Working on SPIDER-MAN: ACORSS THE SPIDER-VERSE was a nightmare for the animators and hundreds of them left

Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse it was an incredible and visually stunning animated film that featured a great story and hundreds of different Spider-Man characters. When you watch this movie, you can tell it wasn’t an easy job for anyone involved, but according to a new report from Vulture, it was a nightmare project for the animators to work on.

It was such a terrible experience that over a hundred animators quit mid-production due to working conditions. There are four pseudonymous sources who shared this information for the report and they share that the working conditions involved working 11 hour days, seven days a week, for more than a year and for a salary that was not worth the grueling load of Work.

There were also issues with the short production time and the manufacturer Phil Lord slowly approving layouts, which left some animators with no work to do for three months or more. It was also explained that Lord would also have requested changes after the scenes had already been completed and approved by the film’s current directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K ThompsonAND Kemp Powers.

This would force the animators to redo all the animation for these scenes! One of the sources explained:

“The changes in the writing would go through the storyboard. Then it gets to the layout, then the animation, then the final layout, which adjusts the cameras and the placement of things in the environment. Then there are cloth and hair effects, which need to be redone repeatedly every time there’s an animation change. The effects department also goes over the characters with ink lines and does all the crazy stuff like explosions and smoke and water. And they work closely with the lighting and composition on all the colors and visual treatments in this film. Each step is linked to editing. Smaller changes tend to start with animation, and big story changes can involve multiple departments like visual development, modeling, rigging, and texture painting. These are many artists affected by a change. Imagine an endless stream of them.

While all of the animators love the work done on the film, they are not happy with the dysfunctional way the production was handled. Another source explained how Phil Lord works, saying:

“The analogy to the way Phil works is getting a whole group of construction workers to build a building without a blueprint. You make them start placing bricks on top of each other. Have the wood guys put wood, put windows, put metal scaffolding in there. And he said, ‘No, take that part down. But show me a construction worker who can stack bricks on top of each other again and again and watch it get torn down on a daily basis.

It doesn’t seem like the best or most effective way to create anything. Vulture has requested an official response from the studio and producer You love Pascal he responded and said the previously finalized shoot would be re-done over and over again, and added “If the story isn’t right, you have to keep going until it is… I guess, welcome to make a movie.”

Of course, he won’t admit to any problems with the production or taking advantage of the animators working on the film. I understand that making a film is hard work, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. All of these issues could be avoided with proper management and it seems Lord may not be the best at this.

You should read the full report! It is both charming and sad at the same time.