Journey : Interactive Art

Journey is an indie video game developed by thatgamecompany and published by Sony Computer Entertainment . The game tells the story of a mysterious hooded figured, who throughout the game wandered through vast landscapes and danger to reach the goal - a portal at the top of a mountain. A very obscured plot with an ending that brings the player back to the very beginning , Journey relies on the actual journey itself to deliver its stories and emotion , and did they do so magnificently.

The term "interactive art" was coined by an article from the guardian , as a more appropriate description for the game : 

"And what it actually is, is the key question. Because, by generally accepted definitions of the word, Journey is not a game. It has no fail state: although there is perceived peril, it seems impossible to actually "die" while playing. There is no time limit, so solving puzzles has no sense of tension. And although the presence of puzzles suggests challenge and therefore a game-like experience, these tasks are simple and toy-like...

..thatgamecompany continually refers to Journey as an experiment. When I interviewed the producer Robin Hunicke last year, she was very clear about that. Aware that they'd never produced a game with a traditional multiplayer component before, the studio set about exploring the meaning and conventions of online interaction, and sought to manipulate them to create something more spiritual and reflective. All thatgamecompany titles are effectively a Voight-Kampff test – they are designed specifically to provoke an emotional response. And in this sense, they are more like art than games."

Indeed, one of the key unique points of Journey that is has no dialog to communicate its stories , therefore they relied on the artistic style of the landscape and the interaction of the character to the environment around them to deliver it punches , helped along by cutscenes, hence , meaning that Journey is a pure "visual" production. In contrast to the logic of having less focus on sound and more on image, you would focus say on making the graphics more realistic perhaps, but like many other indie games out there, Journey relies on simplicity and style. This has 2 pros : first , being that the visual quality of Journey stands up to the test of time ( even till' this day ) and second ,it gave the designer incredible creative freedom and use it to create more of  an emotional impact through their design as compared to what realistic graphic can. 

This idea of simplicity was first demonstrated in the character design : 

The picture above shows an evolution of the character concepts from the very beginning all the way to the final game. If you notice , there is a trend where it started out as a human figure, gradually evolving into something that is more detailed and complex , but started stripping it all down to the minimum toward the end , with the final design being essentially a tent with a head and 2 legs. One of the concept artists who worked on the game , showcased his early production art as various drawings of hooded human figures , with an emphasis on cloth. After a number of studies, he reached this drawing : 

This was one of the earliest concepts that resemble the final character , and served as the base for the production from then on. One key interesting point about this , one of the reason that these earlier concepts weren't accepted were the fact that it would be too hard to animate, considering they uses lots of moving pieces and details , which pressured the designer to begin stripping away. As the game mechanic that was finalised uses little movement of arms, the arms was therefore stripped away , so were the feet , the straps , in its places the addition of a elongated cloth cape design that was one of the core mechanics of the gameplay , ...etc until we have : 

 

So in this situation , we see design being altered by the need of gameplay , a very interesting point observe . If that was in animation , what would be to the case that could alter the design halfway through ?

Simplicity shows itself again through the landscape of Journey . Once again one of the earliest idea was to have a high-texture , detailed water-colour for the background ( so in similar sense to Ghibli's animation ) , but realistic necessity won and it was deemed too difficult ( and undoubted to expensive for an indie developer ) to do . That was when the idea to take away all the texture and emphasise on flat shapes came up , giving it a more illustrated look. At the end of production though , some of those texture idea creeped back up , and in turn create a unique blend between detailed texture (like the sand , snow ) with the flat colours of the larger figures in the background like dunes and mountains far away ), it was absolutely incredible to view.

The background were also uses as a tool to create an emotional factor to the gameplay , such as the designer wanted a sense of freedom and exploration for the player , therefor , they pushed the fog way back for open scene, emphasising on vast plains and ground that the player can go across. Moreover ,  the sense of scale in the game , having the character significantly smaller than the environment on screen , really add to the sense of grandeur of the journey , especially in the end bit there the character is flying up toward the mountain , combined that with the soundtrack and you get a hair-tingling sensation of epicness in the entire moment.

Adding up  on top of that , interestingly enough , the use of colours is also used as an too to indicate progression through the story , as demonstrated by this colour composition used throughout each stages of Journey : 

Overall , Journey's use of simplicity in the world of competing realistic-in-game graphics is very much closely related to the story of 2D animation in the CGI era , and really shows of the creative power it can provide if done right. This would be a great reference for my future project , especially in colour use and backgrounds.

Studio profile : Gainax

The story of studio Gainax is quite an inspirational one of dreams and success being made by passionate fans. Founded in early 1980s , Gainax started out as Daicon Films- a small studio that make opening animations for festivals and ads - by a group of university students university consisting of Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto,Hiroyuki Yamaga, Takami Akai, Toshio Okada, Yasuhiro Takeda and Shinji Higuchi, all considering themselves massive otakus ( the term coined for fans of anime and its culture ). 

The first years of the studio involves doing short animation for Japan SF Convention , named accordingly as Daicon III and Daicon IV. They got their big break when Bandai , a hugh company at the time , proposed funding them for bigger project , with the promise of getting good revenues back. And so studio Daicon is officially acknowledged as a talented anime studio albeit a small one. The studio name was changed in 1985 around the time the fund came to Gainax -the name Gainax is based from the Japanese word of "Gaina" meaning big , with an X at the end to make it sound cooler ( The good old Japanese naming technique). 

The first job under the Gainax name was Royal Space force : The Wings of Honneamis, a critically acclaimed movie til this day , but wasn't a commercial success. That, came later in the form of the Gunbuster Original Video animation.

Gunbuster (1988)

After some troubles with staff leaving and finance , in 1995, the studio started work on its biggest ever project ,and undoubtedly one of the most well-known and critically-acclaimed anime of all time : Neon Genesis Evangalion. From beautifully animated scenes to a story that would melt your brain the first time around, Evangalion started out shaky but ended up being a major success for the studio , which would be followed by 2 featured movie and MASSIVE product licensing , earning the studio an amount that it has never seen before. So much so that because it didn't know how to deal with such money , the studio came under investigation for tax evasion , with one of the directors at the end being jailed. This came as a shock to the entire studio who had no idea of the financial  situation. But despite that , the studio moved on , with its reputation higher than ever and remained one of the most renowned and active studio to this day , with a row of hit series following EVA like , Flcl , Gurren lagann , Panty and Stocking ,... Moreover , staffs who later on leave the studio to followed their own ambitions would eventually create other notable name like Studio Kara and Trigger ( who made their own significant contribution to the industry ).

If there is a world to describe Gainax animation style , it would be over-the-top. The characters of Gainax moves with such freedom and expressive ness, especially in action-heavy sequences ,which create a very unique dynamic that add to the impact of that scene. Of course that is to say it depends of who the animator is , as realism is also part of Gainax earlier production :

But they weren't afraid to try new things, which led them to creating new and more exciting forms of animation , which include that stylized over-the-top movement , which is not only limited to the character , but to also the environmental elements , such as flames, smoke , .... Again , this style fits in beautifully with the more than often ridiculous plots of Gainax's anime which in turn really add to the feeling of the story , inciting the sense of rush and strength of the action , or the emotional intensity of the character at that point of time. This unique style would set them apart as THE studio of the action genre and would be passed on to newer names like Trigger.

Overall , Gainax is a true success story of fans making what they love and a true inspiration to me. Moreover , their style and its awesome expressiveness is something that I really want to try and hopefully mastered in the future.

Animation test

Following the Animate it study task for Animation skill, I decided to produce a short animation gif to further experiment with 2D animation , in this is its a samurai drawing his sword. I have to say , the more I do this the more I feel that the straight-ahead form of animation fits me best , as it allows me to be much more flexible and creative in creating motion, especially ones that are complex like the drawing and sheathing of sword of a samurai (which on the latter I failed to do actual, as it is missing the sliding of the blade along the sheath before actually putting it in - which will be a quite confusing description for people who don't know how that works ) :

Animation-wise though , I'm actually quite please with it . the action is clear and shows a decent amount of fluidity ( agains thanks to straight-ahead animation ) even is the lines is constantly moving out of place ( boiling point style ). I'm also please to see that I have gained some level of understanding speed in animation , as the swift draw of the blade is exactly what I want to portray.To that end , what I would want to improve on it is first , like mentioned above is to produce a more correction representation of the action to real life and second , is having more movement variation is the different sections of body and armor , by doing so show that they are individual pieces that doesn't stick to the body but follows it , creating a more lively character and more realistic movement

Paperman and the future of 2D Animation

In this decade of CGI dominated animation , 2D animations are few and far in between , and the commercially successful full-length features are even fewer ( Disney's Princess and the Frog is the only thing that came to mind). Despite that, it's safe to say that the aesthetic values of 2D animation are still very much adored and appreciated (as demonstrated by the amount of 2D animated shorts and their reception at animation festivals ,such as The Red turtle , and within some industry , still play a major role i.e Japanese anime ). With that said though , it has to be acknowledged that behind those aesthetic values are the time-consuming , budget-draining and work-demanding nature of producing 2D animation , which from a business standpoint , would become more and more of a problem for potential developers, and probably is the reason why 2D animation has fallen off so much in the Western commercial market.

However, Paperman , the Disney Oscar-winning animated short demonstrate new potential for 2D animation , in which it combines the practicality and efficiency of 3D CGI with the aesthetic of 2D , with the final result feeling very much like a beautifully hand-drawn feature. To explain it simply ( and big emphasis on "SIMPLY"), it uses a specialized software called Meander that uses the guide of 3D models and CGI, and construct the 2D lines directly on top of it , using custom technologies that calculated the spaces between each each key frames and automatically draw in-betweens , while keeping to the 3D guides, therefore creating depth and dimension( so Maya + rotoscoping + Flash , you could say ). But a better explanation should come from this example video of it :

Realistically though , the experimental nature of this software means that its still far from being able to produce a full-length feature. One can argue that doing both 2D and 3D at the same time takes much more effort than doing either individually , therefore making it even more unsuitable for commercial purposes. With that said though , it is still interesting to see what kind of development could come from this, and personally the aesthetic of combining 2D and 3D that we not only see in Paperman right here, but video games like Zelda the Windwaker, or anime like Ajin and Berserk really interest me , who is very much a 2D-focused animator 

Paperman (audio is not original )

 

 

Manchester Animation festival : Day 3 - BIG RED TURTLE

But , before we go into that, I should probably discuss the other things that has happened throughout the day . First was a full viewing of the old classic 1981 Clash of the Titans (using the original reel that from the British Films archive). It features the last works of reovolutionary stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen. To be honest , I never knew of him nor his work before the viewing , partly because I was born way to late to get some decent exposure on that , but just from pop culture knowledge , I've came across his work in Jason and the Argonauts , which is the scene of the warrior battling multiple skeletons . It came as quite a surprise to learn the fact that he was the first to combine animation with live actors on film , which effectively kickstarted the modern visual-effect dominated-film industry that includes pretty much everything from Star wars to Lord of the Rings to Transformers that we've taken for granted for so long ( to think that it is an animator that started that is quite inspiring actually). Of course by today standard, the quality of the animation itself can not compare, (and so is the acting ) , but nonetheless it is an good film. As an awesome bonus though , we got to see the actual Medusa models that were used in the film , and it was actually quite stunning with lots of intricate little details that due to the lighting were missing from the films, such as the scale patterns on her body or the little strands of hair behind her neck. The scale came as quite a surprise to as I thought it would be smaller.

    

Along side the viewing , I got a personal interview with Mr Paul Wells who helped me elaborate further the different genres of animation ( which ties in with my current Context of practice essay).  Its really interesting to hear from the author whose work had played such a major role in my studies, and even more interesting to hear he confessed that he would like to re-write his works in more simpler and easy-to -understand term, but that wouldn't sit well with the publisher. He helped me with my main request of explaining what the formal genre of animation is , with an answer that is short , straight-forward and very comprehensible : it is when animation ask the question " what is it that animation can do , that live action can not", such as telling a fairy tale, animation can bring in magic , can animate talking animals, that is something that real life can't . Its qualities like those that forms the bases of the formal genre. Without a doubt , having a clearer image of this would significantly improve my understanding and is yet another source of reference for my current and future essays.

And with that , I have to get to the main part of the they , the preview of "The Red turtle". With staff members for Studio Ghibli essentially kickstarting and participating in it , including art directer Isao Takahata, that reason alone was enough to draw me in , and I was not disappointed with it. But safe to say ,credit is where credit's due, the staff of studio Canal and all the other French and Belgian studios did an amzing job , created a beautiful piece of work, perhaps not reaching the level of details of Ghibli yet but nonetheless quite an achievement. Director Michael Dudok de Wit had shown such dedication to his craft by producing much of the storyboard by himself, close the ways of Miyazaki. As an animated feature with no dialog , The Red turtle truely relies on the visual aspect of animation to deliver its emotions , and it indeed succeed in this aspect. The colours used on the background are composed perfectly so that it would fit the emotional state of the scene and of the character, while still retain a sense of realism and natural quality , such as , the use of blue and black during stages of sadness, lost or despair, or the use of the raging red hues of sunset to emphasise anger in the character. Speaking of which , the production team has done so much in bringing out the humanity and character of the backgrounds. Most of the time , we see nature takes the center stage of the scenes ( where most compositions have the casts really small compared to the scenery around them). This create a true sense of scale and push the fact the the main character is truly lost to the vastness of nature. But not only that , we see nature playing the role of a character , interacting with the cast ( the bloody crabs ) and even becoming the antagonist in the final stages of the movie (the tsunami). At the begining of the movie , there is a short clip of director de Wit talking about the inspiration for this movie , among it is his fascination with nature and the tale of Robinson Crusoe. He didn't want a situation like in Robinson , where man dominates nature and its hardship , but instead focuses on the power and beauty of nature , where man relies on and are driven by it. Of course , I'm not saying that I fully understand the meaning he's trying to convey through the plot of the movie ( the having a fictional relationship with a turtle part really went over my head ) , but what he has succeeded in is telling an interesting story and conveying emotion effectively. Once again, this is thanks to the hard  work of the animation team, creating such fluid and human-like motions that is subtle yet really relatable to our real-life self ( throwing a rock out of frustration or cuddling behind your love ones ) .
Proper thumbs up to them , to Michael and to Ghibli for kickstarting such an amazing project.

  

Manchester Animation festival : Day 2

Today involves even more animation shorts , among it , "Wild fire" and "Once upon a line" are the 2 stand outs.

Wild fire 

Once upon a line 

Wild fire is a beautifully animated 2D feature, with very fluid and realistic movements of character, and also of the flames, almost remind me of Ghibli's style. Moreover , its use of lighting and colour palette really help to portray the raging fire and set the tone for the animation. However , plot-wise , it is a little bit obscured, with an ending that when I first saw it , I wasn't able to comprehend , and felt kind of , disconnected.

Once upon a time is also 2D animated , however , in contrast to Wildfire, it is heavily stylised , with it's use of only monochrome palettes and and silhouetted body parts. By doing it that way , Once upon a line highlighted the fact we don't necessary have to show a full image to convey its meaning . A bonus fact would be the topic of the plot , which I must say I can somewhat relate very much.

After that came a brief insight on the image women in animation , with Camilla Deakin, Ruth Fielding, Lindsay Watson and Terry Wragg. It started out with miss Wragg recalling the earlier periods of her career , during the 70s when the image of women was still objectified and gender stereotypes and sexism was still heavily present. Then it ended with the contemporary view through Lupus Films latest animated feature : " Hethel and Earnest" , where the image of Ethel , is that of a strong , dedicated and smart individual who have her own personal political ideas and is ready to defend them, all the while still works hard to take care of her family. It really highlighted how society (and in turn the animation industry )has really progressed through the decades , with women ever playing bigger roles and working hard for equality .

However , the definitive highlight of the day , is definitely Blurzoo studio and their virtual reality experience "Hoodoo". This is the first time ever I've tried the Vive and I have to say it blew my mind away. Although its not as interactive as I'd imagined it to be , this opens up a whole new branch that animation can touch one, and with the popularity that VR has already accumulated now , It probably won't take long. I imagined an animated film/feature in the style of "Hardcore Henry" ( POV) , with the Vive headset for full immersion , which right now , is already present in video games. However , as highlighted by the developers of Hoodoo from Bluezoo, this development still has to count VR being made more widely available ( lower price ) and have a decent amount of convincing content and developers who are dedicated , to be able to be successful. 

The other tips that I picked up from Bluezoo, its also the importance of setting your own deadlines , so that you can push yourself to complete the work . If not, passion projects with no time limit can be easily bypassed and overshadowed by bigger more important work , to the point that there's the possibility that it might never never completed , which was almost the case for Hoodoo. I myself can relate very much on this topic as my online commissions works constantly are pushed by class works and I have to set a goal for myself to complete 1 order at least each week , just to keep a steady stream of art out ,and in turn , income in. 

Manchester Animation festival : Day 1

Fist day of MAF consists mostly of sitting in the cinema watching short animated features , with the exception of Phantom boy by studio folimage being a full one-hour and a half feature. Many among these groups of films have very very weird plot points , some even borderline absurd ( The Inverted Peak , my god its like an alien brain-washing video or something ). However the one that interested me the most was :

 

           Jonas and the sea          

          

        Of Shadows and Wings

  

      Rapsodies en Roses    

 

                                                                     Phantom boy

These selections really highlight my main interest in 2D animation as oppose to the rest of them. However , while the latter 3 are all traditional 2D , Jonas and the sea are animated in a very interesting way .It is 2D animated just to put it out there, but it is done so in a way that it almost look like it was a paper-cut-out type of animation , having parts of the character moves along certain hinges, which is a theme that is repeated in alot of the shorts - mixing different type of animations with each other, for examples : in the short "Birds" , the characters and background are CGI 3D , but they have a 2D layer put over them ( which is a technique that is very close to my heart as it is used widely in modern anime ), while in the short "Cold coffee", we see the character animated over backgrounds that are real-life photographs and videos ( not to mention it is set in good old Vietnam with her sights and sound , home sweet home, although the story itself is pretty twisted ). Which brings me to another point, although there's probably a deeper meaning behind all of it , I just don't get the point making animated shorts that have weird subjects of plot , like man-birds or repeating "who's in control" 23 times. Drawing from my own leanings toward "practicality" in animation , I enjoy animations that have a clear narrative , an face-value meaning if you will , with an underlying meaning behind it, like the 4 choices I listed above. I don't like animations who tries being to "out there" and unconventional , which at times to me make them seem like they're just weird for the sake of being weird ( which happens alot , especially in "short" films nowadays ) . It is the same reason why I don't like modern art , I just don't get it.

Going back to the 4 choices though , I have to say Phantom boy would be the highlight of today. Before the showing itself , I got a chance to get behind the production of it first , through Mr Paul Wells ( the man the myth the legend ) and a sound designer from Fomilage whose French name I couldn't pronounce or remember. The masterclass touches on sound designing in Phantom boy and other Folimage productions , which , although its not my area of interest , is still very interesting to hear , especially about the part where he breaks the "sounds" of the film , into dialog , music , sound effects and ambient sound, and the part about how music can be so effective on conveying emotions that it spoils and force the audience to feel a particular way. Phantom boy itself was very cool. If there is anything that I could touch on , is that the style of the character make them shows very limited changes in emotions , and that the pacing of the plot in the beginning seems very rushed .

Studio profile : Ufotable

Among the current long list of anime studio, few have matched the fame gained by studio Ufotable. Founded in 2000, Ufotable has turned into a household name in the hearts of many anime fans, thanks to their astonishing visual quality and animation that are displayed through works such as the Fate series (2011-2015) and Tales of Zestiria the X (2016), most notably are their use of visual effects , lighting and 3D animation.

 

As a funny start to this blog, It would be wrong not to mention how Ufotable got its name. Started out in small flat room , as an idea to gather a team around a table where members can discuss their idea, director Hikaru Kondo came up with the name "Ufotable" through his destined meeting with a piece of furniture from a dealer in Scandinavia : a coffee table , which shape like an ufo...As it happens to be in line with the idea Kondo want to express about his team, the name of "Ufotable" was given to the studio, along with the actual table being bought by Kondo and later on are featured in many of the studio's expo booths.... I know, it's so weird....

This is the table 

Returning to the main topic, as mention earlier , Ufotable are well-known for their visual quality, which have propelled them into the limelight of the modern anime industry and got alot of people talking. Many would link this success to the use of talented staff, ( similar to the case of many other studio like Madhouse ) and by all means, its partly true . However , the key defining reason for their performance was not individuals, instead, it was their excellent organisation, structure, and use of teamwork. To say "teamwork" is the definition of ufotable production method would not be exaggerating , with the studio being split up to a significant amount of divisions, ranging from digital, animation , art, manga ,....even a claymation department ! This rooted from their past experience as a smaller studio, with teams of usually 3 ( an animator, a producer ,and a marketing ) taking care of the studios early projects, and even the manga that derived from them. This ability to consistently produce content led to their early fame, and also more importantly , form the base for their structuring later on .

 

When they're weren't doing work, the teams would turn into mangaka 

Fast forwarding to today, ufotable has builded up a sufficient number of departments , with the mentality of keeping every aspect of production in-house , as much as possible. This is something that played a huge part in their ability to keep hold of talents and consistency in works , as contrasted by the situation in Madhouse where the overuse of outside studios and freelancers led to the disconnected and visual inconsistency in many of their works. But if we are to single one of the key traits that is responsible for the incredible visual and shook the whole anime industry, its more than just 2D animation ( although of course it has to be acknowledge that the animation , especially in the action sequences of Fate stay night is truly wonderful , full of flair and dynamics.), its the in-house Digital Team and their CGI . Having a in-house visual effects team that was one floor above the animation department , meant that the 2 teams can communicate very easily , making the process of adding visual effects upon the animation very streamline and consistent, which includes combining 3D and 2D animation within the same scenes, virtual camera movements that involves the position of director of cinematography and the use of 3DS Max and After Effects .( which is very rare in the anime industry ) , and all other aspect from weather effects to lighting, ....these are all handled by Ufotable digital team.Moreover , their work are connected to not only the animation team , but spread out into the art team which handles colour and backgrounds, who they share the floor with 

From the fight scene above form Fate/stay night (2014) , only the action of the character is animated everything else, from dust to explosion to the portals in the above image are added in post-production by the CGI team, which enhance the visual style of the whole fight dramatically.

The process of utilising visual effects to enhance quality is something that I can relate very much as an digital artist. I myself take pride in my lighting skills, which more than often dramatically improve my paintings, as it helps to fit characters into the environment they are in, and I'm glad to see that used in a similar way in 2D animation.

With that said, Ufotable still has a long way to go , especially with fierce competitor like Kyoto animation which also has an incredible digital department, and in somecase, their policy of producing everything in-house can back-fire, as in the case of the 2014 God Eater series, when the time frame between finishing the Fate series and debuting God eater was so narrow, that 3 episode in , Ufotable had to bring in additional staff just to keep up , but still end up having to delay the episodes by months .

  

All in all , Studio ufotable , represents an exciting future for anime , and with the introduction of new 3D technologies ( mostly in the backgrounds, ) it is safe to say that they will only get better and better

Fate/stay night

 

backgrounds from Tales of Zestiria , with the city being 3D

Animator's profile : Hayao Miyazaki

"In the history of animation...there are 2 figures, whose contributions to our art form have placed them above all others, the first is Walt Disney, the second is Hayao Miyazaki"

These were the word of John Lasseter - Chief creative director of Pixar at the 2014 Oscar governor's award , honouring Hayao Miyazaki. The second Japanese film maker to receive the award, it only adds to Miyazaki's long list of trophies, including multiple wins and nominations from the Japanese Acadamy award, the American Academy awards and the Golden Globe,with one of his most prominent work : "Spirited Away" - the highest grossing film of all time in Japan- being the first anime film to won the American Academy award. His latest feature film , "The wind rises" is to be his last swing at directing and making animation before his retirement, signifying the end of a spectacular and inspirational career. 

It is true, Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli, occupies a special place in the heart of many film and animation enthusiasts around the world, especially in the various generations of animator that came after him. But, how has he able to achieve this level of reputation and respect both in and outside of the animation industry, what is it that made him so special?

Perhaps it's the pure numbers of animated features he has directed, more than 12 after reaching the age of 75 ( what tenacity ! ), all of which came out to critical acclaims and commercial success, so much so that without any evidence to support it , I'm confident to say that Miyazaki has NEVER made a bad film, and that is quite an achievement for any directors.

Perhaps its his relatability, knowledge and contribution to the world of animation and art. Like the many pioneers of Disney, Miyazaki was never trained as an animator, or animator or even an artist. He began like many of us , like me , by drawing manga and comics and being inspired by the style of those that came before him, yet through years of experience and practice, has reach a level of understanding movement and character so detailed and polished that it has formed a level of standard for later animators to achieve. Drawing from the style of manga he was influenced from, which was called "Gekiga" or "dramatic pictures" which are keen to more serious storytelling hence more realistic movements, Miyazaki's characters lacks the flair and explosiveness that we see in modern anime . But for what they lack , they made up for in emotion, slow but realistic, subtle yet very expressive of the character they portrayed. For every movements , Miyazaki pour in the traits and personality of that character ,whether you're a young girl, fixing her shoes on by tapping it against the ground or a meticulous engineer with an eye for detail and carefulness, pulling his chair closer to the table and leaning in with his ruler, or two young children playing around their new house. Its these types of subtleness that are taken for granted so much in the modern anime industry, and are what gives Miyazaki's work an emotional complexity that is rarely matched by other and set his works apart .This of course isn't limited to the character alone , but bleeds into every corners of every scenes, backgrounds and side characters alike, making you have an emotional attachment to things like a bath house full of spirits or cute fuzzball creatures that got 15 minutes of screen time. Details - character details , movement details , background details,pacing, timing and emotion,... that is what make Miyazaki films so amazing. But if we need a more general visualisation of this quality of animation, remember when I made a blog on Sakuga ? well then Miyazaki's films are basically a giant Sakuga compilation.

More over he altered the face of animation in the west , who stereotypical view even til this day is that animation is still for children only , and therefor should be stylised as such. Miyazaki wasn't afraid to touch on controversial and emotionally complex subjects which more than often is slides beneath a mask of fantasy and fiction. From prostitution, to human greed to war, he was as a controversial figure and an activist as he is in real life. Yet, a special thing about Miyazaki's stories are , there are no apparent good or evil. There's never a clear objective for the audience to root for one side or denounce the other, but instead build a world that is very much realistically black and white, where the main characters have flaws and desires and the antagonists have a noble purpose. This in the end created a story that is not only logically sound but extreme interesting to dissect and analyse

But for me personally, Miyazaki most inspiring trait is his artistry and his dedication to his craft. He worked in the studio up until his retirement form 11am to 9pm, drawing every single frame of storyboard in all of his animated features, each of them done with care and a incredible attention to detail. What he doesn't do personally, he supervise on , whether that is music, background and other artists working alongside him, which probably make him one of the hardest working director in the history of cinema. He is strict but on the notion of perfecting every single detail, wether its 2 frames or a whole scene. Moreover , his creative practice is something to admire, as he works with no script in hand, planning out the story as he is doing the storyboard, with the staff animating alongs, so much so that sometime almost all of the animation has been finished while the storyboard isn't done yet !This enable him to have creative freedom on every aspect of the story , to change it as he please and to turn each scenes , in his words , into a "pivotal moment". This is something to truly be inspired from , Miyazaki insisted on taking the long route, and more than often are hard on himself and his fellow animator, but it is that strive for absolute perfection and creativity that make his film just so unique and fresh, while all in all just keeping getting better and better and better with ever increasing movement , characters and scenery , and is what makes so many people look up to him.

With Miyazaki's retirement, we see the end of a legend, but the impact he has made on the industry and community remains strong with his films ever inspiring new generations of animator. His technical ability, understanding of humanity and his dedication to the art are something that every animator/film maker should be aspired to. To close this off , I think this is a perfect quote that truly highlight Miyazaki's philosophy , as well as the core of what many of us who are inspired and learned from him wants : 

I would like to make a film to tell children "it's good to be alive"

Anime and Sakuga : opposite ends of the spectrum

   


A key point usually made when comparing Western animation to Anime , is a consistency of the animation quality. While western cartoons/animation generally relies more on "realistic" movements which resulted in a balance of fluidity throughout the entire animation ( which has been present even in the earliest of animation features such as Snow White), Anime , being produced by a relatively smaller studios compared to their western counterparts and having extremely tight budget and production time, uses cheats to be able to push out products effectively. This can range from anything from skipping frames, to having long scenes of dialog where only the character's mouth moves,...Unsurprisingly , this resulted in Anime, especially modern anime being branded as lazy , and looking terrible , with only a few exceptions from bigger studios with bigger budgets, and have been even poked fun at by anime and anime fans themselves.

  

oh god the horror !

However , there are certain points in time that the quality of scenes from anime just improve drastically , with extremely stylistic/ fluid movement , expressive and complex actions and elevated visual effects. This is called "Sakuga". Sakuga is what generally gives anime its flair when comparing to western animation , and usually is use to emphasise a certain aspect of the animation/story such as dramatic fight scenes, or an emotional situation .Sakuga is heavily presented in Anime openings and endings, to showcase the visual quality and encite execitement in the audience. Sakuga itself varies from the heavy realistic, slow yet expressive movement of Hiroyuki Okiura or Hayao Miyazaki, to surreal and exaggerated style of Shinji Hashimoto and Masaki Yawasa, or modern anime studios like Madhouse and Trigger who done works like One punch man and Kill la Kill

Little witch Academia ( studio Trigger )

examples of action-oriented sakuga

examples of more realism sakuga

Whichever style it goes for , sakuga drastically increase the visual interest of the anime they are in and usually determined , animation-wise , how good that anime is. Anime features that uses alot of sakuga such as Akira , Cowboy Bebop and works from studio Ghibli are widely praised for their artistic style and fluid animation and samething can be said for anime series that tries to follow along those line as well. 

But of course, being of high-quality , sakuga is expensive and time-consuming to produce, and only big studio with high-budget and work force can produce theme. In an environment like the modern anime industries , where episodes are done while the series are airing , which create an extremely limited time frame and deadline, animation with a decent amount of sakuga are far in between , but those that do , are like the shining gem among the sand.

In general, from my personal view, its is every animator's goal to create good looking animations, an eye candy in everybody's view. However , the story of Sakuga highlights the reality of the industries, where economies comes into play and deadlines dominate the workflow. So the question is , do you sacrifice style and expressiveness for the consistency of animation quality like Western animation , or do you choose to go all out at the expense of overall quality. For me personally, as of right now , I'd be more incline to the latter, as I'm in the process of learning new techniques and I want to try out everything , but eventually , reality will change that no doubt.