You can do ANYTHING in animation!
How many times have you heard that? Sure, you can draw on paper or generate in a computer all sorts of things that are too expensive or impossible to shoot in reality. That's certainly been the tradition in 2D animation. From Dave Fleischer's brilliant MECHANICAL MONSTERS in his 1941 Superman cartoon to any number of Scooby Doo's ghostly adversaries, American animation has put the fantastic on the screen with varying degrees of effectiveness. There's been so much of it that it sometimes feels ordinary. I think I spoke about it on an earlier blog.
So we try not to go with the "normal" way. Many times a writer or storyboard artist calls for an entity to dissolve, just fade away, and there are times when that's exactly what we do. But we'd rather be more clever. There are several ghosts in SWORD OF STORMS; that's one of them in the picture above. Instead of just dissolve off the ghost, we let it be gently blown to pieces by a breeze. I'm sure we're not the first to do it but the animation looks great. It takes a nothing moment and makes it magical again. There's a place for dissolves too but they should never be taken for granted.
In the first movie, Hellboy is transported to a world of Japanese folklore. In the original script scene was a dissolve from the normal world to the new background with Hellboy standing in the center, unchanged. That would've worked and music would give it more impact but we decided to do it on a surprise cut. And that idea came right out of the Mike's comics. 
Comics always reveal in a cut. Okay, not always. Usually, surprise reveals in a comic are put on even numbered pages so the reader has to turn the page to see the illustrated surprise. But this page from The Corpse shows the impact that panels can have on a single page.
Movies have more control. We force your eye to look at what we want you to look at by only showing you one thing at a time.
Another trick in portraying the supernatural, making a monster's eyes brighter than they should be so that you see them in darkness, also comes from Mike's work. On top of that we may add glow effects and most importantly, eerie sound effects.
Sound effects are such a neat part of production and it's a process that should begin next week.
Every time you reveal a little more it makes me want to see it a whole lot more!
keep up with the posts Im salivating!
:)
Posted by: Joseph White | June 01, 2006 at 11:11 AM
great....can't wait
Tad do you watch samurai jack?
There is an episode thats based in Japan and revolves around a haunted house. Its a fantastic episode....
If Hellboy is anything like it Ill surely love it.
Posted by: hb | June 01, 2006 at 11:29 AM
I really like the insight presented here. The Hellboy page is a wonderful example of Mike's incredible pacing and use of panels to lend a cinematic flow and a sense of mystery to the story. All how he pushes for just a little more in his comics.
Likewise, your example of the "ghost dissolve" shows the same intent to not settle for the tried and true but to keep the approach fresh. It is this level of detail that seperates the great anomation from the simply good.
Posted by: kirk | June 01, 2006 at 02:17 PM
Hmm.. cant get the MECHANICAL MONSTERS link to work... curious to see what you where linking to Tad.. Fleischer's Superman series is one of my all time favorites.
Posted by: Drake | June 01, 2006 at 04:07 PM
I put in a new link to Mechanical Monsters so try again.
I haven't seen the Samurai Jack haunted house episode, at least it doesnt ring a bell with me.
Posted by: Tad | June 01, 2006 at 06:29 PM
hey..Tad.
again..thank you on the animation tips and progress...when again the animated series gonna come out?
Posted by: az | June 01, 2006 at 06:57 PM
Well... have no worries. Im sure this animation is going to be more kickass
And come to think of it there were no bats with spider eyes in samurai jack...so I think your good on that plane :P
Posted by: hb | June 02, 2006 at 05:11 AM
Thanks for taking the time to do this blog, Tad. It has been consistently entertaining and educational! It's neat to see the process of production of an animated project, and it's cool to see Hellboy as the case study!!
It's going to be smashing! Right Hand Of Doom-type smashing!
Posted by: maija | June 02, 2006 at 05:30 PM
I have those old Supermans. Not much story but visually stunning.
I haven't seen the haunted house episode either, but SJ is one of those series that makes an effort to do things in interesting ways, rather than just continually subreferencing earlier toons.
Posted by: taterpatch | June 03, 2006 at 11:00 AM
I stumbled upon this on the Wizard site...
It focuses on Conan and Mike Mignola..But it branches off and provides some nice insight to the game, the movie and the animated cartoon...
http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/000333394.cfm
Im really looking forward to being slapped in the face with all this Hellboy stuff :)
Posted by: hb | June 03, 2006 at 12:40 PM
Great article, hb. Thanks for the link.
Posted by: kirk | June 04, 2006 at 04:25 AM