Anime Production Detailed

Guide to How Anime is Made

and the Talent Behindit!

By washi
I think its both important and fascinating to learn about the fundamentals
of the medium we all love, and one of the most critical questions is: how is
anime made? For me, especially recently, thats been a burning question
that I ended up researching in detail. For the sake of other anime fans with
the same question, I thought Id share my findings. So, if you want
ammunition to return fire the next time you find yourself caught in an
argument about the merits of anime, or want a fresh way to look at anime, I
hope this article will be useful. Over the last year or so, my increasing
interest in this side of things has really opened my eyes to the talent,
artistry, passion and beauty that can be found in Japanese animation. The
article will focus on TV-anime production, but the same general process
applies to movies and OVAs as well. That said, there can be a lot of variation
between studios and individual productions.
The process of making an anime is a complex one, with many steps and
stages. This chart from AICs English website is a good visual overview for
what Ill be discussing:

THE ANIME
PRODUCTION PROCESS
 Pre-production
This process depends on whos pushing for an idea and who is
backing it up, it can be animation studios themselves along with
sponsors, but many anime are adaptations of manga or light
novels, in which case, publishers front costs (including the costs of
having it shown on TV stations). The production company (e.g
Aniplex) gathers staff, sponsors, and looks at advertisement and
merchandise. While many people describe studios as being cheap,
only around half the budget is often given to the anime studio,
with the rest going to broadcasters and other contributing
companies. The broadcast costs are surprisingly high according
to blogger,ghostlightning at about 50 million yen for a late-night
timeslot across 5-7 stations for a 52 episode series. You can see
why anime can be an expensive business. For example, Full Metal
Alchemist, which had a 6pm Saturday slot had a total budget of
500 million yen (before additional costs).
When the core staff is arranged, they meet and plan out the
anime, work on series composition (how the anime will play out
across each episode/over the course of the series), and select
further staff such as character or mecha designers. One of the
most crucial core staff is the director. To understand the role of
directors, you could think of them like directors of a movie, but
instead of dealing with actors, they deal with the animators who
make the characters movie. Their involvement is generally to
attend meetings and make decisions in order to manage the
schedule, budget and quality of an anime.
Following the early panning sessions, designs (character, mecha,
costume, etc) are then created. Designs are obviously an
important factor in creating a good anime. Character designers
either have the task of simplifying manga/illustration designs so
that they are suitable for animation, or, in the case of an original
anime, coming up with a new set of characters based on
descriptions from the director/producers. Character designers
often continue to advise animation directors on corrections to
animation that should be made to stay close to their character
models (in which case they are generally credited as Chief
 Production
The first step is to write the episode scripts. Following the
episodes synopsis/plans, the full scripts are written, by either one
person for the whole series or by several different writers based
on the outlines from the overall script supervisor (staff credit:
series composition). The scripts are reviewed by the director,
producers, and potentially the author of the original work before
being finalised (after 3 or 4 drafts, often). The episode director,
supervised by the overall director then takes this backbone of the
episode and must plan out how it will actually look on screen.
While the director has the final say and is involved at production
meetings, the episode director has the most hands-on
involvement in developing the episode. This stage is expressed as
a storyboard (a visual script), and the storyboard marks the
beginning of actual animation production.
 Storyboarding
Often the storyboard is created by the director, this means an
episode is truly the vision of that director. But usually, mainly in
TV-anime, separate storyboarders are used to actually draw them.
This is because storyboards usually take around 3 weeks to do for
a normal length TV-anime episode. Art meetings and production
meetings are held with the episode director, series director and
other staff about the episode should look. Storyboards are drawn
on A-4 paper (generally) and contain most of the vital building
blocks of an anime the cut numbers, actor movements, camera
movements such as zooming or panning, the dialogue (taken from
the screenplay) and the length of each shot (or cut) in terms of
seconds and frames (which well explain later). Because the
number of drawings available for an episode is often fixed for the
sake of budget management, the number of frames is also
carefully considered in the storyboards. The storyboards are
roughly-drawn and are really the core stage of deciding how an
anime will play out. Cuts refer to a single shot of the camera and
an average TV-anime episode will usually contain around 300 cuts.
More cuts dont necessarily imply a better quality episode, but it
will generally mean more work for the director/storyboarder.
 Layouts
Less well known is the layout process, 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
staff are 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 isnt too confusing. Cels are shaded in warm colours,
backgrounds are shaded in cool colours.
After being approved by the director, these layouts are then
duplicated and given to the background department (who get 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 theyre going to do, and how the
shot is going to be captured (camera angle, zooming and
panning). But one of the most expressive and vital parts of
production remains: the animation!
Black Rock Shooter Layouts. The cels are
shaded a warm orange, while the
background a cool blue colour.
 Animation
To its credit, anime is one of the few places left that you can still
find traditional animation! I think there has been some confusion
among many anime fans about just how digital anime production
is, so Id better make it clear: commercial, mainstream anime is
still fundamentally hand-drawn, and thats why it remains such a
great artistic medium! Traditional animation allows for more
individuality to be expressed. Sure, computers do come into it in a
large way (and Ill 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. There are some animators
who draw 2D animation directly onto computer, but in anime this
is largely restricted to in solo animation productions rather than
commercial anime. The industry prefers this because the
animators are generally more comfortable and able with this
method, and it allows easier checking and correction of frames
under sometimes tight schedules. Heres how the animation is
done:
 Key Animation
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 key frame, and then the kick landing as
the second key frame (if its 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 which 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 its
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 really steal the show, going well
beyond the requirements of the storyboard and imbuing a scene
with their own style. Some animators get the opportunity to
deviate from storyboards as well (which the likes of Yoshinori
Kanada was known to do, to great effect).
There is a subset of the anime fandom who are enthralled by
great animation works and animators, sakuga fans. Sakuga
technically refers to the drawings in an anime, but is extended to
describe the animation as a whole. People follow their favourite
animators, and keep track of the cuts they do, also compiling
them into anime or animator-specific music videos. The core of
the sakuga online fandom is the sakuga wiki (in Japanese), and a
huge array of sakuga AMVs can be found on youtube. Even a
brief look over these videos inspired me with a real appreciation of
the character and presence that individual animators can impart. I
think this culture of appreciatimh outstanding key animation is
one of the most fascinating arenas of the anime domain.
2nd Key Animation is also emerging lately, but Im not too clear on
what this means (if anyone can explain, please do!)
 Animation
Director
This is one staff role that I suspect many anime fans havent
learned about, because its not very self-explanatory. The
animation directors key role isnt 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 key frames 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). Key frames 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. Some
series place less importance on this, or, as was the case with
Noein, didnt use a series animation director at all!
 In-between
Animation
We have our approved key-frames 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 key frames.
This is called in-between animation. In-between animation is
handled by less experienced animators, and is very often
outsourced (largely to Korea). In-between animation is paid more
poorly than key animation, and is usually only a temporary
position in an animators career. You could describe this as grunt
work, because in-between animators dont have a chance to
imbue their work with individuality. They receive (particularly
when its oursourced), 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 key frames.
Often key animators, particularly famous ones, or for important
sequences, will do many of the drawings themselves, to minimise
the number of potentially inferior in-between frames. There are
many examples of this, but one of my favourites is Yoshimichi
Kamedas sequence from FMA:Brotherhood in which Mustang is
burning Lust, for which he did all the in-between frames himself. I
doubt frames drawn by other people could have matches his
impressive drawings for that scene!
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!
In-between
Animation
Gurren Lagann animation. Top: key
animation drawings, middle: cleaned
and in-between animation, bottom:
final product, coloured and including
background artwork.
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 dont
necessarily require fluid movement,
the average anime will have around
3000 frames/drawings. Thats 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 doesnt
necessarily mean the episode is
better. For example, apparently the
first episode of Evangelion used only
700 animation frames, while Angel
Beats used around 11,000 in episode
one! A good director can work
wonders with fewer frames using
interesting scene compositions and
shortcuts. Often, directors or studios
 In-between
Animation
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. With
fairly tight budgets, the anime medium has long been a struggle
to balance these issues with shortcuts and compromises. This
truth is the basis for a lot of attack on anime from Western
animation fans, but the fact is, with skilled enough animators and
the right project you can have your cake and eat it too! Anime has
certainly produced some of the most detailed AND fluid animation
sequences youll be able to find!
Compositing / filming
It is commonplace for the frames to be completed on a computer.
After they are drawn and checked, they are digitized. Once they
are on the computer, they are painted with a specified color
palette by painting staff (generally a low paid job). They use the
shading lines drawn by the key animators to do the shading
colours. This digital equivalent of the ink & paint stage of
production, which used to be done by hand, has allowed some
more interesting visual styles to come through in the colouring,
such as the use of gradient shading or even textures. These would
have been too difficult to do back in the day. It has also saved
considerable time and money in the process. These become the
final cels that go into the animation.
Once all the frames are coloured and finished, they can be
processed as animation using a specialized software package.
RETAS! PRO is used for approximately 90% of anime currently
aired in Japan (for drawing sometimes too)! Before the use of
digital cels (digicels), drawings (printed onto cels) were
actuallyfilmedover backgrounds. Now, cuts are completed
digitally, and the background art can be added on the computer.
Initially, when digicel was first being picked up by studios (around
about 2000), it had real problems matching the fineness of detail
in hand-drawn and painted cels. But nowadays, anime studios
have really perfected the digital cel, giving us anime with just as
much detail and more vibrant colouring. The digicel age has now
streamlined the production process such that repeated cels and
clip/recap episodes are basically a thing of the past. Some still
prefer the rougher look of pre-2000, but Ive certainly moved on.
While it doesnt use actual film, the compositing process of adding
background art and capturing the animation digitally is still
referred to as filming. The CG characters and machines are also
generally added to the composition during the filming stage. The
use of 3DCG is also now common-place in anime now for
mechanical things, like mecha, cars, or even background
characters. Its role is expanding and becoming less and less
intrusive. During compositing, the effects are also applied to the
Compositing / filming
Effects! This might sound like a trivial thing when youre talking
about anime, but it can be a vital component of the visual style of
a series because it incorporates basic things like ambient lighting,
flare, backlight, the glint on a sword, blur, and many other things
integral to giving depth and atmosphere to 2D drawings. Then
theres all the flashy things youd usually think of when someone
mentions special FX magical attacks, explosions and the like.
These are typically hand-drawn but then rendered with effect CG
for their glow/shine. These effects can be simply added to the
compositions using digital masking. The ease of this step now has
resulted in one of the biggest distinctions between anime a
decade ago and the anime of today.
In short, the digital age of anime (in most cases) has meant
several things: physically filming cels is replaced by computer-
based composition of the hand-drawn frames/art, painting no
longer has to be done by hand, and the more effective integration
of CG and digital effects. All of these things have saved time and
money, so that TV-anime now use many more drawings and dont
need to recycle cels or have clip/flashback episodes.
After compositing is completed for all the cuts, they have to be to
the timing required for broadcast, so that the episode doesnt lag
overtime. With the completion of the editing step, the episode
moves out of production and into post-production. I wont go into
much detail on this, but it essentially encompasses adding sound
(dubbing), both the music and the voice recordings, and final
editing (cutting the episode with space for advertisements). Visual
effects may also be added at this late stage too.
 Japanese terms
Animation Director: Sakkan (Sakuga Kantoku) [ ]
Drawings of anime: Sakuga ( )
Key Animation: Genga ( )
In-between Animation: Douga
Overall Animation Director: Sou-Sakuga kantoku ( )

Sources
PRODUCTION I.G Tokyo, Anime production process feature
filmlink
Steps in Anime Productionlink
Waos highly informative posts on anime staff on Animesuki!
link
AIC :: Introduction of anime production ::link
Sunrise The Making of Animation:link