The lights are on
Characters don't pop into the world fully formed. For the vast majority of the time, our favorite heroes and villains are the result of a long cycle of brainstorming, sketching, and revising. If you'd like to see an excellent glimpse of how a well-known character was born, from concept to the end result, the Animation Academy has a fairly exhaustive look at Spyro the Dragon's genesis.
The series of drawings shows how Spyro evolved from a one-word description – dragon – into something significantly more interesting. Insomniac designer Charles Zembillas started with a few humble sketches, and then he iterated on them until he arrived at something that's significantly more interesting. The gallery is a fascinating look at the creative process, whether or not you're a Spyro fan.
Thanks for the tip, Chris!
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I found my very old copy of the original Playstation Spyro in a long-lost CD case this week, along with a few other classics including Ace Combat 2 and Crash Bandicoot. The PS3 plays it and it's still awesome.
I always love to see concept art for games, it's really interesting to see the ideas they had.
Tom Kenny's most annoying character before SpongeBob. Still, both game and TV show had more than enough to make up for either flaw.
This is pretty cool!
I love seeing the creative process behind character development! This is so cool!
Was my first game when I was young, will be my kids first game as well :D
so awesome!
nice artwork
A perfect example of how any character develops, for sure. I was actually a little shocked by the sketches, but it makes sense in the long run. The first videogame I ever played was Spyro, so it's a real treat to be able to see the development! <3