I found a short article from people who created “Spider-Man“. It is called the “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse – How to build a pipeline for variable rate animation” by Marteinn Örn Óskarsson and Marlène Chazot (2023). It is very specific and I will definitely include it in my work. It is about variable rate animation, or stepped animation. It is the process of holding a frame of an animation performance between two or more frames, as opposed to keeping a consistent motion of performance through each and every frame. The art direction on Spider-Verse aimed to bring the look of the project closer to a comic book and hand drawn traditional animation. Using the variable rate animation method helped the project get closer to the desired style with some key differences.
Month: June 2026
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Week 17: Proposal Progress
This week I focused on writing down the plan for the main body.
Chapter 1: Historical overview
• Definition of hybrid animation and its evolution.
• Historical context and milestones in hybrid animation.
• The impact of technology on artistic choices.
Chapter 2: Character Design
• Principles of character design in both 2D and 3D contexts.
• The role of movement and expression in hybrid character design.
• Case studies of characters from hybrid animations (characters from “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”).
Chapter 3: The Role of Style in Storytelling
• The relationship between visual aesthetics and narrative structure.
• The use of symbolism and visual metaphors in hybrid animation.
Thinking about my topic, I decided to not only read but also watch some reviews and overviews about hybrid animation because this term does not have a clear definition and is quite broad.
This video talks about history of evolution of the hybrid animation and how a lot of people forget about it existing way before the “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”.
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Week 15: Proposal Structure
I changed my research question to “How does the style of hybrid animation technique contribute to the narrative and overall identity of the animations?”. This way, I will be able to study different papers and maybe conduct case-study and discourse analysis instead of focusing statistics. What is more, it will give me a limitation of the scope of research as absence of numerical data leads to biased conclusions. So I will specify it in my work.
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Week 14: Feedback Session
This week we received feedback for our literature review. My reading list was fine overall. Though Nigel suggested to change my research question because it seems there is not enough statistics and evidences to answer on the current one (How does the audience perceive hybrid animation compared to traditional 3D animation?). I think I will move focus to more evolution overview of the phenomenon.
I continue to read articles which might be useful for my paper. This week I read “Hybrid Animation: The Process and Methods of Implementing 2D Style in 3D Animation” by Jerina Kivistö (2019). Technological advancements have made computer generated 3D animations more prominent than ever, switching the dynamics of the animation industry completely in the 21st century. With this major change, a question has emerged: where does hand-drawn animation stand? While 3D methods are efficient and can allow complex animations as a result, it lacks in expressing the same level of artistry that hand-drawn animation is capable of. Thus, the objective of this study was to consider if hybrid animation — combining 2D and 3D animation — is beneficial in creating an appealing visual outcome without compromising the workflow efficiency and development costs. It also touches on the subject of how 3D renders are used to emulate the hand-drawn style.
This week I decided to reed some more articles about my topic, so I can sort more information and narrow the research gap.
I found this paper: “Cinematic animation – Analysis of mechanisms and techniques: the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as a case study” by Dr. Bouthayna HAMMI (2025). This article explores the narrative mechanisms and visual techniques in animated films, focusing on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). Through an analysis of the innovative use of hybrid 2D and 3D animation, color palettes, and lighting, the article examines how these elements contribute to storytelling and the viewer’s emotional experience. Emphasis is placed on the impact of the “multiverse” concept and comic book elements in narrative construction, as well as the enhanced visual immersion created by special effects. The study concludes with the significance of these techniques in pushing the boundaries of traditional
animation.
I am not sure whether I want to include it in my literature review, but it was interesting to read. Maybe I will take some points from it after all.
While we are waiting for the feedback for our literature review, it is important to start thinking about plan for proposal. I usually write this kind of paper using the following plan:
1. Relevance
2. Literature review
1. Research gap
You need to show that nobody have studied this topic from your particular scientific perspective (time frame, side, etc.)
3. Research Question
Shows what the research is about; must show the end point of the research — research in itself is not an objective; research question must be just one
4. Hypothesis
Supposed explanation to the research question; it can be wrong (research result may contradict some conventional positions in science, which may lead to scientific revolution)
5. Methodology
– a very long part
– theoretical framework (tells us about the things we will look at)
– method – a tool to work with data to find some causalities, correlation, etc
– methodology – plan of using methods
– what data will be used in the research
– with what we won’t work
– sequence of methods
This week we focused on storytelling. In order to make an appiling story, it must follow a narrative. The main trick here is to make a character live on the screen and make decisions. Thus, the story would follow character’s actions, it will be created by their own hands. Surely, it does not mean that the story itself should be chaotic list of events. It needs clear structure. There exist different story structures but most of them are based on the idea of a conflict because it creates a challenge for a hero.
Assignment for this week was in pairs. Chi-Chih and I decided to do it together. We needed to create a cinematic scene in Maya in Previs. The theme was “Hunter to Prey.” The main idea was to depict a dramatic power shift in the story using two characters or more. Duration: 30 – 45 seconds.
Here is our storyboard:
We decided to split the work in half. Chi-Chih was animating first half of the shots, while I focused on the second one.
Here is the first version of owr previs:
We recieved feedback from Ting. We had to change several shots in the beggining to make the world more real and alive. Only after that we can introduce the character.
Here are the notes which I took:
- give piece by piece info
- camera moves slow = creepy
- add a shot before the jump shot and eating shot
- first 3 shots: play with focal lenght
- add a frame showing human before
- fish eye: make it steady
- show the flowers pulling in the camera view, then cut to the next shot
- devide them even more in the last frames: human VS monster
Here is our new version:
Last term, we started studying how to use camera in the most efficient ways to show your work. Camera is one of the most important tools which we can use to present our work in the way we (as artists and creators) want the audience to see it. Camera helps to pass your vision and message. We discussed principles of composition, shot size, camera angle.
In order to understand these concepts better, we started by drawing storyboard for already existing movies. As for me, I chose film “Lawrence of Arabia”.
This week we proceeded to study camera language. And to answer on the question “Where I should put my camera?” first you have to know what you want to say and what is this concrete scene about. There are 4 main aspects we can use: focus, focal length, geometry in frame, and camera movement. The task to improve our skills was to recreate a story board for alredy existing scene, adjusting the camera angles in order to make a each frame more appealing.
Another assignment for this week was to create two Storyboards of “5 + 5 challenge”. The purpose was to convey a clear story or a specific emotion using exactly 5 shots, where each shot lasts exactly 5 seconds. We were given a simple scene: a guy in a bar. I was struggling to think of an interisting story within 5 shots long, so I used technique which we studied in class.
Here are my 2 storyborads:
After presenting our assignment, we exchanged our storyboards with each other and turned it into camera in Maya, using the provided scene and character.