The tantalising secret behind Studio Ghibli's iconic food animation

Every Studio Ghibli animation offers a delicious insight into Japanese cuisine, with mouth-watering animation showing off incredible combinations of food. And Studio Ghibli's Twitter account has just revealed the secret behind the most realistic 2D animated food on the block. Animators can learn from this one. 

Apparently, Studio Ghibli's food animation looks so good because it is all inspired by meals studio founder Hayao Miyazaki has enjoyed. it just shows that combining your real life experience with talent (and these top animation tools, of course) is the key to creating truly stunning art – also see our piece on food art.

This tasty morsel of trivia was revealed in the above tweet. In case you aren't a reader of Japanese, a fan asked the question 'The rice that appears in Ghibli works always looks delicious, why?', and the Studio Ghibli spokesperson Suzuki replied: 'It's all because Miya-san has actually cooked his own dishes.' (Thanks, Google Translate).

Studio Ghibli's food is deemed so important to the animation that it actually had its own exhibition back in 2017. Called 'Delicious! Animating Memorable Meals', the event celebrated the beauty, and cultural significance, of the culinary moments in the films, such as 'Chihiro shedding tears of relief eating a rice ball received from Haku in Spirited Away'. See that scene below.

Studio Ghibli's Twitter account is becoming something of a goldmine for fans, with its first-ever tweet containing a brand new illustration from Miyazaki himself, and exclusive images and tidbits of information shared frequently. 

If you'd like to learn how to create incredible food illustration, see our food illustration guide. And if you want to do it digitally, check out our pick of the best tablets for animation. 

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