of freshness. Other segments of the game are set in Oliver's fictional hometown of Motorville. The town is modelled after an American town in the peak of the automotive industry during the 1950s and 1960s; this decision was made due to Oliver's interest in cars and machines. Motorville is geographically based near the city of Detroit, Michigan; the Japanese version of the town was named "Hotroit". Art design Level-5 collaborated with Studio Ghibli to produce the game's animated sequences, and the game features graphics and visuals replicating the traditional animation style of Studio Ghibli films. The collaboration began when musician Naoya Fujimaki, who had previously worked with both companies, introduced Level-5 president Akihiro Hino to Studio Ghibli president Toshio Suzuki. At the time, Studio Ghibli had completed work on Ponyo (2008), and the animation team had no ongoing projects, which influenced Suzuki's decision to collaborate with Level-5. Another influencing factor of the collaboration was witnessing Hino's passion for the project. Studio Ghibli approached the production process in the same way that they would create an animated film. Work on the animation began in July 2008, and took much longer than the predicted three months. Studio Ghibli's Yoshiyuki Momose served as the game's director of animation, staging the scenes and directing actors during the motion capture sessions. He was also assigned to drawing character designs and storyboards. Hino wished the game to have a heartwarming feel; the artwork and character movements was greatly inspired by Studio Ghibli's work, particularly due to their attention to detail, as well as their talent in creating storyboards and utilizing camera control. The development team constantly watched Studio Ghibli's films during development. Game director Ken Motomura regularly worked with Studio Ghibli, swapping and reviewing assets, while Hino worked with the studio in regards to the game's dialogue and animated sequences. To make Studio Ghibli's hand-drawn cutscenes and the game engine's real-time cutscenes transition seamlessly, Level-5 adjusted the latter's color tones, shadows and character movements. For the backgrounds, the team used deep colors, unifying them so they would not look like "a mass of polygons". The team found particular difficulty in animating the game's cel shaded appearance, and spent time researching Studio Ghibli animation to recreate their traditional animation. When designing the familiars, Level-5 accounted for the characteristics of their surrounding area, which inspired the later design. Some of the initial familiar designs were deemed either creepy