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Animator Supporters Project's New Music Video Raises the Bar For Animation Wages

The Animator Supporters non-profit organization has produced a crowdfunded music video, which aims to set a new standard for industry conditions by transparently paying its animation talent higher than average wages. Vocalist Caleb Hyles posted the "Back To You" music video on his YouTube channel on Sunday.

According to the organization's crowdfunding page, the animators who worked on the video were paid "180 dollars per keyframe which is 2-4 times more than the industry standard."

The organization is now crowdfunding for a second music video, which will feature voice actress and singer Aya Hirano as the vocalist. The organization plans to produce at least one new short animation per year and scale up the payment structure to a fixed salary rather than by piece rate. This new campaign is called "The New Anime Making System Project Phase 2."

Kenichi Kutsuna (Hori-san to Miyamura-kun (OAV) directed, storyboarded, designed the characters, and edited the first music video. Mason Lieberman (RWBY, Sarazanmai) directed, produced, and wrote the music. Kevin Penkin (Made in Abyss, The Rising of The Shield Hero) was the orchestrator and co-arranger for the musical staff.

The full credits are below:

Storyboard Artist, Director, Character Designer, Editor
Kenichi Kutsuna

Animation Directors
Kenichi Kutsuna
Akihiko Ota
Yūta Araki

Background Artist
Yuki Funagakure　

Colorization Planning & Stylization
Junko Tsukidate

Compositors
Tatsuya Fukumoto
Rikei
Aozora Maeda (STUDIO COLORIDO)

Key Animators
Yūta Araki
Ayane Nakamura
Miku Kaneko
Taishi Fujiki
Ryoko

Studio PaTHoS
Akihiko Ota
Aiko Oyama
Tomoki Ogawa
Yuzuki Kawanami
Mina Shimada
Kanna Shirakawa
Mai Sugita
Rumi Sudō
Kimiyo Nakamura
Airi Nagamori
Eri Nishizawa
Junko Miyagishi

In-between Animators
Studio PaTHoS
Tubasa Teshigahara
Yasuko Nagura

Animation Clean-up
ULY DOUGA

Assistant Compositor
Shunichi Sotta

Production Assistant
Shunsuke Fukui

Production Manager
Yoshiaki Kakui

Planning and Development
Animator Supporters
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Music Staff

Director, Producer, Song-Writer, & Lyricist
Mason Lieberman

Orchestrator, Co-Arranger
Kevin Penkin

Lead Vocalists
Dawn M. Bennett
Morgan Berry
Donna Burke
Adriana Figueroa
Amelia Jones
Amanda Lee
Jason Paige
Caleb Hyles
Casey Lee Williams
Brina Palencia

Electric Guitar
Jules Conroy

Acoustic Guitar
David Gibson McLean

Saxophone
Carlos Eiene

Trumpet
John Robert Matz

Violin Ensemble
Jeff Ball
Diwa De Leon
Patti Rudisill
David Morales Boroff
Zack Rapp

Drums
Fabrizio Cavallaro

Mixing Engineer
Matthew Templeman

Mastering Engineer
Jett Galindo

Animator Supporters was founded in 2010. It runs the Animator Dormitory project, a dormitory located in Tokyo for new animators. In 2011, it launched The New Animator Grand Prix contest aimed at new animators, offering a year's worth of housing support to prize winners. The organization also regularly shares information about labor issues in the anime industry through its YouTube channel.

Sources: Email Correspondence, GoGetFunding