You can now have a video call with friends or co-workers straight from the world of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away as the studio is now letting users download stunning stills from iconic Ghibli movies to use as digital backgrounds during video chats.
Video calling has become an essential service now with millions of people having to stay at home in an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19. Apps like Zoom, Skype and Google Hangouts have seen a massive surge in usage as more employees are now faced with working from home. This has also created a market for making the remote work experience feel as unique as possible with many turning to custom backgrounds. For those that don't want a background at all, there's always the video chat app, Around, which makes it possible to completely remove backgrounds and replace them with a 'floating-head' interface. Then again, video callers can even turn into a potato during a chat if they want.
Studio Ghibli is one of the latest to step up with its contribution being a series of digital wallpapers that people can download and use as backgrounds for video conferences. This is a surprise move from the famous Japanese animation studio as while its movies have a cult following across the world, the production house is not so famous for sharing copyrighted content. It was only recently that the studio made their highly popular movies available to stream online for the first time. The collection of high-quality wallpapers now available to download through the Studio Ghibli's website include artwork from the following eight movies:
- Howl’s Moving Castle
- Laputa: Castle in the Sky
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
- Ponyo
- Princess Mononoke
- Spirited Away
- The Secret World of Arrietty
- The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Video Call From A Fantasy Ghibli World
Out of the eight, the most stunning and suitable for work-related calls would be images of the street from Spirited Away, Arrietty's bedroom from The Secret World of Arrietty and the cherry blossom from The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. While the rest are no less beautiful, they might be too distracting for an official call, although they could be perfect for more casual video chats. However, it is worth keeping in mind that the wallpapers are only meant for individual use and not for commercial purposes or distribution. Users are allowed to crop or change the image size, and the studio has hinted at releasing more artwork in the future.
Zoom is primarily the only popular video call app that lets users have a completely custom background. To do this, users need open the app, head to the settings, and then click on the 'virtual backgrounds' option before uploading the chosen background image and selecting it. Microsoft Teams, for now, only allows callers to use background images available from the stock library, although this could change with future updates. Interestingly, Studio Ghibli is not the only group to recently release artwork for use as a video chat background with DC Comics having also made available a selection of virtual backgrounds.
Source: Studio Ghibli