ZOOTOPIA
ART DIRECTOR
OF ENVIRONMENTS
ART DIRECTOR
OF ENVIRONMENTS
COPYRIGHT FOR ALL IMAGES: WALT DISNEY
January 2012 I received a call from Disney: The director Byron Howard, writer Jared Bush and production designer Dave Goetz pitched the premise for a movie called "Savage" (which should become "Zootopia" later) to me and I thought it was a genius idea: An animal movie with a twist: Humans have never existed and instead animals have evolved to human capacity and they had created a city build by animals for animals.
At this point we had no idea what that meant exactly.
The two images below are the very first illustrations I made for the movie.
We did an enormous amount of research. What kind of architectural style would animals prefer. We explored some more far out concepts but we soon realized that we had to find just the right balance between "human" and "animal"(meaning organic, natural, inventive). I didn't want this environment to look too strange and "science fictiony" so that the audience could still relate to it easily.

This is one of the first images (below) , where I felt the city started to look believable. Some of the buildings resemble rock formations, some buildings look historic, nature is integrated in the urban environment, there is a variety of scales for the different animals - it looks like a chaotic city that feels "real".
We wanted the architecture to still feel unique though - a constant balancing act.
This is an early version of a Zootopian government building.
In the earlier version of the movie we imagined a time before the internet. The bunnies work in administration....
...writing reports and sending them by in-house "mouse"-mail.
The building didn't stay in the movie. I did however end up using the idea of the tree-shaped support beams (image 4)
in the hallway in front of the mayors office in the final version of the movie.
in the hallway in front of the mayors office in the final version of the movie.
Also the organic levels in image 7 found their way into the final police building.
Below is the first version of the "Golden Palm Hotel". The ideas in this design split into the palm shaped hotel in the middle of "Sahara Square" and the steaming tree shaped structures in the "Rainforest District"
The Lobby.
Notice the ramp around the counter. It allows smaller animals to reach a comfortable hight to the countertop.
Notice the ramp around the counter. It allows smaller animals to reach a comfortable hight to the countertop.
The thing on the left (below) is a fur-dryer.
The main train station in Zootopia.
The inside changed later - but the stain glass window survived.
An earlier design (without the horns). Zootopia being a "global" city allowed me to use quite a bit of European architecture (this one is inspired by the "Anhalter Bahnhof" in Berlin.
Assistant mayor Bellweather's crumby office in city hall.
This cup is a present from the mayor.
A bunch of post it notes you can find all over Bellwether's office.
I built the police department in sketchup.
A serial box for Clawhauser (the cheetah sitting behind the desk in the lobby)
At some point we had a prison. Judy Hopps (the bunny) was a tough cop and Nick Wilde (the fox) escaped from custody.
The orange outfit is a prison suit - he escaped into "Little Rodentia" (Mouse town)
The streetlights are the kind of bulbs you would find in a christmas light-chain. (Some things have a limit of how small they can be manufactured) so they appear oversized in this tiny neighborhood.
We still have the chase in the movie. Only now Hopps is chasing a weasel.
In this scene Nick the fox was hiding from Hopps but when he turns around he notices that he is being watched.

"Chez Cheez" was a fast food joint in "Little Rodentia".
"Bunnyburrow"

I one version of the movie Nick woke up in one of the bunny houses and felt pretty uncomfortable surrounded by so many bunnies.
I used the drawing top right to illustrate some points in our style-guide (the next two images)
The next drawing has 200 bunnies in it (I think)
Can you see "Totoro" in the drawing below?
This is the bag, that Judy's dad is holding at the train station when he hands her the fox-repellant.
The "Rainforest District"
Nick (back at the stairs) used to live in a leaky apartment in the Rainforest District.

The concept of the steamer tree structures slowly evolved from a mushroom shape to a tree shape.
From rough sketch to final design.

"Sahara Square"
The district for the dessert animals.
The district for the dessert animals.
The "Palm Hotel" is at the center of the Oasis in the middle of dessert
Because many dessert animals are nocturnal this is the place for Zootopia's night life.
In "Tundratown" the buildings are made of ice and snow.
Kozlov the polar bear used to be the crime boss in this part of town.
I tried to go for unexpected warm colors for the inside of a Restaurant made of ice and snow.
I tried to go for unexpected warm colors for the inside of a Restaurant made of ice and snow.
I had a lot of fun drawing cars. I wanted the vehicles in Zootopia be just as varied as its inhabitants.
Some of these cars were designed by J Mays - the famous car designer.
The medical clinic used to be a secret entrance to an illegal inside amusement park called "Wild Times"
There used to be a slummy part of town for predators only. The graffiti helped as color accents to make it not too drab.
This is where Nick's family used to have a suit-store when "Happytown" was first built. (see the billboard on the right below)
"Wild Times" used to be an indoor amusement park built by Nick Wilde - a place where predators ("chompers") could follow their instincts (at least somewhat)
I designed many variations of "Wild Times" (below are before and after pictures)
On the next two images you can see the secret entrance from the little clinic above that is connected to the big warehouse below.
The following series of images is layered as to show of the different make-shift predator-specific games inside "Wild Times". We designed and built this place inside and out - ultimately it got cut out of the movie. The story develops very organically and the majority of the designs doesn't make it onto the screen. But as long as the story gets better every time it is not as frustrating as it sounds.
Nick was the owner of "Wild Times" and had an office just behind the "Roar-a-Coaster"
One of Nick's friends was a female badger called Honey. She believed in a "sheep-conspiracy"
Not sure if it's honey or something else in the jars.
The finale of the movie was set inside a big stadium.
The backdrop for the final action sequence was a show piece a la olympic games opening show. I imagined a show about the beginnings of Zootopia.
The last thing I designed was the credit sequence - a Gazelle concert in the midst of the main town square.
I loved designing this city. Thank you Disney for letting me do this. Last: If you ever visit Zootopia this subway map might come in handy...