History


We shall release information regarding the seminar statement by updating this page on a regular basis.

This seminar series has closed.
For more information, please refer to "Looking back on FPTS".

■The beginnings of this seminar

This seminar, operated as A Film Production Technique Seminar, continues a seminar begin by organizers Vislab OSAKA and the digital games department of Osaka Electro-Communication University. We helped to moderate the first three sessions, learning from trial-and-error as we went, while simultaneously conducting another seminar during the same period, leading to a certain amount of overlap in our speakers, etc., as we proceeded with the seminars. At that time, our intent was as follows. We should like to make as much reference as possible to this intent as we transition to operating A Film Production Technique Seminar, while also not becoming overly constrained by it.

Even as ages pass, craftsmanship leaves its mark by altering methods. This is needed as well at the time ideas are generated. For example, how can cloth be used to achieve the same texture as the feel of wrinkles produced by wadding up paper? And in the same way, how can the textures of natural mineral pigments be brought into CG? And so forth. It may be precisely because ideas like these are developed after techniques are conceptualized that something new comes into being. And the origin is often that one begins after learning of the work of earlier times. At the craftsmanship seminar, we shall equally feature both present and past as we think toward the future.


■2018-

Starting in May, 2018, we began to explore for solutions after taking over the seminar series. Upon taking over, under a single seminar series titled "A Film Production Technique Seminar", we changed the title of the original "Craftsmanship Seminar" to "Craftsmanship and Artist Technique". At the present time, as we develop the "A Film Production Technique Seminar" seminar project, we should like it to focus on artistic skill and methodology. Because we produce video or games, systematic restrictions or limitations resulting from working in a group exist, but we are exploring direction in such issues as how each artist in that context develops her or his artistic individuality and skill, and how they deploy their artisanship as occupational ability within the respective confines of film production.
We plan to hold the seminar on a by-invitation basis and to keep the number of participants low, as we have done with "Film Production Pipelines and Artistic Techniques".

History of "Film Production Pipelines and Artist Techniques", etc.
https://a-film-production-technique-seminar.com/fppat/fppat_history.html


■2018.08-

As we would take into consideration the future direction of "Craftsmanship and Artist Technique" at the fourth session of the seminar, we conducted it at a somewhat challenging level as we selected topics of discussion uninhibitedly. As links of various kinds to cloud infrastructure become more routine at many studios, in artists' working environments, as well as the work and development environments of technical artists, a deep understanding of information literacy is sought during operations, and we have become aware that, without a perspective similar to the issues taken up in "Film Production Pipelines and Artistic Techniques", in the present situation it will become more difficult for studios to pursue artistic individuality.

Then, at sessions of "Craftsmanship and Artist Technique" held from September, 2018 onward, as we continued to be aware of things like dealing with overseas studios toward OSS, of which Academy Software Foundation is representative, we decided to conduct the sessions while bearing in mind our intention to proceed in this with a limited number of participants, focusing on artistic individuality within the group-based work that comprises film production or game development, and centering on participants with a given level of understanding of information literacy.

News release pertaining to Academy Software Foundation:
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press-release/2018/08/academy-of-motion-picture-arts-and-sciences-and-the-linux-foundation-launch-the-academy-software-foundation/


■End of 2018-

As we had reached our initial goals as well as a given understanding through "Film Production Pipelines and Artist Techniques", in addition to having reached the limits of our abilities on the moderator side, we decided to continue holding "Craftsmanship and Artist Techniques" hereafter, continuing to include parts of those earlier elements.

For more information, please see the following:
https://a-film-production-technique-seminar.com/fppat/fppat_history.html


■2019.03-

On 2 February 2019, we conducted the first "Craftsmanship and Artist Techniques", a seminar inheriting discussion topics from "Film Production Pipelines and Artist Techniques", as well as a similar perspective. Following the precedent set by "Film Production Pipelines and Artist Techniques" up through its last iteration, very worthwhile discussions were held this time featuring the connections between pipelines for film production and game engines. However, the fact that the two studios acting as moderators have almost completely transitioned to server-side development, while client-side development predominates in the game field, ultimately emerged as a major difference.

In these circumstances, as of 2019, we have decided for the moment to focus on conducting future installments of "Craftsmanship and Artist Techniques" predominantly on the subject of film production, even as we remain aware of the fact that news is increasingly appearing about development at various cloud service companies, as well as overseas game studios, toward cloud gaming, and as we also keep in mind plans for interaction between the two fields at some advantageous time.

More on the transition to server side development can be found at the page below:
https://a-film-production-technique-seminar.com/fppat/materials/ppi_phones_departure_standard/index.html

"A Film Production Technique Seminar", jointly operated by the two studios Polygon Pictures and Studio Phones, started in 2016 with "Film Production Pipelines and Artist Techniques". However, from March 2019, through the opportunity of a consulting request from Polygon Pictures to Studio Phones we have decided to draw this seminar series to a close, with the aim to put the plans discussed therein into practice in a more involved approach between the two studios.
In the remaining few sessions, while reviewing the points covered in past seminars and with an eye to compiling and sharing the content of these discussions, we would like to proceed with planning our steps going forward so that we can address topics concerning production pipelines, craftsmanship, and artist techniques from an even deeper perspective.

■2019.07-

From March 2019 onward, as we drew this seminar series to a close, in the remaining few sessions the two moderating studios held discussions, as we looked back on past seminars, on how best to compile and release the discussions which occurred during the seminars.

On one hand, these two studios had proceeded with advancements in the form of server-side development which differ markedly from the concerns and initiatives of other studios, and there had been a sharp drop in studios which execute trials under similar circumstances.

Thus, the next Craftsmanship and Artist Techniques 20190928 will be the last seminar, at which the two moderator studios shall look back on prior seminars and present challenges pertaining to present image production pipelines and artistic techniques, and then hereafter we have determined that we shall switch to a method of operation, not involving seminars, but rather involving compilations of prior seminar content or dispatches on the status of innovation or challenges faced at the two studios, while taking care to continually improve pages of related documentation, as well as proceeding in the direction of continuing to confirm the value of widely exhibiting individual studios' technical strategies or of the potential achievable via sharing individual improvements and methods for inter-studio improvement, improvement of internal compliance in the form of appropriate application of academic knowledge, and the dissemination of technical information, etc., as distinct from company public relations.

Though its format has changed, we should like to continue making improvements going forward, keeping in mind the objectives of "A Film Production Technique Seminar" from the time it was established around 2016.

For an account of the launch of A Film Production Technique Seminar, please see the following:
https://a-film-production-technique-seminar.com/fppat/fppat_history.html