Painting a cel is a difficult task, requiring concentration and a steady hand. Animators often place favorite pieces of their work on the wall for both inspirational and aesthetic reasons.

Downstairs is the animation studio. The animators were involved in their work, and most of them hardly took any notice of us as we peered over their shoulders, took a picture or two, and talked loudly in English behind them. It is interesting to see exactly how independently these people work. While they all work in the same room, each has his or her own cubicle loaded with personal items, as well as reference materials. UFO catcher dolls abound, and images of favorite shows and characters line the cubicles, covering almost every square inch of space. Every animator also had a personal CD player and a large stack of CDs.
In the paint studio, I saw two women conversing on how to paint a cel. I thought this was a bit unusual, since most of the staff I had seen thus far seemed to work independently when it came to cel painting. Scott explained that one of the women was a new employee who was being trained in cel painting. For a little while, she would have someone who would be helping her with her work until she got the hang of it and could go it alone.
Scott also showed us the paint cabinet and explained a little about cel paint. There are approximately 350 colors used in typical Japanese animation production, which is much more than the standard number used in the United States. Of these 350 colors, a television series/OVA series will normally use approximately 80 to 120 colors, while a feature film will use many more. Cel paint is expensive and prone to molding in the summer and rainy season, so oftentimes a limited supply is kept on hand. "The rainy season is the ultimate nightmare for paint," Scott adds.
We were also very fortunate to be allowed into Ogura Studios. Mr. Ogura Hiromasa is one of the most prominent Art Directors in the world. He talked with us for several minutes and allowed us to annoy his staff as we looked around his studio and told us that fame comes with a price. He often receives phone calls and requests for consulting on various projects. Sometimes, in fact, he says he is so busy taking phone calls that he can't get anything done. But obviously, he does, as his work on GHOST IN THE SHELL and the PATLABOR movies proves.
Our next stop was an empty feature film key animators studio. Scott explained that animators sometimes keep very long hours, working late into the night. As a result, they often come in late in the afternoon. In fact, there was only one person in the studio at the time; that person was Mr. Oshii Mamoru, director of such blockbusters as GHOST IN THE SHELL and the PATLABOR films. He welcomed us to I.G and told us that he liked to come in early because "no one else is around and I can get a lot of work done." At the time, he was working on his next project, a pilot for another feature film.

Mr. Ogura takes a brief respite from his hectic schedule and smiles for the camera in his office. One of Mr. Ogura's employees puts some finishing touches on a background.

Our final stop on our Production I.G tour was the computer animation studio. There are several computers of different types that are set up to use computer animation software. In this studio they work on the animation for both anime and video games. [The games company that does the coding is on the floor below, and is not part of Production I.G.] At the time we toured, they were finishing production on the Playstation game GRAND STREAM , and we got to see a small preview. I.G is also working on the GHOST IN THE SHELL Playstation game.
We were also treated to a clip from the upcoming PANZER DRAGOON OVA, which is based on the Sega game. Not surprisingly, Sega wanted the video to be very reminiscent of the video game, so there is a large amount of 3D animation in the video. In fact, in the clips we saw, the main characters were the only things rendered in standard (2D) animation. The result is an unusual looking video. PANZER DRAGOON is the first totally digitally produced OVA work in Japan so far. The characters are done with Animo, the 3D effects are done with Lightwave 3D, and the backgrounds are rendered in Adobe Photoshop and Fractal Design Painter.
I asked if all of the traditional animators were cross-trained on Animo (the 2D animation production software). Scott said that some of them are, since it gives them a better feel for the entire process. The downside is that computer animation is easier and gives a wider range of possibilities and the animators, and directors as well, don't want to go back to traditional animating after working on Animo!
Our tour completed, we left Production I.G and Scott took us to a local coffee shop where we proceeded to sit and talk shop for some time. I'd tell you what we talked about, but that's a story best saved for another time.