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  • Narrator: "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse"

  • is no ordinary animated movie.

  • It's no ordinary Spider-Man movie either.

  • It packs multiple characters from

  • different universes into a seamless story,

  • and it features an innovative, eye-grabbing animation style.

  • It's that dedication to the animation,

  • a style we have never really seen before,

  • that puts "Spider-Verse" in a category all its own.

  • Let's start with a few jaw-dropping

  • numbers about the production.

  • The film had 177 animators on staff at one point.

  • More than twice the typical animated film.

  • To put that in perspective, the original

  • "Toy Story" had just 27 animators.

  • It took one week to animate just one second of footage.

  • It usually takes a week for four seconds.

  • It actually took them one year

  • to get just 10 seconds they were happy with.

  • Peter B. Parker: Very cool.

  • Narrator: And the total shot count on "Spider-Verse"

  • is two to three times higher than other animated films.

  • Each year, animated films seem

  • to look more and more like real life.

  • For "Spider-Verse," instead of making the animation

  • photo-realistic, the creators wanted the movie

  • to stand out on its own as something new for viewers

  • just as they were being introduced to

  • a new Spider-Man in Miles Morales,

  • while at the same time sticking as much as they could

  • to traditional print comic book style.

  • As Head of Character Animation Josh Beveridge put it,

  • "Don't emulate reality, and don't make it a cartoon."

  • To accomplish this, they used a number

  • of different techniques that make

  • "Spider-Verse" a groundbreaking film.

  • One of the most noticeable differences involves frame rate.

  • Animated films are typically 24 frames per second,

  • and creating a different image for each frame

  • is known as animating on ones.

  • "Spider-Verse" broke the mold and animated

  • much of the movie on twos as well,

  • meaning they kept some of the images on screen

  • for two frames, which makes the animation feel,

  • as the producers describe it, "crunchy."

  • Each character's pose lasts longer

  • and is much more pronounced.

  • Like here, when Prowler is chasing Miles through the alley.

  • You can see examples of animating on twos

  • in some of the original Disney films.

  • The "Spider-Verse" animators alternated between

  • on twos and on ones depending on the nature of the scene.

  • They could make Miles seem fast or skilled in some shots,

  • on ones, and struggle in others, on twos.

  • Sometimes he would be on twos

  • while other characters were on ones.

  • When they're swinging through the forest,

  • Miles is on twos because he's clumsy

  • while Peter B. Parker is on ones because he's more skilled.

  • This subtly helped illustrate how Miles was slowly

  • becoming more comfortable with his powers.

  • Each character's detailed animation style

  • helped to bring out his or her personality.

  • Another major technique was how

  • they chose not to use motion blur,

  • a CGI trick which most new films use

  • to soften a movement and make it seem more real.

  • Instead, they used an old-school technique called a smear.

  • This was used a lot in early cartoons

  • to create the sense of motion.

  • If you look at a single frame,

  • you'll notice things like multiple limbs

  • to create the illusion of movement.

  • Here, Gwen is playing the drums,

  • and you can see multiple hands and drum sticks.

  • And here, when Miles has his cape ripped off his back.

  • Miles Morales: I think it's cool.

  • Peter B Parker: Spider-Man doesn't wear a cape.

  • Narrator: You can see multiple arms in some frames.

  • Here's an example of one of the first cartoons

  • to use motion smearing, the 1942 short

  • called "The Dover Boys at Pimento University."

  • So those are some of the things they borrowed

  • from older animated films, but there's

  • plenty of new innovations too.

  • Some things they borrowed from comic books,

  • but we've never seen them in a movie.

  • Basically, the entire movie is a comic book that moves.

  • Co-director Phil Lord said, "If you freeze

  • any part of the movie at any time,

  • it will look like an illustration

  • with hand-drawn touches and all."

  • There are even moments in the film

  • when hand-drawn still images pop up in the shots

  • to replace the computer animation.

  • Like this shot, when Miles is running

  • through the streets of New York and he leaps off a taxi.

  • And they layered 2D ink lines on top of the 3D art

  • to give the characters more of a hand-drawn look.

  • If you look at a comic book, you may have noticed

  • a common error where the ink is misprinted.

  • The filmmakers decided to use this misprint style

  • in the film to create a depth of field

  • instead of blurring the background.

  • When something is in focus, the colors

  • align and are crisper.

  • They used a technique called half-toning,

  • which uses dots to create colors and gradients.

  • Shadows were created with hatching, or crisscrossed lines.

  • Legendary Marvel artist Jack Kirby

  • was known for his abstract dots, or "Kirby Krackle,"

  • which create the illusion of energy.

  • The film references and uses the effect multiple times,

  • when the portal opens and when Miles is spray-painting.

  • There are action lines to show movement,

  • and they used comics' signature onomatopoeia,

  • or words on the image, to frequently

  • represent sounds and motion.

  • Comic panels made out of webbing

  • show montages and background action.

  • 'Cause there are six different spider-people,

  • they could also play with multiple

  • animation styles in one film.

  • They actually studied manga, Japanese comics,

  • when designing the surface of the robot Spidey.

  • Both Peni and Spider-pig have exaggerated anime

  • and cartoonish movements that stand out

  • compared to Miles' world.

  • CG supervisor Michael Lasker says Spider-Man Noir

  • was the most stylized character,

  • and was an extra challenge since he was

  • drawn in only black and white

  • but required detailed textures and shading.

  • Spider-Man Noir: Hey, fellas.

  • Miles Morales: Is he in black and white?

  • Peter B. Parker: Where's that wind coming from?

  • We're in a basement.

  • Narrator: Animator Nick Kondo tweeted that

  • this one scene involving all of the spider-people

  • was the most technically challenging for him,

  • taking two months to get right.

  • What each spider-person had in common

  • was that they were always kept low to the ground,

  • forming acute angles with their limbs.

  • The attention to detail is everywhere.

  • Backgrounds like New York City's streets

  • were studied closely to get them as accurate as possible.

  • And if you look closely, you can find

  • multiple Stan Lees inserted in certain frames.

  • All of these techniques combined to make a movie

  • that has stood out among not just

  • the animated films of 2018, but perhaps of all time.

Narrator: "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse"

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