Hayao Miyazaki

From I was a young child I have always enjoyed productions from Studio Ghibli. It would safe to say it’s what began my interest in themes of magic, the other worldly, Japanese folklore and imagining things that could never happen inthe real world. So I decided that my research would be on one of the animators that had created some of my favourite films such as Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke, just to name a few.

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the co founders of Studio Ghibli, which was established in 1985, in Tokyo. The company has created and produced some of the most well known animated films over its 35 year career, with Princess Mononoke breaking Japanese box office records in 1997. Miyazaki says that Princess Mononoke was the first film they used computer generated imagery to suppliment the visual appearance of the movie but still ensures that there was a balance of hand drawn frames so that he could still call his films 2D. His works are said to be influenced by the likes of Osamu Tezuka, Sanpei Shirzto, Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl and Yuri Norstein. Hayao Miyazaki’s movies pertain to the themes of environmentalism, love, spirits, and family, with his hero character rarely being pit against the unsympathetic antagonist. He often highlights the fragility of the Earth and nature around us as he dislikes the use of modern technology and how it impacts the environment all in the name of economic progress. His art style combines Japanese Anime or Manga and American animation, with each movie being stylised somewhat differently. What Studio Ghibli gives its viewer is the immersive experience, the in-depth narrative that accompanies the rich on screen visuals help the viewer to delve into the magical story that’s being portrayed, with Miyazaki once saying ‘their emotions will become yours.’ It is that attention to detail that helps the story to feel tactile and realistic, even if what’s depicted is far fetched or impossible, Miyazaki makes it seem possible.

12 Principles of Animation

1. Squash and stretch
2. Slow in and slow out
3. Straight ahead action and pose to pose
4. Follow through and overlapping action
5. Anticipation
6. Staging
7. Arc
8. Secondary action
9. Appeal
10. Timing
11. Solid drawing
12. Exaggeration

1. This is essential to giving an animation the appearance of weight and flexibility. I used this principle in my ball animation when it hit the ground so it was a little more realistic in terms of the physics of a ball bouncing.
2. Animations should accelerate and decelerate. This can be done by added more frames towards the start and the end of an animated action giving it the effect of slowing in and out.
3. Pose to pose is laying down the main frames where surroundings and composition are more detailed, then fill in between later. Straight ahead  is animated frame by frame, giving the animated action more fluidity.
4. The body of the animation will appear more realistic in movement when using the principle of follow through and overlapping as the legs of an animal would move differently from its tail when walking.
5. Anticipation in animation is giving your character added movements that would be realistic to the action they’re preforming, for example, when jumping the character would first bend the knees before out stretching fully when jumping off the ground.
6. This highlights the most important object or thing in a particular scene of an animation by staging it
7. Arching allows the animator to see how the form would move based off a trajectory, this will give the appearance of something rotating such as an arm at the joint.
8. Giving a character a secondary action adds more the the scene as well as adding character, such as swinging arms while walking or the way Micky mouse whistles as he moves along the scene.
9. There are a number of  affect a chooses characters appeal or charisma. It is this appeal that must be achieved with an audience in order for them to be able to connect with the animation. The design choice plays a big role in this, for example in Aladdin, Princess Jasmine is a nice, soft female character so her character is composed on curved lines. Whereas the villain Jaffar, is a domineering character being comprised of an inverted triangle is a rugged, hard edged design.
10. The timing of an animation is dependant on the FPS (frames per second) or how many drawings are used in a certain action.
11. Using knowledge in anatomy as well as light form can aid to really give a form weight and volume in a 3D space. This is important as it helps to bring the object or character to life.
12. Exaggeration differs in animation depending on how realistic the animator wants their idea to be.