Thread by @NickTyson

(1/14) A lot went into animating these shots of the #SpiderVerse crew hiding from Miles's roommate, Ganke. It was a collaborative process, went through a lot of iteration, & it was also quite a technical challenge.

Here's a thread about how the animation came together! 🕷️

(2/14) First I need to thank my Lead, Julie Bernier-Gosselin, & Supervisor, Josh Beveridge, for trusting me with these shots. It was through them that I was able to work on such a visible part of the movie. They guided & collaborated w/ me throughout the whole process. 🙇‍♂️

(3/14) To start, I reviewed the "Launch", a recorded discussion between the directors and the animators where the dir's go over the storyboards, explain their intentions, and tell us what they're looking for in each shot.

Below: Boards by John Puglisi

(4/14) The first thing you might notice is that Peni's robot, SP//dr, is in the boards but not in the final 3D version. Likely due to its final size and design, when the shot was handed to me from layout, SP//dr was being asked to wait for Peni outside the dorm room window.

(5/14) That left Peni to hide from Ganke without any spider-powers. As explained (briefly) in her intro, Peni has a psychic link with the spider that bit her. This allows her to control the robot, SP//dr, which has spider-powers, but it did not give the powers directly to her.

(6/14) We pitched some different ways Peni could hide w/o the ability to stick to walls...Peter could carry her? She could ride on Peter's back like a Koala? Sit on top of the cupboards? Or my personal fave idea that came from my lead, Julie: She could hide inside the cupboards!

(7/14) My Supervisor, Josh Beveridge, wanted to keep them all together & working as a team, and so Peni ended up wedged in between Miles and Gwen. And Spider-Ham, who was at one point walking upside down on the ceiling, was tucked neatly beside Noir.

(8/14) The shape went through many iterations, hinging on a few needs:
-Josh didn't want to see negative space opening and closing between them.
-They needed their limbs free in order to move.
-They needed to end in an appealing pose.
As I iterated, a spider-like form emerged...!

(9/14) Ham didn't really fit in anywhere during the team movement, so I decided to lean into his cartoon-y nature, and have him zip, scramble, & disappear. It solved practical issues and gave me a chance to work in a classic style of animation which I've loved since I was a kid.

(10/14) The cartoon-y movement of Spider-Ham also gave me a chance to play with some of the unique tools we had. This scramble run was made up of 3 layers:
1. The base model.
2. A set of animated 3D feet duplicates.
3. Hand drawn lines on a plane between the camera and Ham.

(11/14) I animated the core movement of the characters by building a group rig for the individual rigs that allowed me to move them all at the same time, individually, & in a gradient. First I tried to nail down the rhythm, then baked the animation to 4's and animated the limbs.

(12/14) For Ganke's part I filmed video reference of myself in the Sony reference room. I especially looked to the reference to inform me of things like, what does the neck, head, and lips do when taking a drink? And what do the hands and fingers do when flipping through pages?

(13/14) In the second shot, Spider-Ham's acting was animated by the talented Kitty Fung. Ham's line was added much later, right before the trailer released & I was wrapped up in other work and unable to do it without her help. And it's perfect! I love the little shrug he does!

(14/14) Lastly, I just want to note that this was just my experience from the anim dept. Many dept's worked on these shots including story, layout, hair, cloth, lighting, comp, stereo, edit, audio...Each shot was a massive team effort, & I am lucky to have been a part of them!