| Held on April 28th,2010. | ||||||||||
| Mr. Leiji Matsumoto, one of Japan's most famous manga artists whom our representative director and CTO Tomonobu Itagaki regards as his mentor, has visited Valhalla Game Studios to share some precious stories and give some great encouraging words. | ||||||||||
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The Watch that Traveled in Space | ||||||||||
| Matsumoto | That's an interesting watch you're wearing. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes, it's a Breitling. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | You know, I like airplanes very much. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes, I am aware. This model was developed by Breitling with the Italian air force, and is called the Chronomat. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | I see. Mine is a Seiko diver's watch. I traveled all over the world with it. India, Africa, the Amazon. The South Pacific, Nile and Amazon rivers, I swam in all of them. Then finally, Mr. Mamoru Mohri, the astronaut, took this watch to outer space. So this watch has traveled to outer space and returned. I've been using it for decades now. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Is that so! | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | It's tough as nails, this watch. I once went into a hot spring bath in Atami and forgot to take the watch off. But it was fine. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | That's impressive, how it can survive a hot spring. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | I poured lots of cold water on it right away. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | A natural reaction, yes. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | I first thought maybe I'd piss on it. | |||||||||
| All | (Giant laughter) | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | But there were other guests, so I didn't, and I jumped into the place with the faucet. It's stubbornly water-proof, so no normal-temperature water ever gets in, but hot water can be a bit of a problem. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | I see. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | The other one is the Breitling model with the rotating bezel, the one with the slide rule. I use that one as well. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Mine also... (rotates bezel on watch) | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | Yours rotates too. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes, it rotates. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | And also, the Omega space watch. I was asked to design this one. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Wow! | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | Ah, yes. The Omega "Moon to Mars", the one that Mr. Soichi Noguchi has. I designed this model. The one that Ms. Naoko Yamazaki took with her on her mission is the Maetel model, with an engraving of Maetel on the back side. I can't go to space myself, but my watches have. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Hmmmmm. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | I know, I want to fly out there. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes, we all want to fly out there. | |||||||||
First Encounter | ||||||||||
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I have been told that Itagaki-san has met Matsumoto-sensei before. I think it was in the restroom of a voice actor's recording studio? (Laughs) | |||||||||
| Itagaki | (Laughs) Yes, that's right. It was a long time ago, but I went to the studio to record voices for a game. I saw the posters of Maetel all over the studio walls, including the hallway and the waiting room, so I should have noticed it then, but I was young. I didn't notice what was going on, and just got right into the recording session. | |||||||||
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Is that so. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes. Then, I went to the restroom during a break, and there I saw Matsumoto-sensei. I could only see the side of his face, but when the realization that "This is Matsumoto-sensei!" hit me, I totally lost my desire to void. | |||||||||
| All | (Laughs) | |||||||||
| Itagaki | So I waited for him to come out of the restroom, and he did, so I introduced myself and asked for a handshake. I told him that I was a huge fan of his, and have seen all of his works, and he said with a kind voice, "Well, I'm sorry I made you waste so much money". (Laughs) | |||||||||
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Itagaki-san, you have been making video games for quite some time now. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | Video games. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes, it's been 18 years now. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | So have you been well accustomed to using computers or the keyboard from a young age? | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes. My father was an engineer at Toshiba, so we had a workstation in the house from when I was very young. Like the SORD computer... | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | Ah yes, one of those. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes, that era. So I have been using a computer from those days. Right now, I'm making games in a company called Valhalla with Kanematsu. | |||||||||
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Before this interview, we told Matsumoto-sensei the name "Valhalla", and he said "This means 'Utopia' or 'Mahoroba'*1, yes?" | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes. It's where the gods gather. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | May the fates protect us, right? | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes. | |||||||||
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The Evolution of Computer Graphics | ||||||||||
| Itagaki | Could you look at footages from games I made in the past? | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | Sure. Let me see. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Thank you very much. | |||||||||
| -- Setting up Video -- | ||||||||||
| Itagaki | This is the story of ninjas who live in the light and shadows. There are two ninja tribes, one who stands in the center stage, and one who supports the other from the shadows, with more focus on fighting. These two schools live in their own villages, separated by a mountain. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | I see. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | So, the light-side ninjas are headed by a maternal line of leaders, and two daughters are born in this family. The elder daughter is taken to the world of light, and loved and nurtured. The younger one, however, is sent to the other, more aggressive village, as insurance to carry on the lineage should the worst happen. A backup for when the child in the light is killed, per se. This footage outlines their fate. | |||||||||
| -- Watching Video -- | ||||||||||
| Matsumoto |
(Pointing at the beginning of the film, where the camera flies low over a stormy ocean) This is computer graphics, yes? |
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| Itagaki | Yes. It's the image of a torpedo attack scene. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | I see. | |||||||||
| -- (After watching video) -- | ||||||||||
| Matsumoto | It's almost like you don't need actors anymore. | |||||||||
| All | (Laughs) | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | The skin is all shiny here, but once you start adding wrinkles and things like that, you start to lose track of whether this is a picture or for real. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | And this technology is about 7 years old. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | This is 7 years ago. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | So it's already gone this far 7 years ago. No wonder no one can trust the news anymore. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | (Laughs) | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | Because you can do anything. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | That's true. This one is kind of wet, and we tried making something based on Japan in the past. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | If this is 7 year old technology, I would like to use current technology to create a period piece film. You can make beautiful women that don't exist and powerful warriors too. Realistic-looking ones. And you don't have to build a backdrop set either. | |||||||||
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We'd love to see a period piece film by Matsumoto-sensei. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | In the past, for example, people would make a death mask to save a person's face. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | Yes, yes. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Now, if you go into a special space, you can get a 3D data right away. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | Yes, that's right. And you can engage the data as you like. With voice too. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Yes. You can capture the facial expressions too. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | Blinks and everything. Actors are in a really tight spot now. I'm actually making a film right now, and we tried engaging the actor's voice in a test version. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | I see. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | I read the lines in a flat voice, in time with the lip movements. Then what comes out is the actor's voice. Even if you run it through a voice spectrogram analyzer, it comes out as the actor's voice. So you'd feel ill at ease. You'd need a protector for such a device. Otherwise, you could be credited for saying something you didn't. | |||||||||
| Itagaki | Ah, I see. Indeed. | |||||||||
| Matsumoto | Things are advancing. 3D means "solid expression", but "3D animation" roughly equates to animation without a main line drawing*2. What I just saw is the pinnacle of 3D animation. | |||||||||
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Home > Itagaki's > Special Cross-talk Interview with Mr. Leiji Matsumoto (Part 1 of 2)
Special Cross-talk Interview with Mr. Leiji Matsumoto (Part 1 of 2)
November 11,2010
Thought
Cross Talk
Special Cross Talk
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