I was invited on an all expense paid trip by Disney to attend the Zootopia In-home Release Press Junket for an exclusive interview with Zootopia Animators – Head of Animation Renato dos Anjos and Animation Supervisor Chad Sellers.
Yesterday I shared with you 6 really cool facts about Zootopia that I had learned from the Directors and Producer. During my trip to the DisneyToons Studio I had the opportunity to chat and interview with Zootopia Animators – Head of Animation Renato dos Anjos and Animation Supervisor Chad Sellers to learn more about the process of the animation of Zootopia.
Interview with Zootopia Animators Renato dos Anjos & Chad Sellers
Renato walked us through the process of animating Zootopia and some of the research that was done, like the trip to Africa I talked about yesterday, to decide what animation was made for the movie. The scale of the film and the complexity of animating all these characters was not an easy job. The amount of species that had to be animated make this film very unique. It isn’t anything like animating a person, which you can then use on other people characters. Going from animating a mouse to animating an elephant, you basically start from scratch again. They didn’t want to just copy something the studio had done in the past, they wanted something unique, more life like and real for their inspiration.
Renato shared that it took seventy-five animators from their department working sixty-eight hours a week to help bring Zootopia to life. The animators spend “breakfast, lunch, and dinner together for several months”, essentially becoming a family. But this is just a fraction of the total amount of people and time that is spent making a movie like Zootopia.
I remember in my conversations with the animators of Tinkerbell and the Legend of the Neverbeast, there were many challenges, especially in creating Gruff. So I wanted to know what challenges Zootopia presented. Were there characters like the Neverbeast that had to be drawn from scratch?
Renato explained that the Yak design was a big of a mix. There was a design very early on that was made of a very furry kind of animal. It looked like a buffalo that had a lot more fur. And then they had the wildebeest characters and when the yak came around they had to just get the hair that they had designed onto the wildebeest and kind of make a character out of that for the yak. But every character that they made, because the species were so different, pretty much had to be made from scratch.
Was there anything that was taken out that you miss?
Parts of the movie were taken out and scratched because it just “wouldn’t work on the movie anymore”, said Renato. And although you might have grown attached to that part/scene/character, “it wouldn’t make any sense to be there”, said Renato. Chad added jokingly that he cries over those parts but then comes back to work the next day and starts over – “We never forget. I’ve got a tattoo…”
What inspiration was used for when they went rabid?
A lot of live footage was used of people on a rampage, going rabid. Both Chad and Renato shared a few laughs here. Chad explained that there’s a lot of research at every point in the film and Renato noted that he used an unedited documentary from the library of Disney movies in which jaguars displayed similar behaviors to those that were used in the animation.
Speaking of editing, when do you stop editing a character?
Renato: When we can’t find anything else. I stop when I can’t find anything else wrong with it, but we keep going until we’re exhausted.
Chad: Yeah, especially when it comes to animating, like actually animating, I think it’s just like all right dude, you’re done. We have to keep going because the artists just want to pick at it forever. They want it to be perfect. But it’ll never get done if we just don’t pull it.
Renato: And sometimes you can add things that are not relevant, and they can actually create clutter.
Do you just take a specific section and say we’re gonna tackle this scene today or do you do characters?
Renato: Yeah, we build the characters first so what we do like with Chad, he was assigned the shrew, Mr. Big; he had Clawhauser, the polar bear, and those are his characters and very early on you are building them.
Chad: Yeah, exactly. And then we have a sequence that will come in that will be heavy in that character that you’re supervising and you’ll cast out a sequence to a group of animators. But there’s multiple sequences going on and there’s different characters in your sequence, so it’s just kind of the combination. It’s very random and people are checking in with different people and a lot going on.
Renato: And that happened a lot in this movie which made it the schedule to be so hectic where the story kept evolving and as the story evolved some of the work didn’t really apply anymore; some of the characters that we built didn’t apply any more; so new characters needed to be built like the yak, he came in very late. He’s super funny and it was totally worthwhile, but he came in kinda late. What caused a lot of trouble was the polar bear, he used to have that part in the film. Mr. Big wasn’t there before. The polar bear was the big boss in the world, and then the story changed, and Mr. Big became the big boss. So he became more of a main character.
How do you incorporate the voice actors movements into the animation of the animals?
Renato: But I think eventually we looked at the actors a lot and we get to know the characters so well, that it becomes like the character almost take its own life and things just happens because the character kind of takes it there. It’s very interesting when you’re so involved with that, and you have people in charge of certain characters Judy or Mr. Big. Eventually, they know this character so well that everything that the character’s in throughout the movie, its second nature to them and they become this voice for the character in the department.
Sometimes inspiration comes from family members or pets.
Renato has a dog that he uses a lot for references. “He’s a black Cocker Spaniel; he’s too big for a Cocker Spaniel, and he moves like a bear, it’s the weirdest thing. The way he walks, and he’s always like this with his head down; he’s always waddling around. He’s the cutest and I use him a lot for reference.”
Animators need to be observers for their profession so they tend to always be looking at the interesting way that something moves, whether it’s a person or an animal. Sometimes those movements just stick in their head and they try them out on different characters to see how it works. Chad added “the weirdest things can inspire you.”
I know my favorite character from the film was Flash, but I wanted to know which character the animators were most fond of that they had worked on for the film?
Without hesitation Chad said “I love, I love Judy Hoff – she’s amazing!” Renato agreed sayings: “Yeah, she is awesome.” But otherwise said it was a tough question to answer. “Design wise, one of my favorites is Bogo, and he’s incredible. Like, I could watch that guy everyday. It’s such a beautiful kind of design, and the way it came together, it’s really appealing.”
How involved was John Lasseter in this film?
John’s actually trained as an animator and in one shot there’s a sequence at the shrew wedding party where Nick gets this tiny little piece of cake. He has to eat it, and John had a very specific vision for that shot so the animation team took a recording of him to be used in animating that shot.
Be on the lookout for hidden Mickey’s in the movie! Apparently Clawhauser has a little hidden Mickey on his cheek. Chad old told us that everybody loves to sneak them in and then surprise you later – every department does it. These gems are so hidden that Renato says “even the director sometimes doesn’t know about it.”
What did you enjoy learning most about from my Interview with Zootopia Animations Renato and Chad Sellers?
Zootopia is coming to Bluray (including 3D) & Digital HD on June 7th and you can pre-order it now on Amazon (affiliate link) with a price guarantee. How many hidden Mickey’s did you find in the film?
Want more Zootopia fun? Check out these Zootopia coloring pages and how to draw videos.
Join the conversation online by sharing my interview with Zootopia Animators using the hashtag #ZootopiaBluray
Comments (7)
I am so amazed by the amount of work and effort that goes into these animated films. Guess that is why they are so entertaining.
So super neat!! Its crazy the amount of work that goes into an animated film!! Most of which I would’ve never considered until it was mentioned!! Like standing an animal on its feet and trying to find a way to keep them still animal!! Such a labor of love with beautiful results! This movie is one of our house’s favorites!
I want to see this movie so bad, I do hope the price drops a bit more, This movie sounds so wonderful..
This was such a great experience to meet all these people. It is amazing how much work goes into this. That is why Disney has the best animated characters. Thank you for sharing
This sounds like such an amazing all-expense paid trip that will leave you with memories for a lifetime.
There’s a lot more work that goes into creating an animated film than I realized.
I love animated movies. My son had no interest in seeing Zoopotia. But once it comes out on DVD, I will finally see it!!