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The Transformers (G1) Animation Studios
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Ultra Magnotron
Apr 26, 2012, 3:37:54 PM4/26/12
to
Is there a list of the various animation studios that
worked on The Transformers? One that also lists which
episodes they completed?
I think More Then Meets the Eye 1-3, Transport to Oblivion,
and Roll For It were all made by different animation studios.
How many were there?
--
The Transformers (G1) Subtitles:
http://www.box.com/s/931509f9d6b565d675d8
My Transformers Prime Calendar:
http://tfprime.timeshout.com/?how=month&std=2012-03-07&end=2012-03-21
worked on The Transformers? One that also lists which
episodes they completed?
I think More Then Meets the Eye 1-3, Transport to Oblivion,
and Roll For It were all made by different animation studios.
How many were there?
--
The Transformers (G1) Subtitles:
http://www.box.com/s/931509f9d6b565d675d8
My Transformers Prime Calendar:
http://tfprime.timeshout.com/?how=month&std=2012-03-07&end=2012-03-21
Travoltron
Apr 26, 2012, 5:03:23 PM4/26/12
to
On 4/26/2012 12:37 PM, Ultra Magnotron wrote:
> Is there a list of the various animation studios that
> worked on The Transformers? One that also lists which
> episodes they completed?
>
> I think More Then Meets the Eye 1-3, Transport to Oblivion,
> and Roll For It were all made by different animation studios.
> How many were there?
I don't think any of us know for sure.
> Is there a list of the various animation studios that
> worked on The Transformers? One that also lists which
> episodes they completed?
>
> I think More Then Meets the Eye 1-3, Transport to Oblivion,
> and Roll For It were all made by different animation studios.
> How many were there?
Pretty sure only Toei did season 1.
Sometimes the "look" of an episode can vary greatly depending on whoever
is directing the episode. Sadly, that kind of info seems to be lost
forever.
Any info I could find (which was slim) on animators I put up on ANN:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2597
Ultra Magnotron
Apr 26, 2012, 5:54:15 PM4/26/12
to
On 4/26/2012 2:03 PM, Travoltron wrote:
> I don't think any of us know for sure.
>
> Pretty sure only Toei did season 1.
>
> Sometimes the "look" of an episode can vary greatly depending on whoever
> is directing the episode. Sadly, that kind of info seems to be lost
> forever.
>
> Any info I could find (which was slim) on animators I put up on ANN:
>
> http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2597
Thanks for the link to ANN.
> I don't think any of us know for sure.
>
> Pretty sure only Toei did season 1.
>
> Sometimes the "look" of an episode can vary greatly depending on whoever
> is directing the episode. Sadly, that kind of info seems to be lost
> forever.
>
> Any info I could find (which was slim) on animators I put up on ANN:
>
> http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2597
It's too bad that kind of thing isn't in the credits. It would be nice
to have a list of the studios and what episodes they worked on.
Ultra Magnotron
Apr 26, 2012, 6:17:23 PM4/26/12
to
I went looking around the Internet and found the names of several other
animation studios, aside from Toei. I still have no idea who did what,
but this info is pretty cool.
Akom Production Company - animation production (uncredited)
Dai Won Animation Co. - animation services (uncredited)
Sam Young Animation - additional animation production (uncredited)
Sei Young Animation Co. Ltd. - animation services (uncredited)
Trans Arts Company - additional animation production (uncredited)
animation studios, aside from Toei. I still have no idea who did what,
but this info is pretty cool.
Akom Production Company - animation production (uncredited)
Dai Won Animation Co. - animation services (uncredited)
Sam Young Animation - additional animation production (uncredited)
Sei Young Animation Co. Ltd. - animation services (uncredited)
Trans Arts Company - additional animation production (uncredited)
Zobovor
Apr 26, 2012, 9:54:09 PM4/26/12
to
On Apr 26, 1:37 pm, Ultra Magnotron <ultra.magnot...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> Is there a list of the various animation studios that
> worked on The Transformers?
There weren't as many as you might think.
Toei, a Japanese animation studio, used to have information on their
web site about the various shows they worked on and how many episodes
of each season they produced; they laid claim to all 16 episodes of
the first season, evidently using different teams of animators under
the same animation studio to produce the different art styles that
resulted. Unfortunately, that information isn't on their web site any
longer.
Toei claimed to have animated 39 episodes out of the 49 produced for
season two, with AKOM, a Korean studio, responsible for at least three
out of the remaining ten ("City of Steel," "The Core," and "The
Autobot Run"). Production coordinator Paul Davids identified the
remaining seven episodes as being produced by a studio in the
Phillipines—this clashes slightly with my findings, because there are
nine episodes from season two that seem to be neither Toei nor AKOM,
namely "A Prime Problem," "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's
Court," "Make Tracks," "The Secret of Omega Supreme," "Kremzeek!",
"Triple Takeover," "Hoist Goes Hollywood," "War Dawn," and
"Starscream's Brigade." Something interesting is that the producers
seem to have deliberately given the high-concept "A" stories to the
Japanese animators while the low-concept "B" stories got farmed out to
the cheaper Korean or Phillipino studios.
The Transformers: the Movie was, of course, Toei. (An interesting
factoid is that director Nelson Skin owned AKOM, which may account for
its heavy use during the third season.)
Season three duties were split pretty evenly between Toei and AKOM.
According to at least one production schedule, they were the only two
animation houses utilized. Toei said that they only produced 13
episodes for that season, which would almost certainly seem to be "The
Killing Jar," "Chaos," "Surprise Party," "Madman's Paradise,"
"Nightmare Planet," "Webworld," "The Ultimate Weapon," "Fight or
Flee," "The Dweller in the Depths," "Only Human," "Money is
Everything," and "The Return of Optimus Prime" parts 1 and 2. (Note
that there were very clearly different teams of animators contributing
to Toei's final production count, since there are numerous different
art styles here. The art even changes sometimes in mid-episode
between acts, in the case of "Money is Everything.") This means that
AKOM was responsible for "Five Faces of Darkness" parts 1-5, "Dark
Awakening," "Forever is a Long Time Coming," "Starscream's Ghost,"
"Thief in the Night," "Ghost in the Machine," "Carnage in C-Minor,"
"The Quintesson Journal," "The Big Broadcast of 2006," "Only Human,"
"Grimlock's New Brain," and "The Face of the Nijika." Again, there
are some fairly diverse art styles here, so AKOM must have been
utlizing multiple animation teams simultaneously. The only third
season episode I haven't mentioned yet is "Call of the Primitives,"
which most fans believe was produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha; their web
site once listed a single episode of Transformers among their
completed projects, despite Sunbow production schedules (which are
always subject to change).
"The Rebirth" parts 1-3 was AKOM as well (though Toei did the opening
titles. which were spliced together from 1987 toy commercials).
Zob
wrote:
> Is there a list of the various animation studios that
> worked on The Transformers?
Toei, a Japanese animation studio, used to have information on their
web site about the various shows they worked on and how many episodes
of each season they produced; they laid claim to all 16 episodes of
the first season, evidently using different teams of animators under
the same animation studio to produce the different art styles that
resulted. Unfortunately, that information isn't on their web site any
longer.
Toei claimed to have animated 39 episodes out of the 49 produced for
season two, with AKOM, a Korean studio, responsible for at least three
out of the remaining ten ("City of Steel," "The Core," and "The
Autobot Run"). Production coordinator Paul Davids identified the
remaining seven episodes as being produced by a studio in the
Phillipines—this clashes slightly with my findings, because there are
nine episodes from season two that seem to be neither Toei nor AKOM,
namely "A Prime Problem," "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's
Court," "Make Tracks," "The Secret of Omega Supreme," "Kremzeek!",
"Triple Takeover," "Hoist Goes Hollywood," "War Dawn," and
"Starscream's Brigade." Something interesting is that the producers
seem to have deliberately given the high-concept "A" stories to the
Japanese animators while the low-concept "B" stories got farmed out to
the cheaper Korean or Phillipino studios.
The Transformers: the Movie was, of course, Toei. (An interesting
factoid is that director Nelson Skin owned AKOM, which may account for
its heavy use during the third season.)
Season three duties were split pretty evenly between Toei and AKOM.
According to at least one production schedule, they were the only two
animation houses utilized. Toei said that they only produced 13
episodes for that season, which would almost certainly seem to be "The
Killing Jar," "Chaos," "Surprise Party," "Madman's Paradise,"
"Nightmare Planet," "Webworld," "The Ultimate Weapon," "Fight or
Flee," "The Dweller in the Depths," "Only Human," "Money is
Everything," and "The Return of Optimus Prime" parts 1 and 2. (Note
that there were very clearly different teams of animators contributing
to Toei's final production count, since there are numerous different
art styles here. The art even changes sometimes in mid-episode
between acts, in the case of "Money is Everything.") This means that
AKOM was responsible for "Five Faces of Darkness" parts 1-5, "Dark
Awakening," "Forever is a Long Time Coming," "Starscream's Ghost,"
"Thief in the Night," "Ghost in the Machine," "Carnage in C-Minor,"
"The Quintesson Journal," "The Big Broadcast of 2006," "Only Human,"
"Grimlock's New Brain," and "The Face of the Nijika." Again, there
are some fairly diverse art styles here, so AKOM must have been
utlizing multiple animation teams simultaneously. The only third
season episode I haven't mentioned yet is "Call of the Primitives,"
which most fans believe was produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha; their web
site once listed a single episode of Transformers among their
completed projects, despite Sunbow production schedules (which are
always subject to change).
"The Rebirth" parts 1-3 was AKOM as well (though Toei did the opening
titles. which were spliced together from 1987 toy commercials).
Zob
Zobovor
Apr 26, 2012, 9:59:10 PM4/26/12
to
On Apr 26, 4:17 pm, Ultra Magnotron <ultra.magnot...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> Dai Won Animation Co. - animation services (uncredited)
>
> Sam Young Animation - additional animation production (uncredited)
>
> Sei Young Animation Co. Ltd. - animation services (uncredited)
>
> Trans Arts Company - additional animation production (uncredited)
Everything I've learned about these companies suggests that they were
utilized only in a technical capacity, photographing animation cels or
creating backlighting or other special effects for the episodes, while
the actual drawing of the cels was handled by artists at Toei and
AKOM.
Zob
wrote:
> Dai Won Animation Co. - animation services (uncredited)
>
> Sam Young Animation - additional animation production (uncredited)
>
> Sei Young Animation Co. Ltd. - animation services (uncredited)
>
> Trans Arts Company - additional animation production (uncredited)
utilized only in a technical capacity, photographing animation cels or
creating backlighting or other special effects for the episodes, while
the actual drawing of the cels was handled by artists at Toei and
AKOM.
Zob
Travoltron
Apr 28, 2012, 6:28:05 PM4/28/12
to
On 4/26/2012 6:54 PM, Zobovor wrote:
> Production coordinator Paul Davids identified the
> remaining seven episodes as being produced by a studio in the
> Phillipines—this clashes slightly with my findings
I agree that this is wrong.
> Production coordinator Paul Davids identified the
> remaining seven episodes as being produced by a studio in the
> Phillipines—this clashes slightly with my findings
I'll be blunt-- Philippines animation during that era was terrible.
Worse than AKOM.
Whomever did those episodes was better than AKOM but not as good as
Toei. Maybe another Japanese studio, or perhaps a Korean one like
Daewon. They're credited as working with Toei on Dairugger (Vehicle
Voltron).
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