Have you already seen it?
The Hobonichi Techo Day-Free has a cute flipbook comic featuring a ghost. dwarf, known for creating characters such as NHK's Domo-kun, made this flipbook and short video for us. The Hobonichi Techo team worked with them for the first time and felt their energy in enjoying everything they work on. We visited their filming studio in Tokyo to see how their cute and eye-catching characters are created.
- Hobonichi
- Good morning, thank you for having us today.
- Goda
- Welcome! We’re currently filming the short video featuring the Day-Free.
To the front is Goda, to the back-right is Hiramatsu who is in charge of creations, and to the back-left is Sugimoto who is in charge of editing.
- Hobonichi
- It’s so exciting to be able to see the behind-the-scenes of filming.
- Goda
- We're currently taking the section at the start of the video - the scene where the Day-Free opens. We'll flick through the cover and the first few pages until we hit the dotted-notebook pages. This section totals to 8 cuts.
- Hobonichi
- So you open the techo slightly and stop.... We can see how carefully you film, even though they end up being an instant.
- Goda
- Exactly. We actually need 12 cuts to make an animation of a second.
- Hobonichi
- It's so impressive how you've meticulously calculated the angle of how the techo is flipped through. I didn't think you would hang it by a string and film.
The stopmotion animation is filmed by slightly opening the techo and then stopping right after. When the 8 photographs are connected, it turns into an animation of when the techo is opened.
- Goda
- Here, I want it to seem that the techo is flipped through lightly. At the same time, I feel that this section shouldn’t take up too much film time, so I tested out a few times to see how many cuts are appropriate to spend for the techo to open.
- Hobonichi
- After testing it out, you found out that 8 cuts were the right amount. I’m assuming that If it's too smooth, it wouldn't be any different to filming the techo normally. I like how the techo seems "alive" when the techo moves around slightly.
- Goda
- It will always be interesting when something that isn't supposed to move, moves. What we do is to determine the right balance for the final product to look cute.
- Hobonichi
- It must be those small angles and timings that change the entire look. I must say though, since you dedicate so much time to create a single cut...
- Goda
- Yes, it means that we're only able to take 5 seconds worth of footage even if we work for a whole day.
- Hobonichi
- 5 seconds per day!
- Goda
- When a lot of characters make an appearance, there are times when we aren't able to take even a seconds worth of footage in a day… So, when we take a long piece of animation, we section the studio so that 10 groups can work simultaneously. If 10 groups work at the same time, we are able to take 50 seconds per day. (Laughs)
- Hobonichi
- My goodness.
The filming studios are on the first and second floor. The space can be sectioned freely using the black curtains.
- Hobonichi
- Did you hand-make this apparatus that’s used to flip the techo?
- Goda
- That's right. We tailored an equipment we already had so it's easy to flip through and film. We made sure that it wouldn’t show through the paper.
- Hobonichi
- It’s the first time I’ve seen an equipment made solely to flip through a techo. (Laughs)
Goda：
Next to the filming studio, we have an art room where we make some of the props. I’ll show you when we finish filming.
- Hobonichi
- We’d love to!
(To be continued tomorrow)
Goda kindly introduced us to the studio during the break
Domo-kun greets us at the entrance.
The wall is filled with artworks by animators and illustrators who are known worldwide. The piece in the middle is an illustration by Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, who created “The Dam Keeper”
There’s even a message from Aki Kondo!
The two-story office building. There are studio spaces on both the 1st and 2nd floor, and they change how they section the space depending on the scale of what they film.
All the filming schedules and locations are shared on this whiteboard.
This is the art room. They make their props by hand.
A desk in the art room. When creation animations, the prior preparations of creating and setting take more time than the actual filming itself.
Miniature snacks to use in animations.
Here are some yummy-looking rice crackers. They even had those that were half-eaten.
They even made the pictures that hang in the room of Mr. Usaji, who makes an appearance in Domo-kun! All the pictures are hand-drawn by Goda of course.
Space dedicated to deskwork. At dwarf, there are currently around 20 members, including animators, producers, and people in charge of creating, filming and scheduling.
Free space to hold meetings, eat lunch and work.
For some reason there was even a DJ booth at the end of the free space!
Here is their kitchen. During the filming period when a lot of staff gather around, they all gather here to eat together. It sounds like a lot of fun!
- Director, Character designer, Animator
- Tsuneo Goda
- Producer
- Noriko Matsumoto
- Text designer & Animatior
- Tomomi Komazaki
- Director of photography, Editor
- Kan Sugiki
- Music
- Masashi Iino
- Production manager
- Momo Hiramatsu