⤷ Animation Skillz ୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ

WEEK 10 -

objectives:

- research into Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki

- do research into the animation principle exaggeration

STUDIO GHIBLI - HAYAO MIYAZAKI ꉂ(˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵)

So when I was given this research task to say something small. I WAS SO HAPPY AND OH MY GOD THIS IS MY FAVOURITE ANIMATOR EVER!!!!!! Anyways I was instructed to write about how Studio Ghibli became a thing and how Hayao Miyazaki's career started. I always write about at least 3 animations that the animator I look into makes but this week I will be only talking about 1 because mainly all of his animations are films and it's a lot to write about. As I will be mentioning `lot of his animations anyway so it makes sense to not look into all of them in great detail because there will be about 4 different essays and too much to read as a viewer and to write about from my part. 

Studio Ghibli is an animation studio that Hayao and his employer, Takahata, founded together but before he and his friend made Studio Ghibli and became one of the co-founders for it. Hayao Miyazaki started off being born in Tokyo Japan in 1941 and eventually as an adult graduating with a Political Science and Economics degree in 1963. Even with his degree he didn't go into politics or economics he went to the Toei animation studio run by his now friend Takahata though he and Takahata moved from the Toei company to Studio A which is where Studio Ghibli started to bloom and become a real thing. 

By the time he and Takahata had founded Studio Ghibli Miyazaki had already directed and helped produce "Castle in the Sky (1986)" (which is one of my personal favourites he has created) and wrote and completely built based off of this original comic he created that was featured in a monthly animation magazine "Animage" "Nausicaa of the valley of the wind (1984)" (which is also one of my favourites). He had also worked on a few TV shows helping produce the animation for it but once he and Takahata created studio Ghibli together by the Japanese box office spreading to not only all around Japan but all over the world all the way to western cultures an his animations because a amazing hit with almost everyone. 

He won many awards all over the world for his creativity and sucking you in atmospheres. His work is so big that it inspired Disney and Studio Ghibli is literally one of the last big animation companies that still does hand drawn animation to this day because mostly everything is now 3D. Almost everything I looked into doesn't really say anything negative about Studio Ghibli. I mean I am sure if I went looking I could find people who really don't like his work but my research is about how his career is and how he affects people.

I would say that he affects many people well. I mean he is my biggest role model for stylized animation. 

Something that is never lost in a Studio Ghibli film is style. All of the animations are always done in the same style but are able to convey completely different meanings and carry different weights. Studio Ghibli hasn't just worked with films they also helped to create game graphics in this popular game series "Ni no Kuni (2011/2013)" and you can definitely tell because all of the animated scenes in the game are all done by the animation studio though for Ni No kuni 2 they aren't involved but the game is still basing itself off of the fact that Studio Ghibli's heritage helped it grow in many different ways because there are still hints of the style in the game it just isn't the whole thing anymore. Hayao Miyazaki has also published poems as well as helped design buildings for the Studio Ghibli park in Japan. His most arguably famous films that he ever made in the animation company studio ghibli would be "Spirited away (2001)" and "Howls moving castle (2004)" and "My neighbour Totoro (1988)" those seem to be always the ones that people know even if you have never seen any of his films they are just incredibly popular. Something that he is also inspired by is France and Bristan which is why any of his animations look very.. Posh?? and have a certain look of buildings and the way the clothing looks. 

There are many inspiring quotes by Hayao (I found these on IMDb) and people describe him as a grumpy man I just think hes a guy who is well thoughtful and thinks a lot into life and you can clearly see that with in his films:

• "The concept of portraying evil and then destroying it - I know this is considered mainstream, but I think it is rotten. This idea that whenever something evil happens someone particular can be blamed and punished for it, in life and in politics is hopeless."

  
  

• "The world isn't simple enough to explain in words." 

  
  

• "Personally I am very pessimistic. But when, for instance, one of my staff has a baby you can't help but bless them for a good future. Because I can't tell that child, "Oh, you shouldn't have come into this life." And yet I know the world is heading in a bad direction. So with those conflicting thoughts in mind, I think about what kind of films I should be making."

I decided to write three quotes that I think sum up his own artwork and his career with doing manga, illustrations, screenwriting, animation, directing and much more. Many of his films include the fact that humans and nature coexist and even with the usage of "evil" characters they seem to always have that factor that just because they are evil doesn't mean they are bad. I think the best example of that evil feeling would be in the film Studio Ghubli got to animate "Tales from Earthsea (2007)" even though this isn't written by Studio Ghibli or Hayao Miyazaki, it was animated by him and it is personally my favourite film i have ever watched. Even with the evil characters they have this form of redemption or just down right hopelessness and struggle that they go through wanting to be more than what they are. I also think a good feature film to describe this would be "Princess Mononoke (1997)" because it just shows how nature and humans battle and none of them are inherently evil there will always be good on one side. 

I also really like the fact that he mentions politics in that quote because well he studied it and politics are EVERYWHERE all i ever seen online is politics this politics that but when watching a studio ghibli film its almost like I can forget about everything in the world and just be content with what I have and be grateful for it. Him saying politics is useless generally makes me so happy. I hate them because I know someone who is very rich and famous also hates them. I don't know, it just brings a sort of comfort to it all. I mean usually directors aren't really that involved with their work they will give it too a team and then take all the credit but Miyazaki is very involved in his own work and sure has a big team with it all but it's always like he never lets the fact that this is his work and he is making it go away. 

Something that isn't in his quotes but is something that I think he is really REALLY known for is always mainly using women as the main role in his films. Even in "Tales from Earthsea (2007)" the story wasn't his own but the female characters feel like the main characters even if the main character is a male they just express so much emotion and raw feeling that the females always feel like the stronger version of people in the Studio Gjibli universe. I think the way that Hayao Miyazaki portrays women is really nice. They are never overly sexualized and they just feel. Not all hormonal or are all skinny perfect bodies they just exist and feel like any normal person. Coming from someone who is trans and used to be a woman, even though I don't see myself as a woman I cannot deny the fact I am and always will biologically be a woman and knowing that not everyone out heres sexualizes people and make them out to actually be really strong emotionally intelligent people regardless if they have female genitalia or no is comforting. 

With quote on the world I would say that is completely correct a lot of my animations i always struggle to get across what I want but during this final project for animation skills just using sound has been a really good way to explore the fact that I want my animations to be unique, I want them to feel special just like Miyazaki do. His works are beautiful pieces of art and the way the world is portrayed through the exaggerated feelings and tears and the exaggerated colour schemes with the imaginative worlds is just beautiful. Many movies always make me feel like i want more but with Studio Gjiblis animations that I watch I feel content, they are beautiful and because they feel so real I feel like the world around me doesn't have to be so gloom and doom its allowed to be romanticised which is what I get from his films. 

With the final quote that I looked at. This is going to be wild but I like the fact he views himself as a pessimist and isn't afraid to admit it. I view myself as a huge pessimist but through my work I always try to showcase things I enjoy. Within Hayao Miyazaki's work it just inspired many and even though he may see the world as something terrible and bad and he doesn't ;like it you can still tell that even someone like that can find the beauty in things, I think he manages to convey his pessimistic views but in a really beautiful way using those emotions and negative outlooks that many people have and making them relatable and comforting with the usage of colour and expression. 

Studio Ghibli's use of expression and style is something that I want in my own work. I really like drawing in my own style and researching into other styles is fun and all but I LOVE making things my own with a style I like and sewing Studio Gjibli literally be one of the ;last animation studios doing hand drawn animation in the last 40 years, and not really having any backlash, they get paid and produce more amazing things in their own unique style is really nice. 

Before I looked into the 1 animation I wanted to look into I decided that I would do some research into how other people view his career and work, because it's all well in good that I gave my own opinion but what about other people. There was this website I looked at that just briefly laid out all of the feature films that he has created and the themes that go along with them, looking into that it seems that the themes in all of his animations never go unnoticed. All of his works are very story based with always a lesson to be found within it. I know that's pretty much all animation but Studio Ghibli's animation goes beyond that not only is it hidden it is also visually seen with the usage of colours and feelings and just overall atmosphere and knowing that this website written by a random stranger in the world also sees it all means that this studios films touch well.. everyone :D

I also watched 2 youtube videos of people just giving the overall message that I think comes with studio ghibli films and they were all "practice and you'll get there" as well as "do things you love" and "be happy" and things like "the way everything is in the studio ghibli films can also be a reality". 

Within the videos that I watched, many of it was praising his imagination. Visually and storytelling while his imagination is huge and a note that he said himself "I hog all of the interesting things" really doesn't even begin to describe the level of imagination he has. Miyazaki's animations are always one of a kind pushing the bounds of world creation just that little further, with interesting character and visual language his films his have such a strong sense of feeling and realism to them even if they are all imaginative and don't make any real sense a lot of that imagination comes from apparently a religion in the Japanese culture that there are spirits everywhere and they deserve respect. I really like that and it is totally within the work of Hayao Miyazaki because everything always includes spirits and some form of culture that drives the animation. 

Something that I also found out while researching is that he doesn't really write scripts he just drawings an image and goes from there, and with in my talk about my work i di this week bellow all of this research I talk about how I should plan things more to be able to produce the strength of exaggeration and world building that I want. I am not as genius as Miyazaki but it's nice to know that maybe doing the conventional terms of creation isn't needed and if it works for you why change it. Visual expression is what drives his work and makes people interested in what he creates, and helps lead the viewer along and his animations have a sort of energy that goes through all of his animations and his worlds with the beauty all around. Within his work the feeling of atmosphere is always there and it's almost as if you can sense that there are many other things going on but we as the viewer are only focusing in one part of this world and I really like how he describe people in his background animation "these are people not characters (2020)" I recently got praised for the fact that my characters in my animation I am doing are all unique but I mean everywhere you go there is someone unique and someone is doing something and with in Miyazaki's work it is si evident that the world isn't just a few characters its everyone together regardless if we are all different we all have motivations that serve us to do better and achieve goals. 

Because Miyakai animates while producing the film and everything is just a flow of energy he likes to make sure that his drawings contain spirit and you can really feel the character as a viewer. As a viewer who watches the films quite a lot on repeat I would say that it is totally true every character feels different within them. They have hidden feelings and emotions and the characters in his animations feel like real people. He mentions that animation the moment is what the animation is and movement isn't just muscles moving muscles with motivation so you gotta put that in your work too. I also love that he says "I want to stay grumpy, that is who I am (2020)" . That's generally so cool. Most people have a negative outlook on grumpiness but within his grumpiness he is a nice person but. hard working task man who likes everything perfect and to feel observant like you are there watching everything happen.

Finally he has said openly in interviews that "If I can entertain people, maybe I deserve to exist". Which is probably where all of his motivation comes from and the need to make everything feel real because well, it entrains people and makes them feel a part of something and hearing that from someone who is currently 84 still thinks so negatively about himself doesn't make me feel too scared about why I do my own work. Miyazaki is generally my role model for everything and I don't know anything. Knowing that he is just a guy in the world is comforting. 

Enough about his life story, even though that is incredibly important, is like the whole reason why I am researching him. I want to write about one of his films. The film I have decided to write about is "PONYO (2008)". One because it is literally my favourite movie ever and I watch it all the time but two because the visuals in this film are insanely stunning and through all of my research I have realised that visual and atmosphere seem to be the most important part of Studio Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki's work. 

This movie follows a fish that becomes alive and falls involved with this boy they ae bt=oth children and the whole movie is stunning. I love it so much from the beginning to the end so my research and opinions on it may be a little bit biassed. But to go off from my research every character in this film have such unique personalities even though they are personalities of everyday people and the act like everyday people I think because animation is pushed to be unreal that there's something so refreshing about a strong independent mother looking after her son and them having family issues but also being able to see the beauty in the world. 

Something that I think is the best in this movie is the usage of colour. I mean every movie that studio Ghibli has ever produced is amazing with the colour and atmso[here but this movie is just competing. The home that the main characters live in is small and quiet and it's nice to see the lighting and everything about the colours seem so natural. The way the food looks is stunning and also is just overall yummy looking showing the beauty in something made with love. The way the sea looks is really pretty too. The movie is all about water and I have a love-hate relationship with water. I think it's pretty and awesome but scary and in this film it showcases the beautiful but terrifying changes that happen in the sea. I just.. I love this movie so much. It is a comfort movie of mine and knowing that it wasn't scripted and was built from one image as a girl and it still has all of the spirit and beauty to it all like all of Miyazaki's films is amazing. 

I really really like the way everything moves in this movie as well, sure it showcases the emotions, and expression but from just an animation standpoint everything is so smooth and the gravity applied to everything the way the children bounce around but a lot of change from one emotion to the next is so humanly accurate. It's so awesome and pretty to see that even with the usage of computer animation you can still have something hand drawn and expressive down to the smallest background details that look SO AMAZING. Something I will say about this movie is because it suffers without planning the ending seems very quick?? compared to the pacing of the whole movie, it just goes too fast but then again I think that plays into the fact that the main characters are children they don't care for grown up talk they just want to play and have fun.

I know this whole research I have just been pretty much glazing Studio Ghibli but it's kind of hard not to when someone like that is your idol. All of my work that I do is based really heavily off the fact I want to be as good as Miyazaki some day many of my inspirations are all of the films of his I am inspired by and I am now in uni trying to get even better at doing the things I love because if my idol can do it then so can I. 

(I sadly can't take any screenshots from the movie because even if I watched it on youtube it would let me because well it's stealing - but that gives whoever is reading this the excuse to go and watch it and see how awesome it is!!)

here are all of the websites I looked into and youtube videos I watched that I got quotes from: 

website that helped me with life research

Website that helped me with Ni No Kuni knowledge

Webiste that was all movies played out with themes

IMDb website I looked at

One of the YouTube videos I looked at

The other YouTube video I look at where I got all of the quotes from

here are all of the reference of films that I mentioned:

Castle in the Sky (1986) [film], Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki, Japan: Toei Company

Tales from Earthsea (2007) [film], Directed by: Goro Miyazaki, Toho Co.

Nausicaa of the valley of the wind (1984) [film], Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki, Japan: Toei Company

PONYO (2008) [film], Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki, Toho Co., Studio Ghibli

Princess Mononoke (1997) [film], Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki, Toho Co., Studio Ghibli

Spirited away (2001) [film], Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki, Toho Co., Studio Ghibli 

Howls moving castle (2004) [film], Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki , Studio Ghilbi

My neighbour Totoro (1988) [film], Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki, Toho Co., Studio Ghibli

EXAGGERATION Ი︵𐑼

Exaggeration is the one principle that I actually really enjoy A LOT. It is where I can take an expression or an action a character may do and then well exaggerate it. Make it unreal and cartoonish. I really enjoy cartoons that make the movements go well crazy all over the place. It just makes it so cool to look at. Personally I am actually not that good at showing expressions through animation or drawing but it is something that I really want to work on considering I like it so much. 

To make sure me and my class understood the animation principle we all watched this video (link in the button below) and instead of just explaining it the video actually gave tips on how to make an expression exaggerated. I never thought about making the expression too exaggerated, then dialing it back until it fits the vibe and the expression of what you want to convey. It's actually a pretty good tip. Considering this week my research task was into someone I look up to A LOT and his work is crazily expressive and has really good exaggeration I would write about it here but its above!!. 

I also like how the video we watched in class just simply explained it. exaggeration in animation i think is super important not just because well it showcases the emotion well but it really gets the point across to a wider audience, as well as I think that it can just help produce the personality of a character so if they are really slouched and wearing lots of dark clothing as an audience to could infer that they might me bemo or like super sad. But if they were bright and colourful with a HUGE smile on their face that is stretching their skin then they are super duper happy, possibly even annoyingly happy. 

Audiences are something that not just in my animation lessons but in my illustration lessons is something that I need to work on so an audience can also understand not just me. I think exaggeration but using it in tandem with the other principles will help because I always exaggerate lighting and things like that but everything is too exaggerated and is too much to focus on. Which is helpful to realize because even though I haven't finished my animation that I am doing for this section of work animation skills) it is helping me quite a lot to understand what to do for this animation and things I need to consider next time I do an animation or just anything really. 

The video that was watched

Enough talking about my own work exaggeration is literally super duper duper important and it doesn't just have to be done with the moving pictures in an animation or film it could be done with sound. I know that it isn't really animation but if something is happening of screen from the animation or film that is being shown not only the expression of possibly other characters who see it might be exaggerated but also the sound and the music and everything hearing wise should also help push the exaggerating part, whether it be screaming or dramatic music that in my opinion is also a part of the use of exaggeration in animation. 

Now I mentioned my animation that I worked on. Well I got more done than I thought I would. I managed to line the whole things and I am working on the colouring ( I haven't really coloured a lot of it yet but TRUST ME next week I hope to have to pretty much done because well its week 11 and week 12 is the last week at uni until the holidays so I sort of have to have it like that anyway.)

What I did this week generally made me so proud, sure I have made some mistakes which I will have to fix up next week but I managed to do things that I really struggle with in animation which is using different layers. I literally don't know why but even when I was at college and first started animating I ALWAYS forget to do things on separate layers, but this time I did. 

Here is the animation completely lined, I am supe proud I managed to complete liningit this week!!!

Here is the animation just starting the colouring. I decided to start with the characters to make sure that the background wouldn't be visible underneath them but I realized some of the things. I did on separate layers go over the characters and throughout the colouring some parts I am having to go back over in the lining and erase some of completely change some to make sure that the colour of the characters goes over the object the character maybe be holding or touching (for example where on of the mice is holding their phone I had to change that lining for it too work. 

Also as a class we had a lecture from this outside source and because this animation i completely forgot to use key frames and planning it all out beforehand and instead I just went for it even though when I was learning how to do some of the animation principles I make it a point that keyframing and planning it all out was actually REALLY REALLY helpful. I just forgot and started animating how I like to and the man who gave us a lecture also did the same thing but told us that the usage of keyframes is certainly helpful. I don't know why but hearing it from someone who is much older than me sort of calmed my nerves that I haven't fully gotten used to using them yet. 

But beside the fact I am sort of upset that I didn't use keyframes, what I have done without using key frames has still made me really happy and even though it isn't that much of a win but to me it is. I did make some movements (or at least tired to) make them smoother from the rough animation that I completed last week with the lining. The only reason I am upset that I didn't do the key frames is to work on 2 things I really want to get better at timing and this week's animation principle research exaggeration. 

I think if I didn’t get excited and didn’t jump right into it and made sure I did keyframes first I think I could of altered the sound track a little to maybe let in breaks and as well as I think it would of helped if I did the keyframes because i could of exaggerated some parts like. I really wanted to exaggerate the part where the mouse was cleaning and his anger but because I didn;t key frame it I had to just sort of go for it and hope for the best. I still think it worked but I mean it could have been better. I wanted to exaggerate the slurping too but I mean all of these skills that I want to work on some of them. I am not really sure how I would even produce them as an animation because it sort of confused me how people do it. 

But even though I am confused I am determined to get better, so next animation thing I have to do on TV Paint I want to TRY and remember to use keyframing or AT LEAST exaggeration and timing because I feel like it can make my animations more engaging. 

Even though I have said all of this negative stuff about what i have produced I really like what i have done because even though sure it would've been better. I think the fact it doesn't have a lot of breaks makes it feel more like a cafe?? I mean of course cafes can be useful for studying and can be calm but I wanted to focus on how cafes can be busy and a lot to take in even for the mice and I feel like I managed to produce that as everything is quite fast and there's so many different sounds that I added. 

Something I did change from the animatic is instead of the camera panning upwards as I know that it's avoiding something I am not good at but I currently really don't t have the time to do it because it's almost the end of my first trimester and instead of worrying about a skill I have never really done before I want to do a transition I am more comfortable with. So even though it's sort of hard to tell because everything I on different layers what I plan to do for the difference in the mouse cafe to the human one is as crumbs fall from the ceiling near the end there will be a crumb that falls in front of the camera covering the camera and it will suddenly change to me the human walking above causing problems for the little mice. Also talking to my teacher about my work she mentioned that my idea is very unique but I really need to work on timings. I am really glad she thinks my idea is unique. I like making stories. It's sort of why I decided to go into animation and illustration because of my love for storytelling and also art. With animation I can do both and it's awesome.