Mamoru Hosoda & Makoto Shinkai

Ever since I got into the works of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli back in 2005 (ish) I've been branching off and finding other Japanese film-makers that adopt a similar style and are actually close to being serious competition against Ghibli's animations.

Pictures above: Wolf Children

I consider all animation to be art but Japanese animation in particular I hold very close to my passions because the watercolour medium and traditional drawing is something I don't think the Japanese will ever let go of. I've always had a particular interest in watercolour paintings which is why I probably follow Japanese directors and animations more closely than any other form of animation. They create world's that I want to be a part of and the stories they visualise whether it be fantastical or the ordinary events that occur in family life put the meaning of animation on a whole new perspective for children. What differs the Japanese form to American or British in my opinion is there's always a reason for the story. There's a life lesson for kids to learn from watching these stories whether it's highlighting the effects of global warming and deforestation or accepting people for who they are no matter what they look like.

Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki

Two directors I follow particularly closely are Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai who adopt the traditions of drawn animation but have also begun to mix it with CGI for background characters and locations.
Mamoru Hosoda was the first I discovered after seeing 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' followed by 'Summer Wars' and 'Wolf Children.' All three have a strong focus on family life, with 'Summer Wars' and 'Wolf Children' having this connection the most. Although 'Wolf Children' has a fantastical element added (two children born as half wolf, half human), there is still the meaning of acceptance and not judging people by their appearance as Hana (the mother) falls in love with Ookami (the father/wolfman) and although once revealed he is a wolf, Hana continues to love him for who he is. The same occurrence happens when Yuki (the daughter) reveals she is a wolf to one of her classmates, Sohei, who also accepts her. Not only does the story do this, but it stresses the importance of family and having the strength to continue to smile through the tough moments in life as well as to work hard to support a family.
The latter meaning is stronger in 'Summer Wars' as Kenji is asked to pretend to be the 'intended' for Natsuki over the summer break when she returns home to her large family.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' doesn't have an underlying meaning of family but instead focuses on romance and the fragility of time. Makoto discovers she has acquired the ability to leap through time and recklessly wastes them on meaningless events such as re-playing the time spent in the karaoke booth. Only when she realises she has fallen in love with best friend, Chiaki, who is in fact from the future, does she come to realise that time is a precious commodity and should be used to help others.

5cm Per Second

Then there's Makoto Shinkai who has only recently started doing big feature film productions. He's directed the films '5cm per second', 'Voices of a Distant Star', 'The Place Promised in Our Early Days', 'Children Who Chase Lost Voices' and 'The Garden of Words.'
His films always have a central male and female character with the theme of love as the ending scenario. From my own opinion, I would say 'Children Who Chase Lost Voices' (Or Journey to Agartha as it's titled in English) is his best work so far, partly because it's his second full length feature so there was an opportunity to extend character development and story but also I thought the artwork portrayed Agartha as the otherworldly land below the surface of the Earth beautifully.
His stories give people the belief that love can be between any two people, whether they are from two entirely different worlds or have a significant but not too big an age gap. Unlike Hosoda, Shinkai's work does tip further towards the fantasy side of storytelling however some ordinary, family matters do worm their way into his films.



Journey To Agartha (Children Who Chase Lost Voices)

Between the two, I'd say I'm currently more of a Hosoda fan, purely for the sensitive and endearing films he can produce from the ordinary events in a person's life, even if he adds a touch of fantasy to it. His films speak emotion and it's that quality alone that allows people to connect and relate to the character's. After watching 'Wolf Children' with actor commentary, the ADR Director asked each voice actor if they could relate to any of the characters in the film. Every one of them could name one character that reflected them, whether it was the absence of a parent or being shy or not really fitting in amongst others of their age when they were younger and it's that which makes his films so much more beautiful than anything else I've watched. Most animated films are created to entertain, to make you laugh or just to keep the kids happy for a few hours. Every one of those films I've listed from both directors have been created with a purpose to not only entertain, but to connect with the world and the struggles that people face everyday. I think you're supposed to come away after watching their films having learnt something about the world we live in, that every moment spent on it is precious, we cannot be selfish and we cannot hope to survive on our own without our loved ones around us to pick us up when times get hard.

Inbetweening for Crocodile Tears

Now that work I needed to get done for my assessment is over, I've been able to join back onto 'Crocodile Tears,' the third year project I've been helping out on.
Here are two shots I completed earlier today, ready for the clean up artists to take over to colour in.

VFX Showreel

After almost five months of second year this is some of the work I've done in Post Production. I say some, as I consider these to be the best. The rest of my vfx work is further down but this is the showreel I was tasked to hand in as part of the assessment. It contains both work I had to do as part of the course and some play-around work I did in my free time using After Effects.

 

 

 

 

11 Second Club- Pony Problems final animation

This is my final render of the 11 Second Project called 'Pony Problems.' Inspired by the work of Simon Tofield and 'Simon's Cat,' it centres around a stubborn little Shetland pony who favours the stable more than the great outdoors.
Created using Toon Boom, I used a new working method for me, working from animatic to rough frames to full detail renders to create this little short. It's the most enjoyable project I've worked on so far as using this working method allowed me to enjoy the creative process and know that after each stage in creation, I didn't need to go back and redo an entire movement because the rough sketches were already laid out for me to follow.
My main focus was ensuring stretch, squash, anticipation and overlap were clearly visible as the style I was aiming for was an exaggeration of these principles. I believe I accomplished this, I could have pushed it further but I didn't want to move further away from the style I was intending.
The timing was already set out for me to follow as I wasn't allowed to edit the audio in any way so apart from having to tweak the timing of the horse a bit so horse and rider weren't both moving at the same time, I think it's spot on.

Weight only really factored into the rider's performance as the principle was only minimally used for the horse seeing as we only see his head and neck and the little pony, none at all as we don't see much of him. Of course I had to think about the weight of the horse's head and how gravity would affect it but more focus was put into the attitude of the rider as she slouches around the screen with heavy, sulking footsteps. I perhaps could have put more emphasis on weight for the horse as he drops his jaw open at the sight of the rider leaving the fallen nameplate on the floor and made the rider's footsteps look heavier, putting more exaggeration into her emotion of anger but I think, again, I didn't go further due to style.

Overall, I thought I had taken a bigger step forward in my animating skills as not only have I improved on the principles I learnt last year but I've gained more experience in Toon Boom by problem solving the use of the tools to better understand the way they work. Doing this project has helped me to better understand the 2D animating process and I'm more inclined to enjoy further projects using 2D over 3D because I came from a more creative background so drawing has always been my strong point.

11 Second Club rough animation

Finished the rough animation using simple circular shapes to map out the animation and work out timing and squash and stretch then the darker blue lines are the beginnings of the added detail on top. Aspects of the drawings haven't been completed (e.g. the neck/body of the horses) but that's because those parts are static throughout the animation or have little movement so there's no need to keep re-drawing those sections for every frame.

Now that the roughs are done, the last part of the process will be to copy over the rough lines in black outliner and add the eye expressions and finer detail. I also plan to convert the animated sequences into symbols and shrink the size of the bigger horse as he doesn't quite fit in screen and his head, once placed with the body at the end of the animation, are bigger than the stable door.