Autodesk Media & Entertainment
After more than a century of storytelling and innovation, Walt Disney Animation Studios continues to move the medium forward with Zootopia 2. Using Autodesk Maya to build new worlds and Flow Production Tracking to keep thousands of assets in motion, more than 700 people came together to create the film now nominated for Best Animated Feature at the upcoming 98th Academy Awards.
Zootopia leads with a beautiful idea: anyone can be anything.
That belief isn’t just baked into the story. It shows up behind the scenes at Walt Disney Animation Studios too.
Producer Yvett Merino knows this better than most. She started at Disney as a temporary employee, unsure where things might lead. Nearly 30 years later, she’s producing one of the most ambitious animated films the studio has ever made: Zootopia 2.
Alongside Merino, Layout Supervisor Dorian Bustamante and Environment Modeling Supervisor Chris O’Connell share how Zootopia 2 is truly a film made by everyone at Disney Animation. More than 700 people came together, united by a shared love of animation.
“The great thing about animated films is you’re limited by your imagination. It’s a form that allows you to tell stories visually and in different styles that physically might be impossible,” Bustamante says.
Using Autodesk Maya to build new environments and push character performance and Flow Production Tracking to manage a massive production scale, the team blends heart and innovation at every step.
A whole lot of ambition
From the very beginning, Zootopia 2 set out to be bigger.
“We had about 42 sequences and about 2,055 shots,” Layout Supervisor Dorian Bustamante explains, above the average of 1,600 shots for a Disney Animation film.
In animation, nothing arrives ready‑made. Every building, market stall, and background detail has to be designed, modeled, placed, and tracked. This film pushed its characters into entirely new worlds, expanding the creative workload at every level.
“There’s a whole bunch of new environments introduced…there was over 8,000 elements,” Chris O’Connell, Environment Modeling Supervisor shares.
Creating new worlds with Maya
That level of ambition only works when artists can dream without friction. This is where Maya becomes essential.
“For animation software, we definitely need something that’s very well‑rounded and quick. Maya does a really great job being intuitive,” Bustamante puts it simply.
From asset modeling to animation layout, Maya helped artists build massive, complex environments without slowing creative momentum.
“Maya is kind of like the connection tool between all the departments,” says O’Connell.
Maya mattered most on one of the film’s toughest challenges: the Marsh Market environment. It pushed scale, detail, and performance all at once and Maya made it possible to keep experimenting, refining, and pushing further without losing control of the world.
Keeping thousands of pieces moving with Flow Production Tracking
With more than 2,000 shots and over 8,000 elements in motion, coordination becomes just as important as creativity. This is where Maya and Flow Production Tracking’s connectivity came in.
Flow Production Tracking connects teams across the studio, helping artists, supervisors, and producers stay aligned as the film takes shape. It keeps the work moving even when the story changes.
Producer Yvett Merino describes a process that’s always in motion. “We’re continuously working on the story as we’re creating it… We may be in our editorial room changing something that’s in work on the floor out there.”
That kind of flexibility is essential. Story changes can pause production, but Flow Production Tracking helps those changes land without slowing everything down.
Doing what you were always meant to do
For all the complexity behind Zootopia 2, what really defines it is joy.
“To watch it go from an idea that’s talked about to a sketch to a model and into a final frame… it’s really exciting,” Merino says.
That excitement is the heartbeat of animation. It’s what elevates the medium, inspires artists, and makes stories like Zootopia 2 touch our hearts.
“Watching people do what they were always meant to do is the most inspiring thing,” Merino puts it best.
Watch Zootopia 2 in theaters and on digital.