Seems like Ghibli is expanding!
Hayao Miyazaki’s brainchild, which started as a ‘subsidiary’, funded from Tokuma Shoten, a Tokyo-based publishing company, has now taken the whole world with its era-altering animation projects. With critically acclaimed films like ‘Grave of the Fireflies’, ‘The Wind Rises’, ‘Spirited Away’, ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, ‘My Neighbour Totoro’, ‘Princess Mononoke’, ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’, ‘The Boy and the Heron’ under its banner, Ghibli has already made its mark.
However, now, Ghibli is seeping into our display pictures as well!
How?
Thanks to AI tools, the internet has become a Studio Ghibli-inspired playground.

Ghibli-inspired portraits!

OpenAI shook the world on Wednesday with the release of its native image creation feature. Admirers of Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio, have since been using the new update from ChatGPT to create portraits and memes inspired by the distinct artistic style popularized by filmmaker and studio co-creator Hayao Miyazaki. The trend emerged within a day of OpenAI’s introducing new native image-generation capabilities Tuesday within GPT-4o, the latest version of ChatGPT.

However, only ChatGPT Plus (which uses GPT-4-turbo) can generate images through DALL·E, which supports styles like Studio Ghibli if prompted correctly. Users who pay for the premium tiers, which start at $20 a month, can upload any images into the system and ask the tool to transform them “into the style of Studio Ghibli.”
Users can also use the tool with Sora, ChatGPT’s text-to-video AI model.
But what if you’re not a premium customer of ChatGPT?
Can’t you make your own Ghibli-inspired portraits then?
Turns out, there’s no need to fall into the pit of hopelessness!
While free versions of ChatGPT (like GPT-3.5 on OpenAI’s free tier) cannot create Ghibli-style portraits or images directly, as they don’t have image generation capabilities, you can create Ghibli-style portraits even without ChatGPT Plus, by using the new image generation features available to all users of GPT-4o, including those on the free tier.

Here’s how:
OpenAI’s Image Feature: OpenAI has rolled out an image feature in GPT-4o, allowing users to create or adjust images, including generating Ghibli-style portraits.
Access the Feature: This feature is available to users on the Plus, Pro, Team, and Free subscription tiers.
Transform Images: You can upload an image and request the model to convert it into a Ghibli-style version.
However, ChatGPT is not the only place of contact if you want a Ghibli-inspired portrait.
If you don’t have ChatGPT Plus, you can still create Ghibli-style portraits using AI image generators like Midjourney, Getimg.ai, or insMind, which offer free or subscription-based access to Ghibli-style image generation tools.
Here are some tools which might help you in your quest:

Midjourney: A popular AI image generator known for its high-quality outputs and ability to replicate various artistic styles, including Ghibli.
Here are some prompts for Midjourney:
For a Ghibli style portrait: Use prompts like “Studio Ghibli style portrait, Hayao Miyazaki, [character description], [setting description]”.
For a specific movie: “Spirited Away style, [character name], [scene description]”.
For a character: “No Face, Spirited Away, [character description], [setting description]”.
Getimg.ai: Offers a free AI Studio Ghibli generator where you can upload an image and adjust the strength of the Ghibli effect.
insMind: Provides a free AI Studio Ghibli filter to transform your photos into Ghibli-style art.
Now, you can opt out of these two techniques to generate your Ghibli-inspired portrait:
Text-to-Image: Describe the character or scene you want for your portrait, including details about appearance, setting, and mood. Be specific, and the AI will generate an original image based on your description.
Image-to-Image: Upload an existing photo and let the AI reinterpret it in the Ghibli style. This works well for transforming portraits or pet photos into Ghibli-esque characters.
Besides, free platforms like Craiyon, DeepAI, and Playground AI, too, offer AI image generation with varying levels of customization. Simply upload a photo or type a prompt like “portrait in Studio Ghibli style, lush forest background, soft colors,” and let the AI work its magic.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT 4o has been reported to be blocking some users’ requests for images in Ghibli style and some other artists.
A user posted an image to generate a Ghibli portrait, but could not succeed.
“I wasn’t able to generate a Ghibli-style portrait from your last image due to content policy limitations around creating likenesses of real people. However, I can absolutely create a Ghibli-style portrait based on a description. Just let me know some details – like hairstyle, clothing, background, mood, or anything else you’d like – and I’ll create a stylized version inspired by that. Want to give it a go,” read the response created by ChatGPT.

All about Studio Ghibli:

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo. It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has expanded its portfolio to include various media such as short subjects, television commercials, and two television films.
Studio Ghibli films are mostly hand-drawn using rich watercolor and acrylic paints. The films use traditional animation methods where every frame is drawn and colored by hand. Computer animation techniques are used sparingly. All the Studio Ghibli films use bright colors and have a “whimsical and joyful aesthetic”. Studio Ghibli’s art style is more of a cozy European style that puts a lot of undertones on the background and nature in the scene. A notable exception is The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, directed by Takahata, which departs from Ghibli’s typical style by employing a soft watercolor palette and storybook-like aesthetic reminiscent of Japanese folk art. This approach aimed to reflect the emotions and inner struggles of the characters and highlight the hand-drawn animation.
The films often focus on the lives of youth, especially school children. Common themes include the risks posed by progress to tradition, environmentalism and the natural world, independent female protagonists, the cost of war, and youth.

Does Hayao Miyazaki approve of AI-generated Ghibli art?

Although the AI-generated Ghibli art has gone viral on the internet, Hayao Miyazaki, the co-founder of Ghibli Studio, has expressed strong reservations about using AI to create art.
In 2016, Miyazaki said he was disgusted by AI-generated animation and called it an “insult to life itself”.
He had said, “I can’t watch this stuff and find (it) interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted. If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
People in creative field including writers, actors, musicians and visual artists aren’t happy with the growing trend of AI imitating art.
“To a lot of people, having our art stolen, they don’t view it as anything personal — like, ‘Oh, well, you know, it’s just a style; you can’t copyright a style,’” Jonathan Lam, a storyboard artist who works in video games and animation, told The New York Times in late 2022 when discussing Lensa AI, another image-generating platform. “But I would argue that for us, our style is actually our identity. It’s is what sets us apart from each other. It’s what makes us marketable to clients.”
Last year, 10,000 actors and musicians, including writer Kazuo Ishiguro, actor Julianne Moore, and Radiohead musician Thom Yorke, signed an open letter condemning the “unlicensed use of creative works” to train A.I. models like ChatGPT.

If you don’t have ChatGPT Plus, you can still hop on to the Ghibli trend and create Studio Ghibli-style portraits using various AI image generators. Tools like Midjourney, Getimg.ai, and insMind offer free or subscription-based access to Ghibli-style image generation. Additionally, platforms such as Google’s Gemini and Elon Musk’s GrokAI models provide alternative methods for ‘Ghiblifying’ your images. All these tools need is that the users upload photos and provide appropriate prompts to see the magic happen!