Pixar Animation Student Worked On A Disney Illustration Project For More Than A Year, And The Results Are Just Enchanting

His goal was to improve his skills while studying animation and how Disney makes its films

May

• Published in Disney
• March 15, 2024

The wondrous world of Disney is a treasure trove of inspiration for artists far and wide! For Mexican illustrator Rafael Mayani, the pull of Disney's magic was simply irresistible.

After diving headfirst into the mesmerizing world of Pixar Animation through masterclasses led by the likes of Matt Luhn and Andrew Gordon, Mayani found themselves on a truly transformative journey, fueled by nothing but pure passion and dedication. With his drive to perfect his craft and explore the enchanting depths of animation, Mayani embarked on an ambitious quest: a year-long Disney illustration project.

His goal? To not only sharpen their drawing skills but also to uncover the secrets behind the enduring charm of Disney's timeless classics.

Mayani poured his heart and soul into crafting a series of truly unique artworks, each one a love letter to the captivating storytelling that defines Disney. He focused on every animated feature from Disney (without those direct-to-video releases),

Alongside these stunning illustrations, Mayani chronicled their epic journey on a delightful blog, sharing insights into the intricacies of each film's narrative and shining a light on the remarkable artistry that brings these beloved tales to life. Scroll down for some of the enchanting works he created over the course of his effort to improve.

And if you want to see more of his works, just head over to Mayani's Facebook page.

Big Hero 6

Going back to what Disney does best, the movie focuses on amazing characters (design and personality-wise) and a great story. 

In my own opinion, this is Disney's best movie since Emperor's New Groove which came out in 2000, so this is a pretty big deal.

The Little Mermaid

We could just focus on Ariels facial expressions when she meets Prince Eric after being turned into a human, and see how beautifully animated the whole scene is.

Frozen

The studio's latest effort to bring the production to life went through a lot of changes and has some really tough moments, but the end result was probably Disney's most popular musical since the movies from the 90's renaissance.

Wreck-It Ralph

Even though some of the movie's aesthetics are based on existing video game concepts and worlds, the creative team at Disney did a great job at designing something incredibly fun and really nice to look at. This is also partly because of the rendering software used to create the light and texturing of the film.

Throughout the studio's history, Disney has been known for working on groundbreaking technology which they use to create their films, and though they hadn't done anything super innovative in the latest years, for Wreck-It Ralph they developed a new system of rendering which really enhances the visuals in the film.

Winnie-the-Pooh

...the movie is a great rendition to classic Winnie the Pooh stories and shows how amazing the simplest form of 2D animation can be.

The Princess and the Frog

Something really great about this movie is that the artists gave themselves the freedom of creating scenes with many styles, so sometimes the animation is really cartoony and exaggerated, sometimes it's more traditional and theres even a great sequence that is super graphic.

All in all, Princess and the Frog is a pretty good film. Great characters, cool villain, nice songs and pretty story. 

Brother Bear

Although mainly focused on American Indians' myths, the story was based on many different tribes' legends of people that turn into animals.

Originally, the characters were based more on Inuit art and, for me, were more interesting. But in the end, the characters had to be simplified to reduce the animation time, and what was left was a sort of alaskan design.

Lilo & Stitch

Lilo & Stitch is Disney's 42nd animated feature and could be considered as a small return to the aesthetics of the classic Disney films. Even though there is a lot of Computer Generated sequences in the film, the watercolour backgrounds and the style of animation is reminiscent of the features of the 40's.

Pocahontas

Although the movie is set in a completely different moment and place as Sleeping Beauty, if you look at both films, you'll be able to notice that they have very similar styles in terms of the backgrounds and the spaces.

In art history, there was a point in which perspective was perfected, and paintings went from being completely horizontal and flat to having more volume. Well, something similar happened with Disney animated features.

With the help of computer animation, animators at Disney were able to give their scenes more volume and very impressive camera movements.

But still, in Pocahontas the art department was able to take that flat looking imagery and turn it into something amazing. The backgrounds, with amazing colours and shapes are as epic as a Tarsem Singh shot from The Fall.

The Lion King

...the animation isn't the only thing that is great in Lion King. We all know about the incredible score and music that was composed for the film. Working as a team, Hans Zimmer composed the score and Elton John and Tim Rice wrote the songs for Lion King inspired in African music and its instruments. 

The first song that Elton John did for the film was Circle of Life, an amazing song which actually inspired the opening sequence of the film. Hans Zimmer took the song and added some african sound to it to make it feel more in the environment. The result was one of the best songs from Disney movies. 

The Jungle Book

The characters in this film are some of the best ones in Disney movies, but it wasn't only due to the great animation and script. The songs in the film are also perfect. Each character is beautifully represented with music. From Baloo's Bare necessities, to Kaa's Trust in me. 

Peter Pan

Peter Pan is a great movie. The story is perfect and the characters are awesome. I think that for the first time, the pacing was perfect and every part of the movie has a reason to be there. Previous Disney movies had some story flaws (in my opinion). The White Dove delivering the letter to Pinocchio where it says that his father has been swallowed by Monstro, is a great example.

Alice in Wonderland

Alice In Wonderland is the movie with most songs in it from the whole Disney Animated Features, and most of them, such as the Unbirthday song, the Caucus Race theme and even some very small frases as "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date" have become classics.

Pinocchio

Some say this was the last movie on which Walt Disney was completely involved, and that's why the effects and everything works so well. But despite the acclaim of the public and press, the movie did not do as well as its predecessor (in terms of money) since WWII had forced the european market to close. This was a great change of plans for the Studio, and budgets had to be adjusted for their next movies.

I just wanted to point out that when Pixar was working on their first movie Toy Story, they had the same character and story problems as Disney had with Pinocchio. And the way to overcome those problems was redesigning and rethinking the role of Woody in the movie. Something that I noticed while watching the movie was how similar Pinocchio and Woody's faces are while not being alive.

You can't help but be amazed by the sheer dedication of the artist. The project was intended to study Disney, but it became a heartfelt celebration of its enduring legacy.

Mayani's journey truly evokes the magic of Disney, which lies not just in its animated works but in the boundless inspiration it ignites within passionate artists like him. Let's raise our Mickey ears to Mayani's enchanting tribute!

May