My Neighbor Totoro is without a doubt one of the world’s most-loved Hayao Miyazaki’s films. The movie is filled with memorable characters, from the big guy himself down to the littlest soot sprites. Their design may be simple—black furry balls with big, white eyes—but that doesn’t make them any less cute.
But what if you took them from two-dimensional to 3D computer animation? Absolute adorableness!
Soot sprites, also referred to as “black soots” and “dust bunnies”, make an appearance in Miyazaki’s Spirited Away as well, where they are given more personality and a much larger role. A rather talented amateur CG animator decided to add some more depth to the Makkuro Kurosuke, as they’re called in Japanese, and make a litttle 3D short that is just too cute.
The creator, who goes by the username Kugane on Japanese video sharing site Niconico, titled the video “Makkuro Kurosuke tsukuttemita” (“I tried making a Makkuro Kurosuke”). In this 30-second short, we see a lone little soot ball get hit by a little ball about the same size as him, before he turns around and kicks it away with his little spindley spider-like legs.
The detail of the background animation itself is lovely, and the soot sprite looks so touchably fluffy, especially those three at the end! The clip may just have been a practice animation but it has viewers—us included—wanting to see more.
Source: Nari Nari
Top image: NicoNico/ 金（くがね）