Act Two

DANIEL LÓPEZ MUÑOZ Digital painting

It didn’t take long for us to think of HANK the octopus as having superpowers. We were immediately inspired by the incredible talents of cephalopods. While being one of the smartest creatures in the ocean, they are also the closest thing to a shape-shifter you will ever encounter. They have amazing abilities to change their skin color and texture while convincingly imitating the movement of other animals and underwater plant life. They can also fit through any hole bigger than their beak, which is the only solid thing in their anatomy. Hank is like a superhero of the sea.

— Jason Deamer, Character Art Director

ANDREW STANTON Marker

JASON DEAMER Pen and colored pencil

JASON DEAMER Digital painting

JASON DEAMER Pencil

JASON DEAMER Digital painting

GREG DYKSTRA Clay

STEVE PILCHER Digital painting

(top row, and middle row, left and center) STANLEY MOORE Digital painting

(middle row, right, and bottom row, right) ALEX WOO Digital painting

(bottom row, left and center) BRIAN KALIN O’CONNELL Digital painting

DESTINY is a harmless whale shark whose poor eyesight makes her a nervous swimmer. She’s a gentle creature with a huge toothless mouth that’s all pillow-y and soft.

JASON DEAMER Pencil

RONA LIU Digital painting

STANLEY MOORE Marker and pencil

ALEX WOO Marker

JASON DEAMER Pen and colored pencil

BAILEY is like a large white dumpling. He’s a white beluga whale with an untapped echolocation skill. He’s made of round and soft shapes—very curvilinear—and he has a huggable personality.

JASON DEAMER Digital painting

JEROME RANFT Clay

STEVE PILCHER Digital painting

STEVE PILCHER Digital

TREVOR JIMENEZ Digital painting

JASON DEAMER Digital painting

The SEA LIONS are great comedians in the film. Fluke and Rudder are large and lazy with a surly and sarcastic edge. Gerald is the runt of the litter and is a little odd. We like to think of backstories for our characters and for him it centered around his bucket. He really likes his bucket and all he wants is to get on the rock with Fluke and Rudder. But Fluke and Rudder won’t share it with him.

STEVE PILCHER Digital painting

TREVOR JIMENEZ Digital painting

STEVE PILCHER Digital painting

BECKY the loon is also a little odd. She’s a perfect example of “don’t judge a bird by its feathers.” She’s a bit rough around the edges—kind of disheveled—but she is actually fairly functional. As Marlin and Nemo learn, if you stick with her, she’ll get you where you need to go, even if she doesn’t do things in the most straightforward way.

JASON DEAMER Digital painting

MARCELINE GAGNON-TANGUAY Digital painting

RONA LIU Digital painting

MAX BRACE, TREVOR JIMENEZ, VLADIMIR KOOPERMAN, STANLEY MOORE Digital painting

MATT NOLTE Colored pencil

JASON DEAMER Pencil

TOM GATELY Pencil and digital

RONA LIU and SHARON CALAHAN Digital painting

The OTTERS are some of the cutest creatures in the film. Who can resist a baby otter?

DEANNA MARSIGLIESE Digital painting

TOM GATELY Digital painting

JASON DEAMER Digital painting

The HUMAN designs have lots of appeal and variety, but when we were putting shots together we tried to downplay their presence so that they didn’t upstage the fish world. There are lots of shots from below the knee and with the humans slightly out of focus in the background. This keeps the story in the fish point of view.

TOM GATELY Pencil

TOM GATELY Colored pencil and digital

JASON DEAMER Pen and colored pencil

TIM EVATT Digital painting

JASON DEAMER Digital painting

JASON DEAMER Pen and watercolor

JASON DEAMER Digital painting

The HERMIT CRABS live near shipping lanes in the open ocean. As ships pass overhead, shipping containers will occasionally fall off and break open. The crabs pick up the stuff that falls out and use it as their “house.” We based some of the items on real spills; for example, in 1992 a container of 28,000 rubber duckies spilled into the ocean.