Peg Bar
The standard animation peg bar is a piece of metal about cm or " long with one round and 2 semi-ovoid shaped posts, or pegs, on it. The pegs are what hold the animation paper and they are designed to allow as minimal movement as possible so that the registration does not change making the animation shake. The peg bar is pretty much the same as that used in US animation studios. Japanese animators place the peg bar at the top of their desk and lift the paper from below (or peg on the top) whereas Western animators peg on the bottom. Despite the acidic battles that go on about this there is no "right" way – it matters only how you are used to it.

Peg bar

The majority of peg bars are made by Art Color (+81-3-3999-1445) and are available at some specialty stores and anime shops. They cost 700 yen.

Rulers
Plastic or metal metric rulers.

The Wing Thing
The Wing Thing is a pigeon's wing mounted in a plastic handle that is used to clean off the eraser dust from the artist's table. The first time I saw one of these I thought that it was an incredibly cruel device and I still have not gotten used to having dismembered bird parts around me so I use a brush.

Wing

There are both left and right wing models and if you get one of each you can hold them in your hands and flap your arms and nobody thinks it's very funny. I was talking to some animators once and I said that we could cut costs if we just went out and dismembered the pigeons ourselves but they said, "That's so sadistic."

Markers
Black markers are used for blacking out shadowed areas and marking numbers on cels. They are also used to color animation drawings that will be used for backlighting (risumask).

Marker

The most common marker is Zebra's Marky (oil based) which is particularly useful because it has both large and small tips on the same marker. They are commonly available in a wide variety of colors and cost about 300 yen.

Animation Paper
Animation paper is a high quality white paper with registration peg holes (see peg bar) punched on one end. The front side of the paper is smoother than the back and the sides can be determined by looking at the peg holes. The side that the hole was punched from, determined by the area around the hole pooching away from the paper, is the back. Animation paper needs to be thin enough that the animator can see more than three levels when placed on a light box.

Animation paper

Animation paper is a very touchy subject for some artists. They get used to using one brand and won't draw on others. (Anyone with a bit of experience can tell the difference between papers.)   They say, "I can't draw on this junk!" when they are sent to a foreign subcontractor where they have only locally produced paper. At my studio in Bangkok we used local paper for all the roughs and did the final cleanups on imported Japanese paper.

Cutter Knife
A simple razor blade cutter knife. The NT cutter (available at any convenience store) is the most common but any razor knife will do. They are used to trim the edges of pages. And for whittling.

Cutter

Cellophane tape
Used for everything from taping notes to the time sheet to piecing together drawings that the director has torn to pieces in a rage to making weird sculptures when waiting for the next assignment, cellophane tape is a necessity in a studio. (It is also used to cover the broken off write protect tab holes on the other animators prerecorded VHS tapes so you can record shows off the air to watch later and not have to buy any new tapes.)

Tape