I am the Entertainment Tycoon

Chapter 121 First Day Of Interviews II

Ryoko did a storyboard for Theo as means to get the Head Director position but after the storyboard process, there are the layout procedures.

This process is less well-known but equally important to the other processes, which marks the beginning of art production. 

In simple terms, developing a layout is about positioning the cels that will be used in the cut and the background art that will be needed, giving the definitive blueprint for how the final shot will look. 

The cuts are drawn up to the same size as the animation paper and the details of cel placement, precise descriptions of camera movement, and other decisions are included. 

In collaboration with the director, and possibly producers, the senior animators draw the layouts (or sometimes the staff is specifically credited with layout drawings) and the shots are called about where the cels/characters are going to be situated and the way a cut is going to be framed. 

The basic structure of the background art is drawn in (ie. a tree here, a mountain there), and elements of the storyboard are expressed on the layout to help describe the cut. 

Sometimes multiple stages of the storyboard can be expressed on a single layout drawing as long as it isn't too confusing. Cels are shaded in warm colors, backgrounds are shaded in cool colors. 

After being approved by the director, these layouts are then duplicated and given to the background department (who gets the originals), and the key animators. 

The art director and assistants work on painting the background artwork based on the rough drawings of the layouts while the rest of the production process continues concurrently.

Now the form of each cut has been decided – the positions of characters, the setting, what they're going to do, and how the shot is going to be captured (camera angle, zooming, and panning). 

Theo would hire people for the layout process, so he didn't have to worry about it.

But one of the most expressive and vital parts of production remains the animation!

To its credit, anime is one of the few places left where you can still find 'traditional animation'! 

There has been some confusion among many anime fans about just how digital anime production is, so it's better to make it clear: commercial, mainstream anime is still fundamentally hand-drawn, and that's why it remains such a great artistic medium! Traditional animation allows for more individuality to be expressed. 

Sure, computers do come into it largely (and I'll explain that a bit later), but the crucial thing is that the frames are still initially drawn by hand, and no in-between animation is simulated by a computer. Some animators draw 2D animation directly onto computers, but in anime, this is largely restricted to solo animation productions rather than commercial anime. The industry prefers this because the animators are generally more comfortable and able with this method, and it allows easier checking and correction of frames under sometimes tight schedules.

And that wasn't different in the Tokyo Studios, even though the company had late-generation digital animation equipment, there was also equipment to be used in hand drawing animation.

Theo followed the tradition of the anime studios and just used technology in parts that the hand drawing wasn't necessary.

Here's how the animation is done:

First, there are the keyframe animators, based on the storyboard, the key animators start work, creating the animation drawings. They are assigned a certain number of different cuts by the person in charge of key animation. 

Key animators draw the essential frames that mark a distinct position or expression of a cel/character. For example, a character starting to kick someone as one keyframe, and then the kick landing as the second keyframe (if it's a fast kick!). 

In other words, they draw the structure of the animation. The number of frames that a key animator draws for a movement will depend upon the intentions of the key animator and the nature of the cut, with time, and budget constraints considered. 

These drawings also include lines that direct where shading will occur. 

Around 20 key animators can be working on a single episode of anime, each in charge of a separate part (sometimes several cuts). Although it's already decided what a movement will be, it is up to the key animator to express that as animation. 

That is why a talented and hard-working key animator can steal the show, going well beyond the requirements of the storyboard and imbuing a scene with their style. 

Some animators get the opportunity to deviate from storyboards as well.

But what about consistency? While the emphasis on this varies from production to production, in general, it is a good idea to make sure your characters look the same from one key animator's portion to the next. This is handled by an animation director.

The animation director is another position in the anime in-production.

This is one staff role that many anime fans haven't learned about because it's not very self-explanatory. 

The animation director's key role isn't to 'direct the animation' per se (although they have varying levels of input depending on the person, studio, and schedule). 

Their position is basically about consistency. 

? They check all the keyframes being created for an episode and make corrections where necessary so that the drawings are as close to the models for the series as possible. 

In some cases, they may have to redraw entire frames or make adjustments to timing and movement (mostly, this happens for OVAs and movies). 

They are one of the four core staff positions for an episode (screenplay, episode director, storyboard, animation director). 

Keyframes may also be checked by the episode director. 

Animation directors tend to be more experienced animators and are paid more for the role. 

However, it is their responsibility if things go wrong with the animation, making it a potentially very stressful job, especially under time pressure. Often, an episode of anime will have more the one animation director, and this can be a sign of scheduling problems, with more people needed to complete the episode satisfactorily and on time, or even a sign of many poor drawings needing correction. 

It can also be because animation directors are being used to their specialties (ie. an animation director brought on to handle a mecha sequence or to handle drawings of animals), or an indication that it was a difficult and demanding episode with a lot of drawings.

Other than the episode animation director, anime nowadays have an overall animation director (generally also the character designer), who often works alongside episode animation directors to keep the character models consistent throughout the entire show. 

They generally focus on the faces of characters.

Theo and Ryoko would work as the animation directors for the SAO Anime, but Theo was already planning to promote animators that did a good job in the SAO Anime to the position of animation director after they finished producing their first anime.

Next, we have the in-between animators.

We have our approved keyframes for a piece of animation, but now to complete the animation, so that it moves fluidly, more drawings have to be completed to go between the keyframes. This is called in-between animation. 

In-between animation is handled by less experienced animators and is very often outsourced. 

In-between animation is paid more poorly than key animation and is usually only a temporary position in an animator's career. 

You could describe this as grunt work because in-between animators don't have a chance to imbue their work with individuality. 

They receive (particularly when it's outsourced), clear instructions from the key animator about what the in-between animation should do, and simply fill in the gaps with drawings. 

They also have the task of neatly tracing the keyframes. 

Often key animators, particularly famous ones, or for important sequences, will do many of the drawings themselves, to minimize the number of potentially inferior in-between frames. 

The in-between frames are also checked/corrected if need be. With the drawings from the key animators and in-betweeners combined, you have the 'animation' that goes into an anime!

Generally, especially for TV, anime will be animated at 2:s, which means 1 drawing lasts for two frames (equating to 12 drawings per second).

But sometimes animation is done at 1:s (24 frames every second) or 3:s. 

If every second of an anime was animated at even 2:s that would involve using around 15000 drawings for an episode! 

In reality, because many shots have cels as static, or because many scenes don't necessarily require fluid movement, the average anime will have around 3000 frames/drawings. 

That's still a lot of drawings! 

Often (especially lately), directors or producers will boast that their anime has "10,000 drawings for an episode!" or something to that effect, which is fairly impressive but doesn't necessarily mean the episode is better. 

A good director can work wonders with fewer frames using interesting scene compositions and shortcuts. 

Often, directors or studios will manage their budget by putting a limit on the number of drawings that can go into a single episode. 

Another core factor is the trade-off between detailed, consistent designs and more fluid animation. 

You can see how faster animation drastically increases the number of drawings required, and sticking to detailed character models can be expensive and time-consuming. 

Fluid animation is easier to do with simpler designs OR if the requirements for consistency are less strict. 

And that's why in-between animators were seriously underpaid in the industry.

The studios often used freelance animators to finish the job.

It was rare to see in-between animators formally hired by a studio.

But Theo did everything differently, he wanted to hire these people and even give them the double they would get if they worked for other studios.

Theo didn't care about the budget of the studio, he only wanted high-quality in-between animators!

He figured he could motivate them to do a great job as in-between animators if he gave them extra money.

He didn't want his animation to be subpar because his in-between animators didn't do a good job.