Flesh, Flab, and Fascia Simulation on Zootopia

We present the latest character simulation techniques developed for Disney’s Zootopia. In this film, we created herds of anthropomorphic mammals whose art direction called for the subtle, detailed motion distinctive to the real animal world coupled with the stylized, non-physical aesthetics characteristic of animated feature films. This required a strong partnership between technology and production to productize our flesh simulation research to meet the unique challenges of this show. Our techniques scaled from several hero characters to many secondary and tertiary characters, and also accommodated two characters with special requirements.