When drawing an animation character, the sketch goes through a series of changes until it reaches the final artwork. This is because both the appearance and the clothes worn by the characters must reflect their personality, match the plot and the animation style. For example, the team at Pixar has revealed some of the first sketches of the protagonists of their films, and some are completely different from what was seen on the big screen.
O awesome.club loves the small worlds created by Pixar, so he compiled some sketches of the beloved characters.
1. Lightning McQueen — Cars
At first, the proposal was that McQueen would be an electric car in a world where gasoline predominates, but this idea was forgotten. Some time later, when they started designing the character of Cars, the creators were faced with the challenge of animating a car that could express itself naturally. Even common actions, such as picking up objects, were quite complicated, thus going through several sketches to reach the current drawing.
2. Remy — Ratatouille
Already in 2000, the producers fed the idea of working with a plot that would be Ratatouille (released in 2007). In the case of the character Remy, they decided to make both him and the other rodents look natural, not only in appearance, but also in their movements. To do this, they observed real mice kept in the studio for over a year.
3. Mr. Incredible – The Incredibles
To draw Bob, alias “Mr. Incredible ”, the creators opted for the Egyptian style, so his face almost always appears in profile and with a very straight nose. The creators were also inspired by the characteristics of the Greek gods to design the main character of the film. When it came time to convert the drawing to 3D animation, they had to make several changes to make the body’s movements and expressions look natural.
4. Edna — The Incredibles
This character went through a series of appearance changes because the creators wanted to show someone authentic, original and self-confident. In the end, they chose to draw a woman with a small stature and a great personality.
5. Joy — Inside Out
It was difficult to work on this character, because the initial idea was to convey joy, combining it with other emotions. At first, the producers thought of pairing it with fear, but in the end, they chose to pair it with sadness. And, to reflect the importance of both Joy and Sadness in Riley, the creators decided that Joy would have the same hair and eye color as Sadness, but kept her yellow skin.
6. Nemo — Looking for Nemo
One of the challenges faced by creators of Looking for Nemo was to draw fish capable of transmitting emotions with their facial expressions. That’s because a normal fish has eyes on the side and doesn’t blink. Then, the breeders observed the movements made by the dogs with their eyebrows when they want to express their feelings, transferring them to the initial sketches.
7. Arlo — The good Dinosaur
Originally, Arlo was going to be a dinosaur approximately 17 years old on the human scale. But when it was shown at an exhibition, viewers were unable to identify the relationship between Arlo and Spot, as the boy was too small compared to the dinosaur. In the end, they decided that the protagonist would only be about 11 years old and that the film would represent his transition from a child to an adult.
8. Gabby Gabby — Toy Story 4
This character had already been conceived before the franchise Toy Storybut would appear as an evil bear in a sequel to the short Tin Toy. Later, with the production of the fourth film, the producers returned to this concept, but were inspired by a doll from the 50s to design it.
9. Bo-Beep — Toy Story 4
After her absence in Toy Story 3, this character gained great prominence in Toy Story 4. It should be noted that, in the first two films, Bo-Beep’s personality was sweet and kind, but when she became a “lost toy” , the creators made several modifications to his design to show his changing personality and strength of character.
10. Michael — Viva: Life is a Party
At first, the focus of the film would be the search of an American boy of Mexican descent, named Marco, for his roots, after the death of his mother. However, the creators decided to change the approach as they considered it not entirely correct, thus focusing on the experiences of a boy from Mexico named Miguel.
11. Ian Lightfoot — Two Brothers: A Fantastic Journey
When drawing Ian, the main character of the movie Two Brothers: A Fantastic Journey, the artists wanted to portray an introverted and nervous teenager. Therefore, his design was modified several times, until he represented a boy who felt “out of place”. They added messy hair and baggy clothes to the character.
12. Barley Lightfoot — Two Brothers: A Fantastic Journey
When they drew the characters of Two Brothers: A Fantastic Journey, the artists adopted the traditional style, using light and shadow. However, when moving the drawing to 3D, the characters became more “flat”; therefore, the producers had to make small modifications that matched their personalities. In Barley’s case, she must have been the opposite of her younger brother, someone more optimistic and audacious.
13. Corey — Two Brothers: A Fantastic Journey
This character reflects a manticore, a mythological creature that has a humanoid head, a lion’s body, a scorpion’s tail, and dragon wings. Corey’s drawing was intended to be represented differently from historical documents, also going through several changes until it ended up with the appearance of a humanoid lion with wings and claws.
14. Joe Gardner — soul
At first, soul it would be a film about a scientist whose soul goes to the afterlife. However, the creators decided to change his profession to that of a musician, because they felt that this way the character could conquer the audience. They also changed his appearance and his musical style, changing from a rock star to a man with a passion for jazz.
15. 22 — soul
In the first sketches of the film, 22 would be the main character, who would feel disgust for Earth and Joe would change his mind. And, as with the souls, the creators designed 22 to look “vaporous” and “non-physical”, but without a ghostly appearance. For this, they resorted to religious and cultural representatives to design the sketches when it came time to make the animation.
What did you think of the first character sketches? Did you like the first versions better or do you prefer the current ones?
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