Digitalscape Company, a Japanese consulting company specializing in digital content creations, has posted a notice of job fairs to be held to hire 40 people that would be responsible for some aspect of the graphics for the upcoming Transformers Prime cartoon that is schedule to air on The Hub as early as late this year.
This is the first mentiion of Digitalscape’s involvement with the upcoming cartoon. Digitalscape is mostly widely known for their involvement with video games, with work ranging from character, environment, motion, to programming.
autobotguy
The great thing about Beast Wars was that the writing staff actually took ques from transformers fans on alt.toys.transformers. What with the "A.T.T override" and sector "Tallories" and such. It was a great time to be a transformers fan.
Goatboy
I think Bathawk means that when both Beast wars and Animated were first announced he nearly jumped ship, but was later won over by both. So hard as it is he's trying to keep an open mind about the new show.
bellpeppers
So far, my only concern is for the show's quality.
If this show is supposed to air in October… that's only 6 months from now and they are only now hiring animators.
It wouldn't be the 1st animated Transformers rush job:
Scourge_151
Can't comment until we see a bit of how the new show will look.
Fit For natalie
You kidding? Those two shows are widely considered to be the best Transformers televisual fiction there is
Sprocket
What are you, Shattered Glass Bathawk? You didn't like either of the post-G1 written and developed in America shows? Well then, I suppose you're hoping for something more 'Movie' which given Hasbro desire for synergy shouldn't be a problem. Just learn to enjoy good stories, 'cause if you're here for something along the lines of Armada, Energon or Cybertron…I don't really know what to say.
Also, dude, seriously, punctuation goes a long way.
Bathawk
trying to keep an open mind here but it's hard
almost jumped ship on transformers when "Beast Wars" and later "Animated" were announced
hopefully learned my lesson and this show won't blow
OptimusMagnus3
I just want this show to air already! Right now, I'm relying on comics to fulfill my Transformers fiction needs. I'm not saying I don't like the comics. They're great. I just really like to have some sort of T.V. series to look forward to. Right now, I'm dying for another series to air!
Sprocket
I'm just surprised Japan gets to animate Transformers yet again. I'm not complaining, it just surprises me. Would've thought maybe Nerd Corps Entertainment in Canada or heck, maybe the unlikely outcome of working with Lucasfilm after establishing a relationship with ILM on the films, who knows.
Still, I've yet to be impressed with CG animation in Japan on television or film compared to western efforts. But that's more a time and budget issue, as various Japanese CG studios ahve done pretty solid work for video game cut scenes over the years. It's up to Hasbro how good they want it to look in the end.
Chevluh
Standard procedure, actually. You don't need many people for pre-production (ie character design and modeling, plotting, etc) so hiring many people early is just a waste of money, and in japan animators (from the actual production line) are freelancers paid on a per-frame basis, so the usual method is to have them hired for episodes, not whole series, thus temp agencies. Also, actual episode production starts one or two months before the episodes are scheduled for airing. Basically, unlike a feature film where you mobilize a whole lot of people up front (because it's directly shown in its entirety), for a TV series the idea is to have as much of the production work as possible done while the series' airing.
Well, that's for 2D animated series so there may be slight variations for 3D but it's not really different.
So basically so far everything's normal. I'm almost surprised they're outsourcing to japan rather than india (which is 3D's korea, so to speak), I'm gonna guess that's Takara's influence.
Fit For natalie
I think we wait for more information and perhaps some comment from TF fans who work in the visual effects/CG animation industry before passing quick judgement, yes?
cylence
The target experience sounds like they're hiring the production-line animators. At this point, they'll already have the character designs and initial episode writing done, and now need people to handle all the "boring" work of actually animating them. My guess is that Hasbro's doing all the design studio work in house, and outsourcing the cheap-labor animation (most animators unfortunately are at the bottom of the barrel until/unless they catch a break to rise out of it). Not that uncommon, really, especially if they're looking at a large number of episodes for a 5-day/week broadcast schedule (don't recall hearing anything on scheduling yet).
bellpeppers
This surprises me… I would have thought that they would have been working on the models and animation by now.
ORIO
This is the impression I'm getting as well.
Doesn't sound right. Am I missing something?
autobotguy
Oh great….Hasbro is scraping the bottom of the barrel if they are contracting TEMP AGENCIES for their new shows.
This just means that Hasbro is going to put a minimal effort into this show versus going full force using a graphics design firm.
Tiller
I think I found the same company on IMDB. Since they hire and outsource work as a middle man, they're credited in special thanks and miscellaneous company in the following video games:
Miscellaneous Company – filmography
1. Dead or Alive Paradise (2010) (VG) … Production Support
2. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (2009) (VG) … Special Thanks
3. Star Ocean: The Last Hope (2009) (VG) … External Experts & Specialists Unit, Sound Designer (external experts & specialists unit), Special Thanks (development partners)
4. Tenchu 4 (2008) (VG) … Production Support
5. Teiruzu obu Shinfuonia: Ratatosuku no Kishi (2008) (VG) … Production Support
6. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008) (VG) … Motion Post-production
7. Armored Core: For Answer (2008) (VG) … Special Thanks
8. Soulcalibur Legends (2007) (VG) … Production Support
9. Shin sangoku musô 5 (2007) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
10. Sengoku musô: Katana (2007) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
11. Sengoku musô 2 mushôden (2007) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
12. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (2007) (VG) … Special Thanks
13. Sengoku musô 2: Empires (2006) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
14. Ôkami (2006) (VG) … Supporting Company
15. Sengoku musô 2 (2006) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
16. Soulcalibur III (2005) (VG) … Supporting Company
17. Rei: Shisei no koe (2005) (VG) … Special Thanks
18. Shin sangoku musô 4 (2005) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
19. Death by Degrees (2005) (VG) … External Production
20. Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (2004) (VG) … Human Resources Support
21. Sengoku musô mushôden (2004) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
22. Dororo (2004) (VG) … Special Thanks
23. Cool Girl (2004) (VG) … Special Thanks
24. Sengoku musô (2004) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
25. Shin sangoku musô 3: Empires (2004) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
26. Shin sangoku musô 3 mushôden (2003) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
27. Shin sangoku musô 3 (2003) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
28. Shenmue II (2001) (VG) … Producer's Thanks
29. Baiohazado kodo: Baronika – Kanzenban (2001) (VG) … Miscellaneous Company
Filmography as: Miscellaneous Company, Special Effects Company
Special Effects Company – filmography
1. Death by Degrees (2005) (VG) … Special Effects Company (external production)
Digitalscape Co. Ltd. [jp]
Not sure what this means for production though if this is the hiring company.
RedAlert Rescue