The Iron Giant - The "Dome of Doom" Sequence

Part One - Part Two - Part Three

For the giant's final assault, Brad Bird wanted me to design a very "alien" explosion. He wanted it to look like it was caused by something from out of this world. The final result was the "Dome of Doom" which every one liked.

For the "Dome of Doom" explosion, I created 5 levels of hand drawn animation.

1- The Back of the Dome: This was the back level of the dome where I animated expending circular patterns.

2 - Upper Electricity (animated with a 0.45mm Micron marker)

3- The Blue Ring: Inside the dome was a ring that moves from the top to the bottom while expending. Since the ring is seen sideways it almost appears as a line. Electrical effects emanates from above and below it.

4- Lower Electricity (animated with a 0.45mm Micron marker)

5- The Front of the Dome: This was the top level of the dome where I animated expending circular patterns. I made sure that the patterns were animated differently than the ones on the back level, so that there would be a nice interplay of shapes when all the levels were combined.

Andrew Jiminez did the digital work on the scene adding light flashes, diffusions, blurs and all sorts of luminescence.