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The event “Animake” was held in Akihabara UDX Sep. 28, and included a live session called “Illustrators’ Behind-the-Scenes Biz Trip Special,” where the participants talked about the fun of being Illustrator and the individual ways in which their profession intersects with the anime industry.

At the session, a road show of a webcast “Illustrators’ Behind-the-Scenes,” the MC and man behind the webcast, Miyamoto Yusuke (COJIRASE LUNCH BOX), and the guests from “SSS by applibot” creative studio, Yoneyama Mai, PALOW., BUNBUN, and abec participated.

Before joining “SSS by applibot”, Yoneyama, PALOW., and BUNBUN were busy in different fields as illustrators and animators.
They work at the same place now, so they say they don’t let each other get bored.

Yoneyama was 19 when working at Gainax, and then worked as an animator in Trigger productions and more before heading down the path of being an illustrator. PALOW. works as a character designer for HAL Academy ads, BUNBUN managed character drafts for “Sakura Quest” and more, and abec had a hand in illustrating “Sword Art Online”… After confirming their professional backgrounds, the talk went on to the session topic of the ways each of them interacted with anime.

Yoneyama picked “Kill La Kill” episode 3 as the animation job that impressed him the most. He spoke of having been entrusted managing his first TV series production, of his worries and fights against pressure when composing a show out of the veteran keyframers’ cuts.

abec also expounded on an episode where he was reponsible for keying “Sword Art Online,” being the original book illustrator. He would stare holes into the book images, and he’d work on the frames to convey the good parts.

As Yoneyama mentioned how there were so many weapons and the outlines were a hassle, BUNBUN said that in the light novels, which are also light on the number of illustrations, he hadn’t often given a lot of keyframe “nutrients” to those, and was pretty scared when the anime version was decided upon. The audience laughed.

However, when an anime needed new designs, nitpicking of course made animators cry, but overthinking made it lose goodness, so a balance was a consideration when making it happen.

Also, as the “SAO” anime was made, they approached it by having less arguments, and instead offered designs and such whenever something was needed, together with its author, Kawahara Reki.
The part where you develop for specific media and something completely new is born is the good point of mixed media, he recalled.

Following that, PALOW. started his talk about the TV commercials for HAL Academy he was in.
He revealed that it started for him in 2014 with the idea that it’d be nice to make a 2015 ad, he had a hand in an “Insect-Mecha Girls” illustration, which was sent to the competition.
After that, he provided three-view drawings to base modeling upon in anime production, and had a part in the webbing designs that were used for the backgrounds.

Moreover, although the deformation gimmicks were really detailed for the anime, they wouldn’t fit in a 15 second-long run of the ad, so they had to go.
But, in PALOW.’s words, “I spent so much effort on it, I had no regrets!”

When Miyamoto saw the detailed designs and character expression panels, he asked, “How did you get this close with anime?” PALOW. replied that in most part, it was about his best friend Nagae Akihiro (“Penguin Highway”‘s lead keyframer) and his game mod creations in his early 20s.

PALOW. works in a team of three now, and they split the work in between them. He said, “We got specialists in each field, so it’s easier in a way,” to which BUNBUN replied, again to the joy of audience, “You just think, ohh I’d love to draw something like thiiis! and you can now summon your inner Yoneyama Mai for it!”

To conclude the event, a short question period was set up.
To, “What are the pictures you three drew first?” the three recalled their origins.
PALOW. saw Tanaka Kunihiko’s illustrations for “Xenogears” and thought he’d love drawing, and for mechas, he was influenced by “Front Mission”, “Armored Core” and such.
Yoneyama has been imitating “Sailor Moon” artworks for a good while, and BUNBUN said the first pretty girl character he painted was the young master Genkai from “Yū Yū Hakusho”.

The next question to come was, “BUNBUN, you went to the capital from your country house, did that change your lifestyle?”
BUNBUN replied that since it’s always been frantic calls and emails first and foremost, so the working lifestyle never changed a lot, but it got so much easier since he lined seats with his SSS coworkers, and explained how much the new system of communication and working with each other.

“Illustrators’ Behind-the-Scenes”: out on Nov. 8 from 19:00 to talk about the “war of attrition” among the same guest members. This new session’s library video will be distributed in the future as well, so if you’re curious about the details, check out Twitter, “@CojiraseLB”!

(Crossposted from Anime! Anime! Biz / animeanime.biz)