вЂњThe need for them came late in the game, and so instead of going back through the whole modelling, rigging and animation pipeline,вЂќ says Farnsworth, вЂњwe used Houdini to generate all of the extra geometry procedurally in the shot level, saving us a lot of time. Tentacles on the character Doctor Octopus were another thing that Houdini was used for, in particular to generate extra wires and geometry inside of them. When CFX was done, the webs would go through the procedural setup in Houdini and, depending on the variant they wanted, it would add spiral webs around the main core, and completely replace the eiffel with a more stylised and customizable one.вЂќ вЂњHaving this in their court was ideal,вЂќ says Farnsworth, вЂњbecause of web-cloth interaction. That department had a web rig for simulating secondary motion and also added that вЂeiffelвЂ™ end-piece. To get the webs into shots, the animators used a вЂcurveвЂ™ rig that would then go through CFX. The hideout and вЂwrapped upвЂ™ webs were packed with more small webs along with вЂknotsвЂ™ randomly added into the structure.вЂќ Her web was much more ribbon-like and graceful looking just by tweaking a few parameters. We built on that and modified it for GwenвЂ™s web. MileвЂ™s and PeterвЂ™s web was very thin/fine and had a few extra spiral webs around the main core, with a graphic almost 2D looking вЂeiffel'. вЂњUsing one setup as the base, we were able to easily create unique web variations for some of the different Spider-Man characters as well as the webs in the Spider-Man hideout and the webs wrapped around Miles during one sequence.

Houdini was relied upon again here, especially for its procedural nature, as Farnsworth explains. Of course, Spider-Man would be nothing without his signature webs. This is just simply not possible in another program other than Houdini.вЂќ We also had to create a few custom boolean-based tools for creating stylised patterns and cuts. We used that in combination with some minor re-timing to really create a nice вЂpunchвЂ™ and accentuate the action as desired. вЂњUsing 2D animation as inspiration,вЂќ adds Farnsworth, вЂњwe also did some fun timing experiments on rigid bodies, outputting the geometry on 2вЂ™s, and sometimes switching from 1вЂ™s to 2вЂ™s or vice versa to get us a unique вЂsteppedвЂ™ look that matched what the character animation team was doing. вЂњThe render side was nice and simple,вЂќ notes Farnsworth, вЂњas we simply stored attributes for the hi-res image path, and simple things like age or alpha attributes so we could control a bit in the shader as well.вЂќ With that setup in place, the FX artists could use simple particle systems or hand-place these elements as needed, and focus on the timing and composition of the elements, without having to worry too much about rendering or the final look, since the render would match the viewport almost exactly. This is a common technique used in games, where instead of loading a specific frame of animation for every card, you only have to load a single image that has all the frames on it already and you modulate the UVs to switch frames.вЂќ вЂњBeing able to view the animations in real-time was really important to us,вЂќ says Farnsworth, вЂњso we created sprite sheets for all the animations we were going to use. The same HDA also output a separate geometry for render. вЂњHe was able to provide us with a few explosion variations with multiple layers each, gun muzzle flash shapes, spark hit shapes, smoke, steam and flame elements.вЂќДЄt Imageworks, an HDA in Houdini was created that would allow artists to select images from the library and then view the animation in real-time in the viewport. вЂњWe had him provide as many layers as he could for us, so we could mix and match as needed, and also place things in depth for the 3D stereo side of things, too,вЂќ details Farnsworth. He provided Imageworks with a small re-usable library of 2D FX, starting with an explosion. That artist was Alex Redfish, whose Vimeo demos exemplified a style that would fit the desired language of the film.

Into the spider verse