September 20, 2023 2:15 pm
As technology develops, it opens up more opportunities for creativity. Do you want to make your own anime all by yourself?
Technology is evolving, and we now live in a world where one person can have enough tools to create professional-looking content. But what about anime? Can you make that at home?
Well, it turns out, the answer is yes, and it has been yes for a couple of decades now. Power Mac G4 with Adobe Photoshop and a few other software pieces was all it took for Makoto Shinkai to create Voices from a Distant Star in 2002. It took seven months.
Do keep in mind that it is a short watch, only 25 minutes. It is a romantic drama, where two high school students are separated by war. The girl goes to fight far away from Earth. Yes, it is also sci-fi; the war is between Earth and aliens, and large mechas are used to fight them off. The girl operates such a mecha. The boy and the girl try to stay in contact, but the further from Earth the girl gets, the longer it takes for messages to reach her and vice versa.
The initial voice acting is also made by Makoto Shinkai, as well as his girlfriend. However, professional actors were employed later as the anime was being released on DVD. And that brings up an important question: should Makoto Shinkai have limited his creativity?
With more people in the crew, he could have created a longer feature, and while the quality of the Voices is impressive, perhaps, it could have been even more impressive?
If we look at Makoto Shinkai's career, at the time, he was employed by a video game company, which gave him access to impressive hardware and software. Besides, while he had released another animation feature, She and Her Cat, he did not have any influence in the anime industry yet. It was the Voices that had him recognized, and the fact that he did it alone on his Macbook sounded quite impressive.
In the end, it was impressive.
A lot of skill is needed to write, direct, to draw and animate. On all those accounts, Voices from a Distant Star is a good movie. It might be short, but it tells a conclusive story about love and missing someone and having to move on. It might have been even more impressive in the animation department with a whole crew working on it, but it looks professional even with one person doing it all. Besides, the visuals definitely stand out as unique and are enough to convey the emotions of the characters, which, for a romantic drama, is probably the most important part.
A cohesive short film with beautiful, meaningful visuals created in 2002 by one man on one computer is impressive and inspiring.
As technology develops, it opens up more opportunities for creativity. Do you want to make your own anime all by yourself?
Technology is evolving, and we now live in a world where one person can have enough tools to create professional-looking content. But what about anime? Can you make that at home?
Well, it turns out, the answer is yes, and it has been yes for a couple of decades now. Power Mac G4 with Adobe Photoshop and a few other software pieces was all it took for Makoto Shinkai to create Voices from a Distant Star in 2002. It took seven months.
Do keep in mind that it is a short watch, only 25 minutes. It is a romantic drama, where two high school students are separated by war. The girl goes to fight far away from Earth. Yes, it is also sci-fi; the war is between Earth and aliens, and large mechas are used to fight them off. The girl operates such a mecha. The boy and the girl try to stay in contact, but the further from Earth the girl gets, the longer it takes for messages to reach her and vice versa.
The initial voice acting is also made by Makoto Shinkai, as well as his girlfriend. However, professional actors were employed later as the anime was being released on DVD. And that brings up an important question: should Makoto Shinkai have limited his creativity?
With more people in the crew, he could have created a longer feature, and while the quality of the Voices is impressive, perhaps, it could have been even more impressive?
If we look at Makoto Shinkai's career, at the time, he was employed by a video game company, which gave him access to impressive hardware and software. Besides, while he had released another animation feature, She and Her Cat, he did not have any influence in the anime industry yet. It was the Voices that had him recognized, and the fact that he did it alone on his Macbook sounded quite impressive.
In the end, it was impressive.
A lot of skill is needed to write, direct, to draw and animate. On all those accounts, Voices from a Distant Star is a good movie. It might be short, but it tells a conclusive story about love and missing someone and having to move on. It might have been even more impressive in the animation department with a whole crew working on it, but it looks professional even with one person doing it all. Besides, the visuals definitely stand out as unique and are enough to convey the emotions of the characters, which, for a romantic drama, is probably the most important part.
A cohesive short film with beautiful, meaningful visuals created in 2002 by one man on one computer is impressive and inspiring.
