In my time with The Walt Disney Company, I had the wonderful and rare opportunity to work on some of the most beloved characters we’ve known since we were kids. From sketching out redesigned looks, to storyboarding, and eventually animating them – it was a blessing that even only having a short time with the company, I was able to put a small stamp into their world.
Using Procreate, Photoshop, and After Effects, I created Minnie Mouse and Pluto animations for the Me & Mickey series of shorts. These episodes show Mickey Mouse reading from a book, with my animations to go along with it. I sketched out different looks for the characters, and even experimented with body size/type, clothing, and colors. With some rough voice over, and a script, I was able to create the storyboards to go along with presenting the new looks.
The first video in this series, I collaborated with a co-worker where she designed the look of the backgrounds and some elements, as well as a handful of character animations as well using my illustrations. Another co-worker also worked on the title design for a couple of videos.
The second video with Pluto was a great challenge for myself too because I have never really animated a dog with this much movement. Apart from that, designing a new look for Pluto proved to be difficult as well – there is a thin line between having the dog look like Pluto or Scooby Doo. Much like Minnie Mouse, Pluto should be recognizable upon first seeing him, which I accomplished after a modest amount of time.
For the holiday video, since the look of Minnie was already established, I had to create new clothes that would match the story. A Christmas episode in the sea on a boat called for a captain-look!
The last video in this series is somewhat different because I was tasked to create a new shark character. This was a little relieving since now there’s even more room to try different things and experiment. This was a great video to explore different illustrations, animation techniques, and basically put as much detail as I can.
These videos are also available to stream on Disney+.
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