Into the Spider-Verse Title Sequence Director: James Ramirez

nsavides — Sun, 12 May 2019 21:31:54 +0000

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse developed a new approach to computer animation so as to translate the comic-book experience for the big screen. Academy voters took notice and awarded the film an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. One of the last things that moviegoers see before leaving the film is the hyperkinetic title sequence animated by visual studio Alma Mater.

The sequence was featured at SXSW 2019 in a compilation of compelling title sequences, and it made enough of an impression that it won SXSW’s jury-awarded Excellence in Title Design accolade. As part of my festival coverage of SXSW 2019, I sat down with title sequence co-director James Ramirez to learn more about what went into making the sequence.

Some of the things we discuss include

The different styles of animation that went into the sequence and how they put it together in Cinema 4D
How they worked with the filmmakers behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to supplement the ideas and characters of the film
The way they implemented the half-tone look
What filmmakers should keep in mind when planning for a title sequence

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to see some of the concept art for the sequence provided by Alma Mater.

Related Episode

To hear more about how vintage animation styles have influenced computer animation, check out this interview with Limbert Fabian and Brandon Oldenburg, Oscar-winning directors from Moonbot Studios, in Shreveport, Louisiana.

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Related Things

Alma Mater
Jame’s site, friedpixels.com
James on
- Instagram, Twitter
This Art of the Title article provides an in-depth discussion with illustrations about how the title sequence came together.
James gave a shout out to the Deadpool 2 title sequence.
Imaginary Forces, one of the agencies whose work James admires, worked on titles for Stranger Things and Mad Men.
Jack Kirby, an early Spider-Man artist, provided design inspiration for both the film and title sequence of Into the Spider-Verse.
While we didn’t get to discuss this in the interview, James also did some motion graphics work on Stranger Than Fiction, a film that has been a big inspiration for me. My interview with Stranger Than Fiction‘s producer Lindsay Doran is over here.

Shortcut for the podcast: nicksav.show

Additional music for the show provided by Rob Costlow.

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Concept Art

Ben Apley, producer for Alma Mater’s Into the Spider-Verse title sequence, graciously shared the images below to illustrate how the concept developed:

Early vignette concept

From concept 1

From concept 2

Final concept still