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    How do diaphanous cobwebs blow in an almost indiscernible breeze?  What makes a gently flowing stream sparkle in the twilight?  How do thousands of bubbles rise to the surface of an underground water chamber?
    The answer to all of these questions is simple: through a great deal of work by the special effects department, if these phenomena are in an animated movie.
    In "The Secret of NIMH," an animated film in the classical style, there will be very special effects.  The movie, which is the first from Don Bluth Productions, will be released in July by MGM/United Artists Marketing and Distribution.
    Special effects in animation is defined as anything that moves that is not a character.  There are basically two types: natural phenomena, such as characters' shadows, the rustling of trees by the wind, the shimmer of bottles in a diminutive secret laboratory; and the supernatural, such as the spinning blades that create a hologram in which the future is foretold and even shaped.

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    Both types of effects abound in "The Secret of NIMH," a film that marks the beginning of the Second Age of Animation, reviving and extending many of the devices used in early classical films.
    The sparkles on the water, the hazy moon at night, the colored charges of static electricity in the vegetation at the entrance to the rats' domain are backlit through intricate designs as they are photographed.  Characters' shadows were painted black then photographed at 40 percent of full exposure, giving them a transparent look.
    The blades of the hologram start to rotate, and the force field they create glows.  The pen is lifted from the inkwell and brings forth a green vapor, in which are suspended particles of hot laser dust that falls to the parchment and ignites it, burning the words into eternity.
    Multiplane camera shots add depth and dimension to the movie.  A camera shoots from above onto several levels or planes which can be raised or lowered.  The number of levels varies.  For example, a shot of heroine Mrs. Brisby riding on Jeremy the crow's back as the audience looks down past them onto fields and forests could consist of five levels: Mrs. Brisby, Jeremy, the background painting of the field below, several layers of clouds below them and a level of clouds above.
    Painted plastic sheets called "cels" are placed on glass frames at varying distances from the camera and photographed.  Multiple exposures of the same film footage can add more effects.  A 10-foot scene of one character and a background can be done in 30 minutes.

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    But if that scene has four characters, their shadows, a Bunsen burner flame, glassware in the background shimmering from the flame and bubbles roiling in bottles in the foreground, the number of levels jumps from two to five and the number of passes through the camera increases to eight.  The scene now takes eight hours to film.
Each effect requires drawings and painted cels separate from those on which the characters are done.  Extra planning is required to make sure the effects "read" well against the background and avoid the moving characters.
    The movie, based on the Newbery Award-winning novel "Mrs.  Frisby and the Rats of NIMH` by Robert C. O' Brien, is about a widowed field mouse who seeks the help of some mysterious, intelligent rats to save her family.  The rats have secretly created an under-groun civilization under the rosebush on the farm where Brisby lives.
Lending their vocal talents to the  film are Elizabeth Hartman, Dom DeLuise, Peter Strauss, Derek Jacobi, John Carradine, Hermione Baddeley, Arthur Mallet and Paul Shenar.
    "The Secret of NIMHII was produced by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy.  Bluth directed the film.  Jerry Goldsmith composed and conducted t he musical score, and Paul Williams wrote the songs.  The story was adapted by Bluth, Pomeroy, Will Finn and Goldman.- Rich Irvine and James L. Stewart are executive producers of the Aurora presentation of the Don Bluth Production.