The most significant element of Disney-Formalist hyperrealism is the lifelike movement – or motor function – of the animation, which reflects both the actual movements of live-action models and the skill of the animator. By employing a more studied variety of squash-and-stretch movement, from one drawing to the next, it quickly ‘became the very essence of animation’ (Thomas and Johnson 1995, 48).
Disney’s surrealistic animation theory is useful in many situations. Many movies or animations are now designed based on Disney’s theory and have achieved good results. But it’s not only to imitate Disney to succeed. The Spider-Man parallel universe I want to talk about is an example. He uses an unprecedented comic style. It is very innovative in many places and does not completely follow Disney’s animation theory.
The CGI animation of the film combines “line drawing points and various manga techniques” to make it look like a handmade creation, which can be called a “living painting”. This is achieved by the artist taking the rendered frames from the CGI animator and processing them in 2D, with the goal of making every frame of the movie “look like a comic panel.”
To make the film feel more like a comic book, it was animated without motion blur, instead of using an older technique called motion smearing. The frame rate varied between 24 images (animating on ones) and 12 images (animating on twos) per second, the latter case using the same image twice. The producers described the effect as making the animation “crunchy.”
In order to create depth of field, another technique is used: deliberately misaligning the colors, as if the colors are a bit misprinted, just like the ink printing in a real comic. Other ways to make movies look more like comics are halftones and Ben-Day points to create colors, tones and gradients, cross lines to create texture and shadows, Kirby Krackle to create energy illusions, motion lines to express movement, and onomatopoeia, images The words above represent sounds and actions.
Instead of using animation principles like squash and stretching, the animator came up with an alternative version, “This feels different in texture and feel, but it still achieves the same goal-either feel the weight, or expect it, or Shock or something like that.”
The whole movie imitates different comic styles for different characters. Spider-Gwen’s animation is based on the design in her comics, the black spider-man uses a black and white color scheme, and the spider ham is designed to be as “cartoon” as possible. Former Disney animator Shiyoon Kim served as the overall character designer, while Craig Kellman designed an exaggerated look for Spider Ham.
The directors all felt that the film would be one of the few that audiences actually “need” to watch in 3D, due to the immersive nature of the animated world created, and the way that the hand-drawn animation elements designed specifically for the film create a unique experience; Persichetti described the experience as a combination of the effects of an old-fashioned hand-drawn multiplane camera and a modern virtual reality environment.