Creating Diversity and Variety in the People of Kumandra for Disney’s Raya and The Last Dragon

In Walt Disney Animation Studios “Raya and the Last Dragon”, the fantasy world of Kumandra is composed of five lands, representing five parts of a dragon. All aspects of the character designs were inspired by the rich and diverse cultures of Southeast Asia. Each land is inhabited by a unique clan and therefore the crowds’ assets need to reflect the diversity and variety both within and between the clans. This was achieved by introducing a novel approach that is modular in both design and construction of the assets and includes strategic reuse and refit and new look techniques for creating additional variation between clans. We also employed a tracking and management system for visually validating the assets, which played a key role in the efficient use of the data downstream. In addition, an extremely collaborative workflow between all departments involved was critical, including the visual design, character asset and crowds’ simulation departments. The overall enhancements to the workflow made it possible to creatively generate the thousands of crowd elements with the desired art-direction for the film.