Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse left its mark on audiences everywhere from its incredible and unique visuals to its portrayal of the young web slinger Miles Morales, giving the character arguably more mainstream exposure than ever before. But one topic that doesn't seem to come up quite as much is how the film impacted its creators. It's one thing to hear how the producers came up with certain ideas, but another entirely for an animator to explain their process. Luckily, one such artist recently decided to grace his Twitter followers with just such an anecdote, and his answer seemed to surprise even himself.
Nick Kondo, lead animator at Sony, decided to give a public answer to the question "What was the most difficult shot you animated on Spider-Verse?" He began his Twitter thread by admitting that, if he'd been asked this same question closer to the film's release, he likely would have named a particularly comedic scene which featured all the different Spider-Men and Women bunched together on a wall (due to their contrasting and interacting art and animation styles). He also suggested a shot where a silhouette of the villain Lizard was actually accomplished by re-shaping another character model. Though there was no mention of the snazzy tentacle arms wielded by Kathryn Hahn's Doc Ock.
But it turns out, Kondo's most challenging scene had less to do with the technical intricacies and more to do with his own emotional connection. It was a shot that featured a distraught Miles Morales, having just learned a shocking truth about a family member and lost that same family member at the same time. Sitting in an alley in his Spider-Man getup, he's confronted by his father, a policeman, adding to the emotional turmoil already coursing through his mind. Having already lost so much, he's poised to lose so much more if his dad finds out who he really is.
Kondo had to delve deep into his own feelings of personal loss to make the scene feel as genuine as possible. "Needless to say, it's a devastating emotional load on Miles," Kondo explained. "And to try to put myself in his shoes, I dug back to when I lost my dad suddenly & unexpectedly just after college -- Remembering the crushing feeling of getting the midnight call to find out he was gone." It really goes to show how personal animation can be as an art form, often being just as taxing emotionally as it can be on a technical level. There's a reason the film made people wish for a Spider-Verse-style story in DC's upcoming Flash movie.
Kondo's story both puts things in perspective and explains a bit why Spider-Verse is such an impactful film for so many people. When genuine emotion is put in like this, audiences can tell. Even if they don't notice on a conscious level, there's a connection that forms when the viewer and creator share that earnest love for what's in front of them.
It's a heartfelt glimpse into the creative process and it likely serves to make the fans that much more excited for the next Into the Spider-Verse movie. If it's anything like its predecessor, it wouldn't be surprising to see tissue sales spiking around release time.
Source: Nick Kondo|Twitter