With his latest anime short, Boro the Caterpillar, Hayao Miyazaki is venturing into the world of CG animation.
The NHK special, Owaranai Hito – Miyazaki Hayao (The Man Who Is Not Done: Hayao Miyazaki), recently showed the public his efforts as he works on the short film. One of the most interesting parts in the anime is Miyazaki and Ghibli producer, Toshio Suzuki, seeing an AI presentation. The Academy Award-winning director wasn’t impressed with the presentation at all.
Hayao Miyazaki doesn’t have time for your dehumanizing, virtual bullshit. The greatest thing I’ve seen in 2016. Via @panoscosmatos pic.twitter.com/XgfexEwSKn
— Aaron Stewart-Ahn (@somebadideas) December 9, 2016
Miyazaki actually felt strongly against the AI CG presentation. He even said that the presentation is “an insult to life itself.” Ouch! This coming from Miyazaki himself must have hurt… a lot!
The great director is known for his strong comments and is definitely not shy about his opinions. He once stated that he does not think that hand-drawn animation is better that CG animation, and says that he believes the former is dying out because current animators are not as talented.
Dwango Artificial Intelligence Laboratory made the AI CG presentation, led by Dwango president Nobuo Kawakami, a producer-in-training at Studio Ghibli and a board director at Hideaki Anno’s Studio Khara. Hideaki Anno is one of Hayao Miyazaki’s most well-known students.
Dwango presented an animation program that learns via artificial intelligence. It used a human model, and the program learned how to make it move forward most efficiently without the sense of pain. The result was a zombie-like person moving forward using its head.
At this, Miyazaki was unsettled by the result, recounting how an illness could render a person to act similarly. It is not amusement, not entertainment and an insult to the human life. Adding that this would not be something he would ever use in his work.
source: ANN
