Heads Up

I wish I had more time to make the kind of Photoshop notes like you see on the left.  I was worried that all the detail of expression was lost in the mass of shadow so I changed the light areas on Hellboy's face.  I think the improvement is dramatic but it will entail a clean up or effects animator to redraw all the shadow areas of this scene.

When I say, "I wish I had the time," I really mean that I wish the production had the time.  If I went in and finessed every scene like this, for whatever reason, I'd be taking animators away from their work on other sequences or even the next movie.  I try to choose the scenes that will back the biggest difference with the least hassle.  That way I'm keeping up the quality of both movies.  It's not factor here but when I'm producing a series with multiple directors, I have to make sure one isn't being so picky with his retakes that the animators have to rush through the episodes of the other directors.

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Meanwhile, a few more screen caps from a sequence that should be familiar to all Mignola fans.  --Tad

Comments

[kirk]

HEADS!!!!

Sweet! Love the pics, the last one is perfect.

I can see what a difference the shadows can make, though it is very subtle. But the detail in Hellboy's brow gives his face more expression.

These are the kind of small details that really make this project stand out, IMO. While some people may not notice or understand the steadfast attention you are putting into these, to those that do it will be very appreciated.

[Ocksen]

Awesome work on the heads-sequence, I loved that story.

[Steven E Gordon]

You can always fix it in post...;)

Actually, I'm serious.

[Radikin]

Your hard work and persistence in establishing ambience is truly paying off. Love the lighting coming through the bamboo in that third screencap! Beautiful!

It will be nice to finally see such a great story come to life!

[Steffie L]

We're trying to fix stuff in post Steven.
Condor was giving us some trouble - but I think it's finally done now. I joined on too late to really see what the struggle was, but again I think it's all fixed now.
Mosaic's ADR is our project now.

I think John will do a good job spotting retakes & stuff for Hellboy. I love seeing the shots as they come in when I convert the files. It's looking great Tad. I hope our Post department does you proud. I'm spreading the word as well. I wanna keep working on this stuff!

& thanks for this blog. I've actually sometimes learned about what I'm doing that day at work by reading your blog just prior. & it's teaching me more about my job for a 1st timer like me. Thanks a lot!!

[jay]

Way better than those old crapy cartoonish pics. This is great animation. I take back all the negatives I said about the animation in the past.

[hb]

wicked cool...
im attending the fan expo canada in september..the day after i get back from my vacations...itll be tight and my number one on the guest to visit list is MIKE..hope he has all kinds of cool stuff from the cartoon..if not a tshirt or flyer wouldnt hurt. i need something hellboy animated..fasttttt
haha..meanwhile..keep posting awesome pics..