How can we not talk about Ghibli films when it comes to movies? These classics have engraved their name in the animation industry. In case you didn't know, Ghibli films are made by a japanese animation studio called Ghibli Studio which was founded in 1985 by the man himself, Miyazaki Hayao and Takahata Isao and producer Suzuki Toshio. It has produced around 26 films over the years. Some notable Ghibli movies you have probably heard of are Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service and more. Their movies are mostly on the highest-grossing film of the year with Spirited Away being the 2nd highest grossing film in Japan, having a 383.4 million USD box office. Seeing all these amazing works, you can't help but wonder what happens behind the scenes.
Studio Ghibli revealed the master of anime at work, showing fans how Hayao Miyazaki works diligently on creating the timeless tales that have helped win the animation house awards and an untold amount of acclaim during its history. Since each frame is hand-drawn, and thousands of frames are needed to create a feature film, the whole process takes a lot of time. Firstly, ideas are developed into a script outlining the story. The script contains the scenes including the dialogues. The script will then later be used as a base to the next steps, which are characters, storyboard, and of course, the scenes.
In the character design phase, the construction is the very basis of characters. It will ensure that the proportions and shape are strong! When it comes to designing a character, defining the character helps creators think about who their character is, and what personality their character will take on prior to drawing out a design. The designs, the way the characters dress up should match their personality, how they present themselves, at what point they stand out in society, as well as the time period that's set in the general story. Understanding the story is also an important aspect when it comes to character designing, so it's important that the character designers know what goes on in the story writing.
In the film industry, storyboards are used to plan out an entire movie, shot by shot, before filming actually begins. For example, the storyboard for Scene One opens with a sketch of what the first shot, or camera angle, will look like. Storyboards are a powerful way to visually present information, as the linear direction of the cells is perfect for storytelling, explaining a process, and showing the passage of time. At their core, storyboards are a set of sequential drawings to tell a story. Storyboards are created based on the scripts. It's the foundation of what the end product films will end up looking like, so this is a very important process. In Studio Ghibli, every scene is sketched out traditionally frame by frame. After this, the drawings are put on carbon sheets before being burnt onto transparent cells. It's a very difficult process and needs a lot of precision.
Then comes the coloring phase. Each of the scenes are colored using watercolor paint. Like the storyboard phase, it's all hand-painted. Determining the color schemes is also a very important step. Since colors are what pops out to the audience's eyes the most, It's important to carefully pick out colors that don't clash with each other and are easy to process to the eye. By using different tones for objects in front of and behind the characters, the image is given extra depth. The backgrounds are drawn and colored separately from the main objects/characters and take an equal amount of effort and precision, as well as the number of frames that are hand-drawn.
The dialogue is recorded after the animation is completed, or in some cases when pressed for time because the animation is behind schedule, while it is actually still in production. The after recording process allows for faster animation production, as the animators do not have to match their drawings to the dialogue, and allows for the cast to maintain a more natural flow of their performances. In this case, they used "Pre-recording", a process commonly used in the United States, where the dialogue is recorded prior to the animation’s production. Animators then watched the video recording of the actors and focused on their facial muscle movements so that they could replicate them in their drawings.
Following the dialogue recording, the music selector and sound effects artist individually meet with the recording director to watch the episode’s film and determine the background music and sound effects, respectively. Any new musical tracks or sound effects are recorded prior to this meeting, typically based on the episode’s script and the scene timing established by the storyboard. In this case, there are 28 live musicians in the studio. The recording director sits down in the recording studio with the audio director and mixes all of the audio and voice tracks together while watching the episode. The developed film is edited with the cinematic film which contains the audio recordings. The film is now ready to be screened to all of the staff and crew members who worked hard to contribute to the film!
We took a closer look at the process of animation in studio ghibli and learned a lot. By this, we also got to understand better what the staff team goes through. All the hard work that's put in doesn't go in vain as it's enjoyed by everyone around the globe. Though ever since Princess Mononoke, they have been using digital computer animation more often but an upcoming movie called "How Do You Live?" In the making is using the same old steps as explained here. If you haven't seen any of Studio Ghibli's films yet, what are you waiting for? I highly recommend watching these fantastic works and I'm sure you won't regret it.
Writer: Jolin Lau
Editor: Jolin Lau
Sources :
Bauer, Patricia. “Studio Ghibli.” Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 13 Sept. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Studio-Ghibli.
Chloe. “Behind the Scenes at Studio Ghibli.” GHIBLI GABBLE, 28 Apr. 2013, ghibligabble.blogspot.com/2013/04/behind-scenes-at-studio-ghibli.html?m=1.
“Creation Process – The Legacy of Hayao Miyazaki.” NonProfit, NonProfit, commons.marymount.edu/leetopic/creation-process. Accessed 18 July 2021.
Peterson, Jeff. “Legendary Animator Hayao Miyazaki to Receive Lifetime Achievement Oscar.” Deseret News, 7 Nov. 2014, www.deseret.com/2014/11/8/20552265/legendary-animator-hayao-miyazaki-to-receive-lifetime-achievement-oscar#noah-cyrus-and-frankie-jonas-lend-their-voices-as-newfound-friends-in-ponyo-from-animation-legend-hayao-miyazaki.
Ray, Michael. “Miyazaki Hayao.” Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 14 Aug. 2009, www.britannica.com/biography/Miyazaki-Hayao.
STUDIO GHIBLI. “Ghibli 101: Past, Present, and Future of Studio Ghibli.” スタジオジブリ｜STUDIO GHIBLI, STUDIO GHIBLI, www.ghibli.jp. Accessed 17 July 2021.
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