The Open Sign Language Animation Project (OSLAP, Esperanto: Aperta Signolingva Animacia Projekto, abbrev. ASLAP; Japanese: {自由手話|じゆうしゅわ}アニメプロジェクト, romanized Jiyū Shuwa Anime Purojekuto) is an official partnership between the Japanese state-owned animation studio Musashino Animation and Locotian public broadcaster PDS (formerly PBS), to create publicly-available Blender files and other free animation assets based on popular anime films and TV series, for the purposes of creating sign language versions of these anime. OSLAP pioneered the techniques of slubbing ("sign language dubbing"); these techniques have since the beginning of OSLAP been used by other groups to create sign language versions of other films and series, both animated and live-action.
The Open Sign Language Animation Project was first announced on March 1, 2061, and was initiated by PDS for the purposes of creating programming in Hand Talk, a sign language which was designated as Locoti's primary national language the previous year. PDS had prior to OSLAP only dubbed films and series into Esperanto — Locoti's second national language — with only a Hand Talk interpreter in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. The idea of completely remaking films and TV series in sign languages, rather than simply showing an interpreter on screen, came about from a belief that sign language remakes would be more immersive, legible and accurate, more effective as language learning resources, and would increase the prestige and public awareness of Hand Talk and other sign languages. The decision to remake classic anime specifically was primarily motivated by practical concerns.
Most of the anime remade by OSLAP are critically-acclaimed or extremely and enduringly popular across all age demographics and genders, particularly films and series created 50+ years ago. OSLAP slubs are released together as "golden collections"; as of 2080, these are the Studio Ghibli Golden Collection, the Animated Auteurs' Golden Collection, the Rumiko Takahashi Golden Collection, the World Masterpiece Theater Golden Collection, the Kyoto Animation Golden Collection, and the Magical Girl Golden Collection.
Although OSLAP follows the Coordinating Body's Sustainable Computing Guidelines, the project's use of motion capture technology, machine learning technology, and other technologies which increase the water footprint, electricity consumption and render times for the animations, have raised sustainability concerns among some critics. At the same time, although OSLAP has been praised as a mainstay of a new "golden age" of Deaf representation and sign language in popular media, the project has also been criticized for not involving the Deaf community enough in the animation process.
Process
Each slub begins with a planning stage. In this stage, which commonly employs crowdsourcing, anime are checked for considerations unique to that film or series, and the individual scenes are checked for the following^[non-exhaustive list]:
- mid-sentence cuts
- close-ups
- props or walls obscuring a character's hands or face
- narrators or other disembodied voices
- characters speaking out of frame
- characters with their backs turned to the camera or each other
- characters being spoken to while their eyes are closed
- scenes in low lighting or cramped spaces
- characters moving quickly or chaotically while speaking
- characters thinking
- characters speaking with both hands full
- characters wearing mittens
- deformation of a character's face or hands
- characters attempting to get each other's attention
- important sound effects whose sources are out-of-frame or not visible to the characters
The findings from this process are compiled into a report on whether the anime is considered to be "viable" for slubbing, and if so, what challenges must be overcome and which changes must be made. This report informs the script and storyboard, which are generally created by Deaf people or CODAs. Hearing characters in slubbed anime are often rewritten to be Deaf.
OSLAP slubs will generally reuse as much as they can from the original spoken-language version of the anime, including sound effects and music, background art, special effects, other animation and assets, and parts of the script and storyboard which can remain unmodified. A few other tropes are commonly employed to minimize differences between the spoken and sign language versions of an anime, such as presenting a disembodied narrator as a person in front of a projection screen; presenting a character's thoughts using a shoulder angel or a "team in the brain"; or using a "bubble in the corner" to depict a character or sound off screen without needing to change the camera angle. Talking animals are often rewritten to communicate telepathically.
The characters themselves will use 3D models, often fan-made, with an array of shaders and other effects to make them appear two-dimensional and as close to the original art style and frame rate as possible. These effects constitute the bulk of machine learning technology use in OSLAP slubs, although machine learning may also see limited use in background art, storyboarding, and other stages of the animation process. Amateur slubbers using OSLAP's files may disable some or all of these effects to reduce render times.
Most character animation is not done by Musashino Animation itself, and is instead done by PDS' in-house slubbing studio — or by other professional or amateur slubbing studios around the world — using motion capture technology.
