In the landscape of social media, artistic jobs are landed in interesting ways with fan artists getting hired for official work with an IP they love. In the case of 14-year-old Preston Mutanga, it was his impressive recreation of the Across the Spider-Verse trailer in Lego form that got him the job for the Across the Spider-Verse movie.
Mutanga uploaded his Lego recreation of the trailer to Twitter back in January and caught the attention of Spider-Verse directors Chris Lord and Phillip Miller. Impressed by the young artist’s creativity the directors reached out to Mutanga to help animate a scene for the film.
I recreated the entire Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer in LEGO! @philiplord @chrizmillr @terry12539 @LEGO_Group @SpiderVerse #LEGO #SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse #animation #Blender3d pic.twitter.com/kYY19go7Fc
— LegoMe_TheOG (@FG_Artist) January 3, 2023
“We found out that it was a 14-year-old kid who made it and we were like, ‘This looks incredibly sophisticated for a nonadult, nonprofessional to have made,” Miller told The New York Times. “It blew us all away, including some of the best animators in the world.”