Production Notes

Honest. I wasn't eager to work on the PS5 Spider-men. I had spent so many hours on the PS4 original across 3 different playthroughs and all of the DLCs. Plus, my Marvel's Spider-man gallery is still a fan-favourite though it dates back to a period when I had not adopted a professional approach yet. Thus, I hated the idea of delivering something inferior only due to inferior effort. Moreover, mastering the new manual light source system IS HARD and dramatically multiplies the time spent for each grab. But I knew this was a kind of a revolution, a turning point in the history of Virtual Photography, and missing it could mean remaining behind the "competition". Then, as weeks went by, I got intrigued with the unlimited possibilities of this new Photo Mode combined to Peter Parker and Miles Morales's universe. So I began to aim for something new. Something colorful and iconic as you'd expect from me, but also experimental, abstract, surreal, strongly influenced by comics and the Oscar-winning Spider-man into the Spiderverse movie. All in all, I wanted something that might got people enthralled by what has become possible in Virtual Photography. On the other hand, deeply exploring the adventure of Miles Morales made me notice more differences among the two heroes than can generally meet the eye. The classic Spider-man is... well, classic. Statuesque, muscular, almost vintage in his ways of looking techie or transgressive. Miles is younger, frantic, slender, disarticulated, smartphone-addicted, pet lover, capable of many more spectacular and even hilarius aerial tricks. So he definitely isn't just Peter Parker with electricity powers. Ray tracing is also something I wanted to work with creatively. I couldn't set with a few window reflexes on the background. I wanted this new technology to be protagonist in some shots. The overall selection is something I feel crazier and refreshing compared to my latest works, and now I seriously can't wait for unleashing the same Photo Mode and rendering power on Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.

Post-Production Breakdown

Marvel's Spider-man was already my favourite Photo Mode on PS4 due to its vast array of creative options. For this PS5 release it only got better adding totally customizable lighting set-ups. One more reason to keep my editing to a minimum as usual. As for GHOST IN THE SHELL from my Ghost of Tsushima gallery, PETER DARKER required a combination of two different shots, though this time it all came much easier thanks to the Photo Mode costume switching feature. MILES APART had me shifting the snoflake a bit to the left, in order to achieve a more pleasing distancing from Miles. The remanining edited shot were mainly about contrast/vibrance and perspective correction, as the game's superb rendering seems to struggle to produce perfect perpendicular lines, so I had to give it a little hand when buildings were around.

No Post-Production (ingame Photo Mode only): HOMECOMING, A FOR ANOTHER SPIDER-MAN, WEBMASTER, MIRROR'S EDGE, COLORED CLOTHES, KNOT PURSUIT, RHINOPLASTY, UP, CANDY RUSH, DISTRACTION HERO, SPIDER-BAT, ANGRY AT BIRD, PUNK IS WEB, MILES SQUARE, RAINING CATS AND BUGS, TRUE COLORS

Minor Post-Production: URBAN PICTIONARY (vibrance adjustment), YOU WA SHOCK (contrast adjustment), HAPPY FEET (reflection glitch fix), MASKS AND STRIPES (perspective correction, local contrast adjustment), PLANE MODE (perspective correction), DAY OFF (perspective correction), WHIRLED SLIDE WEB (local brightness/vibrance adjustment), MILES APART (composition optimization)

Full Post-production: PETER DARKER (two shots combined)