TBS Visual Design Center’s Tomoyoshi Umezawa, 46, is in charge of the key visuals for the 18th DigiCon6 ASIA competition.

Umezawa’s most recent animation work is the story about BooBo & Boona, the TBS mascot characters.
Five of the stories in the series have been broadcasted, and a sixth is about to be completed.

Umezawa, who loves to draw, studied graphic design at university. After graduating, he worked for a 3DCG production company, Sasahara Gumi (the current Anima Inc.). He was in charge of modeling. He was responsible for creating the CG for “Ohsama no Brunch” and “Kisarazu Cats Eye.”

In this most recent work, he drew a new world of adventure and challenge combing a commercial for TBS and DigiCon6 ASIA. Umezawa mostly refrains from describing the feeling he puts into his design. This is because he feels each person should make his or her own interpretation.
In the design there is a “mysterious” dark shadow and a floating object “mokomoko” that is cleverly woven in. Even the main character of the design, Digi (the DigiCon6 ASIA mascot) is hard to spot.
Q: What are some of the difficulties you faced?
Umezawa: Technically, I placed all that I drew on 3D space in one page. There are actually a number of parts to the flowers. If you look carefully, it is the same flower, but there are small changes like the angle. The perspective can be changed because it is done on 3D. It is useful for future camera animation production.
Q: What about your work do you find satisfying?
Umezawa: It’s fun to see people looking happy or surprised seeing my work.
Q: In contrast, what was hard?
Umezawa: When it comes to work, it’s not about whether I think is good or bad, it’s about doing your best to satisfy the needs of the program. It may not be what you want to do, but you’ve got to make that switch because that ‘s what work is all about.
Q: Don’t you get frustrated?
Umezawa: It can be frustrating, but I get that kind of work from time to time. (laughs).
There is no motion in posters and leaflets now. But, the many secrets that are hidden now, will soon begin to have a life of their own thanks to Umezawa’s skill, and they will be dancing across the big screen at Tokyo’s Marunouchi on November 19.
Q: What kind of animation work will it be?
Umezawa: The image is something like a festival at a carnival. Digi and BooBo&Boona, and the creators will be going through an adventure in different space, and in the end they will end up in a carnival.