Ghibli.

[elenniel]

About three weeks back, when the semester just started, there was a conference organised nearby (about a half-hour's drive away). They called it the CAT Conference. Creativity Art & Technology.

Personally, I thought the logo was rather sad for a conference on creativity and art. There was something about incorporating a cat with the letter C, but it could’ve looked much cooler. And if that big cat with a mouse in its mouth (hahah - I only just realised the “cat and mouse” visual pun while writing that sentence) was the mascot… I’ve nothing to say about it. . Wonder why they didn’t try and get a more designer-ish logo and mascot. Though there were technical companies and stuff involved, it is a conference for the design industry, after all. *shrugs* Anyway, it was a two-day conference and free of charge to people in the arts industry and students.

Since I didn't have classes on Monday, I decided to attend the conference - the first day, at least. Went with a friend and her housemate - both from another art college. The turnout at the conference was pretty good. I don't know why I imagined that there wouldn't be that many people since: (a) it was free, and (b) the showcase company was Studio Ghibli.
How could I have thought there would not be many people? Ahahah...

Studio Ghibli was the main reason that most people were there, I think. The other companies alone wouldn't have proved much of a draw. I don't think I have to explain Studio Ghibli to the readers of this blog, do I? :D All you anime fans should already know of it. :P

The first half of the conference was rather on the dull side, since it was mostly local people from the industry giving talks. Some were okay - not that boring - but there was one guy, who, sadly, was so utterly boring. He was one of Malaysia’s first animators, apparently. I know, I know... By all rights I should have been thrilled or at least vaguely interested, but he was just... Dull. My brain just sort of tuned out to some other frequency in the middle of his talk. Some people just aren't meant to give talks and speeches.

In the afternoon it was finally Studio Ghibli’s turn. We had two guys from the studio, a Mr Okui Atsushi and… Well, I didn’t catch the other guy’s name. It sounded like Shin or Shun though. (The emcee annoyed me by almost consistently saying “Mr Okui-san”, which is kinda redundant... Almost like saying “Mr Mr Okui.” *rolls eyes* ) Okui Atsushi is the Director of Imaging for Studio Ghibli, and he was the one that gave the presentation, with the assistance of a translator, who was clearly not from the art or animation industry, since he found translating the animation terms tricky and had to ask the Studio Ghibli representatives to explain some of their terms to him before he figured out how to translate them.

That's Okui-san on the left in the light brown coat. Translator's in the middle, and the one of the right is the the one whose name I didn't catch. ^.^;

They started off with an introduction to Studio Ghibli and a “tour” of their studios (yea, plural - there are three, apparently) through a slideshow. Like all major animation or design houses (e.g. Pixar and Disney), their studios are just so nice to look at! They aren’t as big as Disney, or as interesting on the interior as Pixar, but still a good deal nicer than just plain offices. I liked that their animation department looked bright - I'm used to seeing darkened rooms for animation studios and such because of the computers, but Ghibli's had lots of windows and natural sunlight. :D I don't really like working in darkened rooms, night owl though I am. I prefer to not have my computer screen glaring back at me through the dark. Of course, I turn off the lights when I want to check lighting effects in Maya, but that's the exception.
(Of course, I might be wrong about the general art studio - I haven't seen many. Those I have seen have a tendency towards drawn curtains, dimmed lights or no windows where there are many computers. So pardon me if I seem to be generalising them wrongly.)

This was amusing:

That's the Computer Graphics (CG) department in… I think it’s Studio 1. Because it’s one of the rooms which has no windows, they painted a window for the staff. Miyazaki-kantoku’s idea, it seems. LOL… Cute. (Miyazaki also designed all their studio buildings. Not bad.)
By the way, sorry about the extreme blue-green colour of the pic. Their slide base was blue so my photos came out tinted extremely blue-green.

They've a pretty roof garden too! (According to Okui-san, during the summer - or was it autumn? I forgot - they turn it into a sort of "beer garden." XD )

Kirei, deshou?

I've more pictures, but am too lazy to shrink them down to size and upload and post them. eheh

They showed us a montage of clips from all their movies, starting from 1984’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind to 2004’s Howl’s Moving Castle. That was interesting. I’ve only seen Princess Mononoke (got talked into watching it by a friend) and Howl. I’ve read the picture book for Spirited Away. Didn’t really like it. The character designs for some characters… Bleh. Typically anime, but somehow I found it a bit on the grotesque side. Probably it was the short, big-headed and big-nosed wrinkled old lady that crossed the line for me. =P Of course, the strength of Studio Ghibli’s movies is, I think, the same for any anime studio. It’s not so much in their character designs, but rather in their storyline. And Miyazaki is pretty good at storytelling.

Okui-san went on to talk about their production process before and after incorporating digital work. It was interesting when he was describing the “analog” way - the totally traditional 2D - but when he started on the digital, that is, when they began using computer graphics for backgrounds and effects and such… My attention waned somewhat. I think the translation time detracted from the whole thing. It couldn’t be helped, of course, since Okui-san spoke in Japanese. But still… Maybe it was also because we’ve learnt so much about digital processes, that the traditional seems more interesting. I dunno.

It was still a cool experience in any case. To get to see and hear people from a major studio in person… I learnt a couple of new Jap words too! LOL.

Oh, they also showed a trailer for Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea). It didn’t strike me very strongly, although my friends are very eager to see the film. I don’t know… It was just a different feeling from when I watched the trailer for Howl’s Moving Castle. There was something about it that really made me want to watch the show. There wasn’t that feeling for Gedo Senki. But then don’t take my word for it. We'll just all have to wait and see the full movie. ;)

Comments

[elenniel.livejournal.com]

I doubt it'd take them (Ghibli or others) 50 years to reach the UK. heheh
Yea, I think freelancing would be cool, but it's always best to get some working experience elsewhere first, no? :D

[windyhurrice.livejournal.com]

That's what I think so too. At the minute I've a basic knowledge of everything but I feel that I'm not learning or taking things into practice enough.

I'm no super-human but I do wish I excel at certain things to keep me going in life. I guess we all do ^^;;

Nah, I still think it'll take them as long to come over here =_=;;;