《精灵旅社》萌怪炼成记

Renee+Dunlop

Animation supervisor Bill Haller had been with Sony for over seven years， and Hotel Transylvania had been in development throughout that time. "I've been chasing it the whole time， it's been a dream project，" he says. "I mean， cartoon monsters？ What animator wouldn't want to work on that？" However， the making progress of the lovely monsters was tough.

动画监制比尔·哈勒之前已在索尼公司工作了七年多，在此期间，《精灵旅社》一直在制作当中。“我始终在跟进这部影片，这一直是个让人梦寐以求的项目，”他说，“我是说，设计卡通怪物啊，有哪个动画师不想做这份工作呢？”不过，当时创作片中这些萌怪的过程却并不那么轻松。

Vampire Dracula

"In this film we had a lot of instances where a character would hit a pose and freeze， almost like in a 2D film1）， and the silhouette2） had to be really strong，" says Haller. Proprietary3） tool Silhouette was used to create the poses， enabling animators to draw wires on top of the geometry4） and then pull those wires to manipulate5） it. While the frozen positions reduced some of the character animation requirements， additions such as Dracula's cape added more. "Sometimes we wanted the cape to be closed， sometimes open， and sometimes we wanted it to come off his body and do its own thing，" Haller explains. This required an elaborate cape rig6） with five layers of controls. The controls brought the cape to 60～80 percent completion before it was handed to the cloth department for final detailing.

Drac's cape was also an important element in the film's sound design and the Foley Artists7） collaborated to find the right props to create the sound for it using an umbrella and a piece of fabric.

Murray the Mummy

Murray the Mummy is a round， blobby8） character with eyes peering from between the bandages. The director Tartakovsky wanted to make him lively and eccentric， running animation tests ranging from moving him about like a big ball to more traditional Egyptian mummies' movements. The animators went for personality， starting with his entrance. As the Mummy comes into the hotel， he enters in a sandstorm tornado that stretches towards the ceiling. A particle system and an elaborate series of rings acted as a sand emitter9）. Animated and scaled， the rings would emit sand particles in the shape of a gyrating10） tornado traversing11） the lobby.

Frankenstein

Frank was another challenge， spending many of his scenes dismembered12）. He arrives at the hotel in boxes and is assembled， often improperly， by the hotel's inefficient zombie staff. Frank's disassembly and reassembly required multiple characters， and body parts often had to be shrunk to a single point to achieve the required effects.

吸血鬼德古拉

“在本片中，有很多时候角色在摆出一个姿势后就定住不动了，几乎就像在2D电影中的一样，因此，角色的轮廓就必须非常分明。”哈勒说。动画师们用了专用软件Silhouette来制作这些定格的姿势，在几何图形的上层布线，然后牵动这些线来操纵画面。虽然这些固定的姿势减少了一些对角色动画的制作要求，但是诸如德古拉的斗篷这样一些额外的细节却对动画制作提出了更多要求。“我们需要他的斗篷时而合拢时而展开，还有些时候，我们希望它脱离他的身体自行活动。”哈勒解释道。这需要为斗篷设计一套有五重控制器的复杂工具。经过这些控制器处理后，斗篷的制作已经完成了60%～80%，之后再交由服装部门做最后的细节加工。

德古拉的斗篷在影片的音效设计中也是重要的一环，拟音师们合力寻找为它配音的合适道具，最终用一把雨伞和一块布料制造出了它的音效。

木乃伊墨瑞

从层层绷带的缝隙中露出双眼的木乃伊墨瑞是个圆滚滚、胖乎乎的角色。影片导演塔尔塔科夫斯基希望将这个角色塑造得既活泼又古怪，对这个角色进行了多次动画测试，从让他像一个大球一样滚动到更为传统的埃及木乃伊的行动方式都试过。动画设计师从木乃伊一登场开始就尽力表现他的个性。他是随着一股几乎刮到天花板的沙暴龙卷风进入旅社的。颗粒系统加上一系列精心设计的圆圈就构成了沙粒发射器。这些大小按照一定比例设置的圆圈被绘制成动画片后，就会以龙卷风的形态旋转着穿过旅社的大厅，同时向外喷射沙粒。

科学怪人

科学怪人是另一个挑战，他在很多镜头里都处于身首异处的状态。他是分装在几个箱子里来到旅社的，之后才被旅社里无能的僵尸店员们组装到一起——店员们常常组装错。科学怪人身体的拆分和组装需要由多个角色来完成，为了达到所需的效果，动画师们常常得将他的身体各个部位缩小成一个点。