I am the Entertainment Tycoon

Theo, Sam, and Ryoko arrived where the candidates were after walking for a while.

"Thank you all for your collaboration, but there are some people that were eliminated in this round." Theo said after he arrived in front of the 912 candidates.

The candidates felt their hearts beat in their chests when they heard that.

They looked with nervous eyes at Theo as they waited for him to say the ones who were eliminated.

"Ryousuke Munro!"

"Hedley Reece!"

"Giffard Grayson!"

"Louis Merritt!"

"Gilbert Patton!"

"Randal Derek!"

"You six are eliminated. If you may follow our employees, please." Theo said as he pointed to one employee that was responsible for walking these people out of the building.

These six were the ones that lied on their resumes, if they were capable of lying in something so basic Theo didn't want to know what they would lie about if they were hired.

Meanwhile, the candidates saw that only those six were eliminated.

Their anxious hearts calmed down after the awful moment that Theo was saying the names passed.

Their hearts seemed as though it would jump out of their chests when Theo started saying the names.

Each one felt as if they were the next.

"Congratulations to you all for passing the first phase!" Theo smiled at them.

The candidates smiled with happiness as they heard that.

They passed the first huddle.

"The second phase will commence after I explain the details." Theo said.

"Each one of you will have the task of drawing a 1-second interval with the configuration at 2:s. In other words, each one will have to draw 12 in-between drawings until 6 pm today." Theo explained.

To the ones that forgot the explanation, 2:s meant that there were 2 drawings per frame. One second had 6 frames, so one second had to have 12 in-between drawings.

All of them were apprehensive when they heard that.

Now it was 10:30 am, so they would have a little over 7 hours to draw 12 drawings.

It would be a tight schedule.

"What you will draw is this." Theo pointed at the screen that was in the front.

He showed a one-second slow-motion animation of a girl crying.

The candidates could see the multitude of emotions that girl was passing as the tears fell from her eyes.

The difficulty of the test increased again.

If it was an action scene it would be easier as they would only have to worry about the motion of the limbs.

But the face of the girl was very expressive and with that, the test was harder.

"This is the keyframe in the extremities of the animation." Theo also showed them two keyframe drawings.

"Our employees will guide you to the place where you can work without worries. And this animation will be playing here throughout the day. And where you will be working too." Theo finished his explanation.

"Sam, can you take care of their division?" Theo asked the blonde girl.

"Sure!" She smiled and walked over to oversee the displacement of the candidates.

Everyone stood up quickly when they saw the employees were ready to guide them.

They wanted to start working as soon as possible.

The race to finish the drawings before 6 pm has started!

And they did not want only to finish, they wanted to pass this phase so that they could dispute the third phase of the test!

Everyone followed the guides and arrived in the working rooms where the animators would work after being hired.

The rooms had all the apparatus necessary for animators to work without worries.

The candidates were bewildered as they looked at the shining equipment, comfortable chairs, cool ambient, and neat and cozy decorations.

"This place is destined for the animators to work after being hired." The guide said when he saw the amazement of the candidates.

These people became even more motivated to get a job in this studio when they saw the amazing working conditions.

They woke up from their amazement after a while.

They hurriedly seated on the chairs and started working.

The time was running out!

They saw the two keyframes that Theo sent and the slow-motion animation example.

The process was lengthy and had to be taken care of with attention to detail.

It is important to tell an example to bring context to the test.

Two images are used as the keyframes which serve as the beginning and the ending of the animation sequence (the two keyframe drawings that Theo gave them). 

The process is about taking those two keyframes and filling in the animation or frames in between. These in-betweens are what make the animation look fluid. 

If someone is making an animation about a man walking, there would be necessary to have probably the following frames:

A man standing straight as the initial keyframe

The man is now shown slightly lifting his right leg

The leg is now halfway to a full bend

The leg is now fully bent

The leg is starting to unbend forward

and so on

Until the animator gets to the final keyframe of the step which is a full stride

Without the in-between, the animation would look so jugged and jittery. It helps just to have the keyframes of the beginning and end of the motion as this gives the animator a very good idea of how the frames in between should look like.

But that's a simple example that it wouldn't be difficult for the candidates to complete.

The animation that Theo gave them was on a level of difficulty much higher.

As it involved the emotions that the girl was expressing with her face.

If they messed up with one drawing, the animation of the girl would be ruined.

Theo and Ryoko went back to the room where they could observe the candidates and Sam went back to the Umbrella's Office.

She didn't have much else to do there that day as the candidates would work all day and only, in the end, would Theo give the results.

But she didn't have to be there for that.

She was a busy woman, after all, she couldn't spend a day in the studio just looking at the test.

Theo and Ryoko arrived at the projection room to watch the test.

"Boss, what about the director of the animes?" Ryoko asked as they sat down.

"You don't have to worry about that. I will be the temporary director for our first anime." Theo replied with a smile.

"You know how to direct, boss?" Ryoko asked surprised.

"Yeah, I know about it."

"And also I will produce the sound effects and soundtracks for our animes. So you don't have to worry about that." Theo said as he looked at the screen where the candidates started drawing.

"Wow! I didn't know you knew so much, boss!" Ryoko said in amazement.

"Yeah, I have a particular exigency with these things so I figured I would do it myself." Theo chuckled.

"I see that!" Ryoko giggled.

"Oh, I have a task for you." Theo said as he turned his toward the blue-haired woman.

Ryoko paid extra attention as she heard that.

She wanted to be the perfect employee for the person that made her dream come true.

"I want you to check if there are any broadcast slots for the next spring anime season." Theo said with a playful voice.

"Spring Season?!" Ryoko asked in astonishment.

It is important to explain what's a broadcast slot.

This is a time slot on TV channels where it's possible to buy the broadcasting rights.

So, if a studio wanted to air an anime on a TV channel, the studio had to buy these slots for the whole anime season which lasted for three months.

The spring season started in April and lasted until June.

They were in November right now, Ryoko could tell what Theo meant.

He wanted to launch their first anime in April!

He wanted to produce the whole anime in 4 months!

That was crazy!

An anime production usually took one year and a half to be finished.

But Theo wanted to do it in 4 months.

That was why Ryoko was so shocked.

She looked at him and couldn't say anything for a while.