I went to the poster color manufacturing site ~ Domestic paint supporting the Japanese anime industry ~

Visiting the Manufacturing floor of Poster Colors ―Made-in-Japan Color Paints for Animation―

May 8, 2019

When you think of Japanese culture, anime is probably one of them that come up in your mind. Today, Japanese animation is so popular in the world that there is even a Wikipedia page of「Anime (/ˈænəˌmeɪ/)」in English.

Japanese animations in the early days were created with the technique called “Cel production”, which uses transparent sheets of plastic called cels, and place them over a background and photograph them in sequence. Since the 1990s, the cell production was replaced with the computer animation to improve the efficiency of the production process. Nowadays, water-based color paints are still used for some of the background of the animation. In such occasion, one of the art materials that animators love to use is the poster color by Nicker.

In this article, we would like to introduce the manufacturing process.

First of all, this is a room for experimenting the new products and color testing.

In order to keep the hue of color stable, the production test is important and necessary. Even though the color name is the same, its deviation can be caused by the difference of the quantities and suppliers.

Next, this is the manufacturing floor.

The poster color of Niker uses the highest quality Gum Arabic from Sudan, which has good affinity for water. Mixing pigments and medium creates the base of the paints.

This is the paint that is mixed with the stirrer. However, the paint is still lumpy before putting into the three-rollers milling machine.

By kneading pigments and medium more with the three-rollers milling machine, the paint become smoother and highly coloring. The man in the picture below, who has been working for almost 40 years, is an expert at this craft. It usually takes three or four times of kneading, and sometimes 10 times depending on the color.

To keep the color consistent, it is important to compare with the base color and previous color for final confirmation. Especially in the animation production, a little difference of color can influence the quality of work; therefore, it requires a through check.

Finally, paints are bottled!

Since the early days of Japanimation, many animators have loved the high-quality paints of Nicker. The technique of craftsmen and the corporate efforts of quality control, are their secrets to keep providing the sufficient level of quality.

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