Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Retake (2)
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As the student answered my question, a status window appeared clearly before my eyes.
[Lee Soyoon / Animator / Student]
- A sophomore in the animation department at the Seoul Institute of the Arts.
- Seems to have an interest in working at a game company.
Understanding: F+
[Art] D (※ An artist specializing in animation.)
- Animation - 13 / 2D Concept Art - 19 / Directing - 9
(※ More information will be revealed as Understanding increases.)
All I wanted was to open this Understanding window.
‘I had a hunch this method would work, and it did.’
It was a method I’d thought of after noticing that the Understanding windows of people who showed even a slight interest in game development, like Rokhui or Jang Ho, would often open.
The question I’d just asked, “Are you interested in game development?” was a bit of a trick to forcibly open the other person’s Understanding system.
“I’m glad to hear you’re very interested. Then, let’s conclude our meeting here. If you don’t mind, could you call in the next student on your way out?”
“Ah, yes, of course!”
The student bowed her head and left the break room.
A slight smile formed on my lips as I muttered to myself.
“Maybe. Maybe I can find a breakthrough.”
As I was mulling things over, the next student entered the room.
“You wanted to see me?”
A slender build, a pale face, a sharp and cocky impression, and a peculiar expression.
From his attitude, I could immediately tell he was the student named Kanghyuk, who had acted as the director for the sand animation.
“Are you Kanghyuk, by any chance?”
“Oh. You know my name?”
“I heard you were the director.”
I had no intention of wasting time here, so I cut straight to the chase.
“Personally, I was very dissatisfied with the quality of the sand animation you submitted. There were some good scenes here and there, but the quality was far too inconsistent, and more importantly, it deviated greatly from the storyboard.”
“Hah.”
Kanghyuk’s expression instantly soured.
Even for a student, it was not the kind of face one should make when dealing with a client.
“Look, I heard you’re some famous game company PD, but do you even know anything about animation?”
“Excuse me?”
“I mean, the artists who worked on this project were us—no, frankly, I was the one who oversaw the whole thing. It’s a bit absurd for someone who doesn’t know how difficult it is to make sand animation to talk like that. You might not know, but we worked incredibly hard on this.”
For a moment, I was so dumbfounded that I had to bite back the word ‘crazy.’
“This isn’t a student project; it’s a project for me, my team, and NB Soft. Whether you worked hard on it or not is irrelevant. What matters is that the quality is good.”
“No, I’m telling you, that’s because you don’t have an eye for animation. Do you even know what sand animation is?”
Ugh. I oughta just—
The words rose in my throat, but I forced a neutral expression and spoke.
“Schubert’s *Erlkönig*, *Atormenta*, *No Corras Tanto*,”
“Uh. What?”
“And though I don’t remember all the titles, I’ve seen about three or four old short films by CalArts students. I may not be an expert, but having seen that much, I can at least tell the difference between good and bad quality as a viewer.”
“Oh. Um. Well, you have seen a little, I guess.”
Did he bring it up thinking I wouldn’t know anything?
As I answered smoothly, Kanghyuk was at a loss for words, scratching his cheek and muttering under his breath.
Meanwhile, I crossed my arms and pressed on with a sharp tone.
“Hmm, well. I may not be an expert in sand animation, but I do have eyes. And what I see is… I don’t feel any particular affection in this work.”
“No affection? How can you speak so carelessly about someone else’s work like that?”
The sand animation they presented lacked effort more than it lacked technique.
I knew that if someone truly had affection for their own work, they would never present such a shoddy product to others. I was just stating my honest feelings.
‘There’s a high probability this guy is the cause of this mess.’
Excuses from the start, and an obvious unwillingness to accept anything I said.
It seemed highly likely that Professor Han Jeongshik had also hit a wall with this guy while supervising.
Animation is a team effort where synergy is crucial. With a leader like him, there was no way they could produce anything decent.
Well. At least it was a relief that I had a grasp of the situation.
“Kanghyuk, I know I’m not an animation expert, but as a fellow creator, may I say one thing?”
“…”
“Words like ‘artistic vision’ and ‘passion’ might serve as a shield for you now as a student. But in the end, if a work fails to deliver proper results, I believe those are nothing more than excuses and a place to hide.”
“That’s…”
Kanghyuk’s face turned bright red, and he couldn’t immediately respond. He barely managed to continue.
“S-stop! Just stop. You want a retake, we’ll give you a retake. We just didn’t have enough time, that’s all.”
“No, you don’t have to do a retake. You did the best you could with this piece, didn’t you, Kanghyuk?”
When I asked back with a faint smile, Kanghyuk’s eyes widened and he blinked.
“Y-you could say that.”
“I’ve confirmed that much, so you can go now. And please call in the next student.”
Kanghyuk let out a sigh of relief and left the break room.
Unlike with the previous student, I didn’t feel the need to check his Understanding, so I didn’t bother asking any game-related questions.
My job now was to clean up this mess.
From then on, I asked a similar pattern of questions to each student who came in.
“By any chance, are you interested in game development? Like game concept art or animation.”
Each time, the students’ Understanding windows opened, and I continued the interviews, checking their stats one by one.
‘Not the guy from before, and it doesn’t seem to be this student either.’
And so, the meeting with the fifth student began.
A girl with a confident impression, short in stature with her hair in a ponytail. Her name was Oh Hana.
I was asking her the same questions as the others when…
“I have something I’m personally curious about. May I ask you a question?”
“Ah, yes, of course.”
She turned the tables and started questioning me.
Moreover.
“About Van Gogh’s emotional state at the moment he sees Manet’s painting. I looked up some related materials online, and this kind of expression…”
She persistently questioned me about the animation we were working on, asking about my intentions behind the storyboard for a particular scene and what kind of feeling I was aiming for.
‘So it was her.’
After enduring her barrage of questions, I casually threw one of my own at Oh Hana.
“Hana, have you ever considered working in the game industry?”
“No, I’m not interested in the game industry.”
Her answer was completely different from the other students, who had all said they wanted to get into the game industry just from hearing the name NB Soft.
“Ah. Do you happen to dislike games?”
“It’s not that. It’s just that my dream has always been to become an animation director. I’m aiming to have my work invited to the four major festivals: Ottawa, Annecy, Hiroshima, and Zagreb.”
The moment I heard that, I knew I had found my answer without even needing to open her Understanding window.
“That’s impressive. To have a dream like that at your age.”
“It feels strange to hear that from someone like you, PD Jo Hyunsoo, who is actually making their dreams a reality.”
She even had a confidence that belied her age.
Though she was just a student, I felt a conviction that working with Oh Hana would be the right choice.
‘People who are ambitious about their dreams will produce proper results, no matter what it takes.’
I smiled faintly and spoke.
“In the sand animation, this scene, this scene, and this scene. Are these the ones you worked on, Hana?”
“Oh. How did you know?”
“Just a feeling. As a PD, I have a knack for these things.”
Even while her teammates were making a mess of the other scenes, she alone had managed to maintain a certain level of quality.
That meant she had a sense of responsibility or pride in her own work.
“Well, now that I know you worked on these scenes, may I ask you for a favor?”
“A favor?”
“If we were to scrap all the parts done by the other students, besides yours, and you were to do them all yourself, how long do you think it would take? As quickly as possible, if you can.”
“Hmm. I work about three to four hours a day, so at that rate, I think I could finish it in about a month.”
“Then how many days would it take if you worked more than ten hours a day?”
“Uh. I have classes and other things to do, so that would be difficult.”
“It’s a hypothetical, just a hypothetical.”
As I asked again with a slight smile, Oh Hana held her chin in thought for a moment, then looked up and spoke.
“I think I could do it in under ten days.”
“Ten days, huh. That should be just barely enough time.”
“Barely? As I said, I have classes and other things…”
As she was slowly replying, I cut in nonchalantly.
“If it’s ten days, would an outsourcing fee of five million won be acceptable?”
“What? What did you just say?”
“For you, Oh Hana, to complete the sand animation within ten days. I’m asking if five million won is a fair outsourcing fee.”
“Wha-!?”
While Oh Hana blinked in surprise, I tapped my fingers on the table and continued.
“Ah, of course, this is a personal request, separate from the industry-academia collaboration, so there won’t be any commission fees taken by the school.”
“Uh. Uh.”
“And as for your classes, I’ll speak with Professor Han Jeongshik to make sure your attendance and assignments are taken care of.”
“C-can you really do that? And give me five million won?”
“Hmm. Is it too little?”
“N-no, not at all!”
Five million won. For a single student’s ten days of work, it was a huge amount of money.
However.
‘From my perspective, this is practically a steal.’
Outsourcing 3D or 2D graphic animation to a professional company would easily cost tens of millions of won per minute.
Considering that, this was plugging a hole for a very small price.
“So, is that an okay, Hana?”
“Um. If it’s alright, could I possibly receive a portion of that amount as an advance? I think I could raise the quality even more if I could hire a friend to be my assistant.”
“By all means. Then, let’s sign the contract first.”
As if I’d been waiting for it, I pulled a single A4 sheet from my briefcase and held it out.
The document, which already detailed the outsourcing fee of five million won and the terms of the contract, had only a single blank space left for a name.
“You prepared a contract before you even came here?”
“Yes, of course.”
“But how did you know things would turn out like this?”
Oh Hana tilted her head, looking utterly bewildered.
“I just saw the sand animation you sent. There were scenes that were exceptionally high quality and detailed compared to the rest. So I thought about it before I came here. Rather than asking the entire team for a half-baked retake, it would be better to pinpoint the one talented and passionate person who worked on these scenes and give the whole project to them.”
“Ah.”
“Well then, please read it over carefully and sign here.”
Smiling, I offered a pen to Oh Hana.