Interview with two CG animators who made flash animation of "Song of Dawn Telling Rou"

On May 19th (Friday) 2017 the movie "Ru no Uta to tell the dawn" was released. This work was produced by Masaaki Yuasa, director of Yuasa Masaaki, who sent out "Tatami Half Mythology Collegiate", "Short Walking Otome at Night", "Kemono Zume" etc. It was also the first work I made for theaters original animation,Imagery with dynamic feeling & dynamic feeling "This is animation"You can enjoy.

Another point of "The song of Ru says to dawn" is that the full story is a flash animation movie produced with the Adobe Flash standard. In making this work,Science SARUThe boasting Flash animator,Abel · GongolaWithHoang Manuel LagunaSince he said that he played a big role, I have heard various stories.

Movie "Song of Dawn Ru no Uta" Official Site
http://lunouta.com/

GIGAZINE (hereinafter, G):
What kind of work did you do in the production of "Song of Dawn Ru no Uta"?

Hoang Manuel Laguna (Hoangama):
As the chief of flash animation, we did the actual work of animation with flash, or checked the cut which came up from the team. There were also difficult cuts inside, so the two parties were mainly responsible for those parts. In addition to that, I did a training surface that teaches various things to flash animators who work together at Science SARU.

Mr. Abel · Gongola (hereinafter abel):
Two people divided the members into two groups and worked.

Huang Manuel Laguna on the left and Abel Gongola on the right.


G:
How many people were in each group?

Hoangama:
At first I started with 3 to 4 people, but when it was the most frequent, it increased to 8 with only flash animation team.

Mr. Hoanga and Laguna who lead the team


G:
Why did you choose Flash as a tool to make animation?

Abel:
That's because we started using animation "Because everyone was using the flash". When everyone got out of the hand-drawn animation, I decided to discard the paper and move to digital, but it was the flash which was chosen a lot there.

Hoangama:
When I thought about doing animator work in Europe, there was no hand-drawn animation anymore, so there are circumstances that I had to use flash only. That means "There was no use" (laugh)

G:
Is there anything you think the flash is better than hand-drawn in making animation?

Abel:
First of all, it is "speed". You can do it faster than hand-drawn work, and you can work easily even when you need to fix it. The work flow is fast. There are places where it is easier to control the cut because it is possible to paint the clinks and coloring on the spot.

Hoangama:
For example, it is unnatural if the size of the character 's head has changed by movement. Therefore, animation needs to move while keeping the size. This is a basic thing, but it is a difficult place to protect. However, there are things that it is easy to do if it is a flash.


G:
Do you have any disadvantages or disadvantages?

Hoangama:
Well ... I hope I do not want to add extra 3D functions etc in software in the future. The balance now is just right to use with 2D. Although there are parts that feel shadowing, etc., there are parts that feel personally difficult to do, but as various functions are added, the operation becomes heavy, so please do not leave as it is.

Abel:
Disadvantage……. Well, what is it? (Lol)

G:
There was a story that two people taught technology to other team members earlier, but which part is difficult to teach flash?

Abel:
We need to be familiar with computer animation skills, and we need to have animation skills, but since we can not do both well from the beginning, it is hard to tell you about it . Many people say "PC touches but experience of animation is not much". However, contrary to this, "If you have an animation skill but suffer from PC operation", it may be painful as a flash animator.


G:
Is there something you tried to do something new in "Dawn Telling Rou no Uta"?

Abel:
Even in my previous work, I have incorporated new things little by little, so there are parts that have changed in detail in this work as well. For example, working more carefully as softness is conveyed when drawing curves than in previous works, or being careful about processing water. By the way, there is an instruction from the director that I wanted to thin the line, "I want to draw beautifully", so I made it thinner. Looking back on this way, I am doing something new, but when I was working I did not notice (lol)

G:
Did not you get hard to pick up as the line becomes thinner?

Hoangama:
It is a good thing to be able to challenge difficult things, and that is fun. Because I feel that I am contributing to the work as well.

G:
Is there a scene that I felt difficult this time?

Abel:
This is the scene. (It points to one of the images published in the pamphlet, the scene where the water is floating in the middle of the lower page of the right page in the scene photo list of the next page of the cast)

Hoangama:
Drawing water is difficult only with it, but here it is even harder for water to turn like a cube and spin round. It's hard to see the other side through because it is cube-shaped (lol)

Abel:
The rest is fire. Flame can not be done automatically, so I have to draw one at a time, so I drew one at a time like hand-drawn animation.


Hoangama:
There is a feeling that the scene where the fish bones walking, which is on the upper left of the previous page, is also impressive. Each fish itself is made with Copipe, and after making one bone itself it was Copy.

G:
Thanks to that, there were many parts that feel the taste like hand-drawn animation.

Hoangama:
These tastes have been completed over time, trial and error.

G:
What was the encounter between you and Yuasa's director's work?

Abel:
I saw "Kemono nume" at the time of university. It animation is nice, representation is not significantly different from other anime artistic, was shocked and "such anime'm there." I received the impression that unique work.

Hoangama:
There are certainly artistic places. I was also shocked by "Kemono nume". It is completely different from the other works I've seen.

G:
What is the sense of working with Mr. Yuasa?

Hoangama:
I have been working with Yuasa for about 4 years, but since that was a Yuasa fan, I am planning to understand "Yuasa directed film" from other people. Thanks to that, there is not much that the instructions are hard to understand. Director Yuasa is a very open-minded person and has a flexible way of thinking. Surely, I think that there are times when it is not as expected as expected, but the director says "It is nice."

Abel:
I think that there may be times when it is not something that I did not get what I wanted without first being able to grasp the production intention, but it was almost OK and there was no problem. I think that it is because you can understand that Yuasa wants such things at the first retake.


G:
Is it feeling that Mr. Yuasa's ability to understand more and more as I work more and more.

Hoangama:
I think there is. Working with Director Yuasa, I first worked as "Adventure Time". Among them, there was a cut that the child runs to the slide, but there was a case that it did not become what you asked even if you retake it many times. At that time, I saw what Yuasa put in Atari at the picture and thought "This can not be drawn to me" (lol)

G:
Is there a place where the scenes that made me feel comfortable as animation this time is here?

Hoangama:
First is the scene of encounter between Ru and Kai. I think that the place to know each other's name is well-matched. Animation that Ru goes out and enters the water is also good.

Abel:
I thought that the same scene would be nice. As Rou enters the room with water, everything in the room sinks into the water, and it seems that the book floats in it, even if you look at it yourself I will.

Hoangama:
I think that scenes where Ru and Kai are dating on a swing also made a beautiful animation.

Abel:
In the latter half, the water is green when the water has been flowing into the town at night. When I was making it I put in my favorite color as Atari, but when I saw what I had finished with the color decided, "It's not going to be so beautiful!"

G:
In this work, singing scenes, dance scenes come out several times. This was a movement that it would be serious if hand-drawn, but how about flash?

Hoangama:
No, no difficult thing with flash is difficult (lol) Although there is a part that it is easier to compare with hand drawing, flash is never a magical tool (lol)

Abel:
Likewise, as an impression he did it was "very difficult" (laugh)


G:
It was released to the theater from May 19th (Friday), but please tell us the impression when you saw the completed work for the first time.

Hoangama:
It sounded like I could have created my own baby. Even if it says that everyone is a buzz, it seems to me the most cute child in the world.

Abel:
Likewise (lol) Actually, when I looked at the preliminary preview, there was a part that I could not enjoy because there were many regrets that only "mistakes, I could not have done here" or mistakes appeared on my eyes. But after seeing the time again, I am honored that I was involved in such a work.

G:
I see, thank you for today.