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NEWS: U.K. Publishing Platform Funds Release of Hardcover Book About Anime Architecture




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dm
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Joined: 24 Sep 2010
Posts: 1346
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 8:25 am Reply with quote
I hope they include works by SHAFT. There are obviously some fantasy-architects among their background artists in series like Madoka, Bakemonogatari, and Nisekoi.
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LightningCount



Joined: 04 Mar 2018
Posts: 228
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:05 pm Reply with quote
This is an amazing idea for a book! Surprised it didn't happen sooner. I'm going to wait for the general release version, though.
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russ869



Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 422
PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 2020 8:57 am Reply with quote
So basically sounds like mostly background out by Hiromasa Ogura. He already has artbooks published out there, you know...
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Cutiebunny



Joined: 18 Apr 2010
Posts: 1746
PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2020 10:43 pm Reply with quote
I had no idea that anyone had any interest in anime backgrounds, or at least, not as far as being displayed in a museum as an actual exhibit. I have a couple hundred of them from mostly Madhouse series from a couple of series. Makes me think that I could put on an equally impressive background exhibit display, though I don't think most American museums are interested in that yet. The SF Asian Art Museum has had only 1 anime exhibit in the last 15 or so years. It's nice to see that Europe is more progressive in that aspect - It gives me hope that eventually America might follow suit.

I visited the book's website and was sad to see that most of the artwork, particularly the timing layouts sheets, were all copies. That is unfortunate, but I've noticed that with backgrounds from the late 2000s/early 2010s that this is what was attached with the original backgrounds. The backgrounds from earlier Madhouse series often were paired with the original timing sheets. I realize that the ones in the exhibit were done by Production IG, but it seems like the procedures between studios are similar in this case.
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reanimator





PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 8:29 pm Reply with quote
LightningCount wrote:
This is an amazing idea for a book! Surprised it didn't happen sooner. I'm going to wait for the general release version, though.


The idea is not that amazing since Japanese publishers has been publishing various Anime BG books for 20+ years under various Art Director's name. Amazon Japan has tons of them listed.

russ869 wrote:
So basically sounds like mostly background out by Hiromasa Ogura. He already has artbooks published out there, you know...


True, but most fans don't know about it and most western publishers are not going to publish Anime BG art book unless it's a part of their XYZ title's marketing strategy. Even this Anime Architecture book finally got published after almost 10 year years of public exhibitions in Europe.

Cutiebunny wrote:
Makes me think that I could put on an equally impressive background exhibit display, though I don't think most American museums are interested in that yet. The SF Asian Art Museum has had only 1 anime exhibit in the last 15 or so years.


You can convince certain private galleries to display your collection, but it's hard to put impressive display unless you know your stuff inside and out. Cartoon Art Museum in SF did a private collector's Anime cel with BG and key frame art exhibit in 2010. I got so disappointed because with they just displayed collection of random popular anime cels and drawings and they put bare minimum effort on display tags of each art pieces. For example, Gundam Victory cel is simply labeled as "Gundam" with no interesting insight or description. The exhibition was called "Drawing the Sword: Samurai in Manga and Anime", which sounded like some exotic Oriental arts & craft treatment rather than bona fide animation art as the same vein as Disney 2D. They couldn't add anything worth noting to whole display because owner of the collection didn't have enough knowledge on minor technical details or artist(s) behind his collection (I asked the museum staff about it). Obviously he's busy collecting "pretty" pictures, but not enough effort to make his collections so special. So visitors saw the "pretty" pictures, but they didn't learn what makes those collection interesting.

Not all BG painting are equal and there is a difference between "Master" BG painting versus "Subordinate" BG paintings. Ogura's painting is "Master" version where junior BG painters reference his paintings for color, texture, and mood to create "Sub" BG paintings. Plus "master" painting stands out on its own even without character or foreground object on it.

Quote:
It's nice to see that Europe is more progressive in that aspect - It gives me hope that eventually America might follow suit.


Let's hope so. Progressive or not, it still took them 10 years of exhibition tour in Europe just to create that awareness. thus the eventual publication of the art book.

Quote:
I visited the book's website and was sad to see that most of the artwork, particularly the timing layouts sheets, were all copies. That is unfortunate, but I've noticed that with backgrounds from the late 2000s/early 2010s that this is what was attached with the original backgrounds.


Are we looking at the same https://anime-architecture.org? How can you tell that layout sheet you saw are copies from web splash page? Or did you actually saw the exhibition in Germany?
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Cutiebunny



Joined: 18 Apr 2010
Posts: 1746
PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:33 pm Reply with quote
reanimator wrote:
Cartoon Art Museum in SF did a private collector's Anime cel with BG and key frame art exhibit in 2010. I got so disappointed because with they just displayed collection of random popular anime cels and drawings and they put bare minimum effort on display tags of each art pieces. For example, Gundam Victory cel is simply labeled as "Gundam" with no interesting insight or description. The exhibition was called "Drawing the Sword: Samurai in Manga and Anime", which sounded like some exotic Oriental arts & craft treatment rather than bona fide animation art as the same vein as Disney 2D. They couldn't add anything worth noting to whole display because owner of the collection didn't have enough knowledge on minor technical details or artist(s) behind his collection (I asked the museum staff about it). Obviously he's busy collecting "pretty" pictures, but not enough effort to make his collections so special. So visitors saw the "pretty" pictures, but they didn't learn what makes those collection interesting.


TBH, I'm not sure where I would start. Obviously, certain series like Sailor Moon and Dragonball have more widespread appeal, but I'd hate to display random pretty animation cels and call that an exhibit. Unless I were a fan of that particular series, seeing that exhibit would be boring. I could focus on a particular artist or two, but yeah, if you're not a fan of their particular art style or their projects, I could also see that as being boring to view as well. If I were to put an exhibit together, I would prefer to have a mixture of artwork available, such as shikishi, hankens, backgrounds, douga, original settei and production cels. I could easily do that with just my collection alone.

I'm also not sure how much of it I'd want going overseas just due to the differences in laws involved and the specifics of displaying them. I've loaned cels out to some museums in Europe but even then, I have been rather reluctant to let the really good stuff go overseas.

Quote:
Not all BG painting are equal and there is a difference between "Master" BG painting versus "Subordinate" BG paintings. Ogura's painting is "Master" version where junior BG painters reference his paintings for color, texture, and mood to create "Sub" BG paintings. Plus "master" painting stands out on its own even without character or foreground object on it.


Right, and again, I wouldn't select something like 'random grass background #3' to display. I have several backgrounds that can easily stand on their own.

Quote:
Are we looking at the same https://anime-architecture.org? How can you tell that layout sheet you saw are copies from web splash page? Or did you actually saw the exhibition in Germany?


If you visit the exhibition portion of the website, there are a few more up close pictures of the items. Scroll down and you'll see one labeled as "Anime Architecture at House of Illustration" That one shows framed original backgrounds and copy layouts. Additionally, if you continue to click on the pictures, there's one labeled as "Anime Architecture at Tchoban Foundation" that features framed copies as well. The layout lines from original sheets are not that dark because they're drawn using pencils and colored pencils. The stamps often used on timing sheets and some layouts are usually in colored ink, not black.
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