you can imagine the final finished image
from the storyboard sketches. When drawing compositions based on very sloppy
storyboards, I don't draw perspective lines first. If there are three characters, I will draw
the head position first and control the balance of the character, and then consider the eye
level. When there are characters in the shot, my processing sequence is to consider the
configuration of the characters first, and then set the background and objects to make the
configuration of the characters true.

Understanding the content of the shot is also something you need to do when drawing
composition. Composition is not just about reproducing the picture in the storyboard.
Before painting, you must think about why you use this picture size and this angle to
draw. Even if you don’t want to be a performer, you must know that being able to
understand the performance is a very important condition for painting.

What is needed in order to understand the performance is the "observation of various

objects" that I have been referring to today, and the "imagination to put them together."
As I just said, when drawing a composition, as long as the intention can be conveyed to
the performance, there is no need to make the composition the first original painting.
Whether your composition is easy to understand, what your attitude is when you draw,
and how much you understand the performance aspects in the storyboard, these are the
things to look at in the performance.

When drawing a composition, everyone also needs to distinguish necessary information

from unnecessary information from various information. In order to filter information,
everyone needs to constantly observe and train the method of observing objects, and
then accumulate various images in the mind before drawing. If you need information, go
collect it.

So the most important thing is daily training! effort! and perseverance! (laugh)

Even so, we are in this line of work because we love it. It may take a lot of courage to go
outside with a sketchbook, but once you get used to it, you will find that it is actually
quite interesting.

I hope everyone can have fun painting.

Mr. Hiramatsu Masashi's "GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes: Composition" ends with
this chapter.

For those who want to enter the animation industry in the future, and for producers
who are actually working, we would be very happy if this handout can help you
understand the meaning and importance of "composition work" in animation image
production. Happy. Thank you all for reading.

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

reference

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout. Follow the WeChat public account "Village Chief's Column"
to view the original Japanese text of this handout.
2. ^ Standard Size, aspect ratio is 4:3 - GAINAX Animation Handout Glossary
3. ^ Vista Size, aspect ratio is 16:9. Compared with the standard size, it becomes wider horizontally - GAINAX
Animation Handout Glossary

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:37

animation production GAINAX composition

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GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 16 - How to
Become an Animator
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuto Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

GAINAX Animation Lectures starts from this chapter and enters the third topic - How
to become an artist?

The lecturers for this topic are Mr. Hiroyuki Imaishi, the director of "Tengen
Breakout" and "Garter Angel", and Mr. Yasuto Murata, the animation inspector. The
host is Mr. Masahiko Otsuka, the assistant director of the same work.

What are the necessary requirements to become a painter? How to become a

painter? From the differences between original paintings and animations that
everyone doesn't know much about, to the checkpoints of the admission exam, three
animation producers gave us a to-the-point explanation while exchanging insider
information about the industry.

※ The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

1: Difference between original painting [2] and animation [3]

Otsuka: First of all, if you are interested in animation, you will have heard the terms
"original painting" and "animation" more or less, but I think very few people can
pronounce them correctly. the difference. It's difficult to explain it in words, so I would like
to use the images and videos of "Garter Angel" to explain it. The first thing the animator
draws is the original painting, but not all of the original painting will become the final
picture you see. After the original painting is completed, the animator will trace the
original painting again. This process is called tracing.
The left side of the picture above is the original painting, and the right side is the
animation. After tracing the original painting on the left, it will be the animation on the
right. It should be easy for everyone to find that the lines of the animation are relatively
clean and clear, while the original painting looks a little sloppy, with lines broken in some
places and painted with color in some places. You should be able to see these differences.

The colored parts of the original painting are called color points, and the purpose is to
illustrate that the colors in these places are different. After the painting is completed, the
picture needs to be scanned to the computer for coloring. At this time, if there are still
colors on the picture, the scanner will scan in those colors, so when doing animation
work, it will look like the picture on the right. No coloring, all expressed with lines.

Next, please listen to my explanation while watching this video (Translation: The original
link has expired, and the original video cannot be viewed). In this video, Pandy and Stork
each have three different images. The first image that looks like a meal only shows the
original paintings. Full white frames were inserted into the second image, replacing the
original mid-cut image. In other words, this video only arranges the original paintings
drawn by the original artist, and all other paintings are replaced with blank images. The last
very smooth image is added with the state of mid-cut [4] drawn by the animator . After watching
these videos, you should be able to feel how much mid-cut is added. As far as these two
shots are concerned, there are relatively few mid-cuts. Since there are many original
paintings, even if you only look at the original paintings, you can feel that the connection
of the actions is relatively smooth to a certain extent.

As this video shows, not all of the original painting will become the final picture. The
animator will trace the original painting over and then add the paintings between the
original painting and the original painting to complete the overall action. In other words,
not all the paintings included in an image were painted by the original artist. The original
animator only draws the key frames, and the animator draws the drawings between key
frames, that is, the mid-cut. Because the painting drawn by the original artist will be
traced by the animator, no matter how good the original painting is, if the animator does
not draw it well, the final picture will look a little broken.

Murata: Yes. Because the original painting for an episode of the cartoon was drawn by
many people, and each person's painting style is different, so in order to unify the
character's painting style, the animation supervisor will make corrections on part of the
original painting. Because the correction and the original painting are separate, the
animator needs to trace the correction and the original painting into one painting.

The level of animators also varies. The quality of overseas painters is not necessarily bad,
and the quality of domestic painters is not necessarily good either. Whether the painting
is good or not has a lot to do with the production schedule. If a job takes a lot of time to
complete, but the job time is cut, there will definitely be holes in the final job.

Otsuka: There are so many overseas painters that even if you give them bundles of
original paintings, they can complete the work within a day, which is impossible in Japan.

Murata: Yes. In addition, I think this is also because overseas painters are used to this
kind of work. Just by looking at the shape of the lines, you can tell that overseas artists
draw better. Although there is still the problem of being able to draw the lines accurately
according to the original painting, the quality of the lines themselves is very good. So
overseas artists should have a relatively long experience in animation, right?

Otsuka: In Japan, animators usually accumulate a certain level of animation experience

before being promoted to original animators.

Murata: If I don’t get promoted to an original animator, I won’t even have enough to
eat.

Otsuka: The drawing between the original painting and the original painting is drawn by
the animator alone. Is the cutting technology different now compared to the past?

Murata: Nowadays, original animators have begun to draw pictures that originally had to
be drawn by animators, so the difficulty of mid-cut is gradually decreasing.

To put it simply, in the past, when the character turned his head from the back to the
front, the action was mid-3 (three mid-cuts were added between the original painting and
the original painting). Because there was no instruction on the original painting, the
animator had to draw the middle of the action. profile. But because today's original
animators had this experience when they were animators, they know that animation is
more troublesome to draw, so when they draw the original painting, they will also draw
the side face, or they will draw many original paintings. Some animators have been
overseas and found that the animations drawn by overseas animators were not very
good, so they increased the number of original paintings they drew to curb the decline in
animation quality. So I think the center cut is not as difficult to draw now as it used to be.

Otsuka: Also, if it’s an animation that moves quickly and has a lot of frames, it doesn’t
matter if it’s a little broken.

Murata: Yes.

Otsuka: When I check the performance, if I find that a certain original animator only drew
the first and last scenes for the action of turning back, I will ask him to draw another
reference frame for the middle action.

When Imaishi-kun was an animator, did you ever encounter an original painting that
made you feel overwhelmed?

Imaishi: Basically not. Occasionally, I would think, "I can just draw this casually." But if I do
that, Comrade Murata will ask me to redraw it (laughs).

Murata: In the past, animated characters didn’t have as many lines as they do now.
Some places could be drawn well with a little effort. But now the characters have a lot of
lines. Once the character collapses, there is nothing you can do, so the original artist has
to increase the number of original paintings.

In addition, as far as Japanese animators are concerned, one year of animation experience
is considered relatively long. Due to the lack of animation experience, the original
animator is worried that the animator will not be able to draw animation well, so he may
draw a few more original paintings by himself.
Imaishi: There are advantages and disadvantages to having the original artist draw
everything. If there are too many original paintings, the movements may become unclear.
So I think it’s better to consider the areas that are drawn by the animators and the areas
that are drawn by the original animators themselves.

Otsuka: Will the original painting look too messy if there are too many movements?

Imaishi: A few geniuses can draw well, but the original paintings drawn by most people
only look very fast, but are messy, making it impossible to grasp the overall impression.

For example, where in an action is there a pause, where is the picture clearly visible, and
where is it moving? If you don’t consider these, you won’t be able to draw a good
original painting.

Murata: During the production of "FLCL", one of the original animators drew all the
turning movements that were originally expressed in the middle 3 into the original art.
This action is not like what I just mentioned, which requires the original painting to be
used to draw the profile of the face, but a very small action. However, the original artist
painted the entire action into the original painting, and he did not unify the eyes of the
character when painting. size, as a result, after the animator finished drawing, the
character's eyes became a mess. So I don’t think it’s necessary for the original artist to
draw to this extent.

Otsuka: Sometimes if you add a certain degree of mid-cutting, the movements can
actually become smoother.

Murata: So in some cases, there is no need to draw the original painting, and the
animator can just cut it in the middle of the painting.

In addition, the original animator will use アタリ[5] when adding reference images. If you
add an アタリ inexplicably, the overseas animator may directly draw that アタリ, and the
animation he draws will not be valid. . This can only be done by the teacher. So when I
was drawing animation, if I found a strange agar in the original painting, I would think:
"Can you draw it into the original painting?" Sometimes some agars even made me think:
"You can draw it It’s better not to paint.”

Continue next time!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout.
2. ^ Original painting, the job of drawing the key frames of the action or its worker. For example, if you want to
show the movement of waving, the original painting needs to draw the picture when the hand is waving to
the far right and the picture when the hand is waving to the far left - GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes
Glossary
3. ^ The word "animation" in the translation of this special lecture (Chapter 16 to Chapter 27) has the following
two meanings. Please pay attention to the distinction when reading: ① In the production process of Japanese
cartoons, after the "original painting" operation The work being done. "The task or worker who traces the
original painting and adds the scenes between the original paintings. For example, if you want to show the
movement of waving, the original painting will draw the 'hand waving to the farthest end' and 'the hand
waving to the far left', and the animation will You need to trace these two original paintings and draw the
picture when the hand is placed in the middle." - GAINAX Animation Handout Glossary. For details, please
refer to Chapter 22 and Chapter 24. ② Refers to animation works in a broad sense, which can be understood
as Japanese animation (anime) in this handout.
4. ^ Medium cut, a painting or work done by an animator to separate the original painting from the original
painting. Animators need to work alone according to the instructions of the show or the original animator. For
 example, when the instruction is "3 center cuts (center 3)", the meaning is to add 3 center cuts between the
original painting and the original painting - GAINAX Animation Handout Glossary
5. ^ アタリ, a rough drawing or line used to represent the shape or arrangement of objects in painting. For
example, circles are used to represent the head of a character, cross lines are used to represent the
configuration of facial organs, etc.——GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Glossary

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:40

painter animation production original painting

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GAINAX Animation Lectures No matter what drawing skills Kneel down! How stro
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GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 17 - Is the
artist well fed?
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuto Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

Connecting with the previous episode, three animators continued to explain to us

"how to become an animator". The content of this chapter will include the salary
issue that everyone is more concerned about. At the same time, the lecturers also
told everyone about their personal experiences.

※The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

2: Does the painter have enough to eat?

Otsuka: For those who want to be an artist, the amount of income should be a concern.
Everyone has been saying that the wages of animation practitioners are low for a long
time. I think many people must have heard this information. So let me ask what the actual
situation is. How much does an animator earn from drawing an animation now?

Murata: For TV animation, it’s 200 yen per piece. Of course, there will be differences
between different works or companies. For GAINAX, it should be relatively high to be able
to draw 300 paintings in a month. In this case, it is 60,000 yen a month, and then
deducting 10% of the income tax, you will get about 50,000 yen. But you won’t be able
to eat enough with this little money, so when newcomers first start working, they have to
ask their parents to provide living expenses (laughs). This situation cannot be improved
by just a few of us talking here. It is already a problem for the entire industry, and people
in the entire industry must work together to find a solution.

Otsuka: The situation has certainly not improved much.

Murata: I can’t help it. It hasn’t changed since I entered the industry. At that time, the
unit price was even lower.

Otsuka: What was your life like as an animator?

Murata: I paint very quickly. I can usually draw a thousand pictures a month. At that time,
I could have 100,000 yen, so when I was young, I felt quite free. When you are twenty
years old, you can still find a way to survive even if you only earn this little.
Imaishi: I am also very poor. If I could draw three hundred pictures a month, I would
laugh happily (laughing).

Murata: For example, if the salary is paid on the 30th, and then when I go to the bank to
withdraw 3,000 yen on the 25th, I find that the bank account details say "53 yen
remaining", and I think, "Why is there such a small amount of change?" You can’t take it
out!” (laughs).

Imaishi: "I want these 53 yen too!" (laughing)

Murata: Now you can take out this kind of change. At that time, we couldn't withdraw
change from the ATM machine, so even if there was still 500 yen in the account, I would
think, "Why can't I withdraw this money?" I also wanted the 500 yen. But when you are
twenty, these things are very interesting.

Imaishi: Yes.

Murata: At that time, I didn’t care how poor I was. But when I was about twenty-five
years old, I found that life was difficult.

Together: (laughing)

Murata: When I was twenty-five, my salary was still the same. So before that, you should
consider becoming an original animator or a producer, otherwise life will be really hard.

Otsuka: Indeed, if you don’t improve your skills and levels, you won’t have enough to
eat. This is probably why the artist doesn't draw animations for a long time.

Murata: I think so too. There are also reasons why there are relatively few original
animators. As soon as an animator's level is a little higher, they will start drawing original
animations. This may be one of the reasons.

Otsuka: Actually, the proportion of animation work done by overseas animators is

increasing. I often hear that after an artist is promoted to an original artist, his income
actually decreases. What was Imaishi-kun's situation like at that time?

Imaishi: I have never encountered such a situation. It was really hard when I was an
animator. Because I didn’t go to a professional school, I’m not very good at drawing
lines. I haven't practiced maintaining the thickness of the line to draw the line without
interruption. In short, I have been frustrated in drawing lines. In the past, I would add
strong and weak changes when drawing lines, but when drawing animation, it is difficult
to draw uniform and continuous lines, so my animation speed has always been very slow.

Otsuka: So in the end you never got used to drawing animation?

Imaishi: I didn’t get used to it until the end.

Murata: People who are good at drawing are not good at this kind of work.

Otsuka: After all, this is a relatively mechanical job.

Murata: Yes. I feel that animators are more like craftsmen than artists, and many people
give up their jobs while working as animators. Imaishi or Yuki, who are good at drawing,
should be more comfortable drawing original paintings than drawing animations, and
make more money. On the contrary, I made more money by drawing animations. Once I
became a original animator, I couldn't survive at all.

Otsuka: I occasionally hear about people like this.

Murata: I used to draw animations from morning till night, and I never did any random
drawing. However, when I wanted to be an original artist, I found that I couldn’t draw
original animations well. The painting between the original painting and the original
painting can be painted well, but if I draw the same painting from scratch, it will basically
not be able to be painted well. So if you draw animation for a long time, you will fall into
this state. If you can become an original animator earlier, you probably won't be like this.
If you can make a living just by drawing animation like me, then you might as well study
animation to the end. But I think there are very few companies that agree with this
approach.

Otsuka: GAINAX occasionally has experienced animation inspectors like Mr. Murata, but
usually the animators take turns as animation inspectors. There are relatively few cases
where veterans are present. Although GAINAX has a lot of directors, there is only one
animation checker.

Together: (laughing)

Murata: I don’t know the situation of other companies, so I can’t say anything, but
there are not many experienced veterans in animation inspection. I found that many
people quit their jobs after doing animation inspection. Because the work of animal
examination is very hard and difficult to do (laughs).

Otsuka: But thanks to Mr. Murata in GAINAX, the newcomers can get sufficient training
when they serve as animators, and everyone can grow together.

Imaishi: Yes. Especially those who enter GAINAX with the goal of being an artist. Many of
them think that they are the best at drawing in the world, but after coming in, they find
that they can’t even draw animation well, so they fail miserably. Feel. Because they were
defeated by Mr. Murata from the beginning. Having your nose broken while you were
feeling proud, and then having to start all over again... It's just like the army.

Together: (laughing)

Imaishi: But this is actually very beneficial. Because everyone draws whatever they want
before working, but after you start working, you draw what others ask you to draw, and
you have to think about how to draw it. The experience of animation homework will help
you in your future work. Come to the benefits. If you are asked to be the original painter
at once, because you don’t know what kind of process the original painting you drew
will go through to become the final picture, so you don’t know how to draw the original
painting well. Since there is an animation project, you must understand it. Otherwise, you
don’t know what tasks to give to the animators, and you don’t know how to draw
original paintings to convey your intentions to the animators simply and clearly. If this is
not possible, the quality of the entire work will really not be maintained. After
understanding animation, you can also make your original paintings more beautifully
reflected on the screen. So no matter how much you want to draw your own drawings, it
certainly doesn’t hurt to gain experience in animation first.

Murata: Occasionally there will be original animators who have no animation experience.
 Otsuka: Yes. Recently, many people upload the animations they draw online, and then
headhunters will find them and ask them to be original animators. There may be a lot
more people like this than in the past.

Continue next time!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:41

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hapter 1 - Getting Started, to draw? Talk about the impact knowledge that zero-based master to become an animator?
etting Started, and Setting the of different scenes on animators must master
What skills do you need to
ne animation expression and
Recommended | Three master to become an…
painting
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GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 18 - What
should you do before becoming an animator/who are
suitable to be an animator?
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuto Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

The first condition for becoming a painter is to "be able to draw." So what kind of
paintings can you draw to become a painter? Who is suitable to be a painter? This
lecture will address these concerning issues for everyone.

※ The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

3: What should you do before becoming a painter?

Otsuka: For those who want to be painters, what techniques should they master? What
suggestions do you have for this?

Murata: When drawing characters, don’t just draw the person. It’s best to add a
background, or draw the character sitting on a chair, etc. When drawing "the state of a
character sitting on a chair", it is best not to just draw the character sitting upright, but
also to draw the character lazily leaning on the back of the chair and other various states.
Some people usually only draw girls, but there are basically no cartoons with female
characters, so don’t just draw girls, you must also draw uncles, old people, and children.

Imaishi: But occasionally there are cartoons with all female characters (laughs).

Murata: So it is very important to draw various paintings.

Otsuka: I think for those who like anime, the first thing they fall in love with is the
characters. So what you might draw at the beginning is your favorite character or action.
But just painting these is definitely not enough.
 Otsuka Masahiko

Murata: Painters must have strong painting skills. Even if the cartoonist is not very good
at drawing, as long as the content of the cartoon is interesting, it is possible for the
cartoon to sell well. But artists draw even ordinary pedestrians, so I think those who are
good at drawing among the artists may be better at drawing than those who are good at
drawing among the cartoonists. With the advent of CG, for painters who cannot draw
machines, if you can make the character blend into the background well when drawing
simple actions such as a character moving from the inside to the outside of the screen,
you may also become one. A very important painter.

Otsuka: It is difficult to draw a character walking from the inside of the screen to the
outside when the ground can be seen in the screen.

Murata: Today there are very few painters who can draw this action well.

Otsuka: You will know it when you actually draw it. When you draw the ground and then
draw the movement of the character from the inside to the outside, if you do not
accurately express the perspective or depth, the character you draw will make people feel
He seemed to have covered a great distance in just a few steps, or conversely, he seemed
not to have moved forward at all. One thing that is difficult to find in our daily
observations is that it is very difficult to keep the distance between the character and the
ground in front and the stride of the character consistent, and it requires technology.

Murata: Although some people can draw a character standing upright in front of the
background, if they are asked to draw a character moving from the inside to the outside,
the character they draw may make people feel that they are not standing still. If the
drawing is not good, The character will appear to be floating. So I think it’s best for
everyone to do more training in this area. Although basically you can just paint what you
like, but occasionally you should think about how to paint this kind of painting.

Otsuka: After being promoted to an original animator, whether you can draw a good
composition will become a key factor in whether you can be a good original animator.
When drawing a composition, you should not only draw the characters, but also the
entire picture including the background. For example, if you want to draw a scene that
takes place in a room, then you have to draw everything in the room. If you want to be an
original painter, you must have this ability. If you are only good at drawing characters or
faces, it will be difficult to be a good painter. When drawing characters, you should also
draw them from various directions and be able to draw various movements. The painter
must reproduce the characters in the picture required by the performance, or the picture
itself. Have you encountered any difficulties in this regard?

Imaishi: When I was an animator, a senior original animator once said to me: "Draw more
when you have time." When we draw, we should not only draw what we like, but also
draw what is necessary. To draw things, it is important to learn to draw from angles that
are never used in ordinary times, and to draw things that have never been drawn before,
whether it is animals or cars. When drawing a car, you must also draw all existing things
such as pedestrians, trash cans, and houses inside. In other words, you cannot just draw a
single thing, but you must be able to draw the entire space. In addition, don't just use the
angle you like to draw the car. It is best to continuously improve the angle and draw
pictures from different angles continuously. These exercises are very necessary for
painters, and I hope everyone can continue to try them.

I have always loved cartoons and have been independently producing animation works
since I was a part-timer. However, when I wanted to draw professional original paintings
or animations, I couldn't draw them well. I was shocked by this. Because when I'm working
independently, I only draw what I want to draw, and I don't care whether the picture
conforms to the perspective. In short, I just let the picture move according to my ideas.
But the experience of independent production is very useful later. It allows you to develop
the habit of considering problems as a whole. So I think if you still have some free time
before becoming an animator, you might as well try to make independent animation
works. When you don't know how to draw well, as long as you try to draw, you will
definitely know how to make progress, so I hope everyone can think about how to draw
after trying to draw. The most valuable asset is discovering for the first time that you can't
draw something when you fail. On the contrary, once you become a professional painter,
you can no longer afford to fail.

Especially now that we have computers, cartoons should be easy to produce. In short, I
hope everyone can try it first. If you are satisfied, stop here. If you still want to go to the
next level, go find a related job. The most important thing is whether you actually do it.

From left: Yasuto Murata and Hiroyuki Imaishi

4: Who is suitable to be a painter?

Otsuka: In fact, many people quit their jobs after becoming painters. I think the biggest
reason is the income issue. However, there are still people who persist in doing it, so after
becoming a painter, you should find out whether you are suitable for being a painter. For
example, animators may have more free time than salaried workers.

Imaishi: Yes. You can skip the crowded trams in the morning.

Otsuka: Being able to choose your own working hours might be a benefit. But on the
contrary, if the management and control skills are too poor, it may hinder the work.

Imaishi: Yes. But basically people with poor management and control skills are doing this
work. Of course I can’t say that to others (laughs). In this regard, as long as you can
control yourself, it will be fine, but there is no need to be like a salaried employee.
It is also stipulated what time to come in the morning, what time to go back in the
evening, and what time to work overtime. I think people who don't have these hard and
fast rules may be more suitable to be painters.

Murata: Maybe it’s okay if you’re not a neurotic person. If they are the kind of people
who are very optimistic no matter what happens tomorrow, I really don’t know if they
can persevere.

Otsuka: In the past, when I told my friend, "I am working as a freelancer," my friend was
very shocked. He asked me, "Aren't you feeling uneasy?" In fact, I didn't care about being
a freelancer at all. If you are someone who cares about this, then it may be tiring for him
to do it. Although if you don’t think about it at all, it will be more troublesome in the
future, but if you care too much, you may not be able to persist.

Murata: I think there is no need to think too much when you are young. There is a talk
column hosted by Mr. Tomino (Yuyuki) on Animage. Someone once said in it: "You will be
very poor after becoming a painter, so I want to save some money first before becoming
a painter." Mr. Tomino's view on this is: "Guys who don't do it when they want to do it
can't do it. People with this kind of thinking can't do it well even if they become painters."
I think he is right, although many people say that painters are poor and don't have
enough to eat. Food, but if you care about this very much, it's better not to be a painter.

However, if you persist, you will eventually find a solution. Compared with when I first
started, the industry has improved a lot in terms of money. Although there are still many
disturbing aspects compared with ordinary salaried employees, there is no need for you
to care about these, just keep doing it. If you don’t want to continue doing it before the
age of 25, it doesn’t matter if you quit. It’s okay to do it with an indifferent attitude at
the beginning, but if you lack a certain degree of awareness, it will be difficult to persist.
During the interview, many people gave me the impression, "Does this person really want
to be a painter?" They have no idea what it is like to be a painter. Occasionally, some
people just can't find a job and just can draw a little bit. Came for an interview. It might
be difficult for this kind of people to become good painters.

Otsuka: But as long as you like anime, that’s fine. After all, that’s the most important
thing.

Imaishi: People who love cartoons and make cartoons from the bottom of their hearts
are probably able to persevere. The more they do, the more pleasure they will feel.

Otsuka: I think very few people make animations because they want to make money.

Murata: I probably wouldn’t be able to persist in that case. Even if some people make
money from cartoons, it is because what they want to do and what they think is
interesting happens to be successful, so they can make money.

Otsuka: The same is true for us. The key is when you successfully produce a work,
whether you can feel a sense of accomplishment when you try your best, and whether
you will be grateful that you have produced such a work. Without these feelings, we
would not know what we are working for. Therefore, I feel that those who can persist in
the position of painters will not be those who want to make money, but those who can
enjoy their work and remember the pleasure of doing their best.

Continue next time!

GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 19 - Key
points to read during the exam
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuto Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

The first step to becoming an animator can take many forms, one of which is taking
the admission exam for animators. What key points in the exam played a decisive
role? Mr. Murata, who is actually responsible for organizing the GAINAX animator
admission examination, will explain this issue to us in one sentence.

※ The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

5: Key points to look at during the exam

Otsuka: What are the key points that determine the entrance examination for animators?

Murata: Basically, it won’t work if you’re not good at drawing. Before the interview, we
ask the interviewees to send some paintings they have drawn, but the paintings some
people send are obviously those they spent two or three hours drawing the day before. I
don’t understand if this kind of person really wants to do it. Painter.

In addition, this job also requires you to establish a good relationship of trust with others.
In the process of co-producing a work with many people, if you can communicate well
with others and there are no major problems with your personality, then You should have
a good chance of being admitted.

Otsuka: Although many people think that animation production relies on individual
drawing, it is actually a team work.
Murata: To put it more clearly, I am someone who is easily manipulated by others
(GAINAX only).

Otsuka Imaishi : ( laughing)

Otsuka: An artist must be able to communicate with others.

Murata: If the interviewer asked me for mercy, I would definitely not let him pass. In
addition, I often ask interviewees: "What will you do if you fail to join our company?"
Occasionally someone will answer: "I will come back next year." Then I ask him: "Then
what do you want to do?" Just say: "I want to be a painter." But if you want to be a
painter, even if you can't join our company, you can still work in other companies, right?
Some people’s purpose is to enter GAINAX, which is wrong. I can understand why
people want to join their favorite animation company and start working where their
favorite animators are, but the most important thing is to become an animator, right? This
is the starting point of everything.

So for those who want to enter GAINAX no matter what, I will reject them.

Imaishi: It’s useless even if you set your goal to enter GAINAX.

Murata: Yes, we still have to start as a painter. No matter which company you go to, what
you do to create animation will never change. It’s not that I can’t understand why you
want to work in a studio you like, but you can work anywhere in the beginning. Even if
you go to another studio, it is possible for us to work together. But this can only be
understood after actual work.

Otsuka: In other words, what we look at is something resembling humanity in the

interviewer.

Murata: Yes. Some people seemed to me to be okay, but after actually entering the
company, I found that this was not the case. It is difficult to fully understand a person
through a thirty-minute interview, so it is also difficult for us to select candidates.

Otsuka: For those who want to enter GAIANX, we ask them to send us sketches and other
paintings they have drawn. So how much should they send? Just now Mr. Murata
mentioned that someone only drew two or three pictures and then sent them over, which
shows that such people also exist.

Murata: Professional animation schools seem to ask students to make folders. So you can
send a few folders. The paintings in them can be arranged one by one or scattered. If you
have a few sketchbooks you have drawn in, you can send them over, but it would be more
difficult for us to send a whole box. In addition, it is best not to study life drawing or oil
painting at an art university. Regular line drawing is the best choice. For example, a lot of
graffiti-like drawings drawn with pencils will suffice. Because the recruitment
requirements say "please send your work." This may make people think that you must
send a complete painting, so some people send paintings that have already been colored
and have a background. . In fact, to take it to the extreme, even graffiti drawn on the back
of an advertisement can be sent over.

Otsuka: As I said just now, don’t just draw people. It’s best to draw other things as
well.

Murata: Yes. It’s best to have paintings other than figures. If you only draw characters,
we can only judge based on this. If we think you still have some room for development,
then there is still hope for you. Having said that, it would be advantageous if the drawings
you send include a variety of things, because then we will know that you can draw many
things. If you only draw cars, all cars may be CG in the future (laughs). However, if you can
draw cars well, it means that you still understand perspective, which may make it easier
for others to see your ability.

Otsuka: In the past, there were original animators who specialized in drawing machinery,
but with the continuous use of 3DCG in animation, the importance of CG will become
more and more important.

Imaishi: There is indeed a trend now. For inorganic objects that must accurately express
perspective, people often use CG instead.

Murata: When watching "Garter Angel", we would be amazed: "This is made with CG!" [2]

Imaishi: Indeed.

Murata: There are some things that will scare those of us involved in the production. I
really don’t know what will happen in the future.

Otsuka: But in the end, it was us who made the animation move. People who like
mechanics can develop in the 3D direction. One thing we felt when we were making
"Garter Angel" is that painting and 3D are just different tools, and there are personal
differences between people who use the same tool. Take 3D as an example. Not everyone
is at the same level. Beautiful 3D movements must be done by people who are good at
3D. It was very interesting when I clearly discovered that there are such personal
differences. The same goes for the original artist. Not every original artist can draw
everything well. Some artists are only good at drawing specific types of things, such as
machines or beautiful girls. So recently, the options that everyone can consider have
increased. You can choose to be a painter or choose 3D production.

Continue next time!

GAINAX Animation Lectures Chapter 20 - Question
Session
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuto Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

We collected questions from users when we released the video. This time, three
animators will answer these questions for us.

※The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

6: Question session

Q1: "I am currently engaged in illustration work for magazines and games. Is it
difficult to switch careers as an artist when you are close to thirty years old?"

Imaishi: It is indeed a bit difficult.

Otsuka: There are some things in the work of an artist that you can do just because you
are young.

Murata: If you can make a living just by drawing illustrations, then keep doing it. I don't
recommend that you change your career to become a painter. But if you want to be a
painter anyway, it's up to you to decide. If you want to be an animator, you can only look
for animation studios willing to hire people close to thirty years old.

Otsuka: If you have to be an artist, you can only make your own judgment.

Murata: I think it’s best not to do it.

Otsuka Imaishi : ( laughing)

Murata: Illustration work is quite hard. In fact, in painting-related jobs, painters can really
make money, but they just make less money. Cartoonists can make money if their works
are successful, but aren't there also cartoonists who are not very popular everywhere?
Among those who draw illustrations, not many can make a living just by drawing
illustrations, right? If you think about it this way, in painting-related work, painters are
indeed a profession that can make money, but they make less money. Having said that, I
do not recommend that you start working as a painter when you are older. If you are
around 20 years old, you can continue to work hard, but if you do it when you are close to
30 years old, it may be more tiring.

Q2: "The description of 'total number of drawings: XX' often appears in the
promotional terms of theatrical productions. What does this refer to specifically?
Does it include the number of drawings and cuts?"
Murata: That refers to the number of animations.

Otsuka: That does not refer to the number of original drawings, but the total number of
drawings and intermediate cuts. That is the total number of paintings used in
photography operations.

Imaishi: So that’s not the number of original paintings and animations, but the final
number of animations.

Q3: "The way some pictures move makes people feel very happy. I don't know why I
feel happy when I see the pictures moving, but it's so fun that it doesn't matter."

Otsuka: Is this a question?

Imaishi: It’s just an impression (laughs), but it’s true.

Otsuka: That's fine. Because we think so too.

Murata: Because that’s our goal.

Otsuka: After we create this kind of image, people will say we did a good job.

Imaishi: The pleasure of creating that kind of image is really irresistible.

Q4: "If a person with poor drawing skills wants to join a larger animation production
company, can he be hired as an animator as long as he works hard?"

Murata: If the company is willing to wait for your growth, is it still possible?

Otsuka: If the company thinks you still have room for development.

Murata: However, animation companies are basically very poor, and some companies
may want you to start working on the second day you join the company. So people who
are not good at drawing will probably have a hard time working in animation. If you
didn't start drawing when you were a student, and you suddenly joined an animation
company without knowing how to draw, it would definitely be difficult to do a good job
as an artist.

Otsuka: You must at least be better at drawing than the average person.

Q5: "After successfully entering an outsourcing company or other companies, is it

possible to enter the company you want again?"

Murata: It's possible. If you draw animation for a long time, your level will improve
accordingly. If you only draw animation, it is possible to enter the company you want to
join. This method may be easier than those with more difficult goals. When selecting
candidates, interviewers are more likely to choose people who can draw animations.

Imaishi: The most important thing is to achieve your own results.

Otsuka: Personnel changes in the animation industry are quite frequent, and basically no
one will stay with the first company for a lifetime. Most people will work as freelancers
after becoming original painters, and they often work in one studio while working in
another studio.

Murata: It’s rare to find people like Imaishi who stay in one company forever.

Imaishi: But I have been working at another company for a year.

Murata: So, changing companies in this industry is not a big deal. But your parents may
be shocked. They may think: "What are you doing? Why did you change companies after
only half a year?"

Q6: "Will you be attracted by other companies?"

Otsuka: I don’t know if it’s a good fit for me, but other companies will seduce you. For
example, they will tell you: "We are going to do such a work this time, are you
interested?" and so on.

Murata: Illustrators are basically freelancers, and they decide what they want to do.
GAINAX's painters don't just do GAINAX work.

Otsuka: If you have been able to complete your work well after becoming an original
animator, you will have more freedom in this regard. Some people will keep working in
other companies because they want to work in other companies. As for whether you can
get in, it depends on your work results, but I think you can still challenge it if you want to.

Q7: "I think I have to draw a lot of paintings from various angles alone. What kind of
exercises have you done?"

Murata: Actually, you don’t need to draw too many angles. What kind of drawing
should be drawn is fixed to a certain extent.

Otsuka: We don’t require you to be able to draw a certain kind of painting either.

Imaishi: Actually, the angles that can be used in the picture are limited. Even if you can
draw from other angles, others won’t want to see it.

Otsuka: Although the artist must be able to draw pictures from various angles, to a
certain extent, the picture required for the work is actually fixed. Just like the picture
everyone has seen. If you only paint from a unique angle, everyone will feel tired looking
at it.

Imaishi: When I first started working as an artist, I would be very happy if I could draw
from difficult angles. The super-talented artist Honda Yu is very good at drawing faces at
a slightly diagonal angle. After the picture is symbolized, it is difficult to express its three-
dimensional sense. The further the camera moves back, the narrower the distance
between the eyes and ears will become, and finally the eyes will be covered by the ears
and cannot be seen. Mr. Honda used the images in this process to express the character's
acting skills. In his paintings, when the camera is slightly turned to the back, part of the
inside of the character's front teeth can be seen, and he can also show the three-
dimensionality of the ears. I imitated this kind of painting a lot at that time. When I first
started working as an artist, drawings from this kind of angle were relatively rare in
comics. Even longer ago, Mr. Tomokashi Ukawa also developed アオリ[2] .

Otsuka: Indeed, we are all a little surprised when we see angles that we have never seen
before.

Imaishi: In the past, the middle of the ear was drawn to look like a "6". If it was slightly
tilted back, the middle of the ear would basically not be drawn at all. I think the way I
draw ears really tests my ability as an artist. When I was drawing the animation for "EVA",
I happened to draw a scene where the animation director was Mr. Kise (Kazuya). One of
the shots was animated by me: Yuandu looked down ahead and made a phone call,
pushed back the drawer, slightly changed the angle of his head and then crossed his
fingers and rested his elbows on the table (Translation: Chapter 13 9:08 start). The ears in
this shot are really amazing, and they look great no matter what angle they look at. I was
drawing animation while thinking, "This is awesome!"
Otsuka: Do painters need to pay attention to their ears?

Imaishi: Of course, you should be able to draw the front or side of the ears and eyes. Also
note that when the camera moves back, the eyes will disappear from the outline of the
face. You can think about how to use the disappearing eyes to express the character's
acting skills. If you drew it like a real eyeball, it would look a little gross. Therefore, it is
very important to maintain the symbolic status of the characters and draw them well.

Otsuka: Because the head is actually a sphere, when it rotates, the amplitude of the
rotation will also change as the angle changes. If you don't realize this, you won't be able
to draw a picture that gives people a sense of three-dimensionality or space.

Imaishi: Of course, the techniques of painters have improved now, so I’m only talking
about the situation “when I first started working as a painter.”

Otsuka: However, based on these alone, you should be able to understand what painters
should pay attention to when painting. Everyone must pay attention to your ears!

Imaishi: (laughs)

Murata: But it’s true. Ears are really difficult to draw.

Imaishi: Oh, it’s really hard to draw. Even now I can’t draw well.

Murata: The ears that some people draw from the side angle are exactly the same as the
ears that can be seen from the front. How can people cut the ears in the drawing?

Otsuka: When we discuss painting from now on, we will say something like, "Your ear
painting was pretty good today!"

Imaishi: The key is the ridge of the ear. Also pay attention to when you can see the inside
of the ear, these are very important things.

Otsuka: It seems like we discovered secrets in unexpected places.

The first broadcast of UST ends with this episode! The next episode will begin with
the second broadcast of UST. What else do you actually need to do after becoming
an animator? Stay tuned!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout.
2. ^ アオリ, a human face painted by Tomokyen Ukawa from an upward angle. The chin is its characteristic
feature. It is also called Ukawa Aアオリ.
GAINAX Animation Lectures Chapter 21 - Lines of
Animation
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuhito Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko Iseki Shuichi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

Starting from this episode, we will continue to bring you GAINAX animation
handouts published by UST Broadcast. After the first broadcast, a new member,
Shuichi Iseki, joined this time. Together with Mr. Otsuka, Mr. Imaishi, and Mr. Murata,
he will explain to us what new animators need to do.

※The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

1: animated lines

Otsuka: This time we want to talk about new animators, and for this we invited animator
Iseki-kun. After a newcomer enters the studio, at GAINAX, we first let him undergo
training. First of all, could you please Mr. Murata explain to us what newcomers need to
do during training?

Murata: During the training period, newcomers must learn to draw animation lines and
learn to cut within the drawing. Since most people have never drawn animated lines, they
spend a lot of time practicing. If it’s someone who hasn’t even attended an animation
school, they may spend even more time.

In addition, newcomers must learn to draw "running" and "walking" animations. It is

impossible to draw these two actions well if you only draw the cut in the middle. These
are the basic actions in cartoons. If possible, it is best to complete the training in two or
three months. Some people may need more time.

After training, newcomers need to do practical work. We will try to let you draw simple
things at the beginning, and then gradually increase the difficulty.

Otsuka: Last time Imaishi-kun said that animation lines are difficult to draw. Was it really
not good at drawing at the beginning?

Imaishi: Ah, it’s true that I can’t draw well.

Murata: Although Imaishi had already done animation in college, it was more difficult
because he entered the industry directly without any training. If you are a person who has
attended a professional school, although the lines he draws are not yet usable at work, he
can understand the feeling, so such a person may learn faster.

Otsuka: Don’t you feel overwhelmed?

Murata: No.
Otsuka: Otsuka: Don’t you know, Imaishi-kun, that there are specific requirements for
the lines drawn by animators?

Imaishi: Because what I used to do was cel animation, I drew lines directly on the cel, so
there was no animation, and there was no need to draw animation. I draw the original
sketches myself, and then trace the lines. It’s basically this process.

Otsuka: Ah, I see.

Imaishi: When I draw the magic lines, I also paint them directly on the celluloid. I also
made a lot of paper animations. When I was working independently, the animation
process didn't exist at all, so I never thought about how to draw continuous clean lines.

Otsuka: Did Iseki-kun only know how to draw this line after joining the company?

Iseki: Yes, this is the first time I know how to draw this kind of line.

Otsuka: Never painted in school?

Inseki: I have never painted at all.

Otsuka: Is it hard to study?

Iguchi: Oh, it’s so hard.

Otsuka: (laughs)

Iseki: I said it was hard work, but actually it was because Mr. Murata’s guidance was too
strict. During training, Mr. Murata always asked me to redraw.

Otsuka: I see. However, it is said that Mr. Murata is much gentler now than before
(laughs).

Murata: Well, they say I have become smoother.

Together: (laughing)

Otsuka: Was Mr. Murata scary before?

Imaishi: It’s scary (laughs). I always make him angry.

Murata: Actually, I think as long as the newcomer can accurately portray the original
character, I can give him eighty points. If the original painting is well drawn, the rest will
basically be the middle cut. So I will spend a lot of time teaching newcomers on Gahara
no matter what. In fact, after a new person starts working, he will also think about how to
draw animation lines. Now I sometimes can't draw lines well, and sometimes I don't even
know how to draw them at all. I think the question of how to draw lines will always be
with you when you animate.

Continue next time!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout.
GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 22 - The
Structure of Animation
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuhito Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko Iseki Shuichi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

The first thing an animator must learn to draw is "line", "middle cut" and basic
movements "walking and running animation". How is animation structured? How to
draw animation? Let's listen to the explanations of the producers while looking at the
materials.

※The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

2: Structure of animation

Otsuka: Animators first need to practice tracing and line drawing, and then learn how to
draw movements and cuts. The basic movements in cartoons are "walking" and "running".
Please watch a video that connects the training materials on "running" [2] .

Otsuka: The images at the beginning seemed to be shot one after another, because it
only captured the original paintings used for training. The next smooth image has a mid-
cut state added to it.

This set of original paintings consists of the original painting of "Wave your arms and land
on the ground" and the original painting of "Wave the other arm and land on the other
foot". Although there are two original paintings, there is only one action. The actions in
the middle are all composed of It's up to the animator to complete it. It wouldn't look
good if the character's head grew bigger and smaller for a while, so the animator couldn't
change the size of the character's parts, he could only change their position and draw the
middle part.

In addition, the timing of the mid-cut will affect the feeling of the movement. Since the
original painting only has the first and last paintings, the impression given by the action
will also change greatly depending on the time when the animator needs to add the mid-
cut.

Regarding the two actions of "walking" and "running", as you can see, the animator cut
them in the middle of the painting without any intermediate actions at all. Of course,
everyone drew "walking" and "running" They are all different. The important thing is to
"make the movements look natural." If you can draw the mid-sections of "walking" and
"running" well, there should be no problem with other movements. This is a basic action
in cartoons, but there are some parts that are difficult to draw... How did Iguchi-kun learn
it at the beginning?

Iseki: When I first started painting, I had no idea how to paint. At that time, Mr. Murata
drew a sketch for me to see, and then I looked at the sketch and noted the position of the
knee... That's how I remembered it at the time. Rather than memorizing it, I draw based
on feeling. Even now, there are times when I am not good at drawing, and sometimes I
am sent back to redraw.

Murata: “Running” and “walking” cannot be drawn by just dividing the lines in the
middle. Cutting within a painting is actually similar to painting the original painting.
Especially the action of "running" is relatively difficult to draw. As a side note, the original
painting of the running in the video just now was painted by Mr. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.

Otsuka: Ah, that’s right (laughs)

Murata: I drew the middle sections of the two original paintings. They were what Mr.
Sadamoto taught me when I first started training. And now I am teaching you how to
draw this.

Otsuka: Sure enough, there were individual differences in the beginning?

Murata: Yes. If they are people who have gone to a vocational school for animation, they
already have some experience in painting-in-picture cutting, so they will be able to draw
well after they start working. But for ordinary people who have graduated from high
school or college, because they have never been exposed to this aspect, they don’t
know how to draw at the beginning.

There are also some people who learned it through animation books. However, it is
difficult to keep the thickness and length of the legs unchanged when drawing, especially
the action of "running", because the lengths of the left and right legs are different, so it
takes a lot of effort to hide this when drawing.

Otsuka: When we were filming the behind-the-scenes of "Tengen Breakout" or

something, we had Yuko's voice actress, Ms. Marina Inoue, come to the studio to actually
experience the work of an animator. We asked Ms. Inoue to draw a midsection of Yuko's
repetitive movements while walking, and she did a pretty good job. I originally planned to
comment on the fact that she wasn't very good at drawing, but ended up not being able
to complain. I was really shocked that the painting was so good. In the end, I could only
say: "Oh, it's a good painting."

Murata: Because she had already seen a lot of line drawings while recording (laughs).

Imaishi: But if you’ve never painted before, you probably can’t draw well (laughs).

Murata: I also think she is not good at painting, maybe because she is more talented.

Otsuka: I was shocked at that time. I almost want to say: "It would be better if the up and
down movements were more obvious." (laughs)

Murata: But occasionally there are some people who can draw well from the beginning.
 Otsuka: Maybe it’s because they feel better.

Continue next time!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout.
2. ^ The video cannot be viewed because the original link has expired.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:43

GAINAX painter Drawing (Animation Production)

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Author: Murata Yasuhito Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko Iseki Shuichi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

"Training" is the only way for animators. During the training period, animators will
receive strict guidance until they can carry out formal work, and the length of
training time varies from person to person. So what is the job of an animator after
training? Please listen to the explanations from the producers at the production site.

※The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

3: Training stage

Murata: Just now I mentioned that animation lines are difficult to draw, but occasionally
there are still some people who can draw them well after just a week of practice.

Otsuka: People like this wouldn’t have to work so hard at that stage. So does the length
of training time vary from person to person?

Murata: In GAINAX, it varies from person to person. As I just said, if a newcomer cannot
draw "walking" and "running" animations, the training will not end. For slow people, it will
take half a year, and for fast people, it will only take a month.

Otsuka: In other words, the newcomer only does this kind of practice during the training
stage, and he can't draw animation that is actually used in official works?

Murata: Yes. If a new employee is asked to do formal work as soon as he joins the
company, he will be under a lot of pressure, right? It is impossible for a newcomer to start
formal work so quickly. Some companies only let newcomers practice drawing lines for a
while before letting them officially start working. I think this is wrong.
Otsuka: What was the first anime Iseki-kun drew?

Iseki: The official animation is "Garter Angel".

Otsuka: Oh, "Garter Stockings". nervous?

Jingguan: Alas, I don’t understand anything at all. I also couldn't understand the rhythm
table. Although I was finally able to draw it after asking my seniors, I was often sent back
to redraw it.

Murata: Because when newcomers are first asked to redraw, they think it’s impossible.
So in the beginning I would try my best to get new people to redraw it.

Otsuka: Actually, I’m telling newcomers that they must learn how to draw.

Murata: In our case, newcomers are often promoted to original animators after working
as animators for one year. Therefore, if the newcomers are not given early guidance and
they leave the animation department to become original animators after half a year, their
work will be very difficult. If the new guy understood from the beginning that the
animator had to work a little longer, I might not have to keep asking him to redraw.

Otsuka: In other words, there are some things that newcomers must learn as soon as
possible?

Murata: Yes. It's different now than before, but I guess there's nothing we can do about it.

Otsuka: So Iseki-kun, are you rarely asked to redraw these days?

Iseki: Compared with before...well, I still have to redraw occasionally.

4: Animator Period

Otsuka: In the first UST lecture, Imaishi-kun and the others said something like, "It's very
hard to be an animator." And now Iguchi-kun happens to be an animator and has been
working as an animator for about a year. How does it feel? It should be both bitter and
joyful.

Iseki: Yes. In fact, I feel more "unwilling" than "hard work". Repainting is certainly one of
them.

For example, once I had to complete the animation of a large number of shots, but it was
an assignment outside of my time schedule. I couldn't make it in time if I drew it alone, so
I relied on the help of other animators and asked them to animate it. Painted part of it for
me. But actually it was a shot that I wanted to do on my own, so I was very unhappy that I
couldn't do it on my own. I think it would be nice if I could draw faster and make the lines
look better.

Otsuka: But the fundamental reason lies in the production schedule. Because the people
doing the pre-animation projects have more time, there is less time left for the animators.

Imaishi: That’s the director’s problem. The culprit is here.

Together: (laughing)
Otsuka: In other words, it would be nice if the director could finish the storyboard earlier?

Iseki: No. It is precisely because the original painter spent more time that the quality of
the original painting will be high. But sometimes such high-quality original paintings are
assigned to overseas animation companies due to time constraints, and I can't draw them
myself.

Otsuka: It’s really difficult to change this situation. No matter how much time is spent
on the initial projects such as storyboarding or original painting, how good something is
made, if the final animation and coloring time is very short, the final completed work may
be rough. In this case, the efforts of storyboarding and original painting will be wasted, so
the balance must be controlled. It’s not possible to just work on the original painting,
you have to give the animators some time. However, operators generally only focus on
their own operations and rarely consider the operators of subsequent projects. This must
be changed.

Imaishi: Yes.

Otsuka: We have received Iseki-kun’s opinion. We have to reflect on it (laughs).

Imaishi: Those are harsh words (laughs)

Jingguan: No, no! sorry.

Otsuka: What's going on (laughs).

Imaishi: Why did it become like this (laughing).

Inoseki: But maybe it didn’t feel very hard... Because I received strict guidance during
training, when I was able to draw animations that were actually used, I thought: Great! I
can finally work! Although sometimes my paintings are sent back for redrawing, I feel very
excited when I think that my paintings will appear on TV. Maybe I only felt this way at the
beginning, but because of this feeling, I don't feel how hard it is now.

Otsuka: That’s very well said.

Imaishi: That’s very well said.

Iseki: No, no (laughs).

Continue next time!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 24 - From
Original Painting to Animation
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuhito Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko Iseki Shuichi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

Animation is the work of drawing movements smoothly based on original paintings.

In order to express the speed of the action, what kind of marks will the original artist
mark on the original painting? This time, the creators explain painting methods that
we have never known before.

※The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

5: From original painting to animation

Murata: Compared with when using cel, now we scan the animation and then color it, so
the drawings drawn by the animator appear directly on the screen.

Imaishi: That’s right.

Murata: So the current method may be easier. When cel was used in the past, even if the
animators worked very hard on the color drawing [2] , after the coloring work, the
shadows they drew might be gone, and the color drawing areas might become messy.
Now, when the animator sees the finished picture, he can realize: "Hey, I drew this."

Otsuka: Just now Mr. Murata talked about the "color drawing" assignment. In this "color
drawing" assignment, the drawings are not solid black lines, but colored lines. In the days
when film was used, only solid black lines could be copied onto celluloid. The colorist
needed to trace the lines of the animation to redo the color drawing work. Therefore,
when the colorist drew the line, it might actually be different from the line drawn by the
animator. The deviation may even cause the line itself to disappear. Now, as you can see
in the image, the colored lines and the solid black lines are scanned into the computer
together, so the lines drawn by the animator can be completely retained in the picture.
This is also where animation production has changed due to digitization.

Below is an image of tracing lines on the original painting just now [3] .

The person doing the work is Iseki-kun. To record this video, we asked him to draw it
again.
Iguchi: I draw a little slowly...

Murata: When your hands are sweaty, the paper will be stained if the pencil lines are
rubbed, so you need to place a piece of paper under your hands when drawing.

Otsuka: What should you pay attention to when working on animation?

Iseki: …….

Murata: Stunned.

Together: (laughing)

Otsuka: Like "draw the lines evenly"?

Murata: Paint evenly, with the same depth and thickness.

Otsuka: What Inoseki-kun was doing in this video was "tracing the original". The
animator first traces the drawings drawn by the original artist, and then performs the
mid-cut operation.

The original animator will write "middle cut instruction (ツメ instruction)" on the original
painting. The purpose is to tell the animator that he needs to "add such a mid cut here."
Sometimes the mid cut is not drawn in the middle of the two original paintings.
Depending on where the middle cut is added, the impression given by the action will also
change. If you look at the original painting collection, you will find that many of the
original paintings have such instructions.

The original painting is numbered. The A8 here is the number of this original painting.
Next to it there is a symbol with several vertical lines drawn on an arc, which is the center
cut indication. Drawing methods vary from person to person. This is the middle cut
instruction from the original painting of A7 to the original painting of A8. This original
painting was probably painted by Nishikori (Atsushi)-kun. The long lines at both ends of
the arc refer to the original painting, and the two lines in the middle, one long and one
short, refer to the animation. The meaning of this center cut instruction is to add two
center cuts at this position between the two original paintings. There is also an arrow
pointing to the left, which means that the action is performed from right to left. In this
case, we can find that the mid-cut is close to A7, which means that the action of mid-cut
is closer to the action of A7. Without this instruction, the animator would mechanically
divide the action into equal parts. With this instruction, the animator's mid-cut drawing
would show "the action starts slowly and then suddenly becomes faster." "A sense of
relaxation.

Rather than saying this is a technique of animators, it is better to say that it is a technique
used by original animators to convey their own imagination. Without such mid-cut
instructions, the animator would have to figure out where to add the mid-cut. On the
contrary, the lack of instructions often means "please divide this action equally." In many
cases, it is just that the original artist did not write it. In fact, you still need to consider
which side the middle cut should be close to. In this case, we can only rely on the
animator's judgment. In the "running" original painting just now, rather than the center
cut instructions, you should consider how to draw each action. When simply dividing the
two original paintings like that, some artists will also consider which side the center cut
should be closer to. Is there anything else I need to pay attention to?

Murata: Because in the past, the original animators basically did not write instructions for
mid-cut, so the animators would think about how to add mid-cut. But in the end, they
were all divided equally, so the original animator gradually began to add mid-cut
instructions.

Otsuka: In other words, the movements have been refined?

Murata: When old painters teach newcomers, they basically teach the equal division
method. For example, when you want to draw a middle section of three paintings, you
first draw the painting in the middle of the two original paintings, and then draw the
painting in the middle of that painting and the original paintings on both sides. In this
case, the newcomer will only draw like this after actually starting work. However, in this
way, it is impossible to express the relaxation of the action of "it starts slowly and then
slows down again", so the original animator began to add mid-cut instructions to express
the relaxation of the action.

Otsuka: For example, if you only add a center cut, if there is no center cut instruction, you
will definitely draw the picture in the middle. Splitting from the middle is relatively simple.

Murata: Indeed, that is the simplest, and it is not easy to collapse the painting. However,
nothing actually moves equally. An action is often slow at the beginning, and then slows
down when it stops, so it is normal for the center cut indicator to be closer to a certain
side. During the training, I teach the newcomers only very basic things, and the rest
requires the newcomers to think about how to draw while looking at the original
paintings.

In the past, the original animators did not often write mid-cut instructions on the original
paintings, so the animators drew equal mid-cuts. Then the original animators felt that this
was not good, so they started to add mid-cut instructions on the original paintings.

Otsuka: Then the original animator discovered that the animator can draw the
movements in his imagination. This is also an accumulation of experience.

Continue next time!

GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 25 - How the
Original Painting Affects the Animation
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuhito Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko Iseki Shuichi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

Animation work cannot be carried out without the original painting, and the original
painting cannot be used without animation. The original painting and animation are
indispensable parts of each other, so how does the original painting affect the
animation?

※ The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

6: How does the original painting affect the animation?

Imaishi: Nowadays, when drawing more difficult movements, the original animator is
basically in control. But if it is the original painting painted by Mr. Yamashita (Masahito) or
Mr. Kaneda (Iko), you will not know how to draw the middle cut after seeing it. The
explosion scene between the first and second shot is completely unimaginable, as is often
the case.

Murata: Because Mr. Kaneda is thinking about "how to express the force of the picture
with a smaller number of pictures," the characters he draws have strange movements. The
people who are doing the follow-up work are different from Mr. Kaneda. They all use the
normal method to cut in the painting, so when they see the strange movements, they feel
that the movements are not connected, and they don’t know. How to cut it well.
Otsuka: What are some things that you find difficult to do when doing homework?

Murata: There is often a disconnect between the original painting and the original
painting, and then I don’t know how to cut in the middle of the painting. Also,
sometimes although the supervisor corrects the solid line, the shadow line does not
change. So how should I draw the shadow line? I have no choice but to bite the bullet and
draw.

Otsuka: In other words, "draw while thinking."

Murata: Also, sometimes there are several original paintings, but the director only
corrects half of them. For example, when correcting the eyes, the first two pictures are
corrected, but the third picture is not corrected at the beginning. Then the second and
third pictures cannot be connected? How do I draw a mid-cut like this?

Otsuka: In other words, the director did not correct all the original paintings.

Murata: This is more difficult for me to handle.

Imaishi: It does seem difficult.

Murata: But even so, I can still draw it in the end. After the actual coloring, I actually
didn’t feel anything strange.

Otsuka: Ordinary people may not know much about it, but for producers, animation is
actually a very important part.

No matter how good the original painting is, if the animation is not done well, everything
will be in vain. The role of animation is very crucial, but it is often not taken seriously.
GAINAX has Mr. Murata, a very powerful animation inspector. I had wanted to ask Mr.
Murata to talk about animation to everyone. I think the beauty of cartoons is the action,
and animation (translation: middle cut) is the action itself.

In the previous lecture, Imaishi-kun talked about ear problems while drawing on the
whiteboard, and the result was a great response. This time, Imaishi-kun, can you tell us
what the painter needs to pay attention to in his movements?

Imaishi: I think the most interesting thing for the artist would be the angles that are not
included in the character sheet [2] . The same goes for the ears we talked about last time,
and also the chin.

Otsuka: Chin?

Imaishi: The chins of animated characters are very unrealistic. Some have much sharper
chins than real people, while others appear very round. So the important thing is how to
make the things in your imagination full of three-dimensionality when drawing. When the
face is facing up, it is not so easy to draw the inside of the chin. It's interesting to draw
something like this within the confines of a character sheet.

There are also hands, which are difficult to draw at different angles. Drawing a hand that
moves normally is as difficult as drawing a town in the background animation [3] .

Continue next time!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout.
2. ^ Character sheet is a sheet that records the basic information of the characters on the screen. The sheet
details the front and back postures of the character, as well as the decorations on the body, etc. The artist
draws based on this - GAINAX Animation Handout Glossary
3. ^ Background animation, also known as back animation. The background is originally painted by a
background company, but if you want the background to have complex movements, the artist will draw it as
part of the original painting. Background animation is often more difficult to draw - GAINAX Animation
Lecture Notes Glossary

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:44

original painting animation production GAINAX

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GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 26 - Cartoon
Performance and On-Scene Changes
village head
village head Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuhito Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko Iseki Shuichi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

After Iseki-kun said that he started painting because he was influenced by EVA, the
topic of discussion shifted to the production site at that time. In addition, Imaishi-
kun began to explain while drawing on the whiteboard. The theme of this chapter is
the influence of painters on painters.

※The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

7: Cartoon performance and scene changes

Otsuka: What did Iseki-kun think was interesting about cartoons that made you want to
become an animator?

Iseki: The opportunity for me to become an artist was probably from works such as
"EVA", "FLCL", and "Tian Yuan Breakthrough".

Murata: Which one is better in "EVA"?

Jingguan: What impressed me most was the old theatrical version.

Otsuka: Didn’t you watch it when it was released?

Iseki: I saw it when it was released, and in the cinema in the evening.

Otsuka: How old were you then?

Jingguan: Still a primary school student.

Otsuka: Did you watch "EVA" when you were in elementary school?

Murata: Were you still an elementary school student at that time?

Together: (laughing)

Murata: What did you do well in the old theatrical version?

Jingguan: The battle scene after the resurrection of Unit 2.

Murata: Mr. Iso (Mitsuo) is responsible for that part.

Iseki: Yes. I really liked the part that Mr. Iso was in charge of. In fact, I liked the whole
movie. The characters drawn by Mr. Kise (Kazuya) are different from the TV version. As an
elementary school student at the time, I never understood, "Why is the picture so
different? Why is there so much action? Why is this world view completely different from
the TV version?" After the old theatrical version was put on video, I watched it many times
and was very fascinated by it.

Then I started copying the paintings there, and I gradually fell into a trap. Later I bought a
collection of original paintings and wanted to work in this company. At first I thought I
wouldn’t be able to get in, but unexpectedly I did (laughs).

Imaishi: Speaking of the old theatrical version of "EVA", Mr. Kise invented a very powerful
thing at that time, which was the shadow of Misato's hair. Misato's bangs are not jagged.
Normally, the shadow of the bangs is slightly drawn with a straight line under the hair.
However, Mr. Kise's painting method is different. The shadow he draws is also jagged like
the hair. shape.

If the bangs have three locks, then the shadow should also be drawn with three locks. The
bangs were originally drawn by omitting the thick hair into three locks, so the shadows
should also be omitted. However, Mr. Kise drew the shadows of the symbols as they were.
It looks like a hand-made figure. However, the painting looks very nice and directly
expresses the three-dimensional effect.

In addition, Mr. Kise removes the line when drawing the character's chin, which is also
very beautiful. In Mr. Sadamoto's character sheet, the character's chin is drawn to be
relatively pointed, so there will be a little black shadow under the chin. If it's looking up,
it's difficult to draw, so everyone will try to avoid this angle. When drawing a character's
chin raised from the front, usually the chin line is not drawn and the face and neck are
connected, and then the shadow of the chin is drawn on the neck. However, in "EVA", the
light source is from below, so Shadows will also appear on the collar and nose, as well as
on the forehead. Although it is easier to draw shadows in the usual way, there are also
some shadows caused by the light source below. In fact, if an artist with poor skills were
to draw this, it would be ugly, but Mr. Kise was able to draw it beautifully and express its
three-dimensional effect.
Mr. Kise is like a painting supervisor who has eroded the field of character design. In other
words, he always paints with a painter's conception. This really gave me a lot of
excitement when making the "EVA" theatrical version.

Murata: I'm just bored to death.

Together: (laughing)

Imaishi: After the theatrical version was released, we remastered it for the video version. I
don’t know why at that time, but the shadow of the hair drawn by Mr. Suzuki (Shunji)
also became jagged. Ever since Mr. Kise painted like that, everyone has imitated his
painting, which is quite interesting. At that time, I was thinking excitedly: "Sure enough,
everyone thinks that painting looks good!" while doing my homework.

There are similar things in the original painting drawn by Mr. Iso. For the first time in Mr.
Iso's original painting, the number of snake patterns on the belly of Unit 2 has increased.
Originally, the number of snake stripes should be stipulated, but when Mr. Iso painted, he
did not draw the connecting parts. He only painted four or five black stripes, and
gradually painted them into a bucket waist... He was so After drawing it, Mr. Honda began
to promote this painting method in the theatrical version. I think this is how artists share
each other's imaginations and enrich the characters in a way that goes beyond the
character sheet.

In the past, when Mr. Kaneda (Igon) started painting in a rough way, everyone followed
his example. When I was drawing the animation for the theatrical version of "EVA", I
discovered a phenomenon similar to Mr. Kaneda's at that time. This is the most valuable
asset to me.

Otsuka: It’s really interesting that an artist changes his painting method due to the
stimulation of the artist. Maybe this is a phenomenon unique to GAINAX. It’s really
interesting that the artists were supposed to draw according to the character sheet, but
they prioritized drawing that looked better than the character sheet.

Murata: This is not unique to GAINAX. The same thing happened during "Lucky Boy". The
characters on the character list of "Lucky Boy" are actually not very cute, but when Mr.
Moriyama (Yuji) and Mr. Nishijima (Katsuhiko) were the producers, they made the
characters very cute. This even affected the manga authors, with the result that the
characters in the manga became the same as the characters drawn by Mr. Moriyama.

Otsuka: Although it is not conventional, if it is better to draw like that, it will definitely
affect the people around you.
Murata: A long time ago, that kind of practice was not allowed, and the way the
characters were drawn basically didn’t change.

Imaishi: This evolution will gradually appear in more subtle aspects of the current
production scene.

Murata: The work that clearly makes people feel this phenomenon now is probably the
work of GAINAX. The painter can paint according to his own ideas.

Otsuka: However, this approach may not be suitable for all works. For some works, this
approach may have a devastating impact. Although GAINAX allows this, if you have to ask
whether this approach is good or not, I think it should be based on the work.

Imaishi: During the production of "Tengen Breakthrough", I really expected everyone to

draw according to their own ideas... but everyone ended up drawing according to the
character sheet.

Murata: Nowadays, no one should change the existing settings beyond recognition.

Imaishi: Indeed not. First of all, no one thinks it can be changed.

Otsuka: Did you hear that, Mr. Inoseki? The settings can be changed.

Murata: It’s better not to teach others this kind of thing (laughs)

Imaishi: If you want to change it, you must change it within the scope approved by the
director. Otherwise, the producer will think you are arrogant and ask you to go back and
redraw everything (laughs).

Murata: If what you draw can be recognized by the people around you, then that’s no
problem. But if you can’t draw well no matter how you draw, waste a lot of time, and
end up having to ask others to help, there is no point.

Imaishi: Iso-san’s “EVA” is exactly like this. He didn't even draw according to the
storyboard, which completely deviated from the original plan, so Mr. Tsurumaki (Kazuya)
adjusted the scenes before and after to match the part he drew. Mr. Honda also adjusted
his own painting to match Mr. Iso's original painting.

Murata: But Iso-san’s original drawings have basically not been corrected.

Imaishi: I don’t change what Mr. Iso painted, but let the people around me cooperate
with him.

Murata: Ah, I see.

Imaishi: Today’s painters probably need this kind of energy that can influence everyone.
But this is still quite difficult.

Continue next time!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

GAINAX Animation Lecture Notes Chapter 27 -
Q&A/Final
village head
village head
Ordinary members

Author: Murata Yasuhito Imaishi Hiroyuki Otsuka Masahiko Iseki Shuichi

Link: gainax.co.jp/staff-info ...[1]

Source: GAINAX official website

Translation: village chief

Copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprinting, please contact the author for
authorization. For non-commercial reprinting, please indicate the source.

At the end of the handout is a Q&A! We picked four questions from our audience:
Should I go to animation school? Whether residence affects admissions, etc., the
producers answered them one by one for us.

※The video of this handout was published on USTREAM in April 2011 with the assistance
of livedoor's ACG-themed news website "Anigema～あにげマ!～". This article is the text
version of the video.

8：Q&A

Q1: "I have always liked drawing, but I have never tried to make the things I draw
move. If I don't go to a professional animation school to study, can I become an
artist? Is it better to go to school to study? I hope. Get answers from teachers.”

Otsuka: There may be many people who read our handouts in school and don’t know
the specific situation.

Murata: How old is this questioner?

Otsuka: I didn’t mention my age. Maybe a high school or college student.

Imaishi: Now that you ask this question, Iseki-kun and I never went to vocational school,
and we ended up becoming painters.

Otsuka: In other words, it is possible.

Murata: Yes, yes, but it might be easier if you study in school first.

Otsuka: For example, when we talked about the difference between original painting and
animation, we mentioned things like line drawing.

Murata: In addition, if you study in a vocational school, you can also learn coloring. Now
you can also learn photography. When you graduate, you will have to make your own
animation works. You can experience this series of processes, and you can learn a lot.
stuff, so I think it's very beneficial.

Otsuka: Although Imaishi-kun did not graduate from a vocational school, he has also
produced independently.

Imaishi: Yes.

Otsuka: Isn’t it best to have this kind of experience of making something?

Murata: It is indeed better to have this kind of experience.

Imaishi: Experience certainly won’t hurt you. So although you can become an artist
without going to a professional school, if you join a company without knowing anything,
it will be very difficult for you to become an artist.

Murata: At that time, if we were outside Tokyo, we had no idea how to become an artist.
At that time, Animage had just started publishing, and there were not as many animation
magazines as there are now. In this case, we can only go to the animation professional
school in Tokyo to study. Because only Tokyo has this kind of school, there is nothing else
you can do. I didn't even know where SUNRISE was at that time, but now, we can get any
information through the Internet, and we can do any animation-related profession. If you
draw and color on the computer, then you can Consider doing a job on Shishang
(coloring). So I think it doesn’t actually matter if you don’t go to professional school.

Q2: "Will my current residence affect the admission of painters? For example,
suppose I live in Kyushu now. If I am admitted to GAINAX, I will be happy to go to
Tokyo. So is it possible for me to be admitted? As far as the admission conditions are
concerned, yes Wouldn’t it be more advantageous for people who don’t live near
Tokyo?”

Murata: No such thing. It's more troublesome for people who live not too far away.

GAINAX is in Mitaka, so if you really live nearby, there will be no problem. But if you live in
Chiba, Kanagawa, or Hachioji, it will be more difficult to commute from there to work.

Otsuka: Maybe some people’s homes are there, and it’s not impossible to come to
work. But if you have to spend an hour or two on the road, it will be tiring.

Murata: I often hear people say that spending an hour or two on the way to work is really
hard in the beginning.

Otsuka: By the way, Iseki-kun is from Kyushu, right?

Jingguan: Yes, from Kyushu.

Otsuka: GAINAX also has many non-local employees, and not all of them are Tokyoites.

Murata: Some are from Kyushu and some are from Hokkaido.

Otsuka: If you live in your own home, you don’t have to worry about rent, so I can’t
say it’s not beneficial. However, this is not the bottleneck for you to become a painter.

When I visited PAWorks in Toyama before, because Toyama is not in Tokyo, I initially
thought that there would be more people living near Toyama, but I didn’t expect that
people from all over the country gathered there. That means it doesn't matter where you
are from as long as you want to work in that studio. So I don’t think you need to care
where you live.

Murata: Once you do this job, you may not be able to catch the last train. So if you get
off work after the time of the last train, and you live in Chiba, then you definitely won’t
be able to go back. But even if you stay in the studio until the morning, that doesn't mean
you can be late or take a break the next day. Therefore, I have always recommended that
people who live in Chiba or Kanagawa move near the studio, preferably somewhere
where they can walk to work.

Otsuka: Time is precious. If the studio had to move far away, I would definitely move with
it. I always feel like I can't completely eliminate my fatigue when I stay at the studio
overnight, so I try my best to go home and sleep. However, sometimes I'm very busy at
work and I'm bound to miss the last train. At this time, it will be a bit hard due to the
constraints of commuting conditions. So I try to move to a place where I can ride a bike
or walk to and from get off work so that I’m not far away from the studio.

If financial issues are not considered, I think it is better to live near the studio. In this
sense, even if you live a little far from the studio, it's no different than living out of town.
Some people are lucky enough to have their home only a ten-minute walk from their
studio, but this is also a rare example. So I think it’s better for everyone not to care
about where they live.

Q3: "In addition to basic movements such as walking and turning back, what other
interesting movements and practice methods are there? In addition, what is the
difference between graduates of vocational schools and graduates of general
universities?"

Otsuka: Mr. Murata talked about this issue last week. When practicing, it is best to draw
from various angles. When drawing people, you should also draw the entire space.

Murata: Yes, it’s better to draw like this.

Otsuka: Is there anything else besides this? Such as actions and the like.

Murata: Regarding movements, you can practice them after actual work.

Otsuka: In other words, you need to improve your basic drawing skills first?

Murata: Yes.

Otsuka: Is there any difference between graduates of vocational schools and graduates of
general universities?

Murata: I think there should be no difference. The key still depends on what kind of
person he is. It does not mean that graduates from ordinary universities will be like this,
but graduates from professional schools will be like that.

Otsuka: The difference between individuals is quite large.

Murata: That’s the truth.

Q4: "I like drawing very much, and I also want to work in animation in the future, but
now I want to go to an art university. Teachers have said before that if you want to
be an artist, it is best to enter the production site early, so I went to an art university.
Will it take a long way to become a painter later? Director Imaishi also graduated
from an art university. I hope the teachers can give some practical suggestions."

Imaishi: As far as the conclusion is concerned, I did take a long detour, but later I thought
it was a good thing. But at the beginning, I obviously felt that I started really late.

Otsuka: Are the people at the same time younger than you?

Imaishi: Yes. So there will be a certain level of anxiety at the beginning. But considering
the next ten or twenty years, it would be beneficial to take a long detour to get some air.
But it depends on where you want to develop, so I can't draw a conclusion. If you only like
painting, then try to paint as many paintings as possible. If you want to perform, it may
be more helpful to accumulate other experience first.

When I first came in, Mr. Ji Cheng (Yao), who was the same age as me, was already there.
Then when I was training, Mr. Yoshinari was already the mechanical supervisor of "EVA".
The gap is so big that it is impossible to compare... It is no longer the level of anxiety. So
there will be this risk if you take a long detour.

Murata: After graduating from high school, I felt that it would be a waste of time to go to
college for another four years, so I went to a vocational school. But later I felt that it was
necessary to play for four years. I'm not sure which one is better and which one is worse.
If you can go to an American university, it won't be too late to become a painter after
graduation. But if you graduate at the age of twenty-five, it may be a bit bad. If you
graduate and become a painter at the age of twenty-two, there is no problem. If you feel
bored after attending American University and drop out after two years to become a
painter, that's fine. Because this industry doesn't care if you drop out of school.

Imaishi: Because it has nothing to do with whether you can be a painter or not.

Otsuka: Indeed, you can be an artist no matter what experience or education you have.
There are all kinds of people among painters.

Murata: Some of us came here after graduating from middle school and went to
vocational school, some came after graduating from high school, and some have joined
the Self-Defense Forces. In short, there are all kinds of people.

Otsuka: Iseki-kun came here after graduating from university, right?

Jingguan: Yes, I entered GAINAX after I graduated from college, and I took the exam
three times before I was admitted to college. So I also strongly felt what Mr. Imaishi said
about starting late. When I came in, some people around my age were already original
animators. I really felt a little unwilling...

Murata: Indeed, there are some people who are younger than me but are already original
animators.

Jingguan: Yes, so I am impatient inside. But I don’t know what the future will be like.
Maybe I will become an original animator right away, maybe not. One thing I knew clearly
at that time was that I had to finish the job in front of me skillfully first.

Imaishi: At the beginning, after all, I wasn’t in a position where I could overlook it, and I
didn’t think, “Fortunately, I went to college!”

Murata: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with going to college.

Imaishi: If you can go to college, it would be better.

Murata: Maybe it’s important to play for four years. But that thought may not come
until later. I think it's better to go to college first and experience various things.

Otsuka: I’m not a painter. In that sense, I take more detours. I went to college first, and
then worked on live-action films for a few years before entering the world of animation. I
was already twenty-eight years old when I first started doing animation. I’m really quite
old considering the age I entered the industry. Although I am a complete newcomer in
the field of animation, the experience I have accumulated in the field of real-life shooting
is a weapon that other people who only know animation do not have. Of course, people
who only do animation have accumulated a lot of experience, which is their advantage.
But this may vary from person to person. However, the feeling when you do it as a
teenager is completely different from when you do it as an older person. The experience
of being a teenager is extremely valuable.

I think everyone can think about what path to choose and just do what they want to do.
Others' situations may serve as a reference, but in the end you won't regret it until you do
what you want to do. While doing a variety of things may feel like a detour, in the end it
will become your own resource. As long as you do it seriously, just like Mr. Murata said,
even just playing will become property.

And then it's up to you how to connect it with what you want to do. So it doesn't mean
that a certain approach is necessarily the best. If you have something you want to do, it
doesn't matter if you do it first and then become a painter. Of course there are limits, but
if you only take a long detour for a few years, it should be fine.

9: Finally

Otsuka: The two lecturers explained to us the difference between original painting and
animation, how to become an artist, and then also explained the actual work of an artist
from the perspective of the production site. I hope these things can bring some help to
those who want to work in the animation industry, and I also hope that they can bring a
new perspective for the general audience to appreciate animation.

Finally, is there anything else you would like to say?

Imaishi: I think the most important thing is what Mr. Murata said before, which is “do it
first no matter what.” If you have time to watch this video, then become a painter. If you
don’t know what to do after reading it, then think about what to do after you become a
painter.

Some people may think that it is very difficult to be a painter, so they want to learn how
to be a painter through this handout, but in fact, it is not that difficult to be a painter.
Instead of worrying about how to do it, it is better to take action quickly.

If you haven't graduated yet or can't go to Tokyo, then do animation at home. In this case,
you can become a painter, but you just haven't been hired by the company yet.

In short, just do it first.

Iseki: A year ago, I was in the same position as the viewers watching this video now.
Because I joined the company without knowing anything about animation, even now I am
surprised that I have persisted for a year. Even so, I still feel like I had a lot of fun doing it.

I think if you really want to be an artist, anyone can become an artist.

Murata: Among painting-related jobs, the easiest one to get started is probably the
profession of painter. Although the salary is relatively small, it can indeed be earned. As a
painting-related profession, being a painter is pretty good.

I have been an interviewer at GAINAX for several years. Through interviews over the past
few years, I have found that there seem to be fewer and fewer people who want to be
animators. In animation vocational schools, the subjects of animators are also gradually
decreasing, but most people want to be voice actors. There are more and more people.
But on the contrary, I think now is a good opportunity. Since fewer and fewer people
want to be painters, you might be able to succeed if you try it now. Having said that, not
everyone can become a painter, but the opportunity is there.

So if you want to be a painter, you might as well try to find a company first, any company
will do, and then ask them if they can let you do it. That's what I want to say.

Otsuka: As expected, everyone said “try it first”. Rather than thinking about various
problems in advance, it is better to think about how to solve them after actually doing
them. Last time we mentioned that you can search for company information, etc. If you
are enthusiastic, you can also bring your own drawings to the company to show us.
Although there are minimum rules, if you want to be an artist even if you break the rules,
 then look for ways to break the rules. I feel that there are many ways to do this. But this is
subject to your mobility. If you really want to be a painter, then take action.

The above is the summary of this handout. The GAINAX Animation Handout on USTREAM
"To Become an Illustrator" ends here. Thank you everyone for watching.

This concludes the GAINAX Animation Handout on USTREAM "To Become an

Animator".

Thank you everyone!

WeChat public account: Village Chief’s Column, welcome to follow!

refer to

1. ^ This handout was published on the old GAINAX official website and is now inaccessible. The latest official
website of GAINAX does not include this handout.

Edited on 2020-03-26 09:45

animation production GAINAX painter

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