What Has Changed Since Encountering the Digital World?　Shoji Kawamori's Ideas and Experiments [Watching the Animation Industry Vol. 54

The Shoji Kawamori Expo, a major exhibition covering the past 40 years of work by mechanical designer and animation director Shoji Kawamori, will be held on May 31, 2019.
Among the countless breakthroughs that Shoji Kawamori has caused in the animation industry, one of them was the introduction of 3DCG in TV animation in the early 1990s. The opening scene of "Macross 7" (1994), with its dynamically rotating background, must have been a sight to behold for many people.　Rather than simply trying new things, Shoji Kawamori's creativity is rooted in his intuition to anticipate the changing times and his boldness to venture into areas that others would not dare to touch. We took time out from our busy preparations for the "Shoji Kawamori Expo" to interview Kawamori himself.

In the mid-1990s, I realized that the times were changing.

──When you first introduced digital and CG into the field, what was the trigger for you?

Kawamori: During the production of the OVA "Macross Plus" (1994), I went to the U.S. many times for research. I experienced simulated aerial combat at Air Combat USA and visited a company in Silicon Valley to learn about the latest computer technology at the time, and also went to a film production studio called Colossus. It was a huge warehouse built on the bay in San Francis, where SFX, 2D animation, and 3DCG animation were made in separate two-story prefabricated buildings, and it was a very interesting studio. At that time in Japan, it was said that it cost 100 million yen per minute to produce 3DCG. However, according to Colossus, "We use CG because it is cheaper than hand-drawing. ...... Cheaper than hand-drawing?　What on earth does that mean? I was very shocked. Whether we like it or not, the wave of 3DCG and digitalization will eventually come to Japan. I talked with producer Minoru Takanashi and decided that if that was the case, we wanted to be the first to get our hands on it, so we started introducing digital technology with "Macross Plus" and "Macross 7," starting with what we could do. Since it was still expensive in Japan, we first used 3DCG for mechanics and spatial expressions.
Later, the year before I produced "Ihatov Illusion: Spring of KENJI" (1996), I was invited by a magazine for an interview and asked if I would like to visit an interesting studio in Sapporo. I was invited to visit. I visited Satellite for the interview. At the time, Satellite was producing "Bit the Cupid" (1995), the world's first full 3DCG TV series. When I heard that the staff member who was making a simple cut of the robot walking around was in his "third month with the company," I was surprised. I was surprised. If I had been a hand-drawn animator, I wonder how many years it would have taken me to be assigned to do original drawings. ...... I realized that times were changing.
It was then that I was approached by Atsumi Tashiro, a producer at Group Tac, about a project called "KENjI no Haru" ("Spring of KENjI"). When I heard that "we sometimes ask a company called Satellite to do computer graphics for us (......)," I said, "Oh, that company?　Then, by all means, let's ask Satellite to do the CG." As a result of a combination of several fortunate events, we ended up using a lot of CG in "KENjI no Haru". At that time, I was also involved in the launch of PlayStation, and the following year I was in charge of mecha design for "Armored Core" (1997). In other words, it was already common practice in the game industry to express mechas in CG. This means that the animation industry will surely follow the same trend in the not-so-distant future. So, I decided that it would be more effective to use CG to express something that other works do not often use CG. In "KENjI no Haru" (Spring of KENjI), hand-drawn rice plants were increased by "digital rice planting," and in "Earth Girl Arjuna" (2001), a motorcycle and a character riding the motorcycle were modeled simultaneously in 3DCG, and birds and other creatures were also moved in CG.

─ Were you still using celluloid at that time?

Kawamori: For "KENjI no Haru", 70% of the shots were done with conventional celluloid, and 30% were digitalized up to the shooting. It was still a transitional period.


───Even with such digitalization, "Arjuna" had a number of distinguished animators, including Takahiro Kishida, Norio Matsumoto, and Yasuhiro Ohisa, and the drawing part was also a highlight, wasn't it? How much did you calculate the ratio between digital processing and drawing?

Kawamori: We knew that we could add various effects with digital processing, so we wanted to actively use that. On the other hand, the artists did a very good job of drawing, so I wanted to make sure that the quality of their work was not compromised. ...... If we were not careful, it was easy to create a composition of "drawing vs. digital" on site. That rarely happens now, but back then it was difficult to get people to understand when I said, "I like both drawing and computer graphics.