Transformers Animation Errors - AKOM

Description YT

AKOM is a Transformers animation company that made a lot of animation errors. I looked into AKOM a little bit. Nelson Shin, the director of Transformers the Movie and Transformers episodes went and opened his own animation company, AKOM:

A for animation, KO for Korea, M for movie.

He created his own studio to create Transformers episodes. And he brought work to people from his own country but they didn't have the expertise of Japan. He started to build that expertise in his own country.

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Excerpt from Split Screen S8E1: The Making of Simpsons (1999)
Frank Shin
Early in 1980s because of the high wage problems in Hollywood at that time, they started looking at different options. When directors and producers from Hollywood came through Korea and said okay we wanna make this film. They would actually teach Koreans how to animate.
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And if you think about what we see as subpar animation, underneath that is what Nelson Shin did for the people of his own country:

create some of the earliest animation jobs ever provided in Korea. That made me just not want to judge AKOM as much. It doesn't absolve them of the fact that they made a lot of animation errors, but obviously they weren't as experienced as Japan.

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Excerpt from Split Screen S8E1: The Making of Simpsons (1999)
This is very old animatic sent from US.
Oh, so this comes from the US.
Yeah.
So basically his job is to take this and turn it into the TV show.
This is Marge.
So what is she doing now?
She's painting the drawings on cells.
Each cell has to be drawn individually.
Yeah. Average, they paint almost hundred cells a day.
How many cells are in each show?
About 20,000.
What are their hours?
10:00 AM to 6:30 PM.
It's not too bad.
Not too bad.
I am here live in Korea to give you a firsthand look at how American cartoons are made.
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AKOM is still operating to this day and they've worked on now, I don't know, how many animations, but if you think about how far they've come? I know they work on Simpsons. So they've come a long way and it couldn't have started without some of the practice that they got on the early Transformers episodes.

As an animator myself, I'm gonna make mistakes like AKOM, like draw something wrong or color something wrong. Animation is inherently a very time consuming work that requires a high degree of concentration.

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Excerpt from Akira: Production Report 1988
The site of the Akira Production Studio, a studio that never shuts down. It is now 2:00 AM and even at this late hour, the staff is still hard at work. Over 150,000 cells or drawings have to be produced in order to make this film.
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Japanese people are able to create that high quality of animation only through experience and a work ethic that is among the best in the world. But that work ethic can take a toll on its people. What's a few animation errors of it means you can go home to your family and eat dinner together?

I'm saying these things as a reminder to you all about the important things in life, like family and a healthy lifestyle.

#transformers #transformersg1 #transformersmovie #80scartoons #cartoonanimation