Forum - View topicINTEREST: Colored Pencils Popular Among Animators Get Discontinued
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5825 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Well, the demand for these pencils must be going down. If they were profitable, they would probably have continued them. Then again, it could be a corporate decision to get out of this business.
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OjaruFan2
Posts: 661 |
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Are they referring to genga, or douga? |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Reminds me of that obscure brand of blackboard chalk that mathematicians were obsessed with. The company making it went out of business, and some of them started hoarding what little was left. Eventually another company started making a replica of it, though. Most likely there's alternatives to this, too, or there will be in the near future.
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njprogfan
 Collector Extraordinaire Posts: 1160 Location: A River Named Toms |
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Huh? Can someone tell me what's so special about these colored pencils? Do they use some kind of magic colored pigments? Do they glide on paper with a smoothness akin to paint on glass? Are there colors not found even in a Crayola box of 120? Inquiring minds want to know!!!
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MasterGhost
 Posts: 125 |
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Something that was reported by Japanese media but not ANN for some reason: It's not because demand is falling, but Mitsubishi is unable to secure enough raw materials for the colored pencils other than red. |
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Scion Drake
Posts: 941 |
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Awww thats sad.
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Lynx Raven Raide
 Posts: 412 Location: Central Coast, AU |
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I do think it comes down to the hues and probably the quality too. These ones probably became kind of an unofficial standard given the amount of colour variants on offer and to keep consistency across projects. To the average person we may not know the difference between, say, a Faber Castell set and a Mitsubishi set, but artists who use them regularly would be able to spot glaring differences |
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ranran-001
Posts: 537 |
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The production process of cel animation involves drawing out on paper the line art of the subject being animated. If you can find production sketches of anime, they usually use multiple colors to draw the line art so that it is easier for the colorist to fill in the spaces with the right colors either on the cell or in the computer. |
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hergen
Posts: 8 |
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If that's the problem, then why they don't just increase the price in order to bring down the demand up to a point they can handle? It the supplies are limited, then it just has to become a luxury item... |
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AkumaChef
Posts: 821 |
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You beat me to it, that's exactly what came to mind when I read this article. Fulltouch Chalk. If I remember right the new company who restarted making the chalk was able to purchase the recipe and the machinery from the original producer so it is theoretically the exact same chalk as was originally made. Perhaps something like that could happen with these colored pencils if they are really so popular amongst animators. |
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ranran-001
Posts: 537 |
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Increasing the price to bring down demand? Its rarely that simple. |
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AkumaChef
Posts: 821 |
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In the context of economics "demand" doesn't refer to people who "want that product", it refers to the number of customers who are willing and able to pay the asking price. For example, I might "want" a Ferrari but unless I have the cash to buy one and plunk it down at the dealership my desire to own one does not constitute "demand" in an economic sense. They certainly could reduce demand for their pencils by hiking the price up enough that some people either could not afford them period or would choose to buy something else instead.
That said it might not be worth the hassle. I have no idea how many of those colored pencils they sell but it might be such a small slice of their overall business that it's just not worth devoting time and money to keep them on the market. |
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jdnation
Posts: 1998 |
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That's not how this works... Especially when your main market is not the kind that can afford or seek after 'luxury.' Especially when there are competitors. There's likely many more complications behind the scenes. But essentially, while this was a preferred brand, it's not like animators can't work with another set. It's likely that their sales fell primarily because they were becoming scarce and their customers simply moved on to a different product. Anime needs to be made every week and they aren't going to wait until you sort out your supply side. |
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Nilrem
 Posts: 142 |
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As Lyn Raven says the colour/tone/quality/feel of them may be better and more consistent than other brands. For example the exact recipe of the wax used in the pencil can make a big difference to how well they work both in how they transfer to the paper/cell or how reliable they are to sharpen/how quickly they wear down or how likely they are to break (why for example some brands of black pencil are much better than others even if they're meant to be the same hardness). As someone who only uses pencils for drawing sketches for hobby work/DIY, marking up materials or even just making notes on paper I've long since learned to buy a specific brand for general use (and use a specific type of sharpener*), and another specific brand for say marking wood because other pencils often arrive with broken leads or simply don't sharpen. The same is true and worse for coloured pencils where the "lead" is usually softer. When it comes to colours there are millions of variations and it can be almost impossible to get a consistent match between some even within the same brand over time, let alone across brands**. I do model making and even when I can find a near exact match of colour/tone across two brands (which can require a lot of experimentation), how it handles and applies can be very different, for example one brand might work cover well out of the bottle another might need to be applied much more thinly with multiple coats to get the same colour and look smooth. I've currently got about 12 pots of paint from 7 manufacturers as i've been trying to find a specific shade that I used ~15 years ago for some models and it was discontinued, all the pots are meant to be the same colour, but none are quite the same and react the same way on the undercoat I use. *I've got a metal sharpener in the garage that I stumbled on about 25 years ago that has the angle just right and seems to be able to get a point reliably - i've bought dozens since, including a number that look similar but none work as well so I've generally kept this one safe (I've managed to replace the blade a few times without affecting it). And yes, I know I'm weird:p but for some reason I find the combination of this sharpener and brand of pencil results in a proper point quickly and easily. **I've got friends who have basically got everyone in their gaming groups looking for pots of paint that were 10-15 years OOP as they had done their entire army in that colour (and were very relieved when years later they managed to find a near enough match). |
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