Past, Present, and Future\of Storyboarding in Japanese Animation Jun Kato, Ryotaro Mihara, Nao Hirasawa (Arch Inc.) SAS 2021 (Animated Energies), Online, June 15
A ARCH|Research  https://research.archinc.jp/en
Introduction Past, Present, and Future of Storyboarding in Japanese Animation
Jun Kato (presenter) Technical Advisor at Arch Inc. Senior Researcher at AIST Background: Computer Science / Human-Computer Interaction
Ryotaro Mihara
Global Business Advisor at Arch Inc. Associate Professor at Keio University Background: Cultural Anthropology Nao Hirasawa Founder, CEO at Arch Inc. President at Graphinica, Inc. Expertise: Anime Production
• Arch is a Japanese animation production company without in- house studios (focus on helping production studios and creators) • Arch Research is a small R&D team in Arch, with academic researchers at its core
Many studies of animation begin with a question about the object—what is anime?—but I suggest a different entry point: Who makes anime? lan Condry, “The Soul of Anime,” p.3 We pose yet another entry point—our research began with exploring the design space of building creativity support tools for anime production studios, which can be summarized as: how to make anime?
science as "the engineering of abstract objects. [6] Even when we build a computer, the comput tist designs only the abstract properties—its architec- ture and implementation. Electrical, mechanical, and refrigeration engineers design the realizati In contrast with many engineers who make houses, become inaccessible even to our so and publication properly commands a higher price from the author in page charges than from the read- er in subscription fees. So our writings even in their economics resemble garbage, for which the genera- The scientist builds in order to study; the engineer studies in order to build. cars, medicines, and clothing for human need and enjoyment, we make things that do not themselves directly satisfy human needs, but which others use in making things that enrich human living. In a word, the computer scientist is a toolsmith—no more, but no loss. It is an honorable calling tor pays the collector. This deadly trend already curses American mathe- matics; its cold chill can be felt in computer science. We are succumbing to the occupational illness of teachers diagnosed 2000 years ago by Jesus Christ: "Vou desire praise from one another
•  Fred Brooks. ‘96. “The Computer Scientist as Toolsmith II.” CACM Vol.39 (3), 61-68.
•  Ben Shneiderman. ‘09. “Creativity Support Tools: A Grand Challenge for HCl Researchers.” In Engineering the User Interface. Springer, London, 1-9. o Jonas Frich et al. ‘18. “Twenty Years of Creativity Research in Human-Computer Interaction: Current State and Future Directions." In Proc. ACM DIS 2018, 1235-1257. An example from Jun’s prior work (affiliated with AIST): extAlive • A web-based tool for creating kinetic typography videos • Designed for music video creators and programmers Jun Kato et al., “TextAlive: An Integrated Design Environment for Kinetic Typography,” In Proc. ACM CHI ’15, 3403-3412
(c) The TicTacToon Process Figure 1: Work flow of the different stages in animation Work done on computers is marked with a dark background Jean-Daniel Fekete et al., “TicTacToon: A Paperless System for Professional 2D Animation,” In Proc. ACM SIGGRAPH ’95, 79-90 Figure 8: The Layout module showing a front view, top view and side view of a scene.
1.  Understanding the present of anime storyboarding 2.  Understanding the past 3. Building software for the better future

Kazuya Murata
Anime Director
With background in industrial design, learned direction in Studio Ghibli (participated in “Only Yesterday,” “Ocean Waves,” ….), contributed to the foundation of and worked for OLM, Inc., and became self- employed; Participated in “PLANETES” (storyboard), “Eureka Seven” (storyboard), “Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion” (associate director), and ddrected the animated film for the first time in “Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos.” Later, participated in numerous animations including “Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet” (original concept, director), “Kado: The Right Answer” (chief director), “A.I.C.O. – Incarnation –” (only on Netflix; original concept, director), and “Starlight Promises” (published on YouTube; original concept, director).
Yokohama Animation Laboratory
Anime Production Studio Founded in 2015, YAL is led by Yuma Oue who served as a producer of “Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet,” “Monster Strike 2,” and so o n. From Disney to Anime: past of anime storyboarding Past, Present, and Future of Storyboarding in Japanese Animation Storyboarding at Disney in late 1920s and 1930s provided courtesy of The Walt Disney Company (TWDC would like to lear that they cannot confirm the red pencil markings, reproduced here in black and white, were made by Disney artists) ... the six-panelled page variety with separate written notes, and the three- panelled page, which incorporated the written notes alongside the vertically arranged sketches. Chris Pallant and Steven Price, “Storyboarding: A Critical History,” p.50 Storyboarding at Disney in late 1920s and 1930s Figure 2.2 A promotional still, c.1933, showing a staged story planning ses for The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934), featuring Webb Smith seated far left and Walt Disney in the centre. Image provided courtesy of The Walt Disney Company. While the roughly A4-sized, six- panelled page storyboard layout remained in use at Disney, the larger, cork-mounted variety became the dominant pre-production storyboard arrangement. Chris Pallant and Steven Price, “Storyboarding: A Critical History,” p.53
made with the established storyboarding method • The first full-length animated film • released in 1937 in the United States • translated and released in Sep 1950 in Japan • The time gap was caused by WW II • following up the US releases resulted in a packed schedule • Japan release dates: Bambi (May 1951), Cinderella (Mar 1952), Pinocchio (May 1952), Alice in Wonderland (Aug 1953), Dumbo (Mar 1954), Fantasia (Sep 1955) Yusuke Nakagawa, “Anime Taikoku Kenkokuki 1963-1973”
Disney films became popular in Japan and motivated key persons to make animations: Hiroshi Okawa (Toei, established in Apr 1951) 1. 2. Ryuichi Yokoyama (Otogi Production, established in Jan 1955) 3. Osamu Tezuka (Mushi Production, established in 1961)
Yusuke Nakagawa, “Anime Taikoku Kenkokuki 1963-1973”

•  visited United States and Europe in 1953
•  distributed the first animated Japanese color film “Ukare Violin” in Oct 1955, produced by Nihon Douga •  bought Nihon Douga and established Toei Douga in Aug 1956 •  produced “Hakujaden,” the first full- length animated Japanese film in Oct 1958 [Image] NHK, https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/special/sci_cul/2019/10/news/news_191026/ Yusuke Nakagawa, “Anime Taikoku Kenkokuki 1963-1973”

•  Ryuichi Yokoyama
•  visited United States in 1951, visited Disney, and met Walt Disney •  Established Otogi Production in Jan 1955 •  produced “Onbu Obake” in Dec 1955 and invited Tezuka to its preview, suggested him to create animations
•  Osamu Tezuka
•  worked for several Toei anime films and established Mushi Production in 1961 produced “Astro Boy,” the first animated Japanese television series [Images] Astro Boy E-Conte – Tezuka Osamu, “Tezuka Osamu E-Conte Taizen (1) Tetsuwan Atom,” p.43 and p.59 Yusuke Nakagawa, “Anime Taikoku Kenkokuki 1963-1973”
The storyboarding method was (somehow) imported and Japanese E-Conte format became almost identical to the date by the end of the 1950s. Q. what was NOT imported?
• The “story corkboard” part is completely missing • Storyboarding process has usually been handled secretively by a director and not shared with others until its completion [Images] Chris Pallant and Steven Price, “Storyboarding: A Critical History,” p.50 and p.53 / Seiji Okuda, “Anime no Shigoto wa Omoshiro Sugiru,” p.38 Two hypotheses for the feature drop-off: to manage the “continuity” • The term “E-Conte” comes from “continuity in drawings” and hints a strong influence by the production process of Japanese live-action films, such as that of Akira Kurosawa, well-known for drawing storyboards by himself • “Draft E-Conte could be …. revised casually. Although, when it comes close to the completion, ... a revision by other creators would easily break the balance." Yoshiyuki Tomino, “Eizo no Gensoku Kaitei-ban,” p.216 Two hypotheses for the feature drop-off: to catch up with the schedule • “Astro Boy” is well-known for its labor-saving effort such as the exceptionally limited animation format (eight frames per second) and reusing the same character motion with different backgrounds (so-called bank system) • Animated television series resulted in a really packed schedule, and there was no time for discussion between stakeholders From an interview with Kazuya Murata and the literature, “Anime Taikoku Kenkokuki 1963-1973,” by Yusuke Nakagawa Q. So, how does storyboarding look like? E-Conte: present of anime storyboarding Past, Present, and Future of Storyboarding in Japanese Animation
• Roughly divided into pre- production, production, and post-production • Input to E-Conte includes scenario script, character design, and other settings • E-Conte serves as the final output of the pre- production step
• An A4 sheet of paper is divided into four to six rows • Each row is composed of a "cut" number, a drawing in the cut, script, and duration of the corresponding cut. • A thirty-minute anime film typically consumes around 100-200 sheets of paper in this format This storyboard is from “Animation Technology 2019 Spring” p.2, drawn by Kazuya Murata for XFLAGS ANIME “Starlight Promises.”
• Digest: understand scenario scripts passed from writers • revise and fix who does/speaks what • Animate: turn the scripts into visual cuts • surround the characters with the environment • make the characters perform actions in specific timings • Direct: pass directions to the production step • provide clear instructions to animators, compositors, audio professionals, etc. From an interview with Kazuya Murata and the literature, “Eizo no Gensoku Kaitei-ban” by Yoshiyuki Tomino
• Sheets of paper • Pencil • Stopwatch • Reference materials From an interview with Kazuya Murata [Photo] Studio Ghibli, https://www.ghibli.jp/ged_01/20making/000508.html
Most part of the pipeline has already been digitized: •  Word processors (1980s): scenario •  RETAS STUDIO (1990s-2008): scanning, painting, composition • CLIP STUDIO, Photoshop, Procreate, etc. (2000s-): scanning, painting •  Adobe AfterEffects, etc. (2010s-): composition (RETAS STUDIO), CLIP l oon Boom Harmony (Ipen i oon mation.
• Storyboard Pro • specialized for drawing storyboards • TVPaint Animation • originally used for key and inbetween animation • Both suited for authoring V-Conte (continuity in video) • Both are made for storyboarding in general, adapted for E- Conte, with features like exporting in the E-Conte format • Not necessarily the best for authoring E-Conte
From an interview with Kazuya Murata and YAL Yuma Oue
The difficulties in the current digital tools from the director’s perspective • Software for desktop OS cannot be used casually (e.g., let’s lie down on a couch and draw storyboards!) • Horizontal time axis causes occlusions by the user’s hand and makes it difficult to compare the left and right balance in panels • Flexible editing feature for prototyping is missing (e.g., temporally saving alternative cuts, comparing them, removing, sorting, and re-ordering panels, etc.)
From an interview with Kazuya Murata
The difficulties in the current digital tools from the producer’s perspective • Storyboarding process is solely handled by the director and completely hidden from the other pre-production staff • The resulting E-Conte needs to be printed and delivered to hundreds of people in the production step, which would ideally be handled digitally
From an interview with YAL Yuma Oue and Nao Hirasawa
Q. What can we do for the future of storyboarding? Creativity support for/the future of anime storyboarding Past, Present, and Future of Storyboarding in Japanese Animation
Missing feature in E-Conte: collaborations • The “story corkboard” part is completely missing • Storyboarding process has usually been handled secretively by a director and not shared with others until its completion • The benefits of storyboarding for individual creativity were properly imported and extended • Support for collaborative creativity was dropped
A naïve question: why not digitize? • The production pipeline is digitized, except for the storyboarding • Creating a digital storyboarding tool for individual creativity seems not effective enough What we learned: E-Conte is not only for directors, nor for the animators and other people in the production step. It is for both.

Roles of E-Conte
• Digest: understand scenario scripts passed from writers • revise and fix who does/speaks what • Animate: turn the scripts into visual cuts • surround the characters with the environment • make the characters perform actions in specific timings • Direct: pass directions to the production step • provide concrete instructions to animators, compositors, audio professionals, etc. From an interview with Kazuya Murata and the literature, “Eizo no Gensoku Kaitei-ban” by Yoshiyuki Tomino Individual and collaborative creativity support for pre- production step: practical usability for a director and communication support for people in the pre-production step
Collaborative creativity support
for production step: direction support for a director, aiding communication between the director and animators and other professionals
Our research began with exploring the design space of building creativity support tools_for anime production studios, which can be summarized as: how to make anime? The creativity support tool for storyboarding in Japanese animation should take a form of “environment design” than a single tool design, surrounding the E-Conte content with multiple different user interfaces for a variety of users including the director, producer, and all the other people involved in the anime production pipeline.
Based on the lessons learned, we are building web- based idea sketching and storyboarding tools. We are looking for collaborators – don’t hesitate to contact us! Jun Kato <jun@archinc.ip> Past, Present, and Future\of Storyboarding in Japanese Animation Jun Kato, Ryotaro Mihara, Nao Hirasawa (Arch Inc.) SAS 2021 (Animated Energies), Online, June 15
A ARCH|Research  https://research.archinc.jp/en