Jessica Julius - The Art of Zootopia

Creating an animated film involves years of inspired collaboration and the highest levels of artistry. Before the final rendered images of Zootopia were seen on screens around the world, the following artists contributed their talents to the digital images included in this book: DIRECTORS Byron Howard & Rich Moore WRITER & CO-DIRECTOR Jared Bush VISUAL DEVELOPMENT Brett Albert Manu Arenas Dale Baer Marty Baumann Dan Cooper Justin Cram Jim Finn Mac George Andy Harkness Shiyoon Kim Matthias Lechner Brittney Lee Cory Loftis Jim Martin J Mays Borja Montoro Nick Orsi Bill Schwab Armand Serrano Jennifer Stratton Scott Watanabe Victoria Ying RIGGING Bret Bays Adam Cobabe Iker de los Mozos Anton Jennifer Downs Joy Johnson Christoffer Pedersen Nicklas Puetz Matthew Schiller STORY Paul Briggs Jason Hand Chris Hubbard Nancy Kruse Lauren MacMullen Steve Markowski John Ripa Fawn Veerasunthorn MODELING Chris Anderson Virgilio John Aquino Sergi Caballer Garcia Kevin Hudson Suzan Kim Jon Krummel Brandon Lawless Irene Matar Florian Perret Alena Wooten ANIMATION Darrin Butters Youngjae Choi Nathan Engelhardt Mario Furmanczyk Jennifer Hager Kira Lehtomaki Chad Sellers Joshua Slice Tony Smeed FX Dong Joo Byun LOOK Ian Butterfield Sara Cembalisty Ramya Chidanand Paula Goldstein Benjamin Min Huang Katherine Ipjian Chelsea Lavertu Konrad Lightner Vicky Lin Jared Reisweber Mitchell Snary Pamela Spertus Dylan VanWormer LIGHTING Joan Anastas Christopher Erickson Gina Lawes Roger Lee Alex Nijmeh Amol Sathe Mark Siegel Diana Zeng CLOTH / HAIR SIM Francois Coetzee Erik Eulen Avneet Kaur Hubert Leo Edward Robbins Mary Twohig Xinmin Zhao TECHNICAL ANIMATION Navin Pinto Jason Robinson Jason Stellwag Esther Trilsch DEPARTMENT LEADERSHIP Nick Burkard Renato dos Anjos Moe El-Ali Katie Fico David Goetz Bobby Huth Hans-Joerg E. Keim Scott Kersavage Dave Komorowski Brian Leach John Murrah Ernie Petti Fabienne Rawley Jim Reardon Michelle Robinson Claudia Chung Sanii Tony Smeed Matt Steele Lance Summers David Suroviec Michael Talarico Ryan Tottle Josie Trinidad Cesar Velazquez Nathan Warner Copyright 2016 by Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Julius, Jessica.
The art of Zootopia / by Jessica Julius ; preface by John Lasseter ; foreword by Byron Howard. pages cm
ISBN 978-1-4521-2223-6 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4521-5405-3 (epub, mobi) 1.

Zootopia (Motion picture)Illustrations. 2. Animated filmsUnited States. I. Title. NC1766.U53Z665 2016 791.4372--dc23 2015023753 Designed by Glen Nakasako, Smog Design, Inc.

Chronicle Books LLC
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San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com : David Goetz, Cory Loftis / digital : David Goetz (posters), Cory Loftis (design print) / digital : Byron Howard / digital : David Goetz / digital : Cory Loftis, Borja Montoro, Shiyoon Kim, Nick Orsi, Bill Schwab, Dale Baer / digital, graphite

I have always had a deep love for Disney animated films, where animals talk, walk upright, and wear human clothing. Shortly after Tangled was released, I discovered that films co-director, Byron Howard, shared this affection. Movies like Robin Hood, Wind in the Willows, and Pinocchio are so entertaining. These kinds of films are classically Disney, but we hadnt done one in a while, and we were inspired to make such a film for modern audiences. Byron is a funny, quirky, charming director, and the ideas he pitched were so fun and appealing. We also wanted to create a Disney animated feature that pushed the filmmaking and storytelling to the highest possible level.

With that in mind, Byron and his team began to develop Zootopia. From the beginning, I was so excited about what this all-animal world could be. Most of the time, stories in animal films are really just human talesif you replace the animals with humans, it would be exactly the same story. So we brought in Rich Moore to shepherd the storytelling. He always turns the expected on its head and comes up with ideas that are surprising and fun. I challenged the filmmakers to imagine Zootopia as a world that is truly and uniquely animal, where there are no people and mammals have evolved to human levels of intelligence.

For inspiration, I encouraged them to dive deeply into research on animals and their habitats. As with the story, the filmmakers did not want to design just a human world with animals living in it. Zootopia had to look like a realm created by animals, for animals. Yet it also had to be relatable to audiences as a big city. The visual development team, led by production designer Dave Goetz, researched animal habitats, asking, Which mammals live in each place? How do they live? What is each environment like? Inspiration came when they realized the city of Zootopia could parallel melting pot neighborhoods of human metropolises like London and New York. But rather than Chinatown or Little Italy, in Zootopia there is Tundratown and the Rainforest District, and the animals built infrastructure to support the diverse climates.

The artists applied the research brilliantly, creating a world that is logical yet appealing and unique. The team always sought to find the familiar while also being animal-specific, and Dave and Matthias Lechner, the art director of environments, brought so much imagination to the fun details that constitute Zootopia. One of its foundations is the idea that public spaces must be accessible to everyone. A mouse should have as equal access to a building as an elephant. So everythingdoors, escalators, walkwaysis constructed so all types of mammals can safely live together without fear of being squished or stepped on. Door handles that hooved animals can open as easily as animals with paws, or traffic signals that animals of all sizes can see, are essential to making Zootopia functional and believable.

The city also has vehicles of all kinds, so we brought in the brilliant J Mays, former head of design at the Ford Motor Company. He came up with entertaining solutions to the unique issues of this world, from trains that have double-height areas for giraffes and rows of seats for smaller creatures beneath the bigger animals seats, to automobiles that are super tiny for mice or have extra-heavy-duty suspensions to carry the weight of elephants and rhinos. The characters themselves also had to be distinctively of this all-animal world. They had to talk and walk upright, yet maintain the essence of the animal itself. Cory Loftis led the character design team, and every department in the pipeline worked together to study the way, say, a camel versus a bear walks, or how a bunny versus a fox moves. The character team captured each animals individuality on-screen.

The challenge of creating a talking-animal film that would raise the bar for our artists and storytellers pushed everyone in the studio to their highest levels of achievement. Our dream is that audiences will fall in love with Zootopia. We hope every scene will be surprising and funny and make you think, of course thats what a DMV or a train would be like in a world of animals! I believe the cleverness and fun add up to make Zootopia one of the most entertaining films weve ever made. At its heart, its pure Disney. But its also unlike anything seen before in animation. John Lasseter

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