Japanese Style Animation for Hire (Studio Ghibli "Look")

[Shaeden Gallegos]

I am in my last semester at film school and our final project is going to be an animation. It will be in the style of "Studio Ghibli" features but in a shorter form (4-6 min.). Do any of you know of any studios or freelancers that do this style of animation for hire? We are still figuring out the budget due to not knowing the price of such a piece. I know it will be quite expensive. Any info would be great. Thanks guys!

 

[PatrickFaith]

If your into Seiji Okuda work ("spirited away", "ponyo", "wind rises"), he did a film called "Sky Crawlers" - which is a mix of vfx and hand drawn. There's a bunch of people that can do the "Sky Crawlers" approach in California since it's using a bunch of the Vue type software. Not sure about the full hand drawn availability of talent using the old ghibli workflow - is a lot of time consuming work.

 

[jussi rovanpera]

You've seen this student film? https://vimeo.com/124313553

 

[Shaeden Gallegos]

Thank you Patrick! That is very helpful information. I appreciate your time.

 

[Shaeden Gallegos]

Hey Jussi! Yes, I actually have. That is one of the pieces we are using for inspiration. We contacted Gwenn Germain, but he has not responded as of a couple days (probably doing bigger things). Thanks for your help.

 

[Zack Birlew]

Speaking as a film school grad, your first mistake was thinking you could get Studio Ghibli quality on both a thesis film budget and timeframe! Not to be harsh but it's a reality that you need to face. Now, you have a film, which I'm sure is great, wonderful, and deserving of being animated in that style, okay, well you're going to have to lower your expectations a bit and perhaps settle on an in-between look because, as I'm sure you know, the Studio Ghibli style is all about small minute details and realism, especially things like lighting, shading, clothing physics, and especially hair. So, looking for a small studio or freelance artists is a good idea but they'll still be tied to your budget and timeframe. What you're most likely looking at is a Flash animation, Anime Studio, or Toon Boom Studio project at best. There's also going the self-made route and doing blending and such with After Effects and Photoshop using a few different plugins and perhaps one I saw the other day on AEScripts called AutoSway. I could also say 3D could be an option but it never lends itself to the anime look unless you're creating custom characters and doing a hybrid approach like the "Ni No Kuni" game did but, again, time is your enemy there. What school do you go to? I went to Chapman University and they had a digital arts department which would have been a great help for a project like this. If your school has the same, maybe look into connecting with them and seeing if any DA students would be interested in helping or providing advice? You could also try checking CGTalk and asking there on their forums. The number one issue I think you'll face is the level of artistry needed for your background art. You could get away with using a toon filter on photos but that may not be appropriate for the look. If you're looking for freelance artists then you may need one person or group for the animation and another for the background art.

 

[Zack Birlew]

I watched the student film posted, btw, and that looks very impressive but also very involved work with both 2D, 3D, and After Effects and Photoshop trickery. Somebody who has been dabbling in software since high school or nonstop every day for years could create something like that on their own in that timeframe but that's not something to expect from just any artist. It looked like a lot of tricks were done with motion and animation, particularly noticeable with the hair which was sometimes rigid in shots when you look at it closely. Perhaps Twixtor was being used or some motion blur method to blend the frames together. Shortcut animation tricks like low detail blobs were in there too which is helpful to know as Studio Ghibli does that too, especially in crowd and wide distance shots. The 3D software being used is tricky to point out as it could have been anything these days. I haven't looked at a translate page as I'm on my phone to see if it's mentioned what was used but it wouldn't surprise me to see 3ds Max. In other words, a lot of plugins and software were most likely used and some more expensive than others. Thankfully educational discounts can help but it's not impossible if you come up with a plan. If you want to try the 3D route, DAZ Studio and Poser might be helpful to you with an emphasis on the Hiro, Aiko, Hitomi, and the new Manga girl character they have. Check out "RWBY" from Rooster Teeth to see what's possible there, although they still used custom characters but it's all put together in Poser. If you need help with the DAZ and Poser route I could help a bit there, send a PM if so.

 

[Shaeden Gallegos]

Hello Zack,
Wow! I appreciate the time you took to respond. I fully understand what you are saying about skill level and time. I would be a fool to think that we could get Studio Ghibli status animation, but something close to the feel of it would be nice. There are many animation students in Europe that do this style of work, and let me tell you; they are outstanding. Thank you for stopping by and offering your help, I will further look into the different techniques and talk to my group.

BTW - I go to San Diego State University, and they have no animation department. That is why we are reaching out to connections in LA and finding some back-up plans.