The Iron Giant - The "Dome of Doom" Sequence

Part One - Part Two - Part Three

One of the sequences I was responsible for creating the effects for, was the part where the giant generates an orb from his chest and lunches it over the ocean. My assistant (Matt Manners) and I nicknamed the sequence "The Dome of Doom".

The images on the left are from the first two scenes I animated in that sequence.

The final animation from the scenes shown below consisted of 6 levels of hand drawn animation.

1- The Circular Flow: I animated an abstract level inside the chest plate which rotates slowly.

2 - The Angular Pattern: This was the second level in the chest plate I animated. The random motion contrasted nicely against the more flowing motion of the first level. It was also painted brighter and was more dominant in the final composite.

3- The orb: The formation of the orb was a two color level with the shape building up into a sphere.

4- The animated rendering over the orb: This level was animated with a 6B pencil (soft tip) and helped creating the feel that the orb was filled with energy.

5- Electricity: I animated electrical current radiating from the orb and the three prawns around the center hole. This level was animated with a 45mm Micron marker.

6- Energy Glow: For the second scene (2 bottom images) I animated an extra glow level to show the build-up of energy.