Vancouver animators' gamble paying off as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse bags Oscar nomination

In the Oscar-nominated animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, superheroes with similar powers from alternative universes team up to save the world.

So, in a sense, the plot and its production aren't so different, as the movie was created by teams of talented animators from around the world — the biggest of which was based in Vancouver.

"This was a really big project, we were really trying to do something new. Over 700 people from when we first started it three years ago touched the movie … the majority of those people are in Vancouver and we have a lot of really talented artists in Vancouver," visual effects supervisor Danny Dimian told Gloria Macarenko, host of CBC's On The Coast.

Into the Spider-Verse has been nominated in the category of best animated feature, the Academy Awards announced on Tuesday.

Ahead of the announcement, CBC News visited Sony Imageworks' Vancouver headquarters to find out what it took to put out the critically acclaimed hit movie.

Gambling on unique art style

Into the Spider-Verse uses an art style that's not typical of other superhero movies.

Senior animator Nick Kondo says much of the inspiration came from Japanese animation.

"We're using ink lines, which are like sort of hand-drawn lines. They give it sort of a comic-book look," Kondo said, adding that doing so helps keep the animation's motion fluid.

For lead animator Julie Bernier Gosselin, working on the movie was like one big experiment.

"There were no rules. There was no structure to it like, OK, this is our recipe. Everyone was kind of experimenting, seeing what would look good and sometimes we were failing."

That experimentation — and finally nailing down the animation's nuances and details — was well worth it in the end for Bernier Gosselin.

"I was proud like I've never been before … I've had a lot of people telling us that they they cried, that they were touched [by the movie]. They loved getting to connect with the character."

For Kondo, working on Into the Spider-Verse was a dream come true.

He worked in the video-game industry for 15 years before Sony came calling.

"As a kid, for a while I wanted to be a comic-book artist, and so I used to spend hours and hours just drawing Spider-Man."

Tough competition for Oscar

If Into the Spider-Verse is to win a first major Oscar for the Spider-Man universe, it's going to have to beat some stiff competition.

Also nominated for best animated feature this year are box-office hits Incredibles 2 and Ralph Breaks The Internet, critically acclaimed director Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs, and Mirai, a film by veteran Japanese animator Mamoru Hosoda.

But if recent history is any indication, the Oscar might swing in Spider-Man's favour.

The film has won at nearly every awards show it's been nominated for so far, including a win for best animated feature at the 76th Golden Globe Awards earlier this month.

The 91st Academy Awards take place Feb. 24.

Find out more about how Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was made: