Hellboy Animated

Propping Things Up

Prop:  Anything that moves that isn't alive.  At least, that's the definition Art Lee gave me and sounds solid enough for me.  So if a door opens, a gun fires or zombie burns, the prop department makes sure it looks good.  Hellboy Prop Department = Andy Chiang and Art Lee.  Door open - they look at the storyboard and layout drawing and duplicate the door in the required perspective.  If Abe walks in and fires the gun we need to know what the gun looks like, the bullet, the muzzle flash and the wisps of smoke that rises afterward.  Technically, the drawing of the holster on Abe is called a "Special Pose" and the character model guys handle that.

Depending on their time, the budget and their computer department, the overseas studio will sometimes apply a texture layer so that the door would be painted just like the background with no give-away simplification of color to spoil the surprise of Abe charging in the door.  But since we can't count on that, our color stylists have to color key every prop, no matter how small.

I used to say that no production was "official" until I had approved a toothpick.  It represents the level of detail required in animation, that such a simple object needs to be drawn, colored, approved and pasted up on its own model sheet.  Hmmn, I don't think I've okayed any toothpicks for Hellboy but then I've never had to sign off on so many bones, blood stains and monster ashes before either. 

I guess it balances  out.  -- Tad

Weekend Work

Tonight I drive up to Newhall to see the temp fx and music that Vic has been cutting to the picture so that we can distribute the animatic of the second movie tomorrow.  We're using an freelance editor to put all our sequences together for the animatic DVD.  Late night hours and extra time on weekends are things I'd rather the crew avoid but everyone wants to make these things topnotch.

One of the reasons for this weekend's work is that we were scrambling on Friday to create a new sequence!  The movie was still three minutes short of where we wanted it!  Part of the reason for the shortness is that I refuse to leave in footage that hurts the pacing of the picture.  Obviously, what hinders and what helps is a matter of opinion but these movies are special and I don't want to knowingly compromise them if I don't have too.

Ironically, the new sequence is sort of a musical number.  No April Fool's joke.   But no song either.  We opened up the movie at the low point of the story, where everything has gone wrong, the forces of evil are winning and the good guys are on figurative run.  All the proper beats were there but I realized we weren't giving it a chance to sink into the audience.  The next sequence started the rocky climb up toward victory so the low point was passing too quickly.  By checking in with everyone's dilemma, and just letting it play against the right kind of music, I hope to emphasize the emotion of the moment.

You guys can let me know if it worked.  -- Tad

Almost forgot.  The panel above is from an action sequence boarded by Adam Van Wyck.  The weird-shaped panel shows the path of the camera.   The camera starts on Liz and Abe, imagine them in a rectangle, then moves up and to the left to feature the gunfire.  Abe is certainly no wimp in this movie.

Easter Treats

Thanks to the very talented ruta and Sparky
at the Hellboy.com message forum!

The BPeepRD

It's Apoco-choco-lyptic!

Strange Places

Yes, there's a new collection of Hellboy stories out this week.  Some truly wonderful work which includes secrets of both the Hellboy universe and Mike Mignola's art.  The back is filled with pages of a story that could have been, was actually going to be and still may be in the future.  Do not skip the introduction by Gary Gianni when he describes how Mike replied to a request that he write an introduction to Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  It illustrates how Mike can come up with seriously spooky imagery at the drop of a hat.  If you've never read Hellboy, or very little, don't make Strange Places your first purchase.  I always recommend The Chained Coffin and Other Stories and The Right Hand of Doom.  If you're going to order it online, use the link at Hellboy.com so that the site gets a donation.  One of the best fansites for anything on the web by the selfless Jonell Napper.

But the title, "Strange Places," made me reflect on what I cool spot I'm in and it seems to get cooler all the time.   But I've gushed on that before.  So here's an update of odds and ends.

JOHN HURT IS AWESOME.
Seriously.  He managed to invoke awe via a digital patch from London.  I told him the animated Professor Broom was slightly different than the character in the movie.  He's warmer and a bit more playful with his BPRD family.  John hit some lines where Broom is pretending he's not hearing Manning as he upsets all the plans of the bureaucrat, "That is very different.  It's a completely different mindset.  Give me a moment."  He sounded very stern and I thought that I had screwed up and that we wasn't going to record the character because he was made to do something too far afield of his creation in the movie and --

John came back on, thankfully interrupting my building paranoia and NAILED the exact tone I wanted.  It was as if I told him to act "up a little and to the left" and he found the exact spot.  Very responsive to the slightest of direction, queried me on lines where putting the emphasis on different words would change the meaning  and all in all a delight.  I told someone how great he was and they replied, "Well, yeah.  He's John Hurt."  Indeed.

I saw the Hellboy Animated sculpt based on the original drawing of character concept artist, Sean "Cheeks" Galloway.  I couple of representatives from Dark Horse came down and placed it right on my desk.  We talked finish and painting (what you see in that link isn't final).  It was neat to talk about possible merchandise for the movies and they're planning a variety of price ranges.  Cool beans.

Oh yeah.  I saw the first Hellboy Animated movie this week.  Okay, it was just the animatic with little temp music and hardly any sound effects.  We were watching it on a big projection screen which showed every pixelated line of the storyboard scans.  Sometimes it was hard to see what was going on.  And in addition to all that, it's a weird movie with some moments that will only be clear when they're finally colored.

It was really cool.  Even without animation, color, sound effects, and music, it worked.  I think it's fair to say that has a feel unlike any other animated superhero movie or series.  And there are great action pieces and interesting locales and humor and great songs.   

Kidding.   No songs.

Have a great Easter weekend whether you're celebrating or not.

 

Overseas Mutations?

Looks like we'll be two days late with the full animatic on our first movie.  We found a half page of script that was never handed to a storyboard artist.  I'm sure, animation professionals are shaking their head at that.  It's a sign of how crazy those inserts made our production and that we're moving too fast.

The good news is that the inserts are looking good and adding lots to the movies.  AND we know we're at the proper length, woo hoo!  What a relief.

Our second movie will also be a little late due to a holiday on Good Friday and the crunch needed to get the first movie out.  The inserts on that movie have added an incredible amount of emotion.  So much so, that I'm paranoid about the third movie.

Okay, don't get excited, no third movie has been greenlit.  But Mike and I have talked and you Hellboy fans will risk meltdowns when you hear the idea.  The idea is fun and packed with action but movie #2 has all this emotion to it, at least in my opinion.  So how do we get that smart right at the beginning?  Don't know, but the bar has been raised and I hope we get a chance to take on the challenge.

Okay, let's talk mutation.  No, the X-men are not crossing over with Hellboy but it's time to face the reality of the animation process.  When I watch a show like Justice League Unlimited or Teen Titans, every episode looks great to me.  The are some stories I like more than others but technically, everything looks good to my eye.  Not so when you talk to the guys on the production, they definitely have their favorites and gnash their teeth at the fluctuating quality...because they know what they sent and can see the differences in what comes back.

Long ago, I resolved myself to the idea that the design style of a series or movie is not what you send overseas but what comes back.  We are lucky to be working with Mad House Studios in Japan who have done great work in both in features and television.   We've started talking back and forth about the mood and quality level of what we expect.  Sadly, we can't just keep working until everything looks perfect; there are realities of time and money.  But with constant communication we have enough of both to make these things look damn fine.

If you look back to the early blog entries, you'll see backgrounds that show how we want to control the level of detail; we want detail where the action is, dropping off to just a couple of tones in other areas.  Extreme close ups can almost have solid colors behind the characters, much like Mike's comics.  Now look at the background above and the Japanese house that was posted a couple of weeks ago.  Where's the simplification?   The look great but every detail is rendered.  Well, two things: one we have to show the details of the room because the action will move all around it.  Secondly, when we're crunched for time it's had to see a beautiful background come it, we can't really send the artist back because he did "too good" a job.   So Mad House will paint some production backgrounds to show how they will interpret the detailed background keys into the design style of the show.  I've pointed out several of our background that hit the mix I want.  They'll do a similar thing with shadows and some of the more complex secondary characters.  The back and forth is vital to watching the quality.  Mad House will be working with a secondary studio that did the animation on The Amazing Screw-on Head pilot I'm sure most of you have heard about.  That show tried to imitate Mike's style as much as they could so they should understand the basics of his compositions and how he uses shadows on characters and backgrounds.

They'll also do test scenes for us.  I'm worried about Hellboy's tail for example.  In a still drawing, it's easy to give it a dramatic sweep.  But how will it look when he's walking away from camera?  How does it swing in a fight?  We can only plan so much on this side.  It's up to the animators overseas to make it right.  I've said we're being ambitious and so are they.  But this is always the scary part of a production.  They baby goes out the door and you don't know what it'll grow up like.  But it can be like Christmas morning too.  So here's hoping for visions of sugarplums.  -- Tad

YES it was a Joke

Happy April Fools Day 2006!
--Tad

MUSIC at last!!

It was an exciting/hectic week for the Hellcrew.  We're racing to get the full animatics done for BOTH movies within the next two weeks.  Vic Cook and I made a creative breakthrough on a sequence of the second movie which is REALLY NEAT... which of course I can't tell you about because it's part of the climax.  But it's really neat.  One for the DVD commentary I guess.

Looks like we have a composer for the movies.  He was recommended by Guillermo del Toro and turned in an amazing audition piece.  But more about that when there's at least a deal memo in place.  The music I'm talking about are the songs.

It's a credit to the crew that nothing of this has slipped out onto the Internet since the temp tracks are constantly blaring out of my office.  Plus the printed lyrics of "Right Hand of Power" circulated outside our group when we did an "impromptu" sing-a-long at The Olive Garden restaurant.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  This will mean little to most of you but we got "Willio and Phillio" back together to do the songs for the first movie and the title song of the second (that one has a different mood and requires no songs).  Will Ryan and Phil Baron were a comedy/DJ duo in Cleveland, Ohio then came out west and did a couple of LPs for Disney and at least one stage show in Hollywood.  They moved into voice over work where Will is still active.  Phil was the voice of Teddy Ruxpin (Flashback!) but is now a Jewish cantor for the congregation Beth Shalom in Santa Clarita, CA. 

But I knew them from my early days at Disney TV animation.  I also knew they had written a carload of truly great, moving, dramatic songs but couldn't crack the Disney Feature Music Wall which says only "name" composers need apply.  My feeling is talent is talent and they are doing a fantastic job.

Speaking of "names," there was a brief window that might have had us using an Elton John / Tim Rice song that was written for The Lion King but unused.  It was Simba singing of the memory of his father. I can't say where we would've used it without giving away plot -- but nevermind, because it's not happening anyway (but it does give me another photo to post on the blog.)

Okay, enough of the screaming.  I know most of you connect Hellboy to some sort of head banging, heavy metal sound but hey, Motorhead wasn't available.  Seriously, this was the one area that Mike Mignola had the biggest reservations about.  I knew he would so we did a full-on, Disney-style, music pitch.  Mark Harmon, Jennifer Coyle and Wei Zhao about killed themselves doing color mood setups to suggest how we'd get into the songs and weave them into the story.  If the songs aren't intrinsic to the storytelling it's going to be laughable, not emotional, when the big red demon guy busts out into song. We taped color laserprints to 4' x 8' black foamcore boards that we shoved in the back of my van for a trip to Mignola Manor in Manhattan Beach.  Looking back, I suppose we could've done something on PowerPoint or like an animatic but I think we needed to be there to sell it.

So, Mike didn't break down into tears or anything, but he "got it."  He even started coming up with possible action stuff (I won't call them gags) that really took the sequences to a new level.  This will not be dancing teapot stuff.  Think closer to Sweeney Todd.  So calm down, it's going to be cool.

Obviously I'm jazzed about it; it's another storytelling tool you don't expect to see outside of a theatrical feature film.  Plus we had a marketing /publicity meeting this week which plotted out all sorts of cool stuff.  San Diego Comicon will definitely be the place to be this year.  However, looks like you'll can be "part of the excitement" no matter where you are because one of the song animatics - hopefully with some pencil animation - may be offered free on iTunes two weeks before the con.

I know talking about music is like describing color to a blind person.  I'm sorry I can't attach music files here.  Okay, I technically can but once again, I have to abide by the various marketing/publicity rules of the project.  The good news is that the company is taking Hellboy Animated so seriously.

Later! --Tad