Have you ever seen a zoetrope? If today’s sophisticated computer animation is the latest evolution of the form, then the remarkable zoetrope is a crucial ancestor; the transitional form between the drawing and the animation.

等皆你见过 西洋镜 ？ 如果说当今复杂的计算机动画是这种形式的最新发展，那么卓越的动物共生体就是至关重要的祖先。 绘图和动画之间的过渡形式。

First developed in the 1830s and then refined by the 1860s, the zoetrope was an important precursor to film animation. In principle, it isn’t too dissimilar from the humble flip book. The viewer looks at a series of pictures arranged in a sequence, which spin rapidly, causing an illusion of motion. Although the flip book is largely regarded as a children’s novelty item, it is nonetheless an effective — if simple — demonstration of fundamental animation principles. I distinctly remember my mother showing me how to create a flip book when I was little. She simply scrawled some figures on a few sticky notes (still snugly stuck together in a pad) and flipped through them with her thumb. I still remember the sensation of being utterly floored as her little stick figures appeared to spontaneously come alive and begin dancing around before my very eyes.

zootrope最初在1830年代开发，然后在1860年代进行了完善，是电影动画的重要先驱。 原则上，它与不起眼的翻书没有太大的不同。 观看者观看按顺序排列的一系列图片，这些图片快速旋转，从而引起运动的错觉。 尽管这本翻书在很大程度上被视为儿童的新奇事物，但它仍然是动画基础原理的有效(即使简单)演示。 我清楚地记得母亲在我小的时候向我展示了如何制作翻书。 她只是简单地在一些便签上划了一些数字(仍然紧密地粘在垫子上)，然后用拇指翻过它们。 我仍然记得那种感觉，因为她的小棍子形象自发地活着并开始在我眼前开始跳舞。

大师剧院 (MASTERPIECE THEATER)

I suspect many children have experienced a similar revelation. In the case of Yoichi Kotabe, the legendary Japanese animator, it turns out that a very similar experience sparked a life-long love affair with the moving image. In Kotabe’s version of the story, sticky notes were not the medium of choice. His mother instead drew stick figures — who happened to be exercising — on the corners of several pages in one of his school text books. Kotabe was five years old at the time, and could have had no idea that this event would set him on an extraordinary path in later life.

我怀疑许多孩子也经历过类似的启示。 对于传说中的日本动画师小Yo阳一来说，事实证明，非常相似的经历激发了人们对动画影像的终生爱情。 在Kotabe的故事版本中，便笺不是选择的媒介。 相反，他的母亲在他一本学校教科书中几页的角落上画了棒图-刚好在锻炼。 Kotabe当时只有五岁，可能不知道这一事件会让他走上一条非同寻常的道路。

Born in Taipei in 1936, the memory of his mother’s moving pictures ultimately led to Kotabe studying Japanese-style painting at Tokyo University of the Arts in the late 1950s. Prior to entering university, doodling had been consuming more and more of his time, to the point where his grades were falling. Mid-century Japan was a place where various forms of popular art (manga, for example) were largely disregarded by ‘serious artists’. Jobs for Japanese-style painting were few and far between. Such was his commitment to art that Kotabe ultimately decided to pursue his ambition to become an accomplished painter (like his university instructor, the great Seison Maeda), even if it meant living a poor artist’s life.

1936年生于台北，母亲对电影的记忆最终导致Kobebe在1950年代后期在东京艺术大学学习日式绘画。 在上大学之前，涂鸦已经消耗了他越来越多的时间，直到他的成绩下降。 本世纪中叶，日本是各种地方的大众艺术 (例如漫画 )在很大程度上被“严肃的艺术家”所忽视的地方。 日式绘画的工作很少而且相差甚远。 正是由于他对艺术的承诺，小田幸三最终决定追求成为一名有成就的画家的雄心壮志(就像他的大学讲师， 著名的前田诚一 )，即使这意味着过着贫穷的画家的生活。

Kotabe’s suspicions about a lack of demand for his skills in the professional world were largely confirmed when he graduated from university. At least for a time, Kotabe faced the reality that “there were no jobs involving drawing pictures”. But it wasn’t long before Toei Animation (then known as Toei Doga Co., Ltd.) began furiously recruiting. They had not long before produced Japan’s very first full-length animated film: Panda and the Magic Serpent, released in 1958. Kotabe — who had grown up loving Disney animation, and believed that Japan could never hope to match up — was thoroughly impressed by the film. It opened his eyes to the possibilities of domestic animation, and he was determined to land a job at Toei.

Kotabe在大学毕业后就对自己在专业领域缺乏技能的怀疑得到了充分证实。 至少有一段时间，Kotabe面临着一个现实，即“没有涉及绘画的工作”。 但是不久之后，都营动画公司(当时的都营都田制作所有限公司)开始疯狂招募。 他们不久之前就制作了日本的第一部全长动画电影：1958年发行的熊猫和魔术蛇 。Kotabe(他从小就喜欢迪士尼动画，并认为日本永远也希望与之匹敌)，给他们留下了深刻的印象。这个电影。 它使他对国产动画的可能性大开眼界，他决心在东映公司找到一份工作。

Kotabe joined Toei at a crucial time for Japanese animation. His contemporaries included legendary animators such as Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, who both went on to found the groundbreaking Studio Ghibli in 1985.

Kotabe在日本动画的关键时刻加入了Toei。 他的同时代人包括高ao勋(Isao Takahata)和宫崎骏(Hayao Miyazaki)等传奇动画师，他们于1985年共同创立了开创性的吉卜力工作室(Studio Ghibli)。

For the first three years of his career, Kotabe assisted other artists and animators. They would produce key frames (the critical frames within a movement sequence), while Kotabe and others would create the movement frames in between. It was a rite of passage for a young animator and an opportunity to learn valuable skills from some of the greatest animation talent in Japan. Throughout the 1960s, Kotabe worked on numerous features at Toei including Little Prince and the Eight Headed Dragon (1963), Little Norse Prince Valiant (1968), and Puss ‘n Boots (1969). He also contributed to two early TV series, Ninja the Wonderboy (1964) and Hustle Punch (1965).

在他职业生涯的前三年中，Kotabe协助了其他艺术家和动画师。 他们将生成关键帧(运动序列中的关键帧)，而Kotabe和其他人将在两者之间创建运动帧。 对于年轻的动画师来说，这是一次通过的仪式，也是一次向日本一些最伟大的动画人才学习有价值的技能的机会。 在整个1960年代，Kotabe都在Toei从事过许多创作工作，包括《 小王子与八头龙》 (1963)，《 小北欧王子瓦利安》 (1968)和《 猫与靴子》 (1969)。 他还为两个早期的电视连续剧做出了贡献： 《神童》 ( Ninja the Wonderboy) (1964)和《 喧嚣的拳头》 ( Hustle Punch) (1965)。

Kotabe may have already built a formidable career through much of the 1960s, but he was becoming increasingly disillusioned with Toei.

Kotabe可能已经在1960年代的大部分时间里建立了强大的职业，但他对Toei的幻想越来越幻灭。

“At first, the company had a great deal of creative enthusiasm, but gradually it came to prioritise profits. Rather than producing original works, it started looking for popular manga serials and other materials to adapt. Even my own desire to create something fresh began to disappear.”

“起初，公司具有很大的创造热情，但是逐渐地，它开始优先考虑利润。 它不再生产原创作品，而是开始寻找流行的漫画系列和其他材料来适应。 甚至我自己创造新鲜事物的欲望也开始消失。”

Yoichi Kotabe

小部阳一

This change in culture at Toei had an impact on Kotabe. He increasingly felt that he wasn’t bringing his full self to his projects — that he wasn’t taking creative risks. It was actually Isao Takahata who inspired him to shed that fear, thanks to his film, The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun. It was Takahata’s directorial debut and his first major collaboration with Hayao Miyazaki. It was a unique project at the time because it was a marked departure from Toei’s increasing tendency to quickly turn around animated TV series (which typically took 8–10 months), where this project was in development for almost three years.

都营文化的这种变化对Kotabe产生了影响。 他越来越感到自己没有将自己的全部精力投入到他的项目中-他没有承担创造性的风险。 其实，正是由于他的电影《太阳王子荷鲁斯大冒险》，高Is Isao激发了他摆脱这种恐惧。 这是高hat导演的处女作，也是他与宫崎骏的首次重大合作。 当时这是一个独特的项目，因为它与ToeiSwift转向动画电视连续剧(通常需要8到10个月)的发展趋势明显背离，而该项目的开发已经进行了将近三年。

As Kotabe’s confidence increased, he decided to leave Toei. He would also soon work on one of Japan’s most famous TV series: Heidi, Girl of the Alps, on which he collaborated with both Takahata and Miyazaki. The series, which aired in 1974, was produced by Zuiyo Eizo (now Nippon Animation). It formed part of the broader World Masterpiece Theater program — a Japanese TV staple that ran from 1969 to 1997 and 2007 to 2009. The concept involved screening an animated adaptation of a piece of classic childrens’ literature each year at 7:30pm on a Sunday. Heidi, Girl of the Alps remains popular in Japan to this day, and has even spawned an official postage stamp. Kotabe continued to collaborate with Takahata and Miyazaki, too. Perhaps the two most notable projects he played a role in were Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Grave of the Fireflies (1988).

随着Kotabe的信心增强，他决定离开Toei。 他还将很快制作日本最著名的电视连续剧之一： 阿尔卑斯女孩海蒂(Heidi)，并与高hat和宫崎骏合作。 该系列于1974年播出，由Zuiyo Eizo(现为日本动画)制作。 它构成了更广泛的世界杰作剧院计划的一部分- 世界电视巨著的日本电视节目于1969年至1997年以及2007年至2009年播出。该概念涉及每年星期日的晚上7:30放映一部经典儿童文学作品的动画改编。 。 时至今日，阿尔卑斯山姑娘海蒂(Heidi)在日本仍然很受欢迎，甚至还发行了官方邮票。 Kotabe也继续与高hat和宫崎骏合作。 他扮演的两个最著名的项目也许是风之谷的娜乌西卡 (1984)和萤火虫坟墓 (1988)。

像素之前的画笔 (PAINTBRUSH BEFORE PIXEL)

Hiroshi Ikeda, born in Tokyo in 1934, is currently a part-time lecturer at Takarazuka University of Art and Design. The fortunate students who attend his classes find themselves in the presence of an impressive figure. Ikeda embodies almost half a century of evolution in the animation world. Like Kotabe, Takahata, and Miyazaki, Ikeda’s career was forged at Toei. He was the writer and director of feature films The Flying Ghost Ship (1969) and Animal Treasure Island (1971), and later undertook a similar role on several prominent TV series. But unlike his three contemporaries, Ikeda’s career took a decisive turn in 1974. He was appointed section chief for Toei’s research and development department.

池田宏志(Hiroshi Ikeda)于1934年出生于东京，目前是宝冢艺术与设计大学的兼职讲师。 参加课程的幸运学生会发现自己的身影令人印象深刻。 池田体现了动画世界近半个世纪的发展。 像Kotabe，Takahata和Miyazaki一样，池田的职业生涯在Toei进行。 他曾担任长片《飞鬼船》 (1969年)和《 动物宝藏岛》 (1971年)的编剧和导演，后来在多个著名电视连续剧中担任类似角色。 但是，与他的三个同时代人不同，池田的职业生涯在1974年发生了决定性的转变。他被任命为东映研究与开发部门的部门主管。

In roughly a ten year period (between 1974 and 1984), Ikeda oversaw the computerisation of animation production at Toei. Consider, for a moment, the extraordinary skillset this man possessed and brought to bear at a time when the Japanese animation industry was rapidly expanding and computer technology was being more widely leveraged around the world. His experience as a writer and director gave Ikeda a deep understanding of the creative process behind animated films and TV series. His management of Toei’s research and development department put his hands on the strategic reigns of Japan’s largest and most prominent animation studio. Ikeda was a figure who drove the bleeding edge of animation production in Japan for a decade; he was uniquely equipped to thrive at the intersection between traditional animation and modern computer technology.

在大约十年的时间里(1974年至1984年)，池田负责了都营动画制作的计算机化工作。 考虑一下，在日本动画产业Swift发展且计算机技术在世界范围内得到广泛利用的时代，这个人拥有并发挥了非凡的技能。 他作为作家和导演的经验使池田对动画电影和电视剧背后的创作过程有了深刻的了解。 他对Toei研究与开发部门的管理将他的手放在了日本最大，最著名的动画工作室的战略统治上。 池田(Ikeda)是一位推动日本动画制作前沿10年的人物。 他具有独特的技能，能够在传统动画与现代计算机 技术的交汇中蓬勃发展。

In 1985, Ikeda’s dual backgrounds converged completely when he joined Nintendo. His career at the company began in the Research and Development 4 (R&D4) department, which itself later became known as Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD). Prior to the creation of R&D4, programmers had largely been responsible for game design at Nintendo. But the breakout success of Donkey Kong (1981) — created by Shigeru Miyamoto, a graphic designer, not a programmer — sparked a quantum shift at the company. Ikeda became general manager of this new department, with Shigeru Miyamoto acting as chief producer.

1985年，池田加入任天堂时的双重背景完全融合。 他在公司的职业生涯始于研发4(R＆D4)部门，该部门后来被称为娱乐分析与开发(EAD)。 在创建R＆D4之前，程序员在Nintendo负责游戏设计。 但是由图形设计师而不是程序员的宫本茂(Shigeru Miyamoto)创造的《大金刚》 ( Donkey Kong ，1981)取得了突破性的成功，引发了公司的一次量子转变。 池田出任新部门总经理，宫本茂担任首席制作人。

Although Nintendo was not an animation company, and didn’t have significant experience with in-house artists, it was increasingly relying on art and graphic design for its projects. More and more, the company was outsourcing art and graphics work to veteran animators (such as Takao Kozai, another Toei employee, who created the character art for Nintendo’s iconic Punch Out!! arcade game).

尽管任天堂不是一家动画公司，并且没有与内部艺术家的丰富经验，但它越来越依赖美术和图形设计来进行项目。 该公司越来越多地将艺术和图形工作外包给资深动画师(例如Toei的另一位员工Takao Kozai，他为任天堂的标志性Punch Out !!街机游戏创作了角色艺术)。

Ikeda recognised the need for Nintendo to build a strong internal capability around art and animation. A prominent career at Toei had given him impressive contacts to reach out to for help, including one Yoichi Kotabe.

池田意识到任天堂需要围绕艺术和动画建立强大的内部能力。 Toei的杰出职业生涯给他留下了令人印象深刻的联系，包括一名小平洋一(Yoichi Kotabe)寻求帮助。

The timing was perfect. Kotabe had become increasingly disillusioned at Toei. His career, he felt, had stagnated. Immediately after leaving Toei, Kotabe took on various freelance projects — but these were unsatisfying, because he was working on pieces of larger creative works, never seeing an entire project all the way through. After meeting with Ikeda at a coffee shop — and receiving an offer to join Nintendo — Kotabe saw an opportunity to do something genuinely new. Ikeda had pointed out that game creators required more knowledge about animation. Kotabe had almost no experience with video games (having only previously played Space Invaders), and he initially couldn’t understand how his knowledge would apply to the medium. But if Ikeda thought it a good idea, then Kotabe was happy to give it a shot. He figured he’d hang around for a year or two at most.

时机是完美的。 Kotabe在Toei变得越来越幻灭。 他觉得他的事业停滞了。 离开东映后不久，小田部采取了各种兼职项目-但这些都未能如愿，因为他的工作在更大的创意作品件 ，从来没有看到整个项目全部通过的方式。 在与池田在一家咖啡店会面后，并收到了加入任天堂的邀请后，小田晃二看到了一个做真正新事物的机会。 池田指出，游戏创作者需要更多有关动画的知识。 Kotabe几乎没有视频游戏的经验(仅以前玩过《 太空侵略者》 )，他最初不了解他的知识如何应用于媒体。 但是，如果池田认为这是个好主意，那么Kotabe很乐意试一试。 他认为自己最多只能待一两年。

蘑菇王国之旅 (JOURNEY TO THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM)

It didn’t take long for Yoichi Kotabe to understand why Ikeda had offered him a job at Nintendo. His first introduction to the company was momentous. In an initial meeting with Shigeru Miyamoto, Kotabe was shown Super Mario Bros. It was a revelation. For Kotabe, this project was an example of the bold innovation he had felt was dwindling during his final years at Toei. It also clearly signalled Nintendo’s intentions for video games — Kotabe could see what the developers were trying to achieve, even if they weren’t all the way there yet.

Kobebe Yoichi很快就了解了池田为何向他提供了在任天堂的工作。 他对公司的第一次介绍很重要。 在与宫本茂(Shigeru Miyamoto)的初次会面中，向小田秀(Kotabe)展示了超级马里奥兄弟(Super Mario Bros)。这是一个启示。 对于Kotabe来说，这个项目是他在都营工作的最后几年中感到逐渐减少的大胆创新的一个例子。 这也清楚地表明了任天堂的视频游戏意图-Kotabe可以看到开发人员正在努力实现的目标，即使它们还没有完全实现。

“When I first saw all the movements Mario was performing in Super Mario Bros., I thought that video games were now doing what the original animation industry was forgetting.”

“当我第一次看到Mario在《超级马里奥兄弟》中所做的所有动作时，我认为视频游戏现在正在做原始动画业所忘记的事情。”

Yoichi Kotabe

小部阳一

It’s easy to look back on history and to retrospectively divine some grand prescience — but Kotabe’s start at Nintendo was more awkward than anything else. It was as though the they had acquired a powerful weapon, but didn’t quite know how to wield it. Early on, Kotabe would arrive at the company’s enormous Kyoto office building and spend the day doodling whatever came to mind — he was a man without a project.

回顾历史并回顾一些伟大的先知很容易-但是Kotabe在任天堂的起步比其他任何事情都更加尴尬。 好像他们已经获得了强大的武器，但并不十分了解如何运用它。 早些时候，Kotabe会来到公司巨大的京都办公大楼，花一整天的时间涂鸦想念的一切-他是一个没有项目的人。

Not only that, but much of the work Kotabe produced early on was impractical. For example, one of his early pieces was an animation of Luigi spinning around in circles. Miyamoto rejected the idea simply because it used too many frames — it simply wasn’t possible to use it in a game. Kotabe and Miyamoto worked together to find a happy medium between Kotabe’s original animation and the technological limitations of game technology at the time. The first of Kotabe’s work that was actually used was the animated flying carpet in Super Mario Bros. 2 (and even that required several iterations; Kotabe had to reduce the number of total frames and then tailor the animation so that it would smoothly repeat in an ongoing cycle).

不仅如此，Kotabe早期所做的许多工作都是不切实际的。 例如，他的早期作品之一是Luigi绕圈旋转的动画。 宫本之所以拒绝这个想法，仅仅是因为它使用了太多的帧-在游戏中根本不可能使用它。 Kotabe和Miyamoto共同努力，在Kotabe的原始动画与当时游戏技术的局限性之间找到了一个快乐的中介。 Kotabe实际使用的第一部作品是《 Super Mario Bros. 2》中的动画飞毯(甚至需要多次迭代； Kotabe必须减少总帧数，然后定制动画，以便在动画中平滑地重复播放)。持续的周期)。

By the mid-1980s, Mario had already become Nintendo’s star mascot. He had existed as a character in some form, though, since Donkey Kong in 1981. Mario was Shigeru Miyamoto’s creation, and Miyamoto had produced many sketches of him — sketches that would be touched up and finalised by another artist. Miyamoto had intended to follow the same process for the cover art of Super Mario Bros., but he ran out of time, and produced the finalised artwork himself. It wasn’t a sustainable way to operate in the longer term, especially if Nintendo wanted to broaden the Mario palette and introduce both new characters and moves to the franchise.

到1980年代中期，马里奥已经成为任天堂的明星吉祥物。 不过，自1981年大金刚以来，他就以某种形式存在。作为马里奥是宫本茂的创作，宫本制作了许多他的素描，这些素描将由另一位画家修饰和定稿。 宫本原本打算对《 超级马里奥兄弟》的封面艺术采用相同的方法，但是他用光了时间，亲自制作了最终作品。 从长远来看，这不是一种可持续的经营方式，特别是如果任天堂想要扩大马里奥的阵容并引入新角色和加盟特许经营的话。

Kotabe approached the project with all the seriousness of a major feature film. He extensively interviewed Miyamoto; peppering him with all sorts of questions in order to understand his vision for the characters. It wasn’t just a question of what the characters looked like, either. Kotabe wanted to understand their personalities (Peach needed to be “stubborn, but charming”, recalls Kotabe). Kotabe played a pivotal role in expanding the Mario universe through his collaboration with Miyamoto. Bowser is a great example. Miyamoto’s original design (as seen above on the cover art for Super Mario Bros.) was more “ox-like” than anything else; in fact, he had a turtle’s body and an ox’s head. Miyamoto regarded the design as “incomprehensible”. Given that Bowser was in the “koopa” family, it made sense to make him more turtle-like. Both Miyamoto and Kotabe iterated on the design until they came to the final (current) version of the character.

Kotabe认真考虑了主要故事片的拍摄。 他广泛采访了宫本； 向他提出各种问题，以了解他对角色的看法。 也不只是字符看起来是什么问题。 Kotabe想了解他们的个性(Kotabe回忆说，桃子必须“固执，但迷人”)。 Kotabe通过与Miyamoto的合作在扩展Mario宇宙中发挥了关键作用。 鲍泽就是一个很好的例子。 宫本的原始设计(如上超级马里奥兄弟的封面所示)比其他任何东西都更像“牛”。 实际上，他有乌龟的身体和牛的头。 宫本认为设计是“难以理解的”。 考虑到鲍泽(Bowser)属于“ koopa”家族，因此使他更像乌龟似的。 Miyamoto和Kotabe都反复进行设计，直到他们到达了该角色的最终版本(当前)。

Kotabe’s role at Nintendo grew well beyond his character design collaborations with Miyamoto. It is not unreasonable to say that he became a champion of animation at the company, as well as a trusted advisor to Miyamoto. In fact, Miyamoto consulted Kotabe on numerous important decisions including recruitment. Kotabe joined Miyamoto to interview a young artist known as Yoshiaki Koizumi (who I called “Nintendo’s other Miyamoto” in his SUPERJUMP profile).

Kotabe在任天堂的角色远远超出了他与宫本的角色设计合作。 可以说，他成为了公司的动画冠军，也是宫本的值得信赖的顾问。 实际上，宫本聪就包括招募在内的许多重要决定咨询了Kotabe。 Kotabe与宫本聪一起采访了一位年轻的艺术家小泉 佳 昭 (我在他的SUPERJUMP个人资料中称其为“任天堂的另一本宫本聪” )。

To be more specific, Koizumi was an animator by trade. When Kotabe asked him “If you’re so good at animation, why do you want to join the video game industry?”, Koizumi nervously ran through his pet theories about animation. Fortunately, he didn’t actually know he was sitting in front of Shigeru Miyamoto and Yoichi Kotabe — he now admits that he shudders when recalling that interview.

更具体地说，小泉是贸易动画师。 当Kotabe问他“如果您太擅长动画，为什么要加入视频游戏行业？”时，小泉不安地跑遍了他关于动画的宠物理论。 幸运的是，他实际上并不知道自己正坐在宫本茂和小部阳一的面前-他现在承认回忆起采访时感到不寒而栗。

Koizumi went on to become a key figure at Nintendo, but early in his career there, he was mostly responsible for illustration tasks. Kotabe ensured that key principles he’d learned while working at Toei were carried over to the team at Nintendo. So, for example, when it came time to illustrate the go karts in Super Mario Kart, Kotabe took Koizumi out on a field trip to see real go karts in action. One of the key lessons here was “see the real thing and take it inside yourself” — simply viewing reference images wasn’t enough.

小泉继续成为任天堂的关键人物，但在他的职业生涯初期，他主要负责插图任务。 Kotabe确保将他在Toei工作时所学的关键原则延续到任天堂的团队中。 因此，例如，当需要在《 超级马里奥赛车》中阐释卡丁车的时候 ，小田边带小泉参加了一次实地考察，以观看真正的卡丁车的实际应用。 这里的关键课程之一是“看真实的东西并将其带入自己的内心” —仅查看参考图像是不够的。

新尺寸 (NEW DIMENSIONS)

Animation expertise became increasingly important to Nintendo as restrictions around game creation began to fall away. Where Kotabe and his colleagues had been highly constrained when designing animation on the 8-bit Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System in the West), they had greater freedom on its successor, the Super Famicom (SNES in the West). The broader canvas was enabled through significantly more powerful hardware and greater available memory. This meant it was possible to introduce more frames in an animation, more colours, and more complex sprites.

随着对游戏创作的限制逐渐消失，动画专业知识对任天堂变得越来越重要。 在Kotabe和他的同事在8位Famicom(西方的Nintendo娱乐系统)上设计动画时，他们受到极大的限制，而他们的后继者Super Famicom(西方的SNES)则拥有更大的自由度。 通过更强大的硬件和更大的可用内存来启用更广泛的画布。 这意味着可以在动画中引入更多帧，更多颜色和更复杂的精灵。

But the true value of professional animators became most evident when video games moved into the third dimension. Super Mario 64 — Nintendo’s flagship title for the new Nintendo 64 console, which launched in Japan in 1996 — put the entire team’s skills to the test in ways they could never have predicted only a few years earlier.

但是，当视频游戏进入三维领域时，专业​​动画师的真正价值就变得最为明显。 Super Mario 64是任天堂于1996年在日本推出的新Nintendo 64控制台的旗舰产品，它以一种几年前才无法预料的方式，对整个团队的技能进行了测试。

The introduction of 3D graphics to video games challenged Kotabe’s preconceptions. He assumed that the move to 3D would naturally mean the adoption of more realistic graphics and even motion capture. He was surprised when Miyamoto rejected the idea; certain forms of movement worked well for animated TV and movies, but they didn’t translate well to video games due to the unique properties that interactivity introduced to the experience. Take the example of Link from The Legend of Zelda. Imagine that Link’s sword is sheathed. An enemy jumps out at you, so you press the attack button — expecting Link to immediately bring his sword down on the enemy’s head. If this scenario were happening in real life, you’d press the button, then wait for Link to pull the sword out of the sheath, hold it up in the air, and then bring it down to strike the enemy. Miyamoto quickly recognised that this kind of approach to “realistic” animation could never work for video games because it would be extraordinarily frustrating for the player, who expected the game to respond immediately to their input.

将3D图形引入视频游戏对Kotabe的成见提出了挑战。 他认为向3D过渡自然意味着将采用更逼真的图形甚至是运动捕捉。 当宫本拒绝这个想法时，他感到惊讶。 某些运动形式对于动画电视和电影效果很好，但由于交互性给体验带来的独特属性，它们不能很好地转换为视频游戏。 以《 塞尔达传说》中的链接为例。 想象一下，林克的剑被包裹住了。 敌人会向您跳来，因此您按下攻击按钮-希望Link立即将其剑落在敌人的头上。 如果这种情况在现实生活中发生，请按一下按钮，然后等待 Link将剑从护套中拔出，将其高举在空中， 然后将其放下以打击敌人。 宫本很快意识到，这种“逼真的”动画方法对电子游戏永远是行不通的，因为这会使想让游戏立即响应其输入内容的玩家感到沮丧。

“I wasn’t rejecting realistic movement. I was giving priority to how it felt to play the game rather than to smooth movement. And when showing the movement was an important element, we emphasized on the smooth movements. I recall there were times, when I talked quite fervently about these.”

“我并没有拒绝现实的运动。 我优先考虑玩游戏而不是平稳运动。 当展示机芯是一个重要元素时，我们强调了平稳的机芯。 我记得有些时候，我非常热切地谈论过这些。”

Shigeru Miyamoto

宫本茂

Kotabe provided invaluable input as Nintendo began converting more and more franchises into 3D. One of the biggest challenges was 3D modelling; it required dramatically different skills when compared to the 2D sprite-based work from previous generations of games. One of Kotabe’s key skills from his animation background was the ability to “imagine the parts you can’t see as you draw”. This translated directly into 3D models, where it was necessary to consider which pieces needed to be chiselled away before you could actually see the end result. As well, Kotabe had a tendency to draw scenes with camera perspective in mind.

随着任天堂开始将越来越多的特许经营权转换为3D，Kotabe提供了宝贵的信息。 最大的挑战之一是3D建模。 与前几代游戏基于2D精灵的作品相比，它需要的技能截然不同。 Kotabe从动画背景中获得的关键技能之一就是“想象绘制时看不到的部分”的能力。 这可以直接转换为3D模型，在此之前，有必要考虑一下哪些碎片需要凿掉才能真正看到最终结果。 同样，Kotabe也倾向于在考虑摄像机视角的情况下绘制场景。

“I think Kotabe-san has a camera in his head. What surprised me the most when he first drew a picture for me was that each picture reflected a camera position.”

“我认为Kotabe-san的头上有一个摄像头。 当他第一次为我绘制图片时，令我最惊讶的是每张图片都反映了相机的位置。”

Shigeru Miyamoto

宫本茂

Over time, Kotabe’s focus shifted to the Pokémon franchise. He assisted the team to translate all 151 Pokémon into 3D for Pokémon Stadium (1998) and Pokémon Snap (1999). Even after leaving Nintendo in 2007, Kotabe continued to play a supervisory role for the Pokémon franchise (including ongoing involvement with its feature films and TV series).

随着时间的流逝，Kotabe的工作重点转移到了Pokémon系列上 。 他协助团队将所有151个Pokémon转换为3D模型，分别用于《 PokémonStadium》 (1998年)和《 PokémonSnap》 (1999年)。 即使在2007年离开任天堂后，Kotabe仍继续担任《神奇宝贝》系列的监督角色(包括持续参与其故事片和电视连续剧)。

超越任天堂 (BEYOND NINTENDO)

Yoichi Kotabe hasn’t rested on his laurels since leaving Nintendo. Aside from his continuing involvement with Pokémon, Kotabe has chaired the jury of the Hida International Animation Festival of Folktales and Fables (a contest aimed at discovering new art talent from around the world), and also acted as a lecturer at the Toei Animation Institute.

自从任天堂离开后，小田洋一从未有过任何成就。 除了继续参与《神奇宝贝》之外，Kotabe还主持了飞International国际民间传说和寓言艺术节 (旨在发现来自世界各地的新艺术才华的比赛)的评审团，并在东映动画学院担任讲师。

It is difficult to imagine a Nintendo — and perhaps even a Japanese animation industry — without Yoichi Kotabe. We can not see the world that may have existed, but can only reflect on the events as they really unfolded. It’s clear that Kotabe is not only a legendary animator, but also a man who deserves credit for helping Nintendo to advance the art and science of video games. Like many millions of people around the world, I didn’t just grow up with Nintendo: I grew up with Mario. He was an important part of my childhood, he helped to mend a fractured relationship with my father, and he influenced my future career direction. For these reasons, I want to thank Kotabe-san from the bottom of my heart for the significant role he played breathing life into Mario and friends. I am forever grateful, Kotabe-san.

没有小田阳一，很难想象一个任天堂甚至日本的动画产业。 我们看不到可能存在的世界，而只能反思事件的真实发展。 显然，Kotabe不仅是一位传奇的动画师，而且还是一位因协助任天堂推动视频游戏的艺术和科学而受到赞誉的人。 就像世界上数以百万计的人一样，我不仅与任天堂一起长大，还与马里奥一起长大 。 他是我童年的重要组成部分，他帮助与父亲的关系破裂，并影响了我未来的职业方向。 由于这些原因，我要衷心感谢Kotabe-san发挥的重要作用，他为Mario和朋友们注入了生命。 Kotabe-san，我永远感激不尽。