Shadows on White Gallery Updates

[Rekka Alexiel]

Here are the last couple updates for a while.

Just added some more bits to the following areas:

Generator Gawl
Nabari no Ou
Psychic Force
Unknown

If anyone recognizes something from the Unknown section, I'd really love to know what they're from!!

Thanks for looking!

[tex-chan]

I've been enjoying browsing your updates! Love the new Gawl stuff, in particular. Congrats on getting some new pretties added to your gallery. It's still one of my favorites to visit.

[Rekka Alexiel]

Aw thanks, Texie! I've been out of the game it seems like for the last couple of years, but have started picking up lately! Really should be saving so I can move out of my crap apartment... But purdy things keep popping up!! xD

Thanks for having a look! *glomp*

[Rekka Alexiel]

I've added a couple more cels from Elementalors to the site. I don't know what it is about this sequence, but I just love it. Each cel came with a color copied background. Yay!



There are a couple more Misc. cels that I need to scan and upload yet, so stay tuned!

[Rekka Alexiel]

Last update for a couple days. I finally added a Dragon Fist cel that I've had for years but never added...and in the process of IDing it, I've discovered that one of my unknowns is also from the short OVA. What a surprise that was!! I thought the design looked familiar. I originally thought of Antique Heart (Gakuen Benriya series) by Katayama Shu... But I was wrong. But still, Dragon Fist is also one of Katayama's works!! . Apparently though the character designer for both shows is different. Katayama lead the designs for AH and Araki Shingo did those for DF.

Also something interesting that I read about the DF production is that at some point along the way, the animation studio was broken into and many completed cels were stolen. !!!!! I've never heard of this happening before and can only imagine what it would have been like for those animators... I guess they were really pressed under the wire to meet deadlines even after the robbery, so the overall quality of the OVA suffered quite a bit. Even some scenes needed to be cut to save time. Very sad and it makes me a little nervous to collect from the show. I'd feel really badly if some of hose stolen cels popped up. :/ I guess as long as you can spot the cel in the final cut of the show it's okay!!

Has anyone heard of stolen artwork?? I think many years ago it was said that Mandarake would sometimes sell stuff of shady background but that's all I can think of. If someone stole artwork, it would mostly be for personal gain, right? I mean, they wouldn't be stupid enough to try and resell it, would they??? :/

Anyway, will have more updates later. Today is my 6th day at work this week and I'll teach summer classes tomorrow for my 7th. Then from Monday I'm "on call" with my agency the rest of the week. Oh but they're giving me Wednesday off so that's very generous of them. *insert massive fit of rage here*. Then REAL school starts the following Monday. Yeah, thanks for no summer vacation, agency. Grrrrr!

[JWR]

Reguarding stolen artwork, There was a lot of talk that most of the Evangelion cels that surfaced early on were ones that might have been walked off from Gainax.

As far as Mandy selling stolen items, I have heard rumors but never saw or heard of any proof.

[Promethium]

Has anyone heard of stolen artwork?? I think many years ago it was said that Mandarake would sometimes sell stuff of shady background but that's all I can think of.

Yes, stolen artwork does exist - mostly post production, but some thefts have occurred during production before the studios could film them. I think it's mostly a problem with the cel-era artwork as I really don't hear about stolen CG-era artwork (but maybe that's because I don't collect CG-era stuff and don't have my radar up).

As per Mandarake, I doubt they knowingly buy/sell stolen artwork, but sometimes the trail of second hand items is just too grey. I don't want to go into detail but they have been sued for auctioning a number of items by their "rightful" owners. A big studio sued them about a decade ago for selling "stolen" cels from a really popular show. One manga artist even published a book about her experience trying to get her original manuscripts back in court and has chronicled the court proceedings on her website. They also listed a big name animator's watercolor painting for sale that was previously reported stolen - which I really hope they returned to its owner, who wisely reported it stolen.

[Rekka Alexiel]

Thanks for your thoughts on that, guys. I had heard that "Mandy" (heehee, I like that!!) had auctioned stolen products, but I too didn't hear anything about official proof of the rumors.

As per Mandarake, I doubt they knowingly buy/sell stolen artwork, but sometimes the trail of second hand items is just too grey. I don't want to go into detail but they have been sued for auctioning a number of items by their "rightful" owners. A big studio sued them about a decade ago for selling "stolen" cels from a really popular show. One manga artist even published a book about her experience trying to get her original manuscripts back in court and has chronicled the court proceedings on her website. They also listed a big name animator's watercolor painting for sale that was previously reported stolen - which I really hope they returned to its owner, who wisely reported it stolen.

Wow, seriously? That's too bad for the original owners, and for those all excited by finding it...only to learn it's a stolen item and thusly unavailable.

Anyway, I have a couple more recent updates. The other day I stopped into Anime Shop Commit to glance through things before heading over to Omotesando for a friend's Leaving Japan party (he's leaving Wednesday and I'm going to meet him tonight...so going to cry!!!) and while I was browsing, Tsuboi-san left and came back with a couple of cels. He was like, "They're not of "Rekka no Ryo" but if you'd like to look at these..." Whoa! Total shock that he not only remembered who I was, but also holy collector's elation that he would remember exactly what character I collect. Of course, I've talked to him a couple times at his store and purchased stuff from his YJ account many times before, so I guess he should know me by now... but it was just unexpected. I was so excited that I hardly looked at the cels or the price when I said I'd take them...ha Glad I had an extra 1man en in my wallet. :p

Anyway, I picked up three cels, all with matching backgrounds. *love* What's kinda cool about these three is that whoever had the cels before already ID'd them. They wrote each character's name, the episode number, and cut number on the top of each cel in white crayon. Typically studios don't do that, right? It has to be whoever owned the cels, yes??



Lastly, I've finally gotten around to add keeper's awesome fancel of Setsuna from Angel Sanctuary. I love finding artwork of this series, especially since it's where I get half of my name... xD She really does some AWESOME work on fancels! If anyone is interested in commissioning her, she has some extra info over in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=27481



She did such an awesome job taking a manga-ish style and turned it into an anime cel type style. Here's a sample image that she used for this cel, here. Beautiful work! I'll be ogling over this for quite some time. Must decide on commission ideas, too.... >;D

....and just when I put my scanner away today, the mail came and delivered more cels I need to scan. lol Gosh, I can't save this way.... *sigh*

[teggacat]

what a cool story about Anime Commit Shop, that just so cool!!
I always enjoy getting lost in your gallery, you have quite a nice collection there!
And I really love your enthusiasm!
you see everybody, this hobby/addiction/whatever is still alive and kicking!
Thanks for sharing Rekka!

[Rekka Alexiel]

what a cool story about Anime Commit Shop, that just so cool!!
I always enjoy getting lost in your gallery, you have quite a nice collection there!
And I really love your enthusiasm!
you see everybody, this hobby/addiction/whatever is still alive and kicking!

heehee Thanks! I'm sorry I haven't been as active here lately as I have in the past. I've really fallen out of contact with so many cool people, and it's all my fault; I get quite lazy in that regard. But indeed, the heart of collecting is still very active within me! Glad I could share a kinda cool story with you guys!

And as for updates, I've got a couple more goodies recently, a few more nice Elementalors cels and...

A bunch of really pretty "crystal" prints from Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas.









These were a couple FujiFILM prints that I ordered from the main Loscan Web site last summer. It's really a shame that the series was cancelled due to low ratings...especially when the artwork is this gorgeous!! I haven't been a hard-core Saint Seiya fan, but I really thoroughly enjoyed Lost Canvas, maybe because it was a back story with new characters. I really liked Tenma's personality much better than Seiya, who seemed to cry and sob over Saori all the time...haha Anyway, there are no rilezu cels available from this OVA, so this is the closest you can get. I might have to commission keeper to do some fancels for me sometime.

Future updates will include some really nice rough sketches, genga, and douga from various series. I have one genga from Samurai Troopers coming soon that I'm really quite freaking out over. I really wish the other main YST collector on Rubberslug was still around... she hasn't responded to my messages nor has she updated anything in a long time... So anyway! Stay tuned!

[Rekka Alexiel]

A couple more updates...

First off is the rare douga of Ryo's Sou En Zan attack from Samurai Troopers that I was talking about before.



Then I was able to get some sketches from an RPG on the PSP that I played last Christmas, Senritsu no Stratus. It was a fun & enjoyable game, great music and artwork, so I'm really excited to have some production works from it! Just wish there were some sketches of Seishiro in here...







Lastly, I have a couple sketches from the Dragoon OVA that I picked up at Commit last weekend. A couple are originals of Myu but the Layout is copied.

**Also, guys... I really need your input to help me correctly label these sketches. I don't normally collect just paper works, but since that's become the majority of production artwork these days, I've been getting more. My knowledge on the specific terminology for each sketch is rather limited so I may make mistakes. If you take a look through these new additions, could you please check and see if I haven't mislabeled something?? THANK YOU!!

Actually, all of the Senritsu sketches were labeled as either genga, revised genga, & douga. I need to reassess which is which...

[tex-chan]

Lovely game sketches. But that Ryo sketch ... WOW!! Super amazing. I love how clear the image is and how you can really see his determined expression. Congrats, Rekka!!

[sensei]

**Also, guys... I really need your input to help me correctly label these sketches. My knowledge on the specific terminology for each sketch is rather limited so I may make mistakes. If you take a look through these new additions, could you please check and see if I haven't mislabeled something?? THANK YOU!!

Actually, all of the Senritsu sketches were labeled as either genga, revised genga, & douga. I need to reassess which is which...

I think the only correction I'd make is that the Senritsu sketches that you have labeled "rough douga" are genga. The genga are the key positions in the cut, the start, end, and critical moments in between. The douga are the actual images that are animated, and there are almost always more of these than genga. They also are numbered differently, with the ones corresponding to the genga being identified as such by having the sequence number circled.

Genga are usually drawn with a broader pencil point, have shading done on the front, and have the key number (always circled) in the middle of the sheet beside the image of the character. You'll also see other notations on these like the little roller-coaster curvy line with slashes through it, which tells the inbetweener artist how many extra douga s/he needs to draw between A1 and A2.

Douga (at least in CGI work) are drawn with a very thin pencil point, have shading done on the back, and have the sequence number (with only keys circled) in the upper right corner (or sometimes in the lower right for oversized layers). They're typically otherwise blank, though sometimes at a later state a checker will identify mistakes on the douga.

You can see this contrast illustrated well between the A2 genga of Sasahara Nanase and the matching douga.

The "revised genga" (or "shuusei," often translated "correction") would be done on some kind of thin colored paper and typically changes only some small part of the genga, often the eyes or facial expression. If the animation director is unhappy with the gengaman's effort, you might get a complete shuusei, but this is unusual and happens mainly in very important scenes that the AD wants to get exactly right. I don't see any of these up in your gallery yet.

In the other galleries I don't see a problem. "Roughs" are sometimes called "layout corrections" because they are the first drawings past the layout stage. The yellow-paper sketches from Dragoon are pretty typical roughs. The last of these, on white paper, is an oddity. I'd guess "layout" as it's on white paper and has just the cut number on it. But most layouts are on studio paper like the copy that you include as the first image. Don't know for sure, but as it comes with a rough, I'd guess it was done by the layout artist.

The Saint Seiya sketches are all likely to be roughs as well (some of these are really nice, btw!)

Hope this helps. It's actually not difficult to figure out once you know something about how the studio process works.

[Rekka Alexiel]

Lovely game sketches. But that Ryo sketch ... WOW!! Super amazing. I love how clear the image is and how you can really see his determined expression. Congrats, Rekka!!

Hey, texie!

I know!! Such a fierce look on the boy, right? xD I was really surprised that something from that scene would turn up after all this time... I recently watched the whole series again and it's rekindled my love for it. I was actually pondering writing story as a "remake" of the TV series, making all the guys about 17-18 rather than what they were supposed to have been in the actual show...which was 14. lol And I was thinking the story would be cooler if it was less geared toward little kids and thusly censored greatly... Yes, I think Blood would almost be a separate character my version...

I think the only correction I'd make is that the Senritsu sketches that you have labeled "rough douga" are genga. The genga are the key positions in the cut, the start, end, and critical moments in between. The douga are the actual images that are animated, and there are almost always more of these than genga. They also are numbered differently, with the ones corresponding to the genga being identified as such by having the sequence number circled.

Ah! I originally had those labeled as genga then second guessed myself and changed it. lol Thanks for explaining that!! I was wondering why some of the sequence numbers were circled on the douga. ^_^ I've changed most of the labels for them now...but I'm curious why so many of them are labeled A3...? Either it's my stupid mistake when I scanned the images (sometimes when I'm scanning so many things in a row, I start to zone out...) or there are multiple "A3" shots? That seems odd to me. I've put all the sketches in order now, though, despite odd labeling. The movement from frame to frame looks good; which reminds me, does anyone know of a decent, easy to use animated gif program for Mac? I'd love to animate these sketches!!

Genga are usually drawn with a broader pencil point, have shading done on the front, and have the key number (always circled) in the middle of the sheet beside the image of the character. You'll also see other notations on these like the little roller-coaster curvy line with slashes through it, which tells the inbetweener artist how many extra douga s/he needs to draw between A1 and A2.

Oh! I was also wondering about that weird bar with slash through it. It all makes so much more sense now! Is there a reason for the thicker pencil tip for the genga? Just to make it easier to see the lines for the transition to douga?

Douga (at least in CGI work) are drawn with a very thin pencil point, have shading done on the back, and have the sequence number (with only keys circled) in the upper right corner (or sometimes in the lower right for oversized layers). They're typically otherwise blank, though sometimes at a later state a checker will identify mistakes on the douga.

Is there a reason for the shading being on the back? They must use a light board to put the shading on the back. Does this help when the sketches are scanned into the computer for CG coloring?

The "revised genga" (or "shuusei," often translated "correction") would be done on some kind of thin colored paper and typically changes only some small part of the genga, often the eyes or facial expression. If the animation director is unhappy with the gengaman's effort, you might get a complete shuusei, but this is unusual and happens mainly in very important scenes that the AD wants to get exactly right. I don't see any of these up in your gallery yet.

Typically, is the main art director for any given episode is in charge of these corrections? That's who does the genga as well, right? I seriously need to go through all my sketches from other stuff, too. I haven't really given them much thought until recently, and certainly talking and learning more about them as helped a ton! I'm much more interested in the sketches than I ever was back in the day. Thanks!!

In the other galleries I don't see a problem. "Roughs" are sometimes called "layout corrections" because they are the first drawings past the layout stage. The yellow-paper sketches from Dragoon are pretty typical roughs. The last of these, on white paper, is an oddity. I'd guess "layout" as it's on white paper and has just the cut number on it. But most layouts are on studio paper like the copy that you include as the first image. Don't know for sure, but as it comes with a rough, I'd guess it was done by the layout artist.

So for these, there isn't any specific term other than "rough sketch" or "layout correction" for these sketches? Is there a reason for using yellow paper? I assume it's to help clearly differentiate between all the different types of sketches quickly. I think I also have some on green and maybe even a light blue color, too. That sketch you were pointing out that seemed to be a little odd is interesting with the box drawn around it. I wonder if that simply designates a pan in...? If it's a pan, usually there will be two boxes to designate where the shot starts and how far it zooms in, though. I'll have to find that spot in the show to check.

The Saint Seiya sketches are all likely to be roughs as well (some of these are really nice, btw!)

The item description for these were specifically labeled "Rough Genga"... but how exactly different is that from regular genga? Is there one more stage in producing the actual gengas? And thanks for the comment on the sketches!! I am a total sucker for Teshirogi Shiori's art designs for this series. It is such a shame that the OVA apparently didn't have great ratings, so future production was scrapped. Really, really upset about that. I actually wrote to the official Twitter account (@loscan_official) to ask if the series would be continued and they said, in a very round-about way, no. So sad. I guess the main stream Seiya fans didn't like it because all the characters were different. I liked it simply because of that, something within the same world and plot of the original, simply reworked. I am also very biased toward loscan probably because I haven't actually seen all of the early series of Saint Seiya; I've only seen the movies and subsequent OVA series. :p

On a side note, I recently came across this fan-made video on NicoNico Douga that compares Ryo's transformation sequence from Samurai Troopers and [I assume it's] Seiya's transformation in Saint Seiya Omega. They are quite similar. The part where the light circles both characters is the key segment. http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm17519813

Hope this helps. It's actually not difficult to figure out once you know something about how the studio process works.

Thank you, thank you, sensei!! This has been a great help! And thanks for taking a look at other areas of the gallery for mistakes! You didn't have to do that, but I really appreciate it!!

[Rekka Alexiel]

Hi guys, I was just able to make some animated .gifs of the sketches from Senritsu today, so here they are!







And in other news, I just received a wonderful set of goodies from the lovely AnimeJewell, so please be on the look out for those as well. She also included a beyond awesome extra cel that I'm still a bit ecstatic over! <3 Thank you so much!! Anyway, I should have time to make new scans of them this weekend since I also have Monday off this coming week! Yay!!