Coal in Your Stocking

First off, sorry.  No Abe and Liz before Christmas.  Yeah, yeah.  I feel like Scrooge but I want to show them with something closer to final color and show how they've changed through development.  But at least I'm giving you some new views of Hellboy.  You can also see how the application of shadows start bringing it back to the look of the comic.  We're not trying to be the comic, obviously, but I'm more confident about achieving the same mood and atmosphere.

Let's see, what else are you not going to get?  Well, Mike Mignola visited the studio yesterday so I had my digital camera charged up and ready to get some blog shots.  But I didn't.  Hey, it was a working visit!  I was busy... working.  (Mike was VERY happy with what he saw, really excited)  But there was a video team there to get background stuff for the DVD so I hope to pull some frames out of that to share with you.  But next post, I'll give a few notes about the Hellboy universe. Specifically, how HELLBOY ANIMATED treats magic and how to write dialogue for the gods.  (You never know when you'll be called on to write after dinner comments for Loki or Bacchus, so pay attention)

So Happy Holidays to all Hellboy fans from the crew here at FilmRoman.  Meanwhile, it's a half day today and I have to finish re-staging a giant spider before noon.  See ya!  -- Tad

Comments

[Typhon24]

Good stuff - this definately feels like Hellboy to me, no question. Can't wait to see this thing in motion! Guess I'll just have to be patient for my favorite pyrokinetic and fishman :) Happy holidays to everyone at Hellboy: Animated! And thanks as always for the update, Tad. Looks sweet as always.

[Typhon24]

PS) What made you guys decide to give him eyebrows?

[Tad]

The eyebrows weren't a calculated decision but just part of Cheek's design that Mike liked. I found them to be a godsend. I had done plenty of playing around with Hellboy Jr. and found that the only way to give him real expression was to make his brow really rubbery. That doesn't work in a more dramatic cartoon so the brows add subtlety that we can't get with just narrowing his eyes or tilting his head.

And it turns out today isn't a half day.

Dang.

[phil]

those inks look great...i had my doubts about the whole "not-like-Mike's-hellboy" design principle...but that hellboy looks like what a cartoon of hellboy should look like.

[Joe]

These look great. The tiny fan-boy inside of me is very happy indeed.

[Jérôme]

Looks great with shadows... Will the work on the shadows induce other modifications (on background or character design) ?

[Thomas Roberts]

Looks great so far. The eyebrows were the first thing I noticed too.