SOFTIMAGE|XSI User Profile: Studio 4°C
TEKKONKINKREET

Rumi Hiwasa
Translated by: Alun Simpson

As suggested by the very existence of the word "Japanimation", Japanese animation is highly regarded all over the world, both in terms of cultural value and as an industry. An example of a new movie that fused Japan's unique animation technology with its digital technology is Tekkonkinkreet (or "Tekkon"), which was released at the end of last year. It was such a high quality production that few could believe it was made by a first-time director. This was Michael Arias (Mike), who had worked as a producer on The Animatrix, the animation version of The Matrix. He told us that after first reading the manga comic book, it was ten long years until he could finally make a movie out of it.

"I want to make a Tekkonkinkreet movie"

	Michael Arias, Director at Studio 4°C

Over those ten years, Mike's enthusiasm for turning the manga into a movie never waned. So how did he first discover Tekkonkinkreet?

Tekkonkinkreet was a popular manga series created by Taiyo Matsumoto that ran from 1993. Even though more than 10 years have passed since the series ended, it is still remembered fondly by many people in Japan.

The story takes place in the fictional Treasure Town, which has a nostalgic feel about it, and is centered on two street urchins called Black and White. The only person that Black trusts is himself. White trusts everyone. These conflicting characters make a stand together against the sudden changes that are enveloping Treasure Town as it is being redeveloped.

Mike said that when he first read the manga, "I thought it would be really cool as a film." He got a thrill just thinking about Black and White flying around town, fighting yakuza as well as their own inner demons.

At the time, Mike was a Softimage employee who was working on the initial development of Toon Shaders, a technology that today is used as standard throughout the animation industry. During a test, Softimage used some of the Tekkon characters and townscapes that Mike had modeled himself. "That seemed to me like more fun than my usual programming work," said Mike. As he was developing the Toon Shaders, Mike got to know more people in the industry and was inspired by many of the things he saw. This made him believe that it was possible to make a movie out of Tekkon, something that had previously seemed to be more of a dream than reality. During this period, whenever Mike was asked "What do you want to do?", his almost automatic reply was "I want to make a Tekkon movie". This reflected his growing determination.

Pilot Production

It was after he became aware that he really did want to make the Tekkon film that he started to take concrete steps, such as sending a demo video to Taiyo Matsumoto. The turning point for Mike was when he met the director Koji Morimoto. Morimoto was one of the founding members of Studio 4°C, and he himself had loved the Tekkon series and wanted to see it made into a movie. After this meeting, in 1997 while working at his proper job on a special project at Softimage, he also started work as a CGI director for the pilot, at Trilogy's studio.

Even though it was a pilot, it took two years to produce. It used the SOFTIMAGE|3D Toon Shader and is an excellent animation work, even when viewed now after 3D CG has become commonplace. The pilot was finally finished in 1999 and it made an immediate impact, winning an outstanding performance award in the Digital Art (Non-interactive) category at the Japan Media Arts Festival. From that moment, fans were on the edge of their seats waiting for the Tekkon movie.

From Disappointment to The Animatrix

But the Tekkon movie project, which for two years had seemed to be progressing smoothly, now faced its greatest threat.

Due to various different factors, the development team was forced apart. It looked as though Mike's dream had gone forever...

At this time, Mike was approached by John Gaeta, who was Visual Effects Supervisor in The Matrix. Gaeta was thinking about producing an animated version of The Matrix. The movie would be a compilation of shorts about ten minutes long. This was the planning stage of what would become The Animatrix. Mike was a natural choice as a general producer for the project. "Even looking back on it now, I remember it as being hard. A producer's work is really difficult. But no matter how tough it got, I always believed that it would be a stepping-stone to making Tekkon," said Mike. While Mike was working on The Animatrix, his friend from university, Anthony Weintraub, was making progress on the Tekkon script. "I thought that it would be great if the Tekkon script was finished by the time I finished The Animatrix." Even while he was putting all his efforts into a high-quality project like The Animatrix, Mike never let go of his Tekkon movie dream.

Restarting the Project

Mike restarted the Tekkon project in 2003, thanks to the help and support of Studio 4°C and his friends. Backed up by the strong support of Koji Morimoto and others, Mike himself was made the new director. The crucial time had arrived. Eiko Tanaka, the president of Studio 4°C, also worked as a producer on Tekkon. She told Mike, "We're going to see this through;" words of support that Mike remembers to this day. The director's ten-year old passion for Tekkon, the passion of his supportive family, the passion of the production staff and the passion of the fans waiting for the movie were all driving on the project.

I asked Mike what he found difficult about being a first-time director.

"Up until then, my main work had been in special effects and, later, CG software, so communication with the people around me had never been that important. But as a director you have to look at the big picture and tell other people exactly what you are thinking, so communication with staff in a wide variety of situations is very important. This was the most difficult thing for me." The project started out with just Mike working on it, but as it went on, more and more people were employed. It was then that communication between staff became a barrier.

Studio 4°C Production Room

How did he get over this hurdle? "I'm not good at drawing pictures, so I couldn't express my ideas with sketches. Instead, I used words and photographs. I also used 3D CG tools, which are my specialty, to make simple videos and show them to the staff. I tried lots of different approaches. The turning point came when Hiroaki Ando arrived to work on the project. He helped to smooth communication between staff members. Ando had worked as CGI director on movies such as Steamboy, and joined the project as Technical Director.

Later, Shojiro Nishimi joined as Chief Animation Director, Shinji Kimura as Art Director and Takuma Sakamoto as CGI Director, creating a powerhouse team. All of these people had themselves loved the Tekkon series, so it felt a little awkward at first for Mike to play a leadership role. But having such an illustrious staff lineup also helped to further stoke Mike's enthusiasm for the project.

"Pointless unless we do something that no one has done before"

Most traditional animation productions use 3DCG only for special effects or to speed the production of shots tedious to execute using traditional methods. However, Mike wanted to do something different. He wanted to make the blend between CG and hand-drawn animation as seamless as possible, and use digital tools expressively rather than simply as time savers. And, rather than applying 3D techniques only two "special" shots, he wanted to make 3D camera work and animation a constant presence in the film. Even among Tekkon's staff there was a certain degree of skepticism and resistance. "I wanted to make a real movie, not a "cartoon". To do stuff you could only do with cinema and to really push the blend of traditional and digital techniques to its limit." Mike's passion for Tekkon was still visible as he talked.

Color Chart		Example of Black's Color Chart

When making the Tekkon movie, the first thing to do was to blend Shojiro Nishimi's pictures with 3D.The pictures had to be retouched carefully to add effects such as depth of field and motion blur while keeping the blend with hand-drawn artwork as seamless as possible. The camera created all cuts in 3D and then effects such as shaking, blur and depth of field were set. This method was successful in blending the pictures with 3D in a way that kept the digital effects from drawing attention to themselves. The camera that was used was an XSI camera.

"XSI cameras are great," said Mike. He went on to say that camera mapping and projection mapping are easy to use, making it a useful method for blending them with pictures. Also, since he used to work for Softimage and was instrumental in the Toon Shader development, it was only natural that he would also want to use the Toon Shaders for Tekkon. "It's a bit egotistical to use a tool I helped create," laughed Mike. But in fact the XSI Toon Shaders were also highly regarded by the other staff members. "Whether using the particle function or other functions, the XSI is a comprehensive system that allows work to be redone, and so eliminates wasted time. For example, even for composite materials, things that you remember later can be added as you want, making it a pleasure to use."

Color Design for Tekkonkinkreet		Creating Colors on XSI

"Japan has some wonderful artists"

People who have seen both the pilot and the movie often have a question. In the pilot Mike used 3D CG, but in the movie he used drawings. I asked him why.

"We did consider creating the characters in 3D. But if we had done so, we felt that we wouldn't have been able to fully express the personalities of the two main characters. Not only that, but also Japan has some wonderful artists. In fact, this level of talent is only present in Japan." So when making the film, drawings seemed like the right option. "But if we had made the film in the States, it might have been a different story."

"We wanted to capture the confusion and activity of an Asian city in the movie. So in each frame, it was important to insert as much information as possible." He continued to say that since there were artists available who could draw all that he needed in one frame, it never occurred to him to create the pictures in 3D.

Forming a 3-Dimensional City with Camera Mapping

1. Layout in 3D
   
   
   
   
2. The output image is drawn over by hand by the Art Director
   
   
   
   
3. Affixed onto the 3D layout (camera mapping)
   
   

People who have seen the movie will understand, but the first thing that strikes the viewer is the beauty of the images. Even more than the colors that are used, the finely textured portrayal of even the most detailed areas make it a worthy and faithful adaptation of the original work. In the original manga we could only visually appreciate the Tekkon world, but by watching the movie we can now see it in brilliant colors, and the images move together with sound. It is a film that is bound to leave an impression. The world that unfolds before your eyes is unfamiliar, yet somehow makes you feel at home in an indefinable way.

A project that started out as an idea in one man's head grew to encompass many talented artists, and ended up enthralling not only Japan, but the whole world. Anyone who watches the film will immediately feel the passion that Mike Arias has for Tekkon.

At the end of the interview, I was struck by a certain sadness in Mike now that he was moving on from Tekkon. It must be like saying goodbye to a comrade with whom you have lived and fought for ten long years. Mike's passion for Tekkon will never truly fade, and viewers who watch the movie will be rewarded with a little of that passion.

Technology Used for Tekkonkinkreet

Managing Objects, etc. with NetView

Introduction of the Opening Scene Background: City Created with Projection Mapping

View Movie		View Screen Capture 1 View Screen Capture 2

Scene of Crows Created with XSI Particle: A Large Flock of Birds Created with Particle

View Movie		View Screen Capture

Creation of Images for Motion Blur with XSI

		This Flash animation introduces 2D motion blur. To reduce the CPU costs of motion blur, a render tree was created to change the colors of locations with a large amount of motion changes. Based on this information, motion blur was added using 2D software. View Movie

Flash Video of a Gangster Character Created with XSI

		This Flash animation shows the shading and rendering of a gangster character using the XSI Toon Shaders. View Screen Capture

Particle Presets Used in Tekkonkinkreet

The Zip file linked below contains particle scenes* created by the director himself that were actually used in the Tekkonkinkreet movie. Please feel free to test them out**.

• Particle_Preset.zip

*Scenes created using SOFTIMAGE|XSI 5.1
**To load a scene, drag & drop it into an XSI viewport

Visit the Studio 4°C website
Visit the official Tekkonkinkreet website

You can also read this story in Japanese on the Softimage Japan website.

(C) 2006 Taiyo Matsumoto, Shogakukan, Aniplex, Asmik Ace, Beyond C, Dentsu, Tokyo MX