Hellboy Animated

The Colors of Hellboy

These days I'm reviewing animatic sequences of the first movie with Phil Weinstein and giving notes on the second movie's storyboards to Vic Cook.  Character design is still finishing up designs for the first movie.  When things are set on fire, or covered with goo, or torn up, they need to be redrawn for new color models.  Plus, every character needs shadows and mouth charts.  A mouth chart shows basic positions of the mouth like an "oo" sound or an "eff" so that timing sheets can be filled out to guide animators who don't speak English. 

Layouts and props are in great shape with the artists handling last minute designs pulled from the storyboards  of the first movie and staying ahead of the storyboard crew of the second movie.

Color is seriously underway with James Gallegos joining Wei Zhao on background paints and Tracy Jones soon to be joined by another stylist on color models.  The backgrounds here are all Wei's.  The larger paintings are background keys.  The sketch with the gold leaves is a color rough done from a small story sketch.  We'd love to do more if time permits.  It gives us more control over the color of a sequence, adding to the information of the color keys.   -- Tad

Liz Sherman on Cel

Way too much work to be done in too little time.  Ambition is exacting its toll on us.  So here's a quick update to share the design of Liz Sherman.  In many ways, Liz is the most drastic design change from the comic.  Sean's audition Liz was my favorite (check out the archives) but her design suggested a personality too far from Mike's concept.  However, it started a discussion about Guillermo's thoughts in casting Liz.

Selma Blair is not a tall woman; Guillermo was drawn to the idea of incredible power being contained in a tiny form.  Mike and I liked that idea and it works well in the world of animation where you want a variety of size and shape in your characters. 

In addition to that, Cheeks gave her a kind of ethnic look that I liked.  There's nothing to suggest it in the writing or performance but I think it gives Liz a different attitude.  Again, we try for a variety of looks.  This one sort of developed on it's own.

Selma does a great job with the voice, especially in the second movie where she has a larger role.  Liz has healed since her portrayal in the movie.  She's more of a butt kicker and enjoys a playful threat now and then.  But she hates using her power.  Small displays are fine like lighting a cigarette or a campfire but any big display is frightening.  She is terrified at losing control because if feels so good.

That's it.  Gotta go!  -- Tad

Meet Abe Sapien

This week we’ll be recording Doug Jones as Abe Sapien.  For those not familiar with his name, Doug played Abe Sapien in Guillermo del Toro’s movie.  You didn’t hear his voice but that was him onscreen.  So who would understand the character better than the actor who sweated through hours of makeup to create him?

Abe has a small role in the first movie but is one of the investigating team in the second. He was one of the first characters to be explored by Cheeks.  You can see that he made him a little more "contemporary" in feel than I was comfortable with.  And I didn't think he should have to take time to strip down before diving into water.  Sean went back into the design but we kept the feeling of body armor/flack vest and combined it with a wet suit.  We toyed with the idea of putting BPRD on the back of the vest but in other countries the organization has a different name. 

This final version is by Greg Guler with some notes by Cheeks.  The arm fins have been simplified for animation.  His head is narrower, giving him a more streamlined, elegant feel.  The color by Tracey Jones will be tweaked depending on the lighting of each sequence but this is basically the Abe you'll see on the screen.

  Takes a village to design a fishman. -- Tad

             

Background Shadows

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By now, I hope you've accepted the fact that we're not duplicating the look of a Mike Mignola comic.  Certainly our backgrounds are more rendered and less stylized than what you'd see on almost any comic page.  But squint your eyes at the above and you'll see some of the same shadow patterns that Mike uses.  (Make sure you click on it to see it in better resolution)
Of course, the frustration of creating key backgrounds for an overseas studio to follow is that the artists have to include more detail than desirable want in any given scene.  The light patterns behind the chair wouldn't be there if the character is standing in front of the desk.  Conversely, if the character was seated, we wouldn't distract from him with bright light on the floor. -- Tad

Checking In

Almost let a week go by without a post!  I have nothing specific to talk about; I should have some interesting casting news next week.  I had better - we record the second movie the week after this!  And maybe one of those long  promised images will debut.  But for now, a quick update on what is going on:

I finished giving notes on the rough storyboards of the first movie.  The notes have gotten lighter as we move on which is how it's supposed to work.  Everyone is finding the Hellboy groove.  Most of the notes focus on Mignola-type staging, insert shots or breaking down an action in detail.  The end effect will no doubt be subtle but I'm convinced that it keeps the project true to the comic and gives it a unique feel.  Geez, I hope so.

Background painting is underway with our second artist starting in two weeks.  Tracy Jones, our first color stylist will start this week as well as Vic Cook, my director on the second movie.

Most of the props of the first film are done.  Art Lee is concentrating on effects while Andy Chiang moves onto the second picture.  Character designer, AJ has burned through the back-views of the characters and now has to dive into the special poses.  Special poses are the extra designs that we need because of action called for in the storyboards.  For instance, if Hellboy tears his coat, we need a new model of it so the animators know not to use the untorn coat even if the storyboard artist forgot.  More importantly, as in the comic, Hellboy gets trashed a lot.  We'll probably need at least three versions of Hellboy in various stages of bloody and beaten.  Then AJ has to churn out the mouth charts, model sheets that show how a character would say certain vowels and consonants.  Most of the animators don't speak English, they refer to these charts.  I'm amazed at the acting they pull off without understanding the language.

Ed and Jeff, the layout artists are onto the next movie, doing the equivalent of set building before the storyboarding starts.  Most of the movie occurs in a single house but that doesn't mean there are fewer layouts; lots of rooms must be designed in "before and after" condition. I guess we're a little behind where we should be in character designs for the second movie but Cheeks has done concept art for most of the characters so the rough storyboards can begin with no problem.

Cleaned up storyboards of the first film are being scanned so that we can build the animatic of the movie, the still storyboard drawings set to the sound track.  It's the first indication of how the movie is really flowing along with its overall length.

It's a little crazy with the two movies overlapping plus marketing/publicity planning is getting underway in earnest.  Lots of cool stuff is being talked about from convention appearances, give aways, and promotions to toys, tshirts and DVD extras.  No doubt some of the ideas will fall by the wayside but it's great to have a company excited about the project.

So consider yourself up to date on HELLBOY ANIMATED.   -- Tad

Hellboy Jr. sculpture by Maija Graham