Akira Pictures; Glorying 2D Animation

Wuxi Akira Pictures is an animation production company in Jiangsu Province. The company has always insisted on 2D animation production since establishment, from traditional hand-painted to paperless animation, and established a solid cooperative relationship with overseas customers. In the years when 3D animation is popular, why does Akira Pictures still insist on 2D animation? Today we will come to know what Akira Pictures is.

CGGE: Hello! I am very happy to interview Akira Pictures today and listen to the story about its story. Can you briefly introduce your company first?

Akira Picturess: Our company is called Wuxi Akira Picturess, located at the foot of Huishan, Wuxi. At present, the company has a production team of more than 50 people, the main business covers the whole process of traditional hand-painted and paperless animation. The artists with extensive experiences from ten to twenty years, have long been committed to the study and research in animation. The team has worked closely with Japan for a long time. It can complete TV series, OVA, theatrical version and other different quality and different requirements. works.

CGGE: Why do you always stick to 2D animation? After the emergence of 3D animation, especially the works of overseas famous animation companies such as Disney, DreamWorks, Nicklodeon, etc. have entered the Chinese market, 3D animation production become more and more popular, and now a large number of animation products are also produced by computer CG. Then, for what reason that Akira Pictures stick to 2D animation?

Akira Pictures: On the one hand, Mr. Zhong Rong, the company’s partner, has experience in working in Japan. He is familiar with Japanese two-dimensional animation and has the rich customer resources. Mr. Zhang is also a senior artist who has been working for 20 years in the industry. On the other hand, this form of two-dimensional expression has been enduring in Asia, and in recent years, with the rise of spending power for those consumers born in 1990’s and 2000’s, this market has expanded in China.

Since the release of “Toy Story” in 1995, 3D animation has become more and more popular in the market. The rise and rapid development of computer CG technology has made 3D production a mainstream trend for film and television. Although we mainly focus on 2D animation, we have not given up the business of 3D production. Since 2D and 3D production are very different no matter in technology or talents, we have set up a separate 3D studio, Dimension Studios, to produce a different kind of production as well as talent reserve.

CGGE: With the rise of the national cartoon in recent years, 2D animation seems to be popular again. This should be a good phenomenon for the diversification of the market. What do you think about the re-emergence of 2D animation? Is it a temporary boom, or will it develop better with wider market?

Akira Pictures: As what you described, domestic 2D animation has begun to emerge in recent years. I don’t think it’s a temporary boom. The main reason is about the market. Young people in the country are more self-sufficient and tend to accept this form of expression; like COSPLAY are more and more popular within young people. As far as I know, more capital has already been went out to overseas. Chinese companies have either acquired or set up new companies overseas to gather Japanese talents for serving the pre-production of Chinese animation. As we can find in recent year, more and more domestic companies have begun to cooperate with us.

CGGE: For the current 2D animation team in China, what are your plans for future development? For a long time, you have also maintained close cooperation with Japanese customers; then, for the European and American markets, do you also want to go to those markets? As far as we know, 2D still has a certain market in Europe and America?

Akira Pictures: For the future, we are gradually cultivating new people to use paperless animation and expand the production capacity. The cost of production has always been the biggest problem in the production in the middle and late stages ; which are the key to life and death. In addition, the demand for artists of the preproduction are what we expected these years. We are cooperating with Japanese companies to jointly cultivate talents . We are exploring in the European and American markets at the same time, but the style and the software used are different from those in Japan. We need time to adapt to it.

CGGE: Jiangsu is a big province of animation production. Many animation companies have opened companies in Jiangsu, such as Original Force. In places where many production companies gather, the core competition is in the competition of talents. So what is your standard in talent selection?

Akira Pictures: Wuxi has always been a gathering place for two-dimensional talents. But the problem is there are not enough talents. The older employees prefer to use hand-painted methods while young people are less inclined to hand-paint. We are now closely with the universities and colleges to train the talents.  Also we will select the artists from the market. Responsibility and love are valued in this industry. Compared with other industries, the animation industry has a certain threshold. As a newcomer, the income of the first one or two years will not be very high, so it is necessary to have the patience to insist.

CGGE: Can you tell us what projects are you currently working on? Are there any plans to develop your own original project? Can you share with you some of the original ideas about animation?

Akira Pictures: The ongoing project has the third season of Attack On Titan, Makoto Shinkai’s “Tenkinoko Weathering with You“, etc… We have involved a dozen projects involved in one year. To produce the original animation is the what we animators most desirable. I, personally, wants to do own animation projects that’s also why I entered this industry. Currently, We are doing some short videos and promote it in wechat public account. It’s not easy. One reason is because of the investment. We cannot make any mistakes and should be very cautious. last year , many companies that made original animations were not very profitable. What makes profit is the new media company.  The realization of the boss’s personal ideal often determines the success or failure of a film. I personally think that a good animation needs a good product manager.

The short interview was soon over. Looking back at the current Chinese animation market, the market is more prosperous with rich contents and diversified subjects. With the fast development of Chinese cartoon animation 2D animation has become more and more popular. We hope that more excellent 2D companies like Akira Pictures will shine in the market.

Reporter:Sophia