《Mokon-san's Garden》: Notes from my time at Topcraft (1972–1983), where I worked on co-productions during the cel animation era MEMO: 01

An intro to understanding Topcraft co-productions
Basic knowledge of cel animation production: Summary edition

Before explaining the production methods for RANKIN/BASS & Topcraft co-productions, I will introduce the production process from back when Japanese anime still used cels. This is a summary of the section from my previous 'Experience as an Assistant Director at Asahi Film + Toei Doga' entry, with the personal parts removed. There were some things I couldn't fit in last time, so I hope you read this as a review. I will use the 1969 Toei Doga television animation (such as 'Tiger Mask') as an example from when I was on staff. While schedules and budgets differed outside of Toei Doga, the production process was mostly the same.

〈In the case of a 30-minute domestic television animation series〉

For a 30-minute television series at the time, I believe the format was usually 3 minutes total for the opening and ending, 20 minutes for the main story, and 30 seconds for the next-episode preview. Of course, the length of the main story varied slightly depending on the work. Since NHK does not have commercials, the main story time was longer.

Since the opening and ending rarely changed during the broadcast run, the part that actually required drawing was only the 20 minutes of the main story. Please note that the main story length varies depending on the broadcast slot, so treat this as a reference only.

Although it varies by production company, the schedule for a 30-minute work was generally about 20 days for the drawing period, with a delivery pace of one episode every month to a month and a half. By setting up a rotation of several teams, they were able to broadcast every week. Within this rotation, the production company would secure the schedule by outsourcing to subcontracting companies. If both the production company and the subcontractors did not keep to the planned schedule, they would end up in the red due to fixed costs.

The positive film, which had undergone adjustments such as color correction during the first print, was delivered to the television station. I believe that for television broadcasts at the time, 35mm negative film was reduced to 16mm positive film, but my memory is a bit hazy on that.

At the television station, after checking the length of the delivered film to ensure it matched the format, the 24-frame-per-second film was converted for television broadcast. This conversion process is called telecine. Television broadcasts include commercials. Since the length of these commercials cannot be changed, it is necessary to verify the length of the delivered work.

In the Walt Disney animated works I was familiar with as a child, it was full animation, where each of the 24 frames per second of film was drawn individually.
For Toei Doga's domestic television animation, this was adapted into a Japanese-style limited animation based on 3 frames within the 24 frames per second.

With this alone, instead of 24 drawings per second, you only needed 8 drawings per second. Furthermore, by having characters stand still and only moving their mouths, or by significantly reducing the number of drawings for turns, running, and other actions, you could cut down the count even more.

Additionally, for action scenes, many techniques were used to add dramatic effect even to still images, such as using camera work or techniques like pulling a single still cel with a fast pan to add momentum. Also, using the same camera position and reusing shots frequently helped save on both drawings and backgrounds.

In scenes with only dialogue, a cut would consist of a total of 4 drawings: one still cel with only 3 mouth shapes. The standard for mouth shapes is 1 for the closed mouth, 3 for the vowel 'a', and 2 for the intermediate shape. There are 5 Japanese vowels—'a, i, u, e, o'—but these are simplified into 2 shapes, and by adding the closed mouth for the 'n' sound, a total of 3 shapes are used to make the character speak. Ending the dialogue with a closed mouth makes it easier for the voice actor to match their lines.

Naturally, by reducing the number of in-between drawings, the in-betweening and finishing work also became lighter. When I was at Toei Doga, we had to produce each work within 3,600 drawings. I remember one work I was involved in had as few as 2,980 drawings, which made the work much easier.

〈Japanese Anime Production Steps: Simple Workflow〉

※Here, I am using the 'Toei Doga' style as an example.

【Script】

As a general example from that time, the script was created after meetings attended by relevant staff, such as the television station producer, the production company producer, and the scriptwriter. Whether there was an original work or it was an original concept, the scriptwriter would usually read a simple plot—called a 'hakogaki' (box writing)—to everyone, and they would offer their opinions. In these meetings, they would discuss ideas they wanted to include and specific content. The script was then written based on these opinions.

Scriptwriters at the time worked by hand using pencils or fountain pens on 200-character manuscript paper called 'pera'. The completed script would be revised, added to, or deleted during another meeting until it became the final draft. The final draft was printed and delivered to the director in charge as a book. Since this was the early 1970s, there were no word processors like there are today.

【Storyboard】

The script was handed to the director in charge, and the director for that episode would draw the storyboard (a process called 'cutting the storyboard'). At Toei Doga at the time, many of the directors around me had transitioned from live-action, and some could only draw so-called 'maru-chon' (stick figure) drawings and could not draw characters according to the character model sheets. Therefore, it was common to draw rough layouts (approximate character placement), dialogue, and scene descriptions (text describing the scene, character actions, and situations) on the storyboard and have the animation director draw the final version.

Unlike today, these storyboard sheets came with carbon paper attached. They were similar to the invoices you often see. When you drew on them, the carbon paper would transfer the image to the sheet underneath. We used this as a master copy and ran it through a rotary press to print it. It was almost the same as the handouts distributed in schools at the time; if you printed 20 copies, the ink would almost completely fade. Therefore, we only printed the bare minimum number of storyboards. Furthermore, we were limited to a fixed quota of 100 sheets per production. Storyboards were distributed only to key staff. Production management at Toei Doga was already being handled quite strictly by this time.

[Process during the animation stage]

●Layout & Key Animation Work
At Toei Doga when I was an assistant director, once the storyboard was finished, we would usually have a meeting with the art director about the backgrounds and have them provide the background master drawings first. We would then start the key animation based on these background master drawings, but if the schedule became tight and the art director couldn't keep up, the key animators would start drawing the characters and backgrounds onto these background master drawings themselves. The directors at the time called this the 'layout method'.

Layout is not just a clean version of the storyboard; it involves character placement, camera positioning, perspective, composition, and spatial handling—in live-action terms, it's like doing the work of both the director and the cinematographer. Since it later becomes the basis for the key animation work, it needs to have a more solid screen composition than the storyboard.

The completed layout goes through a director's check before being passed to the animation director. Checking the layout is also an important job for the animation director, and depending on the individual, it can be a crucial step for improving the quality of the work, such as by drawing the characters in detail or focusing on the screen composition.

●Key Animation & Key Animation Check
The director checks the finished key animation to see if it matches their plan. Many directors at Toei Doga at the time would cut the number of in-betweens specified in the time sheet; for example, if four in-betweens were used for a turning movement, they would reduce it to three. At least when I was an assistant director, this was standard practice. It's a method that would absolutely not be used today.

The material that has been checked by the director is passed to the animation director, who adds corrections to the characters and movements. In animation, this animation director has a major impact on the final quality of the work. Depending on the animation director, they may not only correct the characters but also add to the movements, or in some cases, redraw them entirely. The animation director elevates the appeal of the work and expresses a sense of unity as a production through their drawing.

●In-betweening
Key animation that has been approved by the director goes to the in-betweeners. They create the in-betweens according to the instructions in the time sheet.

●In-between Check
The finished in-betweens are sent to the in-between checker to confirm that the movements are correct. When there is time, they request retakes from the in-betweeners, but when there is no time or the retake content exceeds the skill level of the in-betweener, the in-between checker makes the corrections themselves.

At the time, Asahi Film did not have an in-between checker position, so it was normal for the assistant director to check the in-betweens for every cut and request retakes if there were any flaws.

[Art & Background]

The art director creates the art settings. It was standard to draw settings for various locations on B4 paper.
Naturally, they also create art boards in addition to the settings.

Since background colors are also related to coloring, they place character color samples on the art board and adjust them so that they blend in.

Also, since there are cases where harmony between the background and colors is necessary, they sometimes match the colors from the finished background.

[Process during the finishing stage]

●Color Specification
This involves deciding the colors for the characters in the work and providing color specifications for the in-betweens.

●Tracing & Trace Machine
At Toei Doga, where hand-tracing was the main method, trace machines appeared around this time, and 'Tiger Mask' used trace machines for everything. The trace machines at the time had pegs on a dedicated carrier; you would set the in-between drawing, place carbon paper (which has a front and back) on top of it, and then cover it with a cel.

When this carrier is passed through rollers, heat is applied, and the carbon on the lines is transferred to the cel. If you get the front and back of the carbon paper wrong, the carbon ends up on the drawing instead of the cel, which is a disaster. This trace machine can be easily operated by one person.

Toei Doga also had Xerox machines for animation at the time, but they were large and the process was so cumbersome that it required several people to operate. I often helped out with this at night.

When we first started using trace machines, the quality of the carbon paper was still poor, and depending on the line, it wouldn't appear, would fade, or would have spotting (holes). We would correct these by hand-tracing.
Also, as the trace machine is used, it heats up, and the lines of the drawings are no longer transferred cleanly. To prevent this, we used two trace machines alternately so they wouldn't get too hot.

Hand-traced cels are painted on the back, so you have to be careful about paint bleeding over the edges. In contrast, with a tracing machine, you also paint on the back, but the carbon is on the back, opposite to the tracing. Because of this, the paint stops at the slight ridge of the carbon, making it very easy to paint. However, perhaps because the quality of the carbon wasn't great yet, there were spots or fading in the carbon lines, which we had to correct by hand.

●Painting
Applying the specified colors to the cels. At the time, the term 'cel animation' didn't exist yet; it became common only after anime magazines started being published. I also experienced painting for 'Tiger Mask,' and since there were few colors, it was relatively easy. When it came to 'Mazinger Z,' it was troublesome and difficult because of the close-ups of the robots and the precise shadows.

●Special Effects
I think there was a lot of work using airbrushes to add highlights and the like. We also used them for expressions like fog. Other than that, we used them for glowing things like lightning, and had them add depth with brushes so that the painted smoke wouldn't look flat.

The ultimate example of this might be the special effects for the explosion scenes used in Tatsunoko Production's 'Gatchaman'.

●Finishing Inspection
Finished cels are checked one by one during the finishing inspection for line fading, dirt, painting mistakes, missed spots, and paint bleeding.

[Preparation for Shooting]

We combine the finished cels with the backgrounds and prepare them for shooting. At Toei Doga at the time, the director would have an assistant director place the cels on backgrounds that were larger than the cels to check them.

Backgrounds are not one per cut. Things like the sky are used repeatedly. Also, it is common to use one background for several cuts that use the same position. This is the process of checking if they are in a state ready for shooting.

[Shooting]

Shooting is done based on the time sheet, changing the cels as we go. Cuts marked 'FIX' in the cut bag are shot on a fixed camera stand. For camera work like T.U. (Track Up), T.B. (Track Back), or multi-plane setups, we use a stand that can move the camera up and down. At the time, it was also a period of transition from monochrome to color.

'Tiger Mask' is in color. With color, the light intensity is also different from monochrome.
The camera used was a standard 35mm live-action camera with its speed reduced by gears. If you removed the gears, you could shoot live-action normally.

As for the terms actually used, in addition to T.U. (T.I. = Track In) and T.B. (T.O. = Track Out), there are Follow, PAN, screen shake, wrap-around, overlap (Dissolve), double exposure (WXP), transmitted light, Superimpose, multiple plane, blur, FO, FI, and so on.

These terms appear a lot if you search for them online, so I think it would be good for those interested to look them up.

[All Rush]

In editing, the film that comes back from the lab is spliced together in the order of the storyboard. During 'Tiger Mask,' we only had 35mm Moviolas (simple editing machines for positive film), so we used 35mm monochrome prints.

We only printed 16mm color prints to check for color mistakes and the like. Later, 16mm Moviolas were introduced, and editing with 35mm prints disappeared.

[Editing]

It is said that movies are made in the editing room. In editing, prints that were shot longer than the format are cut based on the timing of dialogue and movement. At Toei Doga, there was still a continuity person, a remnant of live-action. They would tell us which cuts were not used in editing and which were retakes. They also created the dubbing scripts.

Editing often took until late at night, so we had to arrange for late-night snacks and radio taxis. This was the job of the production manager, but since I was both an assistant director and a production manager, I did it all.
By the way, there were no 24-hour convenience stores back then. Naturally, there were no smartphones either. I would ask the owner of a nearby bar that stayed open late to prepare a late-night snack, and I would go pick it up at the promised time.

[After-recording/Dubbing = Sound]

●Post-recording
Post-recording is done based on a script created by the recording clerk, but this script only contains cuts with dialogue. Therefore, unless the director or assistant director provides cues for the dialogue, the voice actors would not know when to deliver their lines.

Modern post-recording scripts include all cuts, even scenes without dialogue, so there is no problem if you proceed in order. However, at that time, there was no sound director, so the director decided everything, including all dialogue cues and nuances.

The narration for the preview was the job of the assistant director.

This Toei Doga method did not require a sound director, so it was a great learning experience. Thanks to this, I was able to master all the basics, such as characterization for voice actors, the timing of music entry, and the balance with sound effects.

Post-recording at that time did not involve pencil tests (shooting only the line art without coloring) or blank frames (empty frames with no picture), and all cuts were completed as scheduled. The time required for post-recording was usually about two hours.

●Dubbing
Dialogue, music, and sound effects are combined at this stage. The music selection is already finished because the image of the music is discussed with the recording clerk in advance. The same applies to sound effects. Everything is combined during dubbing, and if there is music you want to change, you can pick it up from the original tape. You can also add sound effects or record live sounds (like footsteps) on the spot.

The elements of the film—dialogue, music, and sound effects—are adjusted, and if necessary, processing such as feedback or echo is applied to refine the sound. The soundtrack is completed by mixing these.

[Negative Editing + Retake Replacement]

Negative editing refers to the work of editing the negative film to match the edited positive print. At that time, retake cuts that were re-shot and approved are also replaced.

[First Print]

At the laboratory, work is done to correct the color of the edited negative. This is because colors change subtly depending on the camera and lighting conditions at the time of shooting. This correction work is called "timing," and the film printed from the negative is finally completed.

The first completed print film is called the "first print," and those printed experimentally before the first print are called "number 0."

If there are no problems at the first print screening, the film is delivered.

The delivered film is broadcast after undergoing a process called "telecine," which converts the film into television signals for TV broadcasting.

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