Unless necessary, Yosuganosora Animation Studio would never outsource key animation to freelance key animators.
Freelance key animators worked with animation studios on a contract basis, and their skill levels varied widely. If care wasn't taken, inconsistent quality could easily result in off-model drawings or animation breakdowns.
Even so, freelance key animators were indispensable to the industry.
Precisely because they weren't tied to a single studio, they embodied the "freelance" aspect of their profession. They could accept commissions from multiple animation companies, helping studios overcome labor shortages.
Any well-known animation studio's production department would normally have contact information for a large number of freelance key animators.
Although they weren't official employees, that certainly didn't mean they lacked work. On the contrary, virtually every animation studio relied on a regular group of freelance key animators.
Japan was an animation powerhouse.
Ironically, that very industry now generally faces severe labor shortages.
It wasn't unusual to see production staff desperately searching the streets for key animators. Many artists lamented that there simply weren't enough key animators in the industry to support the sheer number of anime being produced.
This perfectly reflected the gap between anime production and anime distribution.
Anime, as a commercial product, received widespread praise from audiences.
Animation studios themselves, however, resembled assembly-line factories exploiting their workers.
As more people became aware of how difficult the industry really was, fewer and fewer were willing to enter it.
Japan's economic structure had already stabilized.
Even when many industries clearly had unreasonable aspects, they had become stagnant pools of water, making meaningful reform extremely difficult.
Yosuganosora Animation Studio had already worked with freelance key animators during the production of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'.
Through Fujiwara Tora, Kamiyā Yuu had obtained the contact information of several highly capable freelance key animators whom Tora had frequently worked with while serving as a production assistant at Kyoni Animation Co., Ltd.
He then instructed the production department to contact them and arrange commissions.
The commission rates—already significantly above industry standards—also subtly conveyed another message:
Draw seriously.
This time, every member of the production department was responsible for contacting at least two freelance key animators on average and supervising them until their commissioned work was completed.
Kamiyā Yuu's strict requirements for Episode 12 of 'Fate/Zero' affected three departments the most:
The Production Department.
The Key Animation Department.
The Animation Department.
Now, both the Key Animation Department and the Animation Department at Yosuganosora Animation Studio had effectively become cities that never slept.
It was perfectly normal for a key animator to remain at the studio for several consecutive days before finally going home.
When they got hungry, they ate the boxed meals provided in the company's break room.
When they got sleepy, they crawled beneath their animation desks for a quick nap.
The moment they woke up, they returned to drawing key frames.
The severe lack of sleep left many artists with dark circles beneath their eyes and exhausted expressions.
This kind of madness was made possible by Yosuganosora Animation Studio's bonus system.
Working a single day of overtime earned them as much as an ordinary week's pay.
With no upper limit on bonuses, everyone wanted to earn as much as possible during this period.
Once the busy season ended and work returned to normal, those overtime bonuses would be enough for them to enjoy comfortable lives for quite some time.
...
Yosuganosora Animation Studio.
Key Animation Department.
*Knock, knock.*
After knocking, assistant animation supervisor Tsuyama Airi entered the office and quickly reported,
"Chief Uehara, Director Kamiyā's storyboard direction notes have arrived. Should I distribute them directly to everyone?"
Uehara Etsuki put down the pencil in her hand.
At the moment, she was checking the key animation, correcting subtle inconsistencies and awkward details among thousands of drawings.
That was precisely the responsibility of an animation supervisor.
Hearing her assistant's report, she nodded calmly.
"Since these direction notes were personally prepared by Director Kamiyā, there shouldn't be any problems. Distribute them first. If anyone doesn't understand something, submit those questions separately afterward."
"I understand. Then will Director Kamiyā still be responsible for directing the key animation?"
"Yes."
She nodded.
"The composition of these key animation sequences is rather complicated. Director Kamiyā should be able to communicate our intentions clearly."
"Understood. Excuse me."
After receiving a definite answer, the assistant animation supervisor left the office.
The position of episode director occupied a rather subtle place within anime production.
In many respects, an episode director possessed authority almost equal to that of the overall director.
Everything from storyboards, color design, artistic style, and even voice acting performance could fall under the episode director's guidance.
More importantly, the episode director bore responsibility for coordinating every stage of the production pipeline.
Generally speaking, anime production could be divided into three major stages:
Script.
Key animation.
Animation.
Each stage required its own direction.
Script direction was usually handled by the overall director.
It should be noted that for most anime, the script itself was not written by the director.
Kamiyā Yuu was an exception.
He personally conceived the story and skipped the traditional scripting stage entirely by drawing storyboards directly.
After script direction came storyboard creation by the director.
Normally, an anime director also rarely handles the storyboards for an entire series personally.
The workload was simply too enormous.
Most storyboards were delegated to episode directors or animation supervisors.
Therefore, Kamiyā Yuu personally drawing every episode's storyboard was itself highly unusual.
Once the script had been transformed into storyboards, another round of direction followed.
The episode director refined the storyboard's contents, communicated its true intentions to the key animation department, and could also incorporate personal ideas or creative concepts.
The key animation department then drew the key frames according to those instructions.
After the key animation was finished, another round of direction took place.
Following the same process, the episode director interpreted the meaning expressed through the key animation, added further creative ideas, and passed those instructions to the animation department.
The animation department then produced the in-between frames according to both the key animation and the direction notes.
After the animation was completed, the animation direction followed.
Only then did the production move on to color specification and coloring.
After coloring came color checking.
Once that stage was complete, the work moved to the art department, which handled the backgrounds.
As mentioned previously, because backgrounds were static while animation was dynamic, creating them separately greatly reduced the workload.
After the backgrounds were completed, they too underwent art direction.
Once every stage had finished, the production entered its final step:
Compositing.
At this stage, the compositing direction required nearly every department head involved throughout production.
Reaching this point meant the anime was essentially complete.
The supervisors of every production stage gathered to review the finished product.
Although the responsibilities of direction differed greatly at every stage, they all shared one common purpose:
To fully understand the work produced at that stage, refine it, and clearly communicate it to the next department.
Take key animation direction as an example.
The key animation itself established the primary visual elements of a scene, including character movement, actions, emotional expression, and so on.
Because Kamiyā Yuu's storyboards were exceptionally detailed, the key animation department had already been spared a tremendous amount of work.
The role of key animation direction was then to interpret those drawings and provide precise instructions for the next stage—in other words, to guide the animators responsible for drawing the in-between frames.