My Summer Project
Recently, I watched a video of Osamu Masuyama, an artist for Studio Ghibli and other animation studios, do a watercolor painting demonstration to university students. It was mesmerizing watching his technique, each meaningful swipe of the brush culminating in a beautiful sky. I had a realization from that video, though it may be obvious: there are a lot of watercolor paintings in animated films, especially older classics, such as My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke. I can paint...
From there, I also stumbled upon a video of someone animating a short clip from My Neighbor Totoro, where Kanta runs away when the girls come and visit. The artist voicing the video was relatable in his attempt to recreate the scene; it made me feel that I could do the same with some time and an animation program...
So, why don't I? Though it is limited, I do have some experience with Photoshop, which is widely used for background art for Japanese animation. I would even dare to say I'm a good story-teller. With all the tools I need, and all the time in the world this summer, instead of doing essentially nothing for three months, I could animate something.
It doesn't have to be a full story. I could write the full story, but to start, I'm setting the bar low. I want to animate an entire scene from whatever story I choose to write. Only one scene. Yet, I want that scene to be the most perfect, professional scene I can muster. In color, smooth, detailed and complete. Sound and all.
Since summer's almost begun, I've already started brainstorming. I want it to be about kids. Or, in other words, I guess you could say heavily inspired by My Neighbor Totoro. I might even try to recreate some of the scenes in that film as practice. What I like about Totoro was how it portrayed children so accurately; sometimes they're stupid, sometimes dramatic, but you can always get a good laugh out of them. Watching that film almost brings you back to that time of innocence, where you didn't have a care in the world, just running around and having fun. I want to, at least, capture that feeling in the scene I create.
And, of course, I'm starting to tell everyone I can about this. If I don't have half of my high school holding me to this scene I plan to create, it's just not going to happen. And when it does happen, it'll be that much more rewarding, showing everyone what I've done. I also have a great group of friends that I know would adore giving me the harshest, but constructive, feedback.
I'm hoping that this summer will be the best one of my life. I'll be swimming on a swim team, with practices early in the morning a few days every week. I can't wait to come home, exhausted, eat, read, and have a great time producing something I can (fingers crossed) be proud of.
