Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

“Look, I'm a comic book, I'm a cereal, did a Christmas album. I have an excellent theme song.” — Peter Parker

When Kristine Belson, president of Sony Pictures Animation, confirmed the title for Spider-Man: Homecoming at CinemaCon in 2016, she briefly talked about the as-yet-unnamed animated Spider-Man film. She declared that it would “break new ground for the superhero genre,” which, it turns out, was not simply run-of-the-mill hype. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a film like no other. Nothing looks like it and nothing feels like it. Written by Phil Lord (co-writer on The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street) and Rodney Rothman (22 Jump Street), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a wild, glitchy, exhilarating and most of all laugh-out-loud fun reworking of your friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler. Directed by Rothman, Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey, it’s the most innovative take on Spider-Man since 2002 when Columbia Pictures (now part of Sony) first brought the web-slinging hero to the big screen.

For stylistic inspiration, the filmmakers looked to the hand-drawn techniques of comics artist and Miles Morales co-creator Sara Pichelli. Combining Sony’s computer animation with Pichelli’s vibrant traditional style proved to be key to Spider-Verse’s vivacious, one-of-a-kind aesthetic. To achieve it, the film required 140 animators – at one point ballooning to reach 177 members – the largest crew that Sony Pictures Imageworks had ever used in film.

Its slam-dunk closing title sequence, which won the 2019 Excellence in Title Design Award at SXSW, required a team of about a dozen people. The main-on-end sequence is a zipline through a kaleidoscopic vortex of blazing colour, invigorating energy, industry in-jokes, and meta-Spideys, all doused in Kirby dots and halftones, graffiti and street slaps. Like the psychedelic Dondi White–Roy Lichtenstein team-up we never knew we were missing. It was created by Alma Mater, the studio behind the titles of 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie. Tackling the “inspirational and intimidating” brief required heavy lifting from creative directors Brian Mah and James Ramirez, VFX specialists, an editor, an illustrator, and a gaggle of animators and compositors. Below, Mah and Ramirez reveal the directions that didn’t make it, their 3D explorations and techniques, the Easter eggs and barely-visible custom art, and the plug-ins that helped them along the way.

A discussion with Title Sequence Directors and Designers BRIAN MAH and JAMES RAMIREZ of studio ALMA MATER.

It’s been a big few years for Alma Mater! The last time we talked was in 2015 about your work for 22 Jump Street.

Brian: The truth is we don’t take on titles that often! This past fall and winter has been the exception. We created two very ambitious title sequences, one for Spider-Verse and the other for The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. This was the first time we did two titles of this scale and magnitude simultaneously. It was quite…

RSS & Email Subscribers: Check out the full Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse article at Art of the Title.

from Art of the Title http://bit.ly/2Gnm2JF