The difficulty, manpower, and material requirements for producing 2D animation were far greater than those for producing 3D animation. Since the 'Yosuganosora' Animation Studio possessed MAYA, a 3D modeling software far ahead of its time, much of the production process for 3D animation could already be completed directly through the software itself.
The biggest difference between 2D and 3D animation was that every foundational frame composing the animation had to be drawn one by one by key animators. First, Kamiyā Yuu would conceptualize the basic shots, dialogue, scenes, and plot progression—commonly known as the storyboard. Afterwards, the key animators would refine the storyboard, adding details and drawing key frames. Then, the in-between animators would complete the animation work, including coloring and drawing the intermediary frames. Finally, the compositing department would handle special effects, adding scene lighting, motion effects, and so on.
During this process, other production procedures might also need to be inserted depending on production requirements. For example, when a scene required 3D effects for presentation, the workflow would need to be adjusted flexibly. Every single step of these production processes required experienced animation professionals to execute and inspect them. Thus, manpower was the greatest weakness in producing 2D animation.
Most of the animation personnel recently recruited by the 'Yosuganosora' Animation Studio were industry veterans, but a company was not a machine, and employees were not interchangeable parts. It was not as simple as assigning everyone their tasks and expecting an anime production to be completed smoothly.
At the beginning of producing 'Magical Girl Nanoha,' the shortcomings of the 'Yosuganosora Animation Studio's lack of experience and rapid leapfrog-style expansion were fully exposed. If the company were compared to a clock, then its members were irregularly shaped gears. The fact that the clock could even function while forcefully assembled was already nothing short of a miracle.
Kamiyā Yuu's demanding quality standards for 'Magical Girl Nanoha,' his unfamiliarity with the company's professional animation software, and his inability to accurately judge the capabilities of newly hired staff all became major reasons for the clock's rough operation. As the company president and initiator of the project, Kamiyā Yuu had no choice but to take on the role of an all-purpose fixer, constantly solving the problems that arose during production across every department.
In comparison, some outsourced work was actually less troublesome. The outsourcing companies Morishita Aoi commissioned were all relatively well-known within the industry, so there was no need to worry about quality issues.
From key animation, animation, music, effects, to cinematography, Kamiyā Yuu was overwhelmed handling affairs from every department. Even when going to the bathroom, he was hurriedly thinking about work-related matters. At night, once he entered the consciousness space, all of his time was spent studying and solving the problems he encountered during the day. Thanks to this level of workload, Kamiyā Yuu's experience and ability as an animation director improved at an astonishing rate, and he gained a much deeper understanding of the overall framework of animation production.
In less than two weeks, the majority of the staff at the 'Yosuganosora' Animation Studio underwent a complete reversal in their opinions of Kamiyā Yuu.
Some employees initially believed that someone so young becoming the company president was only due to being a rich second-generation heir. Others thought that the success of 'RWBY' was entirely dependent on the efforts of the other staff members. More or less, they all harbored doubts regarding the animation directing abilities of this young man who had been excessively praised by overseas media. After all, Kamiyā Yuu's age and industry experience in Japan were obvious facts.
But his performance over the past two weeks completely overturned their opinions. Some staff members even gave him titles such as "All-Purpose President" and "Universal Director."
Kamiyā Yuu personally handled key animation direction, pointed out areas needing improvement, and proposed perfect solutions for difficult special effects scenes. Many problems that experienced animation staff could not solve were easily handled by him. His various performances even caused some employees to nearly forget that his identity was that of "company president" and "chief animation director." Whenever problems arose, they would simply bypass their department supervisors and bring the issues directly to Kamiyā Yuu.
Naturally, Kamiyā Yuu did not accept every request indiscriminately. Instead, he distributed the work according to the overall situation of each department. If a department supervisor truly lacked the time to deal with certain issues, he would gladly agree to help.
Hard work paid off. Under Kamiyā Yuu's coordination, after nearly half a month of adjustment, the 'Yosuganosora' Animation Studio gradually made fewer and fewer mistakes during production and finally, albeit barely, entered the proper rhythm of anime production.
Another thing that allowed Kamiyā Yuu to breathe a slight sigh of relief was that Robert had finally returned once more to the small island nation of Japan, personally delivering the revenue share from the 'RWBY' animated film to Kamiyā Yuu.
After deducting all the messy taxes, the 'RWBY' animated film brought the 'Yosuganosora' Animation Studio a net profit of thirty million US dollars, greatly easing the company's internal financial pressure.
Thirty million freely disposable dollars were enough to support the 'Yosuganosora' Animation Studio's extravagant spending for quite some time. In his previous world, the famous high-budget anime 'Ghost in the Shell' had only cost around forty million RMB for both seasons combined. Even without considering future profits from 'RWBY,' merely having thirty million dollars in available funds was enough for Kamiyā Yuu to produce six or seven high-budget 2D anime series.
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At the 'Yosuganosora' Animation Studio, a temporary production meeting was convened.
Sitting in his chair, Kamiyā Yuu rolled his sore shoulders and said helplessly, "I almost forgot how exhausting anime production could be."
"The fact that the completion schedule for the project ended up ahead of Miss Morishita's expectations is entirely due to Mr. Kamiyā's efforts. As your subordinate, I feel rather ashamed." Kumamoto Alice elegantly held an English teacup and took a sip of black tea as she spoke modestly.
Combined with her simple white formal dress and the plainly decorated office setting, she appeared completely out of place. She seemed more suited to being the shining centerpiece of a banquet.
Over this month, she has displayed abilities fully matching her strong confidence. Despite it being her first time involved in animation production, her performance in art direction and special effects was astonishing. She possessed her own set of animation art theories, and the resulting quality was far superior to Kamiyā Yuu's half-professional expertise.
"Thanks for the compliment." Kamiyā Yuu had already grown accustomed to her overly polite Japanese manner of speech and responded somewhat awkwardly.
Lying sprawled across the conference table, Yūki Chinatsu slowly turned her eyes toward Kamiyā Yuu and lazily said in a weak yet strangely emotional tone, "Ooh~ I've actually been pretty idle lately~ It's gotten to the point where I can snack and watch movies while working."
The 3D department was currently the company's most complete and well-established system. Furthermore, compared to a fully 3D anime, 'Magical Girl Nanoha' required very little 3D animation work. As a result, the 3D department had been living a carefree life.
"That isn't exactly something worth being proud of." Uehara Etsuki lightly tapped Yūki Chinatsu's forehead with a smile.
Yūki Chinatsu glared at Kamiyā Yuu unhappily and said, "But... It's because Yuu never gives me any work! This is completely~ completely different from what we agreed on! Yuu, you're totally unqualified as a company president. You don't know how to make proper use of your employees at all. Give me stricter demands! Anything is fine!"
Kamiyā Yuu forced a smile. "Chinatsu, isn't the current situation pretty good already?"
"Not good at all!" Yūki Chinatsu huffed stubbornly and turned her head away.
"Kamiyā-kun, sorry that I can't help you more." After scolding Yūki Chinatsu, Uehara Etsuki turned to Kamiyā Yuu and sighed softly.
She had already taken on most of the work from both the key animation and animation departments, but compared to Kamiyā Yuu's workload, it was still not especially heavy.
Standing behind Kamiyā Yuu, Morishita Aoi placed a document in front of him and calmly reported, "The music and voice recording work handled by Mr. Shindō has already been completed. Tomorrow, we can begin V-editing for the first episode. We're significantly ahead of schedule compared to expectations. How about appropriately relaxing the production schedule over the next half month?"
"Ooh~ how rare. I never expected Miss Morishita to say something like that. As expected, you simply don't want to continue increasing Mr. Kamiyā's burden." Kumamoto Alice revealed a gentle smile as she glanced toward Morishita Aoi, her tone somewhat ambiguous.
Kamiyā Yuu wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he felt that there seemed to be some indescribable tension between this mixed-blood princess and Morishita Aoi.
Morishita Aoi slightly furrowed her brows and calmly replied, "This is merely the optimal solution I envisioned based on the current situation."
"Is that so? Then I agree as well. We can't continue watching Mr. Kamiyā, the company's CEO, shoulder all the pressure alone. This situation practically announces how incompetent I am as a subordinate." Kumamoto Alice gave Kamiyā Yuu a reserved nod and smile.
Ever since joining the company, she had consistently treated Kamiyā Yuu with respect.
"The company truly does need an adjustment period." Uehara Etsuki nodded. Having experience managing a company herself, she could immediately see the current difficulties facing the 'Yosuganosora' Animation Studio.
Yūki Chinatsu puffed out her cheeks unhappily. "You clearly could've given more work to me~!"
Hearing their concerned words warmed Kamiyā Yuu's heart, as though the exhaustion accumulated in his mind over this period had been completely swept away.
He smiled, stood up, and stretched lazily. "Then it's settled. For the next little while, I'll properly slack off for a bit."