#anamatronics

So Spider-Man 2 (2004) they used a mix of puppetry, animatronics, and CGI. They used this not only because the CGI of the time wasn’t as capable as it is now but it was cheaper to do certain shots with nothing but puppetry and animatronics. Bonus points it would still look nice years down the line. It does tbh It also gave Alfred Molina the ability to actually feel the weight of the actuators since the actuator props that were made weighed 60lbs - 75lbs (the info gives varying answers). That is a lot of weight that gave him a reference of how Otto would be weighed and slowed down by them. So there is at least to me a BIG difference in how Otto moves in the new movie vs the old one. I really am not going to rant about that; its so small compared to what I am going to rant about; The close up shots on Otto and the actuators.

In Spider-Man 2 you get shots like this, all puppetry and robotics! Fucking cool right? It’s so crisp and clean and isn’t dated like if they were to make this CGI from 2004. All of these shots are puppets! How could you look at this and say that it doesn’t work or looks bad?! Fun fact apparently those were actual needles

Compare that to the CGI from the movie

While most of the GIFs are fighting scenes/farther away shots and isn’t the differences that really upsets me or what I am trying to compare. But I genuinely can’t tell sometimes what is puppets and what is CGI in close up shots or less action packed scenes; Honestly if five year old me and twenty-two year old me still can’t tell/have problems telling; That means it is some good shit! 

Like I can’t tell with these ones! My roommate and I sat watching these gifs trying to figure it out and we had to guess and we are still not to sure!

Now compare it to No Way Home with nothing but CGI for fight and close up shots. One scene that really shows what I am talking about is when Otto gives the nanotech back to Peter. In it you get close up of the actuators and while the CGI looks fine right now (2021-22) it is going to look horrible within a year or two if it doesn’t already look like hot garbage  It doesn’t help that when Otto is watching the claw/head of the actuator, Alfred lags behind the head not even a few frames into the shot. You then see all of them standing around and Otto’s arms aren’t moving very much so using puppets/robotics hell even fucking Styrofoam for the scene wouldn’t have be hard to do.

I can’t find any gifs of that scene so these will have to do Like I said the CGI looks amazing I won’t deny that; But you can get the movement in these gifs with puppets and touch up as needed. 

 The fight scenes? Amazing! Love them! Completely understandable why CGI would and is used during them! The Use of CGI in the slower scenes? No gross! Cannot comprehend why you would do something so complicated and time consuming. To be honest some shots with the CGI in Spider-Man 2 still looks awesome! And has a certain charm to it as it has aged! But that is because they didn’t give the animators an ungodly amount of work and insane deadlines. They used the CGI how it should be used; To touch up scenes or to do things that yes the actors can’t do or is to dangerous to do. Relying on just CGI for actors to play off ends up looking like shit. Look If Alfred didn’t want to wear the Doc Ock harness/arms thingy like he did back in ‘04 that is fine and understandable! They still could have made a small lil actuator head and arm on a stick for visualization for the actors and give them something to play off; like this.

It is not that fucking hard! It also gives some really talented people the opportunity to make some really great stuff! Trying to kill off one part of your industry will just hurt you in the long run. In all honesty it is! You have animators with impossible workloads and deadlines, effecting the animators health physically and mentally. Sucking them dry of their artistic spark and love for their craft. If you want to have a movie with a soul, give the actors something to work with other than that shit green/blue room with nothing in it but the actor and don’t overtax your animators!! 

 Anyways thanks for coming to a practical effects and CGI enthusiast’s TedTalk!