Episode 173 – Studio Spotlight: Production IG

The AAAPodcast begins a new series aptly titled “Studio Spotlights” in which an entire episode is dedicated to a single anime studio.  This week the studio we take a look at is Production IG, covered with their history, notable qualities, and staff.

Studio Spotlight requested by SoulRogue

This is like the Artist spotlight where the podcast episode will spotlight the works of the said anime company.

General, what is a studio?

From Wikipedia!

An animation studio is a company producing animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales or rentals of the media produced. They also own rights over merchandising and creative rights for characters created/held by the company, much like authors holding copyrights. In some early cases, they also held patent rights over methods of animation used in certain studios that were used for boosting productivity. Overall, they are business concerns and can function as such in legal terms.

Studio Spotlight: Production I.G.

Official Website: http://www.productionig.com/

Works List: http://www.productionig.com/contents/works/

Wiki Page! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_I.G

Notable Works:

Aria

Blood+

Eden of the East

FLCL (w/ GAINAX)

Ghost in the Shell SAC

Kimi ni Todoke

Love Hina

Moribito

Neon Genensis Evangelion (w/ GAINAX)

Princes of Tennis

xxxHolic

RECENT:

Mirai Nikki (RECENT)

Psycho-Pass (Recent)

Robotics:Notes

Suisei no Gargantia (Current)

Shinsei

guilty Crown (RECENT)

Kuroko no Basuke (RECENT) – Particularly relevant due to its popularity and the willingness to make bomb threats over it.

Notable Animation Techniques:

One of the forerunners for Digital Animation techniques in almost every area of the process.  Their start actually came from the Playstation game Ghose in the Shell when they did some of the cut animation sequences for the game.

Later, they would use these same techniques in Blood the Last Vampire in 2000, the animation still holds up fairly well today.

Some of these digital techniques include compositing, which allows the creators to edit layers in more advanced ways such as lighting effects.  These similar techniques were also used by Miyazaki in Princess Mononoke. It also allows for 3D models to be integrated more easily.

Another mastered technique is digital colorgrading.  Being able to control the colors of the cels, which in the days of hand-painted works was lost.  However, with technology multiple layers can be edited at once.

However, despite this, most of their processes still begin with hand-drawn concepts, no matter how much digital work is implemented in the final product.  Their style is one that is hyper-realistic, favoring more muted tones and natural facial structures with backgrounds that are equally gritty to match.

Mitsuhisa Ishikawa: The biggest thing which has changed with the move from analogue to digital is the fact that you can simply do more – create more products, make more movies and so on.  Obviously, which analogue animation everything you’ve made – all the things you’ve drawn and so on – are very limited; you make them once and then you’re back to zero and you have to start again.  But with digital technology, you can re-use a lot of the assets and the stuff you’ve made – you can adapt it, change it and use that to make more films and more different things.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons why Production I.G. make so many things, and so many differentthings these days – it’s the fact that you can use that backbone of digital technology, and that’s one of its real strengths.

Famous People Associated:

Mitsuhisa Ishikawa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuhisa_Ishikawa http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=467 – founder of Production IQ.  He was the producer for a huge number of anime put out by Production IG including the Ghost in the Shell films, the anime section of Kill Bill, Patlabor, and a number of other things dating back to even older anime such as Blue Seed.

Takayuki Goto – http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=5601

co-founder of Production IG.  Which Ishikawa does most of the production, Goto does a huge amount of CHARACTER DESIGN for the shows that PRoduction IG creates.  These shows include Hunter X Hunter, Ghost in the Shell SAC, Kimagure Orange Road, the older Eva movies, etc…

Fun Facts…

The “I.G” part of the company name refers to its founders, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Takayuki Goto. They frequently collaborate with Mamoru Oshii.

Production I.G has two subsidiary companies Xebec and Mag Garden. From 1997-2006 studio Bee Train was also a subsidiary.