SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
Sony Pictures
“After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn's full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. However, when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders. He must soon redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.”
Humble Beginnings
After I saw the original Spider-Verse back in 2018, I knew animation, and more specifically compositing would never be the same again. Sitting in the theater at the time, I never dreamed I’d be working on its sequel, but here we are…
I joined SPI to work on Across The Spider-Verse late into its production, and was placed on a wonderful team of artists tasked with some very heartfelt moments between Miles, Gwen and their dads.
The Spot!
One of my first major tasks on this project was helping lookdev, and template the final treatment for Spots portals. These would be used throughout the film, by pretty much every team… so it was a bit nerve racking to be honest. Luckily the FX team at SPI had already done great work on the elements!
The goal was to make the portals feel like an inky turpentine spill on a comic book page, where the colours around the edge would start to bleed, fade and mix into each other before being ultimately consumed by the dark inky center.
Gwen’s World
After the portals were sorted, and most of my Miles world shots were done, I got a chance to do some very cool compositing in Gwen’s world. Here I was tasked with helping put together a very important scene where George and Gwen are finally reconciling their differences near the end of the film.
Gwen’s world proved to be my favourite to work on. Mixing together all the colours, brush work, and lines was a unique compositing challenge unlike any I had experienced before. It was nice to get away from the “Photoreal” looks and just focus on what was the most visually appealing way to put the shot together.
In the end
Seeing the film in the theaters, with a crowd that was going absolutely wild at every scene, was something I’ll never forget.
A very special thanks to my comp leads, and supervisor for bringing me along on this journey, and trusting me to do so many cool things!
