Expanding the Map of Zootopia 2: Disney’s Artists on Designing New Districts and Emotional Worlds

Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to LightBox Expo with an early look at the design of new environments for Zootopia 2, coming to theaters on November 26th. Sam Stratton (Visual Development Department Manager) moderated the panel, which included Limei Hsieh (Environment Art Director) and Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay (Associate Production Designer). As Department Manager for Visual Development, Sam Stratton oversees artists’ growth, casting, and workflow, often matching each artist to the right film like an “arranged marriage.” Stratton emphasized that VisDev artists are the first to join a film and the last to leave, imagining worlds long before scripts exist and grounding those fantasies in visual truth.

Introducing the afternoon’s speakers, he noted that Zootopia 2 demanded designers who could expand the city both geographically and tonally. Limei Hsieh, a self-proclaimed Zootopia super-fan, and Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay (“Griz”), known for her color and costume expertise, were a perfect fit.

Limei Hsieh walked the audience through the creation of Zootopia 2’s standout new location, Marsh Market, a bustling, water-logged district designed for amphibious and semi-aquatic species. Expanding on the original film’s ecosystem logic, Hsieh explained how each Zootopia district reflects its residents’ natural habitat, from the desert-based Sahara Square to the icy Tundratown. The team kept that same playful DNA for the sequel, ensuring every structure and prop had character.

Early concepts envisioned the Marsh Market as messy, chaotic, and slightly awkward for Nick and Judy, with buildings made from giant tree stumps and slanted roofs for seals and walruses to climb. Designers devised creative mobility solutions like escalator water slides and tube transport systems. At one point, a bus-lift mechanism gave way to the funnier idea of animals zipping through transparent water tubes.

Hsieh showed concept art by team members Corey Loftis, Justin Cram, Kevin Yang, and Ryan Lang that defined the district’s colorful aesthetic and visual rhythm. Highlights included a “Dolphin Bar” with an aquarium-style counter and floating vendor boats run by otters and beavers. Once the elements were finalized, the artists used modular “street blocks” to build out the entire environment in 3D, layering textures and details like beaver tooth-mark patterns into wooden beams.

Picking up the baton, Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay shared her secrets of image making, moving from rough sketches to color scripts. She celebrated Disney Animation’s embrace of individual style — every artist has a different voice, yet they unite in one visual language.

Her process starts with fast, loose drawings to capture storytelling and character energy before refining composition. In one set of sketches, she explored the dynamic between Nick, Judy, and newcomer Nibbles amid the floating Marsh Market, citing Southeast Asian water markets as reference. A gag born from a coworker’s comment — beavers using their tails as boat propellers — ended up in her concept art.

True to her background in costume design, Griz couldn’t resist styling the characters for key story moments. She presented early concepts for an undercover sequence where Nick becomes a delivery driver, Judy plays a trendy mom, and Finnick is mortified to be playing her bunny baby. Then came her favorite assignment—the gala scene, Judy’s “Cinderella moment.” We got to see iterations of her designs, which ranged from asymmetrical yellow gowns to high-low skirts, allowing the bunny cop to run freely. Nick’s white tuxedo with a curved shawl collar and yellow accents mirrored Judy’s silhouette.

Though story revisions eventually simplified the outfits, Sastrawinata-Lemay’s color and shape language remained in the final designs. Her set designs for the gala’s icy locale balanced cold grandiosity with humor, featuring lavish cat-like decor for feline aristocrats and monochromatic palettes punctuated by bronze and gold.

Transitioning to color scripts, Griz explained how she and the lighting team mapped the film’s emotional arc through color. She outlined three distinct visual modes:

• Zootopia Standard – naturalistic lighting for familiar moments.
• Genre Rhythm – heightened, cinematic lighting for thriller or comedic beats.
• Emotionally Driven – warm gold tones for moments of truth and heart.

Her emotional charts tracked the characters’ journeys across screenings, color-coding highs and lows. Sample paintings showed the ZPD partners in classic lighting, then an undercover mission awash in neon color and contrast. Each sequence was tailored for mood and music, proving how closely story and color intertwine at Disney Animation.

The LightBox Expo panel offered a rare peek inside Disney Animation’s world-building process, from early concepts to final color scripts. Through Limei Hsieh and Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay’s collaboration, Zootopia 2 emerges as a film that balances heart, humor, and design innovation — where every building, boat, and transport tube helps expand a city that feels as alive as its characters.

Dive into Marsh Market when Zootopia 2 opens in theaters this Thanksgiving.