Studio Ghibli Research

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese computer animation film studio, it began in 1985 after the success of one of their films 'Nausicaä valley of the wind'. Throughout the years, the company have made nineteen feature films so far, including some short films, television commercials and a television film. After some years of their success, the company opened a Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo on October 2001. The company itself was owned by Toshio Suzuki, but stepped down on February 1st 2008, so Koji Hoshino (President of Walt Disney Japan) took over. The lead animator however, Hayo Miyazaki, confirmed his retirement on September 1st 2013, this lead to his son Goro Miyazaki, to follow his father's foot steps and continue the company. Recently through this year, Studio Ghibli have announced on making their first television series called 'Ronia The Robber's Daughter' that will be released some time in 2015.

The types of products Studio Ghibli have made are usually fitted with the fantasy/sci fi genre, films such as Castle in the Sky (1986) the first official film made by Studio Ghibli, Grave of the Fireflies (1988) considered one of the best and most powerful war films, My Neighbour Totoro (1988) In which this gave the company's logo, Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) which won the Animage Anime Grand Prix Prize and also the first film Studio Ghibli became partnership with the Walt Disney company to record an english dub, Princess Mononoke (1997) it was the first Studio Ghibli film to be a hit outside of Japan and begin their attention from the world, another is Spirited Away (2001) the film became the most successful film in Japanese history, it is also considered one of the greatest animated films of all time, it won a Academy Award for best animated feature at the 75th Academy Awards including a Golden Bear at 2002 Berlin International Film Festival, How'ls Moving Castle (2004) After a major hit in Japan, Peter Docter who worked with Pixar, dubbed the film into english, the film was also nominated for best animated feature at the 78th Academy Awards in 2006, The Wind Rises (2013) it was the highest grossing Japanese film in Japan, it was also Hayo Miyazaki's last film. 

 The techniques Studio Ghibli use is mainly focused around hand drawing with a mix of CGI, the use of CGI was used to help animators that had trouble with scenes that were too complex to create using their traditional animation, movies such as Princess Mononoke had this along with digital paint, that sped up the process of finishing the movie on time. To add, how this all begins is by a simple idea, the idea begins to develop and then the idea is made into a script. When the script is finished, character designs are made, what Studio Ghibli go for within their characters is that their costumes are usually based on their personality and what place they have in society, when the character designs have finished, the story board is drawn from the script, the artists illustrate key frames and basic movements first and then begin to sketch frame by frame, when this task has been done, the artists put the sketches on carbon sheets before being burnt on transparent cells. Color is then put on the drawings by hand, using water color, this gives the sketches more depth and detail, for the background, it is hand drawn and painted separately.The cells are then placed on the background, each frame is shot individually.
When it comes to dialogue however, the creators are given a choice to either do it before or after the animation, doing the dialogue before the animation does help the animators model the character's faces when the actors speaks, giving some realism to the piece. Last but not least, music and audio are then added to the film and then film is published.  

In conclusion, Studio Ghibli is a vast, creative company, that captures the hearts of the old and young with it's characters and beautiful stories. With stories such Spirited Away and My neighbour Totoro, with the water colour style backgrounds and well told plot, it captures the viewers eyes and makes them think that this is more than just a animation but a message,  saying that whoever you are, you can always succeed your goals. Taking risks and doing things you have nothing done before. The animation techniques they use are original and unique, knowing that when watching the film you know they have put blood, sweat and tears into their master piece. The animation takes time, patience and not to forget, frustration, meaning the companies artists and animators put effort into their work, which shows commitment to their friends, family and fans. The fact it is hand drawn is unbelievable, it is not rough drawn, its clean and easy to follow of whats going on, the characters all have a similar yet different look, all with their own personalities and their own fashion, speaking of which, the artists try and use fashion to represent the character's personality, with the colour and the way the wear their clothes. And also the actors and actresses, they record them saying their lines before the start of the animation to capture the facial expressions and feelings they show, it gives the artists a bigger picture of how they speak and react, drawing the little details of the cheek bones and the smiles the actor gives.