The World of Zootopia
The Disney animation team has shown us wonderful worlds filled with fun and unlikely friendships between seemingly different characters. With great ensembles in movies like Cars, the Toy Story franchise, and Wall-E, Disney can make us empathize with characters we’d usually be unlikely to follow. This March 4th, Zootopia is set release as yet another ensemble movie about the world of Zootopia, where animals do the same jobs humans would in a futuristic world.
I am still amazed that after many years of research and studying animals, the creators of Zootopia are so detailed. I learned so much from our visit in LA a few months ago, it is crazy.
Fun Facts About Zootopia Animation
- While researching the variety of animals that would inhabit Zootopia, filmmakers learned that not all fur is the same. A strand of polar bear fur is clear—it’s the light reflecting off of it that makes it appear white—and a strand of fox fur is dark at the root, getting lighter till its red tip. Artists strived to replicate their findings to ensure that the animals in “Zootopia” were believable.
- In an effort to bolster the animal-feel, artists added bits of debris—hay, leaves, sticks—in the coats of animals like the big sheep and Yax the Yak.
- When artists realized that real rabbits actually have a split upper lip, they decided to forego authenticity in this case and kept Judy’s lip all together.
- Artists were inspired by Mufasa from Disney’s classic film “The Lion King” when creating the look of Mayor Lionheart.
- There are 64 unique species in Zootopia and most species are unique in topology: elephants have trunks, pigs have snouts; some animals have hooves, some have paws; some have three fingers, some have two.
Tips From Cory Loftis on Drawing Officer Hopps
In a quick totorial Cory explains how to draw Officer Hopps:
- draw light, start with head; lemon-wedge or gumdrop shape
- light line through center of head
- imagine 1/3 of way up from chin and put a mark for her nose
- from nose, design will spread out in a big V
- lines mark where ears, nose and edge of eyes sit
- draw nose in as circle
- inside circle, nose is shaped like a heart
- ears sit where line intersects head at top
- inside ears are a swoopy leaf, other ear
- eyes are football-shaped and (all) are a little cross-eyed
- eyelash on outside corner
- eyebrows go from imaginary road up to top of head from nose and then go down to drawn line
- neck comes down from corners and comes to cone to create inside of collar
- outside of collar pops out
- from bottom of heart, draw a small line down to make mouth
- draw light line from middle of eye, halfway up that is corner of her mouth
- one swoop to make lip shape
- darker hair between eyebrows
Get Social With Zootopia
Are you going to go see Zootopia opening weekend? March 4th
Like ZOOTOPIA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyZootopia
Follow Disney Animation on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DisneyZootopia
Follow Disney Animation on Instagram: https://instagram.com/disneyanimation/
Visit Disney Animation on Tumblr: http://disneyanimation.tumblr.com/
Visit the official ZOOTOPIA website here: http://movies.disney.com/zootopia