I had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with the talented folks at Marvel Studios and Perception on the creation of the main on-end titles for Spider-Man: Homecoming. Woking with a small team, we crafted a compelling narrative true to the spirit of the film. I was then responsible for setting the look of each shot, overseeing the design, and leading our artists through the animation process - which included everything from hand-drawn animation, to stop-motion and 3D techniques. Here is some of my selected artwork from all phases of production, as well as motion tests, and our finished title sequence.
Spider-Man: Homecoming isn't just another superhero movie. At it's heart, it's a coming of age story centered on high school students. We wanted the title sequence to embody that theme, so we attempted to capture the spirit of high school art class. Each section was rendered in a different medium - from acrylics, to paper collage, to painting directly on film stock.
Knowing how ambitious our vision was, it was important to put together a storyboard that not only served as a narrative blueprint, but also a guide for how each artistic medium would transition into the next. So we came up with dozens of vignettes, and rearranged them like puzzle pieces until everything clicked. These are some of my early ideas. By the end of this process, I really was seeing Spiderman in my coffee...
Once we selected our favorite concepts and our storyboard was feeling good, I got to work creating a single frame to represent each scene.
We were given a tremendous amount of creative freedom with the artwork, which was really helpful when it came to matching the film's humor. Being able to interpret an iconic character in such a playful way was a truly awesome experience.
When it came to the animation, we wanted to cover a wide spectrum of techniques. Pixels, pencils, and plasticine were used in equal measure.
Hey, ho, let's go! Check out the final title sequence here.
CREDITS
Produced at Perception NY
Creative Director: John LePore
Producer: Eric Daly
Technical Director: Doug Appleton, Chris Carboni
Art Director: Chris Carboni, Doug Appleton
Storyboards: Chris Carboni, Kevin Li, Ian Bradley, Jeff Baghai
Design: Chris Carboni, Kevin Li
2D Animation: Handel Eugene, Chris Carboni, Doug Appleton, Ilaria Cacace, Justin Moluse, Elaine Lee
3D Animation: Doug Appleton, Handel Eugene