Want to know even more about the upcoming Animatrix series? J. Paul Peszko continues with a Q & A with series producer Michael Arias.

J. Paul Peszko: So once you had the individual artists/directors lined up, what about the story lines? How were they plotted and arranged?

The Second Renaissance — Part 1, written by the Wachowski brothers, was the first episode to be shown on the Animatrix Website.

Michael Arias: One of the great things about these films is that there is no “overall” story line. Except for Second Renaissance, a two-parter, none of the episodes have anything in common except for their 'Matrix-ness.' Seven different directors, nine films, lots of different styles. It really gives a good sense of the breadth of tastes at work in animation.

JPP: How difficult was that in the beginning, trying to coordinate the different directors, the different styles and the different story lines?

Arias had to coordinate creative details between seven directors, translators, screenwriters and the Wachowskis. Above, from left to right, are: directors Takeshi Koike (World Record), Mahiro Maeda (The Second Renaissance — Parts 1 and 2) and writer/director Peter Chung (Matriculated).

MA: There was a great deal of back and forth with the Brothers, particularly on some of the early episodes. I worked with each director as well as a crew of translators and a screenwriter to massage each idea into a state that was pleasing to both the Wachowskis and the story’s originator. And then from there, it was straight on to the design work of the film in question: storyboarding, character and set design, layout, etc.

JPP: Were there any treatments or were all the segments plotted from scratch?