I’ve been meaning to buy some of the Disney ‘art of’ books for a long time. If I had the money I would by every single Pixar one ever made (along with the one about colour scripts (it’s so pretty)). After seeing Moana I knew I had to buy Disney’s Art of Moana. I loved the movie so much, and the animation was fantastic. You can really see how much the studio has improved with doing water.

DISNEY’S ART OF MOANA

The one thing I liked about this book is that it had 2D renderings and concept art. Which is really nice to look at. It gives you an idea of what this movie may have looked like if they did it in a 2d style. Looking at this it makes me sad that Disney have stopped making 2d movies. I have nothing against 3d animation but I prefer the 2d stuff, but that may just be the nostalgia talking.

I haven’t actually read this book. Though I probably should. I really only buy art books for the pictures. But I’m a graphic designer and I love seeing the creative process. I spend a lot of time developing my ideas and I know how important this is. The fantastic thing about these art books is they give you an insight into that development process. You get to see what worked and more importantly what didn’t work.

If you’re a fan of Disney, or Moana, or both. This is a book you have to buy. Disney releases a whole series of books for each film release. But this one in particular is fantastic. The imagery in it really gives you a peek into how the filmmakers animated Moana. As a designer I find this stuff so fascinating. I don’t really do animation but its still great having a book like this on hand to reference.