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At the Anime Central panel, Nagasaku-sensei demonstrated how he would approach a cut that is similar to KC Art Challenge Cut #255 (Megumi). Here we present the actual cut samples he provided as well as the panel script.
Storyboard
Storyboard
He first showed and explained about the storyboard. (In this sample, he drew a storyboard himself.)
Nagasaku-sensei: For example, let's say you are assigned to a cut like this. This is a storyboard. It says on the right hand side, "A girl is facing in the other direction", "Turns around and gets upset!!" It also says "Hair movement!" This is what an animator is given first.
Bad example
Bad example
Nagasaku-sensei: Let's take a look at a bad example first. What do you think? She does turn around and her eyebrows are slanted. But is it really clear that she is upset? Unless the voice actor can convey the emotion through voice acting, you won't know how much anger she has. This is just my personal opinion, but I think good animation should be able to convey the character's emotions even if you watch it without any sounds. When combined with sound, voice and directing, it creates a synergy effect and can move people's hearts. So you want to spend enough amount of "sheets/frames" in order to do that.
Fully animated
Fully animated
Nagasaku-sensei: Let's bring this to the extreme and see a fully animated version next. This is something I drew by tracing my memories back in the days when I worked at Disney Japan. So it may not be perfect, but I think you can see her emotions a lot better here. In animation, increasing the number of "sheets/frames" equals to increasing the amount of information provided. In this case, the girl looks very angry at the beginning. She moves her index finger up and down showing her frustration. Then she suddenly seems sad and tries to calm herself down, but in the end, she cannot control herself anymore. She leans forward, explodes in anger and shouts.
Nagasaku-sensei: Here, I think you get the impression that she is going through various kinds of emotions. My guess is that she is upset with her boyfriend who cheated on her... Anyway, by increasing the number of "sheet/frames", you can increase the amount of information, conveying more complex gestures and emotions.
However, this full animation technique works well for movies, but not for Japanese TV anime. Of course, there are plenty of TV anime titles where the production team succeeded in securing flexible scheduling and skilled animators to produce anime with much higher quality. In reality, though, most of the production teams cannot afford to have movements at this level in all of the cuts.
Limited but good
Limited but good
Nagasaku-sensei: Now, let's take a look at what might be the middle ground that can work. At the beginning, she not just turns around, but she also does this swiping motion, as if she is brushing something aside. Her emotions start to build up...then she yells at the end. You can see that her right hand looks slightly weird here. This is a technique called obake or ghost, representing afterimage (image lagging behind). [See the last image at the bottom.] By inserting just one sheet/frame of this ghost image, it gives you an impression that her arm swing was a very strong one.
Nagasaku-sensei: Another technique used here is called zenshin-paku or whole-body flap. Instead of just moving her mouth (mouth flap), you want to make her whole body move only slightly as she yells.
Nagasaku-sensei: As you can see, there are various techniques utilized in just one single cut. By making choices of what to use--sometimes adding or subtracting--from all sorts of techniques available, animators create animation. The ones I've shown today consist only a small portion of what's out there. There are so many different styles of animation both in American cartoons and in Japanese anime. That means there are as many techniques as those styles exist. If you look out for the differences in one title from another, it might become another way or a new way to enjoy anime. Thank you very much. Hope you enjoyed it.
The obake (ghost) "sheet/frame"
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