Timelapse Digital Painting of Yao from “Mulan” in Photoshop

Lately, I’ve been having a blast revisiting my “old friends” from the Disney films I worked on. Yao was a character I designed and supervised the animation for the film “Mulan”. Here I’ll take you through my process as I paint him in Photoshop.

Below is a time-lapse video of the process and the final image:

[youtube_sc url=”TpnIk_VZ5Wc” width=”750″]

Interested in Digital Art & Animation Instruction? I offer a line of tutorials videos and lessons. CLICK HERE to Learn More.


Aaron-Blaise-Realistic-Yao


You can also see my take on the Beast from “Beauty and the Beast” HERE and my Rajah from “Aladdin” HERE

Time Lapse Video of Digital Painting of Rajah from Aladdin in Photoshop

Rajah (from “Aladdin”) was the first character I was ever given the opportunity to actually design and lead the animation. It was a huge deal for me. I was 24 and I remember being very nervous. It was fun to draw and paint him tonight after so many years. Thanks to John Musker and Ron Clements for having faith in me way back then.

Below is a time-lapse video of the process and the final image:

[youtube_sc url=”LuaMG0_-xWw” width=”650″]

Interested in Digital Art & Animation Instruction? I offer a line of tutorials videos and lessons. CLICK HERE to Learn More.



You can also see my take on the Beast from “Beauty and the Beast” HERE

Painting Rajah from "Aladdin" in Photoshop

Digital Painting of Beast in Photoshop

So my friend and  I were talking and he thought it might be fun and interesting to take some of the characters I’ve animated in the past and do realistic renderings of them in Photoshop using my painting techniques and photographic textures. I agreed and so I decided to do The Beast as my first one. This was the first major character I ever animated thanks to Glen Keane. I’ve always loved drawing him.

Below is a time-lapse video of the process and the final image:

[youtube_sc url=”C6Dk7EEFTG4″ width=”650″]

Interested in Digital Art & Animation Instruction? I offer a line of tutorials videos and lessons. CLICK HERE to Learn More.