Meet The Malaysian Who Was Part Of Creating 'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse'
SAYS recently sat down with Loke Sin Yee to have a chat about her experience working behind the scenes of the hit movie.
Never in her wildest dreams did Loke Sin Yee think she'd be a part of the team behind Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).
But she is ever so grateful for the opportunity she's been given.
Working as a 'lighter' for the newest chapter of the Oscar-winning Spider-Verse saga, Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse, which is set to grace cinemas on 1 June, SAYS had a chat with Loke who shared about her experience behind the scenes and what her day-to-day looks like.
Image via Loke Sin Yee (Provided to SAYS)
After doing an animation course in Malaysia, Loke graduated and worked at a local studio for about five years.
"I didn't have a degree so I thought I'll get this five-year experience before working overseas," she shared during the interview.
Not long after, she got accepted to work on Love and Monsters (2020) in Australia. But after half a year, the pandemic happened, forcing her to return to Malaysia.
During the two-year lockdown, she asked herself what her next steps should be and decided to try applying for jobs in Canada.
That's when things started to change
"I got so lucky I got accepted into MPC Film in Montreal, Canada. That's when I worked on Disney's live-action film, Pinocchio (2022). While I was working on that, I saw that Sony was hiring," she revealed.
"So, I thought I could just try to send in my resume and see what happens. Luckily, I got in! And now I get to work on Spiderman's Spider-Verse! It's been a year since and it still feels like a dream," the 31-year-old from Bidor, Perak shared.
Image via Sony Pictures (Provided to SAYS)
In layman terms, Loke describes the role of a 'lighter' as an artist who creates the lighting of the environment according to the time of day in each scene
Image via Sony Pictures (Provided to SAYS)
"After the animation department has done all the movements and camera work, they hand [the clips] over to us, and we light the whole environment according to the theme we have. [For example,] is it sunset time, or is it morning?" she explained.
"[We work according to] what time of the day it is for the story, and then we render it based on the sequence. We also do compositing by putting the images together and adjusting the colours.
"Of course, Spider-Verse has a very artistic comic style based on the different worlds. [So], we do the different composting to determine which style uses brush strokes, which style uses inking, etc. It's really cool working in the team," she shared.
Image via Sony Pictures (Provided to SAYS)
Currently based in Montreal, Canada, Loke shared that the entire experience has made her feel very lucky to be in this position
Image via Sony Pictures (Provided to SAYS)
"It's been so exciting, I've never felt so alive," she exclaimed.
While some people might find the tasks very complicated or hard, Loke shared that she finds so much fun in it, and is always looking forward to the challenges of the day.
Her favourite part of the process is taking each challenge as a game.
"I guess how many times I need to show [my work] to the director before the shots get approved. Trying to guess what the client wants is part of the fun. After working with them for a while, you can roughly guess what their taste is and you kinda know what they want. You take a guess that they might ask for 'more colour here' or 'make there darker'. Then, when you show it to them — boom, you know that's what they want," she shared.
Michael Lasker, visual effects supervisor for 'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse', praised Loke's work in a tweet last month.
Image via Sony Pictures (Provided to SAYS)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hits cinemas in Malaysia on 1 June.
Watch the latest trailer below:
Malaysian special effects (VFX) content creator, Mohamad Sofian, also made headlines when he recently won the Ultimate VFX Challenge in the US:
Check out more Malaysians making waves around the world:
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