Studio Ghibli, famed for its captivating stories, darling characters, and beautifully animated movies, has lost one of its most treasured team members. Michiyo Yasuda passed away at the age of 77 on October 5, 2016, yet left her mark on the world of animation with her contributions to cherished films such as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, The Wind Rises and more. An animator, color designer and head of Studio Ghibli’s color department, her touches no doubt gave life to the characters in these films.

In fact, Spirited Away won an Academy Award, and The Wind Rises was nominated in 2013—the last movie she would contribute her expertise to at Studio Ghibli. No doubt her beautiful color designs aided to each movie’s fame. Yasuda herself was awarded an Animation Lifetime Award Achievement from the Japanese Movie Critics Award in 2011.

In an interview with the LA Times in 2009, Yasuda spoke about her hand in the then recently-produced Ponyo: “I wanted to specifically translate [Hayao Miyazaki’s] storyboards' color into film color, and I knew that this 'Ponyo' movie had to be created with a whole new coloration. I tried to create colors that were sometimes raging and other times really tense and gentle." A look into her thought process, it’s clear Yasuda was very conscientious in her decisions with color, taking into account the setting, mood, the characters’ emotions and the movie as a whole with each stroke of her pen.

In the same interview, she later remarks, “Color has a meaning, and it makes the film more easily understood. Colors and pictures can enhance what the situation is on screen,” which really conveys her passion for the art of painting, drawing, and digital art for the animation world.

While Yasuda’s hand and color designs will no longer be present in future Studio Ghibli films, she lives on in the many films she helped bring to life.