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  • French animator Vincent Chansard works on major Japanese anime projects

French animator Vincent Chansard works on major Japanese anime projects

Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
Work by the talented French animator Vincent Chansard. (Supplied)
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03 Dec 2021 10:12:56 GMT9
03 Dec 2021 10:12:56 GMT9

Amin Abbas

DUBAI: French 2D animator and storyboard artist Vincent Chansard, who has worked on major Japanese anime projects including Black Clover, Boruto and Fate Grand Order, as well as Western cartoons like Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, discusses the inspiration behind his work. 

In an exclusive interview with Arab News Japan, Chansard explained how he was first introduced to  anime and manga and and highlighted the differences between the Japanese and French animation styles.

“I guess what got me into manga and anime was pretty much the same thing as anyone, a friend showed me a manga. I started reading it and felt like it was pretty cool. My favorite manga which holds a really dear place in my heart is without surprises ‘One Piece’, it was my first ever manga, and it eventually motivated me to start drawing,” Chansard said.

“My favorite anime would be Sailor moon, it’s one of the first anime I remember watching as a kid even before I knew what anime was. And as someone who was really sad at the early One Piece anime, Sailor moon was one of these shows that made me realize all manga adaptations aren’t artistically doomed,” he added.

About his visit to Japan, Vincent Chansard said:” I have not been in Japan yet, hopefully once we get free from the Covid-19 pandemic. I might take some vacation there with friends.”

While Chansard has not yet visited Japan and has a limited understanding of their culture,  he credits Shonen for influencing his motivation and teaching him that “hard works always pays in the end.”

Speaking about the process of establishing his career as an animator, Chansard said “I started animating for real when I was in prep school for animation. At the time like most young French artist into animation, I was thinking about becoming a character designer, but I slowly realized I was really bad at designing things and did not enjoy it as much as animating.”

“The first ever project I worked for in the animation field was a quick storyboard for a French company. Not particularly interesting but it gave me some decent money for my studies. The first Anime thing I worked on was a league of legend advertising directed by Shingo Yamashita at Japanese studio P.A. Works,” he added.

One of the major challenges Chansard faced in the production of his projects includes getting accustomed to the Japanese pipeline, like writing a timesheet and knowing how to indicate effects in Japanese.

“It’s a lot of technical knowledge to learn in a really short time while having to do the actual animating,” he said.

Chansard also offered a comparison in the animation styles and working conditions between Japan and Europe, drawing attention to the payment disparities and content.

“It really does depend, I guess it all changes from production to production and studios to studio. But from my experience, Europe pays on average ten times more than Japan, but the projects are overall less interesting and animation is most of the time less challenging. People are also a bit different, the mentality in France production is sometimes a bit depressing, people don’t always care about doing a good work, Chansard said.

Regarding the animator’s future plans, Chansard said that he aspired to create a studio with some friends in France. I’d like to make a studio with some friends and classmates to create some stuff in France.”

For those who seek to pursue a career as an animation artist, Chansard provided several recommendations.

“The first one would obviously be animating a lot, and trying having as much fun doing it as possible. The second one would be to put their art online once in a while. Japan’s animation industry is desperately looking for animators, so it’s really easy to get started if you stuff get noticed online.”

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