My favorite animated film：
Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Concept

This 1995 anime science fiction film, based on the manga (Japanese style comics) by Masamune Shirow, is one of the most influential works in the animated film history. Ghost in the Shell follows Major Motoko Kusanagi-the cyborg squad leader of Section 9, the fictional division of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission. Major Kusanagi is on assignment to locate the mysterious “Puppet Master” who has hacked into a government official’s brain. “The overarching philosophical themes of the film include sex/gender identity and self-identity in a technologically advanced world. Ghost in the Shell was received positively by critics, who praised its visuals, which at the time were the most effective synthesis of traditional cel animation and CG animation. It has served as inspiration for filmmakers such as The Wachowskis.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_(film))

Ghost in the shell film poster

Ghost in the shell manga cover

Design

For the film title design, as can be seen in the video above, “the title sequence to Ghost in the Shell is a curious mix of 8-bit type animation, then-hi-tech CGI, dreamy anime and naked torsos, all set to composer Kenji Kawai’s intimidating, minimalist score. It follows the construction of a cyborg from the inside out, first embracing a cold, tech-heavy aesthetic as the robot’s inner-core is assembled, feathering into softer imagery and warmer colors as the cyborg takes on a more human form, soon emerging from the mechanical womb as a young woman.”(http://www.artofthetitle.com/feature/the-inner-workings/)

And for the most significant character, Motoko Kusanagi, the character designer designed a more mature and serious Motoko than Masamune Shirow’s original portrayal of the character in the manga. Designer chose to depict a physically mature person to match Motoko's mental age, instead of the youthful appearance in the manga.

Motoko in film

Motoko in manga

In terms of scene design, when the film director Mamoru Oshii was looking for a model of the city of the future for his film, he turned to the cityscape of Hong Kong for his inspiration, because the city represented the theme of the film, the old and the new which exist in a strange relationship in an age of an information deluge.

（http://randomwire.com/recreating-ghost-in-hong-kong/）

The music (which used in the opening video above), composed by Kenji Kawai, included an ancient Japanese language in a wedding song that serves as a key piece of music leading up to the climax of the movie and serves to set the tone for the creation of a new type of lifeform.

Furthermore, the mechanical design is another highlight in Ghost in the Shell, such as vehicles, weapons, machines and electronic devices. These followed images are mechanical design sketches from my collections:

Edit/Animation

Ghost in the Shell used a novel process called “digitally generated animation” (DGA), which is a combination of cel animation, computer graphics (CG), and audio that is entered as digital data. In 1995, DGA was thought to be the future of animation, which mixed traditional animation with the emerging use of computer graphics, including digital cel work with visual displays. Editing was performed on an AVID system of Avid Technology, which was chosen because it was more versatile and less limiting than other methods and worked with the different types of media in a single environment.

The digital cel work included both original illustrations, compositions and manipulation with traditional cel animation to create a sense of depth and evoke emotion and feelings. Utilized as background, filters like a lens effect were used to create a sense of depth and motion, by distorting the front background and making the far background out of focus throughout the shot. Ghost in the Shell used a unique lighting system in which light and darkness were integrated into the cels with attention to light and shadow sources instead of using contrast to control the light. Hiromasa Ogura, the art director, described this as “a very unusual lighting technique.”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_(film))