Veteran Studio Ghibli Animator and Colour Designer, of films such as My Neighbour Totoro, passes away at 77

Michiyo Yasuda is one of the revered animators and colour designers from Studio Ghibli, and she passed away at the age of 77 recently, after having worked with the Japanese grandmaster Miyazaki since the 1970s.

Yasuda was born in Tokyo on April 29th 1939, beginning her career in Toei’s ink and paint department at 20. She retired in 2008, before returning to work on The Wind Rises. Her other credits projects include My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies, which still remains one of the most acclaimed animated movies of all time to this day.

“What I like best is when I am building up the colors in my head, thinking of how to get the tone worked out,” Yasuda said of her process in her interview with the L.A. Times. “Color has a meaning, and it makes the film more easily understood. Colors and pictures can enhance what the situation is on screen.”