Interview with Transformers Prime animators Polygon Studios

- Firstly, tell us about your company, Polygon Pictures.
Santoh: The majority of our work is in creating animations. Our past work includes movies like "The Sky Crawlers" and cinematics for the "Street Fighter" video game series. We have also created many full CG animation series for television and visuals for exhibitions.

- Tell us about how you came to be responsible for "Transformers: Prime" animation.
Santoh: Polygon Pictures had worked on animation shows made for overseas televison in the past, and because of our work with staff members who are currently working on "TF: Prime", we received an offer to join the production.

- How did you feel when you found out you would be working on "Transformers" series?
Santoh: I had an impression that (Transformers) originated from Japan and the brand had been developed via various media worldwide. These days people associate Transformers with live action movies - however, those works feature VFX of transcendent quality, and to be honest I was initially uncertain of what we were expected to do. The first script we received explained (the story was) set three years after "Revenge of The Fallen", though it is an ambitious project with new character settings and designs. I resolved to make a proper product worthy of the brand.

- What was the difference from your other works in the past?
Santoh: I was amazed at the large volume of action scenes in a 22 minute episode when we received the first rough script and storyboard.
Sato: There are many action scenes included, and they require quite a large volume of 3D drawing. The script was more like a movie than a TV show for children, and while I thought it looked interesting, I also wondered how we would manage it. (*laughs*)
Santoh: All the main characters had to be ready from the very beginning as they were to be all present in every episode, that was very hard, too.