Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, which made $372 million, was in part the result of Lacombe film producer Robin George who was one of the lead animators on the film — which eventually went on to win a Golden Globe and an Oscar.
“There were about nine teams on the movie and I was the lead for one of them,” Robin George said. “I was in charge of assigning shots to my team, making sure they were hitting their deadline and I was ensuring they had the right style. We all reported to the animation coordinator.”
George, who attended Parkview Adventist Academy, said it felt good to be on a film that saw both critic and audience success.
“With some films that people may not have watched or only kids have watched, you know you have done good work but nobody else knows that except for people in the industry,” George said. “It is nice to be part of something that did so well, even though I was just did a small part of it.”
George said that when producing a film, it is often difficult to tell whether it will be a great movie to watch — but all the animators knew that Spider-man was going to have a unique style.
“Everyone wanted to be on it because everyone knew it was going to look cool,” he said.
George, who works for Sony Imageworks Canada in Vancouver, said much of his days were spent collaborating with producers both in Vancouver and in Los Angeles California.
“All the high-ups are in Los Angeles and everyday we communicate remotely with them,” he said. “We have meetings through video conferencing and look at the same things on our screens whether we are in L.A. or Vancouver.”
The resulting film is something George says he will remember forever.
“It is something I will be super proud of forever. I get to say I was the lead animator on Spider-man and maybe it will open some doors,” he said.
George said his first interest in film came when he won an animation award at a film festival while attending Parkview Academy in 2002. After high school, he had the choice between becoming an engineer or working in graphic arts. He chose to do the latter at Southern Adventist Academy in Tennessee, partly because he is a dual American citizen.
“It is a pretty school. I was able to get a job, which is pretty lucky. There is a lot of bad schools out there, but I happened to go to a good one,” he said.
George initially moved between studios a lot, but has decided to settle down at Sony Imageworks in Vancouver, partly because of the success of the film and also because he will be getting married at the end of the year.