production notes hotel transylvania - Visual Hollywood

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (2012)PRODUCTION NOTESThe challenge for Williams and histeam was to make the animationstyle of Hotel Transylvania work wellin 3D. “The film is animated in avery fun, flat, graphic style,” he says.“That’s what Genndy really wantedto do, but he was really open toseeing the movie in stereo, too. In fact, there were some scenes where he reallyencouraged us to increase the 3D, push it a little more than we’d been doing. It’s a funfeeling to work with Genndy on that – he really enjoyed that part of making the movie.”Williams’ favorite sequence in 3D is the “table sequence,” in which Drac and Jonathanride through the hotel on floating tables. “At one point, it’s almost like a surfing orskateboarding competition as they fly down the hall,” he says. “That fast movementshows off the animation, the beauty and layout of the hotel, and the 3D – I thinkeveryone is going to enjoy that.”Digital production was overseen by co-producer Lydia Bottegoni, with the animation splitbetween Sony Pictures Imageworks' home facility in Culver City, California, and satellitefacility in the strong talent base in Imageworks' Vancouver studio. “We really benefitedfrom the animation talent in Culver City and Vancouver,” she says. “We had over 300artists on the film, with 100 animators during the peak of production just in that disciplinealone. The biggest challenge of working with such a large team is to keep everyone onthe same page creatively – making sure that everyone understands Genndy's visionand that the personality of the charactersare all kept consistent. Genndy comes froman animation background, so heunderstands working with animators,interacting with all of them directly. It wasreally a close, collaborative relationship,even though it was such a large team.”© 2012 Sony Pictures Animation 21