Spider-Man Skating

This Spider-Man short is one of my very first 3D animations, and my first attempt at a body mechanics shot, making it especially meaningful to me. I was deeply inspired by the artistic brilliance of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and I was compelled to capture the unique animation style and energy of its main character, Miles Morales.

I felt that skateboarding perfectly reflected Miles' stylish yet clumsy charm, while also offering a dynamic platform for showcasing action and movement.

To prepare, I immersed myself in research on skateboarding techniques, gathering a range of reference footage to guide the animation process, as well as recording sound effects in a skatepark with fellow students Juan Loderer and Harding Ho.

While achieving solid body mechanics was a challenge in itself, the animation wouldn’t have felt complete without the signature smear frames and stylized effects that define the Spider-Verse aesthetic.

To stay true to that look, I chose to hand-draw all of the smear frames and effects myself, and I’m incredibly proud of how they turned out.

This project was a turning point for me, as it deepened my understanding of core animation principles like squash and stretch, exaggeration, follow through, timing, and more.

More importantly, it was probably the animation that made me realize this was the path I genuinely wanted to pursue as a career.