Kotoe Kikuchi on Overcoming Creative Obstacles & Finding Inspiration in the World
Kotoe Kikuchi is a visual designer living and working in the Tohoku region of Japan. She majored in Computer Graphics at HAL Tokyo and Digital Hollywood Tokyo. After working as a CG designer at a game company, she began freelancing full-time in 2022, working on video production for projection mapping and events.
For this series of interviews we’ve dubbed With the Artist, Jake Triola from Notch sits down with Kotoe Kikuchi to discuss her experience breaking into the creative industries and her growth as an artist.
Jake: What’s your background, and how did you first become interested in motion graphics?
Kotoe: I’m a visual designer living in Japan. I studied computer graphics and visual effects for a total of three years at two technical schools, HAL Tokyo and Digital Hollywood Tokyo’s Main Campus. I enrolled at HAL Tokyo because I saw a commercial for its opening, which greatly impacted me. I immediately thought, “I want to make CG like live-action.”
After graduation, I worked for several production companies in graphic design, games, animation, and other fields, but I always felt small because my abilities were not recognised at any of these companies.
I then joined a projection mapping and video equipment rental company. There, I encountered Notch. The company also used BlackTrax and disguise, and while there, I worked as a CG designer modelling a VTuber character using Maya.
I started using Notch on my own when a colleague asked me to study it. I found it instantly interesting and spent the next three years learning everything from basic operation to application, relying solely on the text in the reference manual.
Jake: I’ve spoken with other artists who started in another creative realm and gradually moved toward motion graphics. Even if that’s not the case for you, are you inspired by other mediums?
Kotoe: I consider it important to be myself, so I rarely look at other media or tutorial articles to avoid being influenced. My inspiration comes from travelling, good food, and spending time in nature.
Jake: I’ve noticed music and sound are integral to your works. Do you have a special relationship with music? Does the music inform your visuals? How so?
Kotoe: One of my classmates at the Digital Hollywood Tokyo School is a VJ named Mari Asada, who performs as Marimosphere. As I would occasionally help her set up at the club where she worked, I became fascinated with the pairing of visuals and music.
I feel like Notch makes it very easy to link music and visuals. Now, just by looking at audio waveforms, the visuals I want to create instantly pop into my head.
Jake: Vivid colour also seems very important to you in your work. The textures sparkle and shine. Do you feel this aesthetic comes naturally to you? How did you arrive at these looks?
Kotoe: I was born and raised in the rural Tohoku region of Japan. Even before I can remember, my mother gave me coloured pencils and drawing paper, and my grandfather gave me an instant camera. I feel that my artistic origins lie in drawing and playing in the nature of the countryside, listening to the chirping of birds, the murmuring of the river, and the changing seasons.
As a kid, I would often draw tulips, giraffes, and my grandmother!
As an adult, I’ve travelled a lot with my mirrorless DSLR camera. I’ve been greatly inspired by the sky and sea I’ve seen from airplane windows, the beautiful nature I’ve encountered, Japanese cuisine served in dishes called ozen, and the art I’ve seen at museums. All these things have contributed to my aesthetic sensibilities.
Jake: I see you’ve also worked with interactivity and depth cameras. What got you interested in this way of doing things? Is there an example of this you’re especially proud of?
Kotoe: I first learned to use Kinect cameras for “Sink into ‘Live’ -Diving-,” a live performance using Kinect for all the songs at a private museum called Akiu no Mori Sasaki Art & Doll Museum in October 2022.
Takuya Asano, a musician/filmmaker, invited me to join him, and as we worked together to come up with a direction for the event, we decided to incorporate Kinect, and I purchased my first Azure Kinect DK.
For the live performance, Takuya Asano and Fuki Kitamura played piano, and Shota Katsube played saxophone and controlled Ableton Live. The sounds were loaded into Notch and combined with the movements of the performers filmed with Kinect to create visuals based on the audio.
It was my first challenge, and I had some troubles, but it was a great experience for me because I learned a new way of expression with Notch and Kinect.
I started using Kinect cameras with zero knowledge, but after about a year of self-study, I was able to create the visuals I wanted.
Jake: Has Notch ever helped you overcome creative challenges?
Kotoe: Of course!
I had limited knowledge of math and physics and no ability to program.
Some software, like TouchDesigner, Houdini, Unreal Engine, and others, require programming knowledge, and no matter how many tutorials I watch, I can’t seem to master them.
Notch is node-based, like other software, but even if you’re not a programmer, you can create visuals freely.
Notch has made it possible for me to create visuals that would otherwise be impossible due to my current knowledge. I am very grateful!
Jake: What other software and plugins do you use? What hardware can you not live without?
Kotoe: When I was working for a CG production company, I used Houdini, Nuke, and Maya as my main tools. Before Notch, I used After Effects with the Trapcode plugins for motion graphics production.
Currently, in addition to Notch, I use Photoshop and Illustrator for textures, After Effects and Premiere Pro for compositing, and Blender for 3D modelling.
I often use music in the public domain for audio, but I recently purchased Ableton Live and hope to eventually be able to compose my own music.
Jake: What’s your current workflow/process? How has this changed over the years?
Kotoe: When I first started teaching myself Notch, I did so by arranging files from Notch’s YouTube, reference manual, and samples.
Now, three years later, I’m able to work with a completely original setup.
At first, it felt like an inoperable vehicle, but now it feels like an extra limb.
Jake: Who are your greatest inspirations?
Kotoe: I’m really inspired by DÉ DÉ MOUSE, whom I first saw at MUTEK Japan in 2017.
He’s a well-known Japanese musician and DJ, and I have wonderful memories of the first time I spoke with him in 2020, when I was a staff member at the J-Wave Innovation World Complex event held at the Takanawa Gateway Fest in Tokyo.
He regularly does a live stream on YouTube called Nulife Groove and collaborates with various visual artists. I’m always impressed by how cutting-edge and cool all of his productions are.
Jake: What have you been working on lately?
Kotoe: I have participated as a visual artist for the “Night Museum” and “AKIULUMINA” events every year since 2017. Like “Sink into ‘Live’ -Diving-,” they’re held at the Akiu no Mori Sasaki Art & Doll Museum.
For “Night Museum,” we produced projection mapping on the exterior walls of the museum, and for “AKIULUMINA,” we projected images made with Notch onto the work of glass artist Koji Murayama.
Jake: I’ve heard from others that before discovering Notch, they felt creatively restricted. Does Notch give you some kind of ability to break free and improvise more? If so, in which ways?
Kotoe: Before using Notch, I was mainly using Maya and After Effects. The rendering time was so long that I was always in the middle of revisions and deadlines.
With Notch, I’m freed from the problem of time and can spend more energy designing.
Jake: Have you ever had a creative breakthrough in using Notch and implementing your process? What did that entail technically? What were the artistic/emotional implications of that?
Kotoe: With Maya and After Effects, it takes a lot of rendering time to create photorealistic images.
Notch’s combination of photorealism and real-time has considerably reduced my mental fatigue.
I used to feel that creating visuals was a very labour-intensive process, but now, it comes easy.
Jake: Any audience reactions you’ve been particularly proud of?
Kotoe: After I finished VJing one event, I showed the Notch UI to those who wanted to see it. That was great.
I was especially happy to see the scenes using Kinect, as adults were happy to play with it and move their bodies like children.
The older I get, the harder it is to impress me, but the Kinect/Notch integration has turned that on its head.
My goal in creating visuals has always been the same: I want the audience to be delighted.
Jake: Where do you see this industry going in the next five or ten years?
Kotoe: I think the concept of rendering will disappear. And I believe that many people will be able to spend more time thinking about design.
At this point, many of us have skills in both motion graphics and 3D modelling, so I think we need to keep improving and evolving our skills on a daily basis.
Jake: What’s your best advice for someone new to Notch or motion graphics, 3D art, etc., in general?
Kotoe: If you are new to Notch, I recommend that you start by arranging and creating sample scenes and bins.
If you have even the slightest doubt, I suggest you read the reference manual to deepen your understanding rather than leave it at that.
I also think it’s important to have a balance of one input and one output, and I think it’s good to visit art museums and get inspiration from analogue artworks.
I publish tutorials, articles, and .dfx files on two sites, Patreon and Note. If you’d like a preview, there are some free posts available there.
A special thanks to Kotoe Kikuchi for taking the time to sit down and talk to us about her journey as an artist. You can follow her on Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, Patreon, and Note.
