South Korean filmmaker Kojer brings fantasy to our reality in a short film that introduces a colourful cast of Studio Ghibli characters into the real world. The visual love letter is dedicated to the enduring legacy of a Japanese studio known for doubling down on traditional animated movies long after it had fallen out of fashion.
It was created using manual rotoscoping in Adobe After Effects to insert characters into frame. And while people have Photoshopped anime girls into urban backdrops in the past, seeing the effect play out in motion is something even more impressive. The 3 minute video was shared to YouTube after four months of intense editing “It was a lot of hard work but I was happy with the results because I’m a big Ghibli fan,” Kojer tells DigitalRev.
Spirited Away’s Chihiro Ogino can be seen riding the Korean subway as Porco Rosso strolls along a scenic promenade and Totoro slumbers in the shade. The footage was captured in Paju, Naksan Park, Hanriver Park, and N Seoul Tower. Each animated character was carefully plotted along leading lines and depth cues in the video to sell the illusion of Ghibli invading our reality.
Unfortunately, the widespread attention Studio Ghibli in Real Life received led to its removal under copyright grounds; an order by the animation house itself. The studio has become increasingly protective over its intellectual property since it stopped film production in 2014. While the video arguably falls under a fuzzy copyright area known as transformative use, Kojer plans to contact animation studios in future to avoid running into similar problems.
Nevertheless, the video is still available to view on Vimeo and serves as a timely tribute to Ghibli background artist Toru Hishiyama, and Ghibli colourist Michiyo Yasuda who both passed away earlier in the month.
. digitalrev.com
2016-10-25 03:00