Spider-Punk’s chaotic look had to break Across the Spider-Verse’s animation rules
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Versefeatures a lot of different Spider-People from across (haha) decades of Spider-history. Despite all being connected by their powers (and also catastrophic canon events, as we come to learn), they’re all vibrant and distinct from one another. This was something the first movie established, but with dozens upon dozens of Spider-People in the sequel, Across the Spider-Verse takes everything up to 11. It’s not just their character designs; it’s also the way they’re animated and the style that they’re rendered in.
Perhaps the most impressive Spider-Person — and certainly the one that many fans have latched on to as being the coolest — is Spider-Punk. Voiced by Daniel Kaluuya, Spider-Punk (aka Hobie Brown) is a nonconformist, punk-rock hero who does things his own way. And that extends into how he looks and moves compared to the rest of the cast. Not only is his design like something out of collaged zine, but he also moves in a choppier manner than the rest of the cast.
He is one of the most dynamic characters in the whole movie — and also the one that’s been blowing everyone’s minds with just how wild he looks.
“How the FUCK did they do this,” one Twitter user asked, sharing a clip of Spider-Punk’s chaotically cool intro.
The Spider-Verse animators have been very online and very open to talking about their process, and animation lead Chelsea Gordon-Ratzlaff swung in to respond. They detailed the rules that the animation team had for Hobie, and also clarified that the rules were broken when necessary — a punk-rock approach that Hobie would approve of.
these were our rules for hobie! — body on 3s — offset the vest (also on 3s but delayed by a frame or two) — guitar on 4s — outline on 2s
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