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Interview With Mitsunori Kataama
The CGI Director of the world renowed Studio Ghibli talks about his work, 2d/3d productions and XSI.
January, 7th, 2005, by Raffael Dickreuter, Bernard Lebel, Ed Harriss
 |  | Mitsunori Kataama, CGI Director at Studio Ghibli.
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What is your position and main job at Studio Ghibli?
In common industry terms I am a 3D CGI director but in my company, I am called “Digital drawing director.”
Here is what my job involves: First, I make arrangements with the director and art director to decide which shots need to be 3DCG that our department will handle. My work starts from that point. Then I consider which work should be assigned to who in my section. I decide which animator is in charge of each shot and then arrange the work that has to be done. If circumstances require, I might rework some CGI that an animator has made. After that, I undergo checks by the director and if I get his approval, I then meet with the art director and decide how to the Render the shot into separate layers that I will eventually give to the compositing dept. Also, when we need to develop a new technology, a programmer and I will work together to find a solution.
In Japan it is common for 2D animation studios, as well as 3D CGI Studios, for one person to carry out the entire range of work needed to complete a shot. I feel not only does one have to take charge of directing the look of the image, but they also have to think about sharing the work, while reworking it. I feel like I am both a director and a supervisor all in one.
Tell us a bit about Studio Ghibli.
At Our studio we can conduct all of processes. Also, we can record actors in our studio.
It is reflected the will of director Miyazaki from the design of the building to down the disposition of each post and the seating arrangements. He gives attention in detail to the appearance of the office. For example, some abandoned packages at the entrance or the appearance of bicycle parking, they become object of his anger.
Recently, It is prohibited to listen music by headphone while at work. (However, only daytime and scope of application is only for animators.)
The working hours are depending on the position, it is mandatory to come to the office until 10:30 AM. Work for only 6 days and it is prohibited to work through the night. The most hard workers are in the compositing department, they come to the office at 9:30 AM. When it reaches the critical point of work, they pursue work until after 1:00 AM. The most Japanese animation studios are unpunctual about time of coming to the office, people get together at their offices in the afternoon (late afternoon), then they work until next morning and don’t go home for a few days. This is common in Japanese animation studios but I think Studio Ghibli make creations very earnestly.
How many people are engaged one project.?
If we make a feature film, more than 500 people are involved including the audio dept and publicity dept.
About 300 people are involved to make the images, of which 150 people work in my studio.
For digital images the crews are pretty small, digital ink and paint are 30 people, 3DCGI are 10 people and digital compositing is done by 4 people.
What does it mean to work for the this world renowed studio?
That it has become famous is an achievement of the directors Miyazaki and Takahata. We empathize with their thinking and work to concretize their thinking.
What is the usual approach to a project?
We give “an animation for children” first priority. And also we think about that we want to show them as high quality as possible image.
In my approach, I think in particular, we don’t need to use new technologies. What counts in making good creations is not so much to use new technologies, but to learn the representation past (all of representations regardless of analog or digital) then I am trying to choose a proper style and technology.
Some creations of Studio Ghibli are appears where priority is to be 2D. What part dose XSI play in that way?
3D CGI staff work as to be seamless as possible to the 2D image.
We hope to model not only the visual style of 2D but also the motion feeling of the animation, the layout of screen and the perspective.
What features of XSI are especially helpful to Studio Ghibli?
I myself esteem Animation Mixer and RenderTree. Especially, I like the line of the Toon shader that Michel Arias developed. Also I think the specification that I can control very delicately is excellent.
What is innovative in the present project?
Our newest film “The haul’s moving castle ”literally has walking castle. I think the appearance of the moving castle in hand-painted style worked really well. Also the representation of flag too. I think we succeeded about the workflow to create cell styling and that we animated the movements of flag using XSI Cloth simulation. Then we looped it in the Animation Mixer.
What was the most challenging creation and the part for Ghibli?
Everything of newest creation, each new project is a big challenge.
How did you integrate 2D and 3D?
Basically, we work on 2D process first and analyze the style to create 3D.
For example, hand-drawing layout is not always accurate perspective. We need to recreate that kind of difference on 3DCG camera setting. Sometimes we
need to move the clipping plane of camera, in other times we add a distortion for rendered images.
As for animation, we usually change the frame rate from 24 to 12 or 8. Also we consider how cell animators think or like to draw that scene.
In terms of creating backgrounds in 3D, perspective from camera technique is used 100%. Background is drawn as one seamless completed picture, it is not built from separated textures. We work on a creation and separation of textures later on digital environments. We use an aerial perspective and reflection parameter that can vary based on a camera movement to make the picutre look natural. As it is not natural that that camera is animated, but the background doesn’t vary its color.
How do you think about the Hollywood style production where the cg process is often split up between different people or departments?
I don’t like separation work sytle very much. I think it doesn’t fit the characteristics of Japanese, so I don’t refer to it. However it is important to establish specialists.
As for script, I’m not interested in a script that is too easy to understand.
What is a difference between full 3DCG like Apple Seed or Finding Nemo and GHIBLI works?
Studio GHIBLI works are traditional cell animation. We feel it is important to mix traditional techniques with 3d animation.
How do you think about digitalization of cell animations?
Hand drawing animation has empasizes that are formed from lines. It is an advantage for artist to send a message strongly. I would like to take care the good point of it. There should be a way to make use of it in 3DCG. If people wants more complex style of pictures, then hand drawing animation might be dying out. However, imagine how children we care about want.
What skills are crucial for someone who would like to work at Studio Ghibli?
It is difficult how to define talent. GHIBLI is not suited for people who just want a career or show off one’s power. It is important to have an ambition to create artwork, but you also need to have a skill to work appropriately as an organization. So we want people who love animation and who care about an audience’s needs.
Do you hire non-Japanese artists?
Frequet Japanese language skill is necessary to fulfill requirement that is described in the last question, but the nationality doesn’t matter. GHIBLI can support hiring procedures such as VISA, but the person needs to show how one can contribute to the company.
Personally, I don’t have a plan to work outside Japan as I think I need a high language skill such as I can understand a chat of a next table.
Could you give us a comment for a growth of entertainment or digital?
I think it is important to learn from expression styles and techniques from the past. It is not possible to create a future without understanding a past history.
Related Links
Studio Ghibli
Special thanks to Justin Leach, Alain Laferrière, Yoichiro Kadoguchi and Yoshiyuki Watanabe.
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