Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Crash Bandicoot - Origin of Coco - Part 3

Last week on January 6 and 8 my blog entries showcased never before seen art from the original development of Coco Bandicoot. The concept designs for Crash's little sister didn't end there. These three sketches were also created at my first pass for the character on March 18, 1997. There are more drawings of Coco from later sittings. I'm pretty sure this rounds out the first phase of her initial design from that date.



17 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Charles, I love the emotions Coco expresses here! I also like how you gave the last two drawings a cartoony feel by adding a cloud of dust when she runs and stops.

Charles, was Tiny Tiger ever conceived as a Tasmanian Tiger or just a plain stripped tiger? After all he does share a couple of traits from tigers such as his roar.

Charles Z said...

Thanks Pat. She was fun to work on. There's more Coco development art on the way.

Tiny Tiger was originally the Tasmanian Tiger. I don't know why they changed the name. The concept for the character came from Joe Pearson. Most of the characters for the first Crash game came from his imagination.

Unknown said...

So were the Komodo Bros. part of Joe's idea too? Reason being is that the composer Josh Mancell told us that there was a planned track for the Komodo Bros. that didn't make it in Crash 1?

And Charles, what did that 3D printout of Crash looked like? Can we see it soon? No need to rush though, take your time.

Charles Z said...

Yes, the Komodo Brothers came from Joe during Crash 1.

The printout I have is the first version of Crash modeled for the original Sony PlayStation in 1995 when he was Willy the Wombat. It served as the official color chart for the character. I'll have it up for you soon.

Anonymous said...

Cartoony Coco, I love it!
Charles, you said that Joe left Crash after the first game but he designed Tiny, so this means that Tiny was also planned for Crash 1? Andy said that they wanted to have a bigger game, with 10 bosses and more levels but Universal rushed the project.

Charles Z said...

Tiny or the Tazmanian Tiger as he was originally named was indeed planned for the first game. Joe created the character and came up with the initial concept design for him. I don't know the story behind the name change or why his participation in the game was delayed. Sony Japan wasn't involved at this point so it could've been as Andy said that pressure from Universal to get the game out had them debut the character later.

Unknown said...

Do you have Joe's designs of Tiny, Charles?

Also Charles, it's a coincidence that Coco conception was born a day earlier before my little sister's birth which is March 19.

Also did you know that Radical Entertainment made Tiny a Bengal Tiger in Crash of the Titans? They kept his bulkiness and some of his apparel but changed his voice by making it Mike Tyson esque.

Anonymous said...

Radical basically created a total new character and named it Tiny Tiger because they thought we are stupid, and we would loved the character becuase he have the same name, basically all the COTT game is biult like this in my opinion.
However Universal ruined every game in the series pushing for the release of the game.

Unknown said...

Gabriel- The things is that UIS wasn't in charge of the the ND games, only the distribution. Sony basically handled the marketing, publishing, development time and everything else. The only thing Universal did was supply ND a place to develop the games, merchandising and causing some mishaps during Crash's development (i.e. not letting ND go to the first E3, declaring to call Crash Wuzzy or Wiley the Wombat, etc...)

I have to disagree with your opinion on COTT though, every video game franchise out there goes with a reboot and start fresh. Take a look at Sonic when he entered the 3D realm, almost all the characters in the game were given a facelift. Radical basically did that since we're living in a modern era and Radical were given the time and budget to produce the game (approximately 2 years of development).

Anonymous said...

We both know what they did with Sonic '06, it's not about time, it's about ideas. Making Crash Bandicoot a brawler with monsters that would fit more in a Final Fantasy game and nothing that was seen in previous games doesn't make a good game only because the product is good. Plus the game isn't a reboot, is a sequel, so it should be set in the same universe filled with wumpas, crates and 1-ups. The idea of controlling the nemies is not bad, but the execution isn't in style with the series, with the design of everything and the starting idea. Crash doesn't need that kind of humor that Twinsanity started. You should be afraid of the enemies, not amused, even if those jokes aren't funny or new at all...
However this is my opinion, I think that a good game can be made without making it stylized for modern kids that only need violence in their games. Look at Super Mario, he is succesfull because he never changed.

Unknown said...

Now that makes somewhat sense, Mario hasn't changed because his games are successful. But I didn't mind Radical's retooling of Crash, and what they were doing with Crash 2010, it seems they were in the right direction.

Also Charles, my friend/modifier of Crash Mania (the person who helped edited the Crash Timeline) has request if we can display your artwork on Crash Mania, I hope that's okay!

Also, here are some of your public Crash artwork colorized:
http://images.wikia.com/crashban/images/9/9e/CRASH4.png
http://images.wikia.com/crashban/images/0/0a/CRASHjump2.png

Anonymous said...

"Now that makes somewhat sense"

I'm not that kind of fanboy that hate a game because yes, I played all the games (except for Mutants but there isn't any sensible change) and I have my reasons to say that I don't think that the best way to rivive a character is to completely change everything except his name. I mean, what about a remake like Mario 64 DS with Crash 1? You can have Crash 2 moves, new levels, new characters, new stuff and the appreciation of all the fans.

Charles Z said...

Sorry for the delay in following up guys. Lots going on right now. Pat feel free to use my artwork of Crash on Crash Mania.

I'm working on a project that I'm excited about. Been a long time coming but it's on the way. There's a monumental amount of work involved but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as getting it ready to launch online.

If you like Crash, Spyro, J&D etc, I think you'll like this. It's unique and different. New characters and I think you'll get into the story. A few more days and I'll be at the point where I can start getting it out there.

Unknown said...

That's so Good! I love them! I try to colorize one of this concept adaptin' it to the current design. See it and tell me if you like: http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/8374/crashbandicootcoco8a.png

Thanks for your wonderworks!

Charles Z said...

Hi Mikey Miller. Thanks for your comments. You did a really good job on coloring Coco. Nice work!

Unknown said...

Thanks! There're many imprecisions but I haven't a graphic tablet and is so hard to work this way! XD

Charles Z said...

That makes your art all the more impressive!