If you’ve never watched a Studio Ghibli movie before, stop what you are doing and watch one now.
From ever-popular classics like My Neighbor Totoro to the most recent 2014 release When Marnie Was There, the distinct art style, animations, and methods of storytelling are wholly unique and what I like to call, “classic Disney with a dash of real-life issues”.
Before their more famous films however, the studio’s first movie was a little title called Nausicaä and The Valley of The Wind, and was released way back in 1984. Taking place after an apocalyptic war, Princess Nausicaä of the Valley of The Wind becomes entangled in a plot by the kingdom of Tolmekia to destroy a Toxic Jungle full of giant insects. The movie was made in 2D using traditional animation techniques and marked the start of Studio Ghibli’s rise to fame both in the east and the west.
From 2D to 3D
Recently, a Ghibli fan by the name of Granicoph started taking scenes from Nausicaä and recreating them in 3D spaces. The scenes allow you to fully explore the world created by Studio Ghibli from all angles – something which wasn’t possible back in the 1980s.
Apart from moving around et, viewers can also zoom in and out to get a closer look at the characters and their surroundings. The magic starts to wear out once you zoom in or out too much and discover the scenes aren’t fully rendered to the smallest details, but they still give you the opportunity to take some nice, non-Studio-Ghibli-approved pictures when viewed on a full screen.
Granicoph has only two full 3D scene renders for now: one of Nausicaä in the Toxic Jungle and another of her flying through a dessert. He plans on making this an ongoing project, so here’s to hoping he does scenes from other Ghibli movies as well!
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