《精靈旅社》萌怪煉成記

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.

動畫監制比爾·哈勒之前已在索尼公司工作了七年多，在此期間，《精靈旅社》一直在制作當中。“我始終在跟進這部影片，這一直是個讓人夢寐以求的項目，”他說，“我是說，設計卡通怪物啊，有哪個動畫師不想做這份工作呢？”不過，當時創作片中這些萌怪的過程卻并不那么輕松。

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，有很多時候角色在擺出一個姿勢后就定住不動了，幾乎就像在2D電影中的一樣，因此，角色的輪廓就必須非常分明。”哈勒說。動畫師們用了專用軟件Silhouette來制作這些定格的姿勢，在幾何圖形的上層布線，然后牽動這些線來操縱畫面。雖然這些固定的姿勢減少了一些對角色動畫的制作要求，但是諸如德古拉的斗篷這樣一些額外的細節卻對動畫制作提出了更多要求。“我們需要他的斗篷時而合攏時而展開，還有些時候，我們希望它脫離他的身體自行活動。”哈勒解釋道。這需要為斗篷設計一套有五重控制器的復雜工具。經過這些控制器處理后，斗篷的制作已經完成了60%～80%，之后再交由服裝部門做最后的細節加工。

德古拉的斗篷在影片的音效設計中也是重要的一環，擬音師們合力尋找為它配音的合適道具，最終用一把雨傘和一塊布料制造出了它的音效。

木乃伊墨瑞

從層層繃帶的縫隙中露出雙眼的木乃伊墨瑞是個圓滾滾、胖乎乎的角色。影片導演塔爾塔科夫斯基希望將這個角色塑造得既活潑又古怪，對這個角色進行了多次動畫測試，從讓他像一個大球一樣滾動到更為傳統的埃及木乃伊的行動方式都試過。動畫設計師從木乃伊一登場開始就盡力表現他的個性。他是隨著一股幾乎刮到天花板的沙暴龍卷風進入旅社的。顆粒系統加上一系列精心設計的圓圈就構成了沙粒發射器。這些大小按照一定比例設置的圓圈被繪制成動畫片后，就會以龍卷風的形態旋轉著穿過旅社的大廳，同時向外噴射沙粒。

科學怪人

科學怪人是另一個挑戰，他在很多鏡頭里都處于身首異處的狀態。他是分裝在幾個箱子里來到旅社的，之后才被旅社里無能的僵尸店員們組裝到一起——店員們常常組裝錯。科學怪人身體的拆分和組裝需要由多個角色來完成，為了達到所需的效果，動畫師們常常得將他的身體各個部位縮小成一個點。