Spider-Verse animation artist shares details on Spider-Man India’s movements

With the multiverse expanding and more ‘Spider-people’ getting introduced into popular culture, one cannot ignore that a more excellent reflection of diversity, not just token in nature, is coming into notice. The film has become one of the most highly-rated superhero films, gaining praise from critics, fans and general audiences alike. With each refreshing variant of the popular IP presented, newer information about the characters, and her/his inspirations (behind their animations, personalities and other such elements) has been brought into the limelight. 

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The film's lead animator Nick Kondo has been quite expressive about the animation details around the film recently. This also includes the explanation behind fan favourite Pavitr Prabhakar or Spider-Man India’s movements and motions while swinging and in combat. “For Pavitr, we looked to one of the oldest known martial arts, Kalaripayattu, which originates from the Indian state of Kerala over 2000 years ago,” he explains in a tweet. Further, he shares a video where a professional can be seen performing actions from martial art. 

Nick also praises the team for resharing a post introducing the engineers from Kerala that also worked on the film. “Send love to the members of the #AcrossTheSpiderVerse team from Kerala!” he says. Nick has also presented further breakdowns of the various animation details from the film. In a post about the animation for web rigs for the film, he writes, “Not sure if it was noticed in the audience, but we had a brand new web rig built off of the amazing technology created for the ropes in The Sea Beast!” adding “We had way more flexibility and control over our web animations in #AcrossTheSpiderVerse compared the first movie.” 

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Another interesting detail reshared by the animator presents the post by a character designer for the Into The Spiderverse sequel, Jesús Alonso Iglesias. Jesús shares some of the first take-ups on the character Hobie Brown aka Spider-Punk, who has become a favourite among fans. Additionally, Nick also goes on to share ‘the hardest shot’ he animated in the Spiderverse saga yet. Revealing that it was the alley scene with the protagonist Miles and his father, shared a detailed thread explaining that it was the most difficult part “not for its complexity or technical challenges, but for its emotional toll.”