“Zootopia” is Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 55th animated movie featuring Officer Judy Hopps (voice of Ginnifer Goodwin) as the very first bunny on Zootopia’s police force who jumps at the opportunity to crack her first case—even if it means partnering with fast-talking, scam-artist fox Nick Wilde (voice of Jason Bateman) to solve the mystery.
As part of our Zootopia press trip, we met with Art Director of Characters Cory Loftis who showed us how the Citizens (animals) of Zootopia were created for the film plus gave us a hands-on drawing demonstration.
(Pictured) Cory Loftis. Photo by Alex Kang. ©2015 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
When you see the Zootopia trailer, you never think about what goes into the research of the animals. Creating each animal requires the inventiveness of artists throughout the production disciplines and with over a 1,000 unique animals, the challenges on the Disney Animation team have never been greater.
Filmmakers had to build the vast and detailed world of Zootopia, populating it with 50 different species of animals but had to retain what makes each animal so amazing in the real world. And if you notice, these animals talk and wear pants.
So how do you draw them?
Art Director of Characters Cory Loftis walked us through the process of how each animal was drawn taking into consideration their height, weight, how they walk and run. You can see from the photo below what they were up against in making the film to ensure the realism.
ZOOTOPIA – Character CG Model Lineup. ©2015 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
Animals needed to be walking on two feet.
And who thought about pants and feet and drawing them in relationship to each other.
Cory also discussed how each of the main characters appearances evolved over time.
ZOOTOPIA – Character Concept Art of Judy Hopps by Cory Loftis (Character Design Supervisor). ©2015 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
ZOOTOPIA – Character Concept Art of Nick Wilde by Cory Loftis (Character Design Supervisor). ©2015 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
And then it was time to test our drawing skills as Cory demonstrated and detailed how to draw Judy. You can obviously see from my drawing that I will not be getting a job with Disney Animation anytime soon. The ears alone are freakish. Just sad but still fun!!
What makes these behind the scenes meetings with the animators, is that we see enjoy the finished product at the movies but the painstaking considerations that go into the making of the film is so interesting. And that is why I love Disney Animation films is that research that goes into the making of the movie always shows.
ZOOTOPIA opens in theatres everywhere on March 4th!
Visit the official ZOOTOPIA website here. Disney Animation Twitter // Instagram // Tumblr // Facebook
Disclosure: NYC Single Mom’s travel and accommodations to attend the Star Wars: The Force Awakens and ABC TV Event were covered by Disney. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.
