Disney Animation artist Sue Nichols Maciorowski passed away at the age of 55.
The news came from Disney Animation's Twitter account. "We're deeply saddened by the passing of Sue Nichols Maciorowski, an influential visual development and story artist who helped define the design and narratives of the films of the Disney Renaissance and beyond," the tweet reads.
A thread of subsequent tweets celebrated Maciorowski's work and legacy on various Disney films. These include visual development and story for Beauty and the Beast, early visual development for Aladdin and character design and visual development for The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan and Lilo & Stitch.
Maciorowski also had much larger roles concerning the development of Hercules and The Princess and the Frog. For Hercules, "she created a style guide for Greek design and supervised the look of the film across layout, animation, effects, color styling and more," Disney Animation said. This contribution gave her the title of "Production Stylist," a role that did not exist at Disney Animation until then. For Princess and the Frog, she suggested using artists of the Harlem Renaissance as inspiration for Tiana's song "Almost There." Maciorowski even helped storyboard and design that sequence of the song.
The Princess and the Frog and Moana animator Eric Goldberg paid his respects to Maciorowski and her contributions to Disney Animation. "She will be sadly missed by those of us who had the good fortune to work with her, but her influence on those films will be there forever," he said.