Animation Guild

F E AT U R E RESURRECTING DRACULA'S LOVE LIFE In Hotel Transylvania 3, Count Dracula finds himself shot through the heart… with love's arrow. The lucky lady? Ericka Van Helsing, the great-granddaughter of infamous vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing. But while the couple will no doubt have some awkward family dinners in their future, the more pressing matter was what she would look like. Character designer Craig Kellman was tasked with creating the new character but he did have one major rule before he set his mind to the task: She could not "look like a Disney princess." But what does that mean exactly? "That means I didn't want Ericka to look like the generic, cookie-cutter, 'girl-next-door' designs that have been the Disney hallmark for almost 80 years," Kellman explains. "I initially envisioned her as a really round, short woman who would be a complete visual contrast to Drac [who is tall and lanky]. So what you see on screen is a compromise between what I wanted to do and the skinny, dark-haired pirate temptress Genndy originally envisioned." The compromise specifically? A striking blonde with bobbed hair and a precisely tailored white pantsuit that would make Hillary Clinton proud. "I am happy with the fact that Ericka does have a rounder, slightly goofier, cartoony quality to her face," Kellman says. "And I like the atypically short hairstyle I gave her with little 'wave' curls, which visually connect to the ocean via her role as a cruise ship captain." Still, she is pretty. But what does "pretty" mean in a movie about monsters anyway? "Not sure how to answer that one," says Kellman. "A satire on beauty is certainly not one of this movie's agendas, though that actually sounds interesting to me!" interesting to me!" make fact interesting interesting goofier, cartoony 42 KEYFRAME Drawing by Craig Kellman All artwork from Sony Pictures Animation, © 2018 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved

• Cover
• PRESIDENT'S LETTER
• EDITOR'S NOTE
• ART & CRAFTAko Castuera's dynamic ceramics
• AFTER HOURS DWA's Abarcaon the sweet sideof animation
• IN PRODUCTION How Paradise, P.D.runs its show
• ON THE JOB Character Designers at different studios
• SPACE INVADERS Get lost in Ben Balistreri's home studio
• PERSPECTIVE Surviving pixel vision
• DIALOGUE Artists onthe show that inspired them
• THE LOCAL Color Stylists ask for your support, our convention delegates
• SOCIAL HOURT oasting our members around town
• MUSIC IN MOTION For Cosmo Segurson, his Nickelodeon short, The Prince and Mr. Whiskers, brings together influences from hispast. Inspired by hot jazz, 1930'scartoons and his father, he creates amusical battle in a stop-motion world.
• AND THE WINNER IS…We look back at eight Primetime Emmy winners over the last five decades, highlighting shows that impacted the industry. From The Flintstones to SpongeBob SquarePants, these unforgettable characters continue to live on.
• INTO THE NIGHT How do you design a summer vacation film without sunlight? That was one big challenge for the production of Hotel Transylvania 3.Learn how the artists behind the filmcreated a bright destination for Dracand his family.