So, the Production Committee was established, the key members of the production team worked on the scripts, storyboards and character design and production proceeded without issues, doing the key animation (Genga), in-betweens (Douga), backgrounds, coloring and all other artistic work. What’s next? Then is the turn of the post production! But what does that entail in the case of anime? Let’s delve into it!
Compositing in Anime
Like we said at the start, the anime production process goes through several stages before reaching the post-production phase. When everything is said and done, the digital composition team has to work with all the individual parts of the completed animation, to give a cohesive look to the final product.
Photo composition in anime involves color correction, adding lighting effects, enhancing hand-drawn or 3DCG special effects, including additional camera movements and other retouches, all with the goal of creating an all-encompassing product with a visual harmony between its many different elements.
The goal of the compositing team is to make all the animation cuts and elements look like they belong in the same world. For example, making sure that if there’s light sources in a scene, all the characters and objects in it, interact appropriately with it. In a good anime, they are the ones that make 3DCG look as good as possible next to the 2D animation. With that complete, now is the turn of the all-important editing.
Recording the actors and the sound design
Concurrently with the production of the anime, the Sound director is working, normally with a rough animation, to produce a very important part that is later incorporated with the completed animation: all the sounds in the anime.
This includes all the voice acting in it, as well as all sound effects and the incidental music or soundtrack. The director normally provides guidance to the actors, that normally record their lines individually, and they are later edited together. Although, back in the day, they used to record all together, this allowed them to interact directly, adjusting their acting.
The sound design team must work on providing sound effects that would help elevate the production values of the anime. This is something that, when done well, you don’t notice it, but when it’s bad you certainly do. Did a can hit the ground on the street? That sound must seem real in order to enhance the experience of watching the anime.
The music is also a huge part of that. A good soundtrack might give that extra that an anime needs to be truly memorable, and ultimately is the work of the Sound Director to make everything work well together, and give all of that back to the editor.
Editing in Anime
Animation or live action, it doesn’t matter, editing is an unavoidable step. In the case of anime, just like in any other film and TV show, the editor must take all the different video tracks into a non-linear video editing software, before starting to trim here and there, following the directors vision, while providing the anime with a pace.
An editor must be familiar with all the different steps of the production process, since they must touch upon all the work of his colleges, both the visuals and the audio. Once the editor has joined all the elements, transitions, and effects, they export the final video file, which must then be approved by the director and producers, before its distribution.
Now the anime is done, what’s next? Localization
The final step when creating and anime comes in the form of localizing it to our languages. There’s two ways to do this and ideally, we would have access to both: Subs and Dubs. Some might prefer to watch anime in the original language, and just read the subtitles, but others might prefer a dubbed version.
When an anime production is healthy, the anime is completed weeks or months ahead of its premiere, so the localization team can work on it with time to spare. A project manager is in charge of overseeing the localization process, assigning a translator to work on the script. Normally they also need to have a high level in the use of localization technologies, in order to time the subs and, in the case of anime, include translations of all the text on the screen, a practice not usual when localizing live action shows or movies. Their work is later checked by a Quality Lead, in charge of ensuring the final work is accurately translated and properly timed.
The Dub or ADR goes through a similar process, like we explained before. The script writer for the dub normally must make changes, so the subbed and dubbed version are not identical, mostly because of the need to make mouth movements match as much as possible with whatever is being said in the anime. If you need a refresher you can go read our article on why are dubs needed in anime.
Force Media Is Here To Help
Force Media offers a team of experts that will be able to tackle any audio post-production project you throw at us, regardless of its scale. Our team will save you so much time, and you won’t need to worry about the specifics of the process.
We also have a professional studio with state-of-the-art equipment, so it won’t be a problem re-recording any lines if needed. Our years of experience will allow us to elevate any type of audio to a whole new level. After all, your primary focus should be on the content itself — leave the audio polishing to us!
Contact us today, and tell us more about your project. We’d be happy to help!