Starting an independent visual effects company, like any entrepreneurial effort, is tough. But starting that company in Japan as a foreigner is another challenge entirely."Since Megalis VFX started out not aiming for the Japanese market, it removed a lot of the communication issues we could have struggled with from the beginning, notes co-founder and VFX Supervisor Christophe Rodo. But those Japanese projects came along later, and Japan is not a country that is easy for foreigners to navigate. So, there were a few administrative struggles and a number of catch-22 situations regarding visas, office rentals, and company registration.But a major creative hurdle for Megalis known for its work on Netflixs Oni: Thunder Gods Tale, HBOs The Nevers and Toei Companys Shin Kamen Rider was the apprehension Japanese entertainment companies expressed when it came to embracing unfamiliar new technology and production pipelines.From the outside, Japan seems like its on the cutting edge with their electric cities, says Jeffrey Dillinger, Megalis CEO and Head of CG. But you get here and theres a lot of hesitation. Theres a lot of pressure riding on someone who makes a decision like changing software or pipelines. No one wants to be the one who gets blamed if it doesnt work out.Dillinger worked in Hollywood for roughly 14 years, serving as lighting lead at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), an effects animator for Sony Pictures Imageworks on films like Castaway, and was also part of Imageworks Look Development and Lighting department for projects like Beowulf, Spider-Man 3, Smurfs, and others. But, after frequent trips to Japan, Dillinger made the official move to the Land of the Rising Sun in 2013. I knew two words of the language, but I fell in love with the place, says Dillinger. I was going back to Japan three times a year and people were like, Why dont you just live there? And I went, I should.Dillinger took a job at the Shinjuku-based video game publishing company Square Enix, which is responsible for releasing the Final Fantasy series, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts. Initially, he was excited to work on real-time CG asset creation for the Final Fantasy games. But after two years with the company, Dillinger learned why so many of his Japanese colleagues at Imageworks and ILM had chosen industry jobs in the West.I was working at my desk one day, using this tool that Id just been shown how to use, and this guy comes by and says, Oh I wrote that 12 years ago. Its cool were still using it, he recalls. But to me, it really wasnt that cool.Keep in mind, Japan is a country that just last year officially said goodbye to floppy disks, a computer storage method the U.S. has long considered obsolete.Theres this mentality that Japanese artists will all stay until the last train and get these projects done with insufficient tools, notes Dillinger. But Japanese artists are so talented and, if you go to SIGGRAPH, a good portion of the Emerging Technologies exhibits are coming from universities in Japan. But, in the Japanese workforce, you dont see them being used. I always felt, given the right leadership and tools, these professional artists could succeed on a bigger scale. And maybe even have dinner with their families.Little did Dillinger know that by 2015, Rodo, whom he had already crossed paths with at ILM, was two years away from founding Megalis VFX. And, as the good ol Field of Dreams quote goes, If you build it, they will come.A few production houses have been very active in Japan over the last 5 years, creating above average budgets and opportunities to increase the quality of VFX in Japan, notes Rodo. Its a great honor for Megalis to have been an active part of that landscape. We have been able to discuss reaching people internationally with many Japanese producers who contacted us because they saw us as a bridge to the international level of quality their audience needs. A big part of the shift Megalis has seen began in 2022, when Dillinger and Rodo joined forces to tackle Tonko Houses Oni.When Chris and I met again in Japan, he showed me the concept art for this project Daisuke Tsutsumi at Tonko House was working on, says Dillinger. Megalis was a company of 28 people at that time. Tonko House, which was a company of former Pixar artists who also decided to create their own studio in Japan, wanted Megalis to work with them. And Chris asked me to join the team. It was a good partnership, and we found a good synergy.Oni is a great example of how VFX and CG artists can use modern tools to create a classic style on a tighter time-frame and budget. Tonko House initially planned to use stop-motion animation. However, because of time and budget, they had to move series production to CG while still aiming to capture the look and feel of stop-motion within a medium that continues to advance and gravitate toward photoreal. The Oni team adopted the concept of limited frames from 80s anime and married it with CG software and stop-motion aesthetics.Going back to my previous hypothesis about the right leadership and the right tools, Chris and my philosophy is Let the artists be artists, says Dillinger. Give them the tools to make sure that the process is all about creating art, not creating data. Dice was an amazing partner in that.Using CG software called Solaris, compatible with Arnold and Houdini, Megalis created 1,000 assets and over 2,200 shots on the four-episode Netflix series. Though it was their first time using the lookdev, layout and lighting tool, the results speak for themselves.Oni was a huge step that made us build up all departments and parts of the workflow that we didnt have yet, notes Rodo, whose company had previously worked with Netflix on the first season of Love, Death & Robots, as well as other studios like Amazon, Nintendo and even Studio Chizu for Mamoru Hosodas award-winning feature, Belle. Its never simple to predict if a project, as interesting as it is, will become something that resonates with the audience But we kind of caught lightning in a bottle with Oni, adds Dillinger of the Annie Award-winning project. I read a review that said, You may think this is CG, but its actually stop-motion. Even though thats backwards, I take it as a compliment. We clearly did our job well.It was the most extensive project Megalis had worked on up to that point and Dillinger says it was definitely a turning point. Suddenly, more productions started approaching the company not only to provide services for their project, but to take the role of main vendor.Right after we did Oni, Netflix reached out to us and asked us to be the main vendor on the Japanese zombie film, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, notes Dillinger, referring to the live-action film adaptation of the streamers anime series of the same name. In the movie, a regular office worker wakes up one morning to find his world forever changed as a zombie virus overtakes his city. We were on set during the entirety of the shooting and responsible for delivering close to 1,000 shots on the film.One of those shots included a walking, zombified shark.As we were going through the manga, there was a bit where a zombie shark appears with 17 legs, notes Dillinger. Right away we knew we needed that to show up in the film. Coming from a lookdev background and having done a lot of creatures, I was super excited. And it became the main attraction of the movie.Once again using Solaris for its suite of look development and lighting tools within Houdini, Dillinger, Rodo and their team took on the unique challenge of developing a walk cycle for an amphibious predator with an odd number of legs that had never stepped on land before.We had to have it behave a bit clumsily at first and then, as the shark learns to use its legs, have it become more fierce and threatening, notes Dillinger. We really had to think about what was physically going on with these legs. Was the pivot point at the hips of the people inside the shark's body or at the point where the legs extended out of the shark's skin? Once we understood what we were dealing with, we could build the rig and create the movement based on that.He adds, I think that one of the most enjoyable sequences was in the corridor. The shark has just started to get its feet under itself and the characters who are trapped there, as well as the audience, are getting their first look at what this thing is. Space is very tight, so the movement of the shark is very limited. Thus, the richness of the performance is really in the details.Along with the shark, another big challenge Megalis faced on Zom was creating Kabukicho, an entertainment district in Shinjuku, while seamlessly extending the practical set.Our office at the time was in Shinjuku, about a 20-minute walk from the location we were creating, says Dillinger. So, we spent a lot of time there taking reference photos and becoming familiar with the overall atmosphere of the area. Its a famous part of Tokyo and we knew that we had hit the target when I was looking at our work with the director and he said he can smell Kabukicho by just looking at the images. Most recently, Megalis worked on the live-action Yu Yu Hakusho, Toei Animations Hypergalactic 5 and Seasons 2 and 3 of Alice in Borderland for Netflix Japan. Theyve also expanded to include a new office in Toulon, France.We also have a few various internal projects we develop to update our workflow in parallel, shares Rodo. We are working on some high-end creature R&D, some small pilots, some Real Time shorts and some VR high quality graphics that we are very excited about.As for Dillingers Japanese language skills, he says, I know enough to get myself into trouble. But the company has been working to help all their employees overcome communication barriers by offering in-office language classes once a week.We have Japanese people working at Megalis who aren't super confident with English, and we have employees who are foreigners and don't really speak Japanese, says Dillinger. We want to foster an environment where everyone is comfortable. So, we offer English classes and Japanese classes so people can start to feel more at ease. One of our classes actually dived into the puns of Pokmon names. I wasnt at that class, but I wish I had been there. You'll usually hear laughter coming from the room when a language class is going on. People are learning but having fun while they're doing it. It's great to be able to offer that at the office.He adds, Plus, we are going to meetings with Japanese clients, and we want to do whatever we can do to give them more confidence in working with us.It seems to be working. Theres a Japanese company we keep working with called The Seven, which is a child company of TBS Television, shares Dillinger. "Its a partnership we went after from the beginning because they wanted to create things in Japan that would succeed internationally. We saw them as a company who would listen. I think the most exciting change for us has been the willingness of some creatives to explore new ways of working. They realize that the current system could be improved upon and are open to hearing our input and new ideas.He adds, And, going back to the SIGGRAPH thing, Chris and I are actually trying to make connections with universities here in Japan and in the U.S. to bridge connections through internships with us and inspire young people to take risks. There arent many universities in Japan preparing students to get into the VFX field. Many are self-taught. We want to offer these students tools and solutions as well. Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.