production notes hotel transylvania - Visual Hollywood

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (2012)PRODUCTION NOTESclean cartoony style that adds a lot to the humor of the film. The set pieceshowever have a lot of textural detail and a deep feeling to them that adds a lotof dimension to the frame. Add to that mix a very realistic system for lightingand shading the foreground and background elements together and you get avery unique look: humorous performance with an almost hand drawn feelcontrasting with a beautiful palette of old-world materials and some little hintsof classic monster movie device, like splashes of light and shadow,underlighting and drifting fog." – Daniel Lobl, CG SupervisorThe technique used to create the gremlins George and Gina's sweaters usingshort curly hair was inspired by the same technique that was used to createArthur's sweater in Arthur Christmas.The Mummy's eyes are made up of 3 overlapping spheres of different sizes.The environment textures are overlaid with a subtle pattern we called the NeilRoss pattern. Neil C. Ross was a visual development artist who wasinstrumental to the design of the Hotel Transylvania world. This unifyingpattern of overlapping rectangles and squares, of different values and hues,was used to give textures a more painterly and abstract feeling.There are 1.3 million fireflies in the party sequence.All of the werewolf pups were made from only four original designs.The eyelashes for the Witches and Hydra are actually Eunice's.There are 191 different environment materials (ex. cobble stone, satin pillow,etc)There are 250 character/prop materials (skin, hair, green blob, etc)There are as many as 25,000,000 blades of grass in some shots.The Hotel Transylvania animation crew ate an average of 18 Twinkies a weekor 648 over the core of production!The filmmakers sought to make a 3D experience that was both comfortableand dynamic. They wanted to give it the “Goldilocks” treatment – not toodeep, not too shallow, but just right. They did this by minimizing the sightgags and seeking the goal of making the audience feel like they are a part ofthe hotel, speeding with Dracula and Jonathan as they fly through thehallways.CELEBRITY CAMEOS© 2012 Sony Pictures Animation 23