Finding the name of the person who animated a genga set?

[Ichigos]

For anime gengas.. Is this possible to do? Or is it a long shot to find out exactly who the animator was? I'm specifically thinking of Toei Animation. (DBZ & Sailor Moon)

[cutiebunny]

Well, I wouldn't say it's impossible, but difficult to do.

At least with Sailor Moon, a couple of the lead animators got together and released some doujinshi books that highlight the actual sequences they worked on, often with smaller versions of the genga and douga.

You can find more information on them and the scans here - http://three-lights.net/blog/?p=804

[sensei]

Sometimes the timing sheets have a place for the gengaman (the Japanese term, like "ombudsman" it is not gender-specific) to initial or stamp his/her hanko or signature seal. Also the cut bags. I do have some of these for Toei's Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, so I know this studio followed this practice. They are not easy to read (I recognize 2-3 hankos total) but they would give you clues that you could follow.

[JWR]

It may well be impossible to determine who drew what but in some cases with some of the sketches I have from shows by J.C.Staff (in this case Ai Yori Aoshi) The mark in the left upper corner of this sketch I have been told is a mark from the director that means "I will take drawing this important scene"
http://ryan.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_ ... mID=264774

[sensei]

I believe this mark reads "shuusei no shuusei," which is literally "correction of the correction." The "rough" (first animation sketch past the layout) is normally done by the episode animation director, and some studios call it the "layout correction." Then sometimes (and J.C. Staff was prone to doing this) this sketch went to the senior animation director for the series, who sometimes did a "shuusei no shuusei," usually partial but for important scenes (or stupid-looking roughs) sometimes complete. These can be really extraordinary and the artist tentatively identified thanks to Anime News Network. (JWR's sketch looks likely to be by Yumi Nakayama, AYA's chief AD, but it would take comparing other sketches from other episodes and ideally other series to confirm this.)

Sadly, it doesn't help with the genga artist, which was done following the rough/shuusei no shuusei by one of a gang of key animators that were assigned various cuts throughout the episode. That probably would take inside knowledge or identification of a hanko/initial from a timing sheet.

[JWR]

I believe this mark reads "shuusei no shuusei," which is literally "correction of the correction." The "rough" (first animation sketch past the layout) is normally done by the episode animation director, and some studios call it the "layout correction." Then sometimes (and J.C. Staff was prone to doing this) this sketch went to the senior animation director for the series, who sometimes did a "shuusei no shuusei," usually partial but for important scenes (or stupid-looking roughs) sometimes complete. These can be really extraordinary and the artist tentatively identified thanks to Anime News Network. (JWR's sketch looks likely to be by Yumi Nakayama, AYA's chief AD, but it would take comparing other sketches from other episodes and ideally other series to confirm this.)

Sadly, it doesn't help with the genga artist, which was done following the rough/shuusei no shuusei by one of a gang of key animators that were assigned various cuts throughout the episode. That probably would take inside knowledge or identification of a hanko/initial from a timing sheet.

What seems to be a pattern at least for the show in question (Ai Yori Aoshi) since I have many scenes that are like this and in going thru the complete scene cut (an advantage with a lot of cg shows is that the complete cut folder with all sketches,genga,corrections & douga) and for all I own that have the Shuusei ne Shuusei marking, it looks like those are the 1st and only sketch of the scene. The genga matches the sketch so unless they are in the habit of tossing out the 1st genga (that needed the directors correction) it at least seems to me the director just went ahead and put an important scene to paper as the starting point. I have many others that have rough pencels that are then made finer before a genga is created but these with the Shuusei no Shuusei mark do not have those in the cut envelope.