Kazuo Oga is not only a background artist, but he is also an animator, art director, and illustrator. He is especially known for his cooperation with Studio Ghibli, he engaged in lots of Studio Ghibli films such as My Neighbor Totoro and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya etc.
The photo of Kazuo Oga
His works strongly attracted my attention when I first time saw the film “My Neighbor Totoro”, I enjoyed the sense of forests and moonlight in this animated movie. At that moment, I started considering making my animation film, of course, I did not know how complicated animation production was and needed to how many people engage at the same time. I was completely clueless about the animation area until I read the book in terms of Kazuo Oga in a bookshop, I realised that an exquisite film is impossible to produce by one person or a small team. After that, I noticed that there is a special role in animation – background artist.
Kazuo Oga recalled the first time he met up with Hayao Miyazaki, he was convinced by Hayao Miyazaki and decided join to the production of My Neighbor Totoro. He appreciated Hayao Miyazaki’s storyboards, and Miyazaki praised Oga’s style, depicting he had a “natural talent for using green (colour)”. If you see numerous films he participated in, you will find he is extremely good at building the natural landscapes, especially about the vegetation. Modelling the trees’ powerful appearances and creating a peaceful atmosphere in the forest are all his strengths.
My Neighbor Totoro’s Background painted by Kazuo Oga
With the improvement of technology, the majority of animation studios no longer use the traditional painting method to create their works, they boldly use innovative software to make films. Using creative software not only easier for learning painting but also makes the process of making animation more efficient. However, we still can learn a lot of valuable skills from this older generation in the animation field like Kazuo Oga, such as colouring matching, the sense of midsummer, the mystery forest with charming moonlight and the other vivid landscapes.
Studio Ghibli is one of the remaining animation studios that still insists on hand-drawing the background right now. Kazuo Oga as a background artist in Studio Ghibli, not only needs to have expertise in drawing scenes but also have the ability to make the background become the essential part of the story due to Hayao Miyazaki’s artistic ambition. Kazuo Oga said, that when he drew for My Neighbor Totoro, the director expressed to want to more focus on rural landscapes, trees, flowers, and so on. He was very granted to make the image of the camphor tree and the forest, which became the habitat of Totoro and the symbol of this movie.
After searching Kazuo Oga and more pieces of information about background artists, I learned that if I wanted to be a background artist to join the animation production, hand-drawing skill is the requirement, even though many animation studios have changed the media to create their works, this capability still is the most important norm to decide if you can step into this field.
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