Process and commentary, as shared by the film’s animators.

But first…

Before hearing from folks who actually worked on it, here’s my two cents:

For all the dazzling visuals and styles bursting out of #AcrossTheSpiderverse, for me the most stunning animation was in the character details, the tiny moments, the humanity that was Rio Morales. pic.twitter.com/DefpLep8iE

— viewinder (@viewinder) July 4, 2023

Miguel the toxic fanboy: driven to destroy anyone and everyone between him and what he “protects”. From hunting Miles and screaming at him that he, a person of colour, was never meant to be Spider-Man, to staring obsessively and furiously at his computer screens, and assuring his cultists that they are the “good guys”; who looks like the idealised brooding superhero, but is in actuality the menacing villain of someone else’s story… how isn’t his character a commentary on toxic fandom?

BTS

Supervising animator Chels provides info behind Em Guiry‘s layered animation work:

this shot was animated by Em Guiry!! and is a great example of the comic panels that we added in anim. this 1 shot has 5 other shots within it that Em had to animate separately and then place them as 2D image sequences in 3D panels behind Gwen in the scene https://t.co/3lYtGetkId

— Chels (@cgratzlaff) June 17, 2023

Visdev Kat Tsai shares concept and colour exploration work from the film:

In Gwen’s room, we see an inverse of the color relationship that was set up previously. Gwen and her environment are in harmony, contrasting against her dad’s warm colors. When they embrace, their colors mix together to create something new.

— Kat Tsai (@Chuwenjie) June 16, 2023

This is the version that was used for the film, after many rounds of art direction and director feedback. pic.twitter.com/H40YlSAICu

— Kat Tsai (@Chuwenjie) June 18, 2023

Character Designer Ami Thompson shared expression sheets for a bunch of characters, including Spider-Punk aka Hobie:

Hobie Brown expression sheet I did for #AcrossTheSpiderVerse pic.twitter.com/3AoxEkW8xj

— Ami Thompson (@AmiThompson_h) June 9, 2023

14-year-old animator Preston Mutanga created the movie’s (computer-generated) Lego animation scenes (via NBC):

Further Viewing

Sadly, as with many big-budget films featuring digital animation and visual effects, reports of the working conditions for the artists have since emerged (Vulture, via Complex):

In a damning report from 'Vulture,' artists spoke about producer-writer Phil Lord's chaotic management style and the working conditions they were subjected to. https://t.co/bhtH9LsPAt

— Complex Pop Culture (@ComplexPop) June 26, 2023

A fantastic film full of rich storytelling and attention to detail is likely to inspire myriad video essays and breakdowns. One which caught my eye is schnee‘s on Spider-Verse 2‘s Most Well Written Scene (Gwen & Dad) – and what this analysis may lack in polish, it more than makes up for in compelling observations about lean writing and tiny, but important, character moments:

“This is the ‘Han Shot First’ of the Spider-Verse” – schnee has also compiled a thread of alterations made to the film’s digital release version from its theatrical release version, yet another sad exhibit of streaming media’s erasure of our collective pop cultural memory and shared experience:

So, there are actually a lot of differences in the #SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse cuts

Here's a cut comparison 🧵 theatrical vs digital of Across The Spider-Verse

(*will update as more are found) pic.twitter.com/PUdiqnnFJx

— Chris 🎧 (@chrisagwrites) August 9, 2023

Karan Soni, who plays Pavitr Prabhakar aka Spider-Man: India, on the collaborative process behind his character’s development:

In this long but worthwhile discussion, Jessie Gender and friends trace myriad signifiers of minority and counter-cultural archetypes within the film’s text, key to Unraveling The Spider-Verse‘s Queerness:

And one more from schnee, all about the scene-stealing Hobie (Daniel Kaluuya), which reads his grassroots anti-facism through the lens of the writing of George B. N. Ayittey, notes the surprisingly layered, thematically detailed way in which his character is crafted, and demonstrates how these details reveal themselves only upon rewatch: