I don’t know how, but I managed to make it all this way and I never once wrote about a Spider-man movie or even a Marvel movie. This is surprising due to my love for both Marvel movies and Spider-man movies. Not to be biased, but I would definitely say Spider-man is my favorite hero.
This Spider-man movie though, is different from the others as it is not only animated, but it also features multiple “Spider-man” characters across multiple dimensions. Each are different in their own way since they all stem from different universes, all in different animation styles. While in theory it doesn’t sound too complicated to draw different characters in different styles, putting it into practice is a whole different story.
This project, which had 177 animators working on it, took an insane amount of time to complete due to the level of detail and tricky animation it required. In my opinion, all of their hard work paid off because this movie was amazing. The plot, characters, and animation were all amazing in their own unique way and I honestly think this is one of my favorite animated movies.
There were a lot of challenges awaiting the animators in the creation of this film though. Each of the characters had different animation styles so each had their own challenges, especially when multiple characters were interacting with one another.
One of the most interesting techniques the animators used, in my opinion, was their choice to animate Miles Morales on twos for most of his scenes, whereas Peter B. Parker (the closest to what most think of as the original Spider-man) was animated on ones.
*Animating on ones is when every individual frame has a unique drawing from the frame before it. This typically results in a smoother, more realistic animation.
*Animating on twos is when animators allow a drawing to last for two frames in a row before changing the drawing on the third frame. This typically results in a jerkier image.
Most scenes of Miles, especially in the beginning of the film, have him animated on twos. It gives the film a very distinct image and a unique feeling that is reminscent of comic books.
A common theme throughout this movie was animation that is reminscent of comic book styles. In some frames, the animation switches from a realistic image to one that appears to have come straight from a comic book. Although this frames last for a very short amount of time, it lasts long enough for viewers to notice it and notice a slight shift in these scenes.
There’s also a difference between ones and twos when it comes to some characters. In a scene where Miles is still striggling to figure out his spiderwebs and swinging around with them whereas another Spider-man character is skilled at doing so, Miles is animated on twos and slowly trabsitions to being animated on ones as he slowlty figures out how to swing properly. All the while Miles was learning, the other Spider-man character was being animated on ones. It’s slight differences like these that really make this movie stand out for me because that is a level of attention to detail that I admire.
Lastly, most animated films nowadays use motion blur to make their films seem more realistic and less choppy in movements. However, as the creators of this movie were aiming for something between comic book and realistic animation, they chose to use a different technique called animation smears.
Here’s a quick video that explains how animation smears work, how they’re used, and some examples of smears you may not have noticed.
For example, there are some frames in Into The Spider-Verse where you can see animation smears where there are odd splotches of color that are used to represent Miles moving his arms between frames. This animation technique gives the movie a sense of nostaglia for me as it reminds me of animated cartoons I used to watch growing up.
Overall, I’d say this movie does a fantastic job at creating a visually unique film and employing multiple different techniques to acheive something beautiful. I’m sure the animators could have created a very cool movie with more modern/common animation techniques in much less time; however, it is the dedication and approach these animators took to make this movie unique that makes it even more breathtaking.
Thank you for reading my blog post! Do you read/collect comics? Leave a comment down below!
Until next time, you can see me peering through the viewfinder.
Through the Viewfinder 