News
Toei Plans US$55-Million Digital Revamp of Tokyo Studio
posted on by Gage
The Variety entertainment trade news source reports that the Toei production company will spend US$55 million (about 5 billion yen) to revamp its studio in the Nerima ward of Tokyo. The revamp will include the construction of a 51,161-square-foot, four-story location for digital post-production on both its live-action and animated works. Construction of a 21,251-square-foot sound stage is also planned. The company plans to complete the sound stage by November of next year, while the digital post-production center will be completed by May 2010.
Toei has been planning its studio upgrade for four years, while Toei's animation unit has been digitizing other elements of its production process for over a decade. In the 1990s, it began a slow transition from cel-painting and manual camera setup of animated frames to "painting" by computer and digital compositing. Toei Animation revealed in January that it is planning its first computer graphics project to augment its two existing lines of traditionally animated works: movie spinoffs from television series (such as the Precure movies) and original feature films (such as The Rose of Versailles remakes).
Thank you to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.
