I have a cold.
No, no. Don't get up. I'll be fine. Okay, some soup might be nice. Chicken soup. Thanks.
Meanwhile, here's an update. As our crew shrinks we're finishing the odds and ends to ship our second movie, Hellboy: Blood and Iron. As we go through the final checking we find drawings that require special color models, say a tentacled monster that vaporizes in sunlight or dust cloud made of zombie ashes. You know, little stuff you take for granted because "everybody knows what color zombie dust ash is." Nonetheless, those thing need special models and specific colors called out. Meanwhile, Gordon Kent is filling out the last timing sheets and working with Janette Huellet, our checker to make sure all the information we send overseas matches. If a model sheet is labeled "Old Hag" and a storyboard artist refers to the character as "the witch" or "old woman" the label has to be corrected. Chances are it would come back okay but it causes bumps in the production process as animators search for a model sheet that doesn't exist. It's a tedious, thankless task. Wait.
Thank you Gordon and Janette.
Okay, but it's still tedious.
And speaking of color, it's said that everything is scarier in the dark. The art director on the X-files used to experiment on how dark they could go without losing the characters. Many times we are doing something similar. Animation is often filled with bright, happy colors but we're not doing happy. We're doing spooky, eerie, suspense. So we've got some of the darkest backgrounds I've seen in American animation. That means the characters have to be dark too in order to fit into the scenes. But we need to see their expressions so we lighten their skin tones a bit and brighten their eyes so your attention is drawn to their faces.
Hopefully, we've made the right calls and you won't have to mess with your brightness controls to see what's going on (and btw, computer monitors vary in their depiction of color). So that's what's going on.
And thanks for the soup. -- Tad
very nice looking!
What do think these movies will be rated?
Posted by: daniel | May 17, 2006 at 11:42 PM
Just one more step away from the pack, away from the norm.
One more step toward amazing.
Just love all the subtle nuances you are putting in, Tad. Feel better soon. Have some Duck Soup...always cheers me up.
Posted by: Kirk | May 18, 2006 at 01:21 AM
Having a movie rated costs money and since these movies are not for theatrical release there's no point in going through the process.
As to what I think they'd be rated - certainly PG maybe PG13 for the second one. Ratings always seem random to me. We're really close to the comics so it's "Fantasy Violence and mild language."
Posted by: Tad | May 18, 2006 at 07:47 AM
Um, about the soup...
...that wasn't chicken.
Hope you're feeling better!
Posted by: Sparky | May 18, 2006 at 02:18 PM
But stewed cthulu bits tastes just like chicken so it's okay.
Thanks for the good wishes.
Posted by: Tad | May 18, 2006 at 04:02 PM
Just wanted to say that Hellboy the Animated movies are looking really good :) I dug the orignal movie and I'm more than welcome to have animated spinoff's.
Posted by: Vignir | May 18, 2006 at 07:53 PM
Well, I gotta say...
those are pretty darn dark, but they are also pretty darn amazing.The first one in particular has a real sense of depth and mood to it. Really looking forward to these and as for rating...who really cares.
I mean ultimately ratings only get in the way when they are being thought of constantly throughout the process of making a film or animation.They are important, dont get me wrong. But for example when I see x3 Tv spots, or trailers and wolverine is slicing an dicing everyone he comes into contact with and there is not one drop of bloods on his claws, thats when ratings just intrude a bit to far into the realm of 'target audience'.
I don't think you guys are doing that.
Anyways,
GET BETTER SOON TAD!
Posted by: hb | May 19, 2006 at 03:59 AM
What resolution do you make the background images?
Posted by: daniel | May 21, 2006 at 11:17 PM
I only asked about rating - as here in Australia our straight to DVDs have ratings - I just wanted to get an idea of how adult it would be.
Posted by: daniel | May 21, 2006 at 11:19 PM
haha
i know. No worries Daniel, I just realized how preachy that may have sounded. Either way I'm content that Tad and friends aren't completely driven by ratings and that they seem more interested in making an awesome animation rather then some half-arsed money grabber.
Posted by: hb | May 22, 2006 at 09:34 AM
The backgrounds are at 300 dpi. All our artists use Photoshop to paint.
The downside of the process is that there are no souvenir backgrounds to hand on the wall when it's over. :(
Posted by: Tad | May 23, 2006 at 09:00 AM
Oh ! I found this from a french student in animation : a very short sequence (like 1 or 2 sec.) with an animated hellboy running (with the shadows and all)... You have to click on "ici" in the text on the top of the picture... At this address :
http://www.u-blog.net/zeb/note/46#repondre
Posted by: Jérôme | May 23, 2006 at 11:34 AM
Hi again,
So would the backgrounds be 1280 x 720 pixels ? I only ask, as I'm going to try and make my own animated short film.
Cheers,
Daniel
Posted by: daniel | May 23, 2006 at 08:57 PM
ha!
trops short!!
mais tres cool
bravo
Posted by: hb | May 24, 2006 at 04:09 AM
incredible.
is this for TV?
:P
Posted by: Oriol | May 24, 2006 at 07:49 AM