Yasuki Hamano Chairman, The 3rd. ANIMATION KOBE Organizing Committee (Asst. Professor, Institute of Environmental Studeies Graduate School of Frontier Science The University of Tokyo)

�@Ninety percent of the movie Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace was digitally processed, and the entire movie was produced without using miniature work, relying solely on computer-generated images (CGI). Also, on June 18 this year, an experiment washeld in which digital data was projected directly onto a screen using no film. In that experiment four scenes were filmed by high precision video cameras, as was the case in most of Episode I, showing a trend toward digitizing the entire production process in motion pictures. �@The first example of an animation film produced in its entirety by digital technology was Toy Story, released in 1995, and the same method became common in various types of animation productions. When Toy Story became a major success, opinions referring to it as nothing but a gimmick were not rare. However, such voices were shown to be wrong when in 1997 the fully digitized animation feature A Bugz Life reached the 4th place of all time box-office hits, proving once more the great appeal of this new form of expression. Further, it is quite likely that children, who are familiar with video games, are highly receptive to computer-generated images. �@While the Japanese animation industry is quickly shifting to digital production methods, this trend is not limited to the US and Japan alone. With the switch to digitaltechnologies being the key, many countries are vying to promote their animation production capabilities, and corporations of various nationalities are attempting to enter the market. This and the fact that the contents industry is asked to come up withever more diversified products is the reason why animation is the only computer-related field which is not completely dominated by one or a few major corporations. �@And while the waves of change rattle the animation world, animation and video games remain one of the few creative-material industries in which Japan holds a significant share of the world market, making this form of expression an extremely important means for introducing Japanese culture abroad. Animation Kobe, by awarding outstanding works of art and the people who made them, aims to contribute to the further promotion of Japanese animation, as well as to the strengthening of animation-related industries in Kobe.