Archive: 21 posts

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<img src="http://www.mediamolecule.com/images/uploads/yellowheadtosackboy.jpg" alt="Oooooh!" width="300" height="300" class="floatright"/>Back in 2006, When Alex, Mark and Dave pitched LittleBigPlanet to Sony, the loveable bag of fluff we all know as Sackboy was nothing more than debug programmer art - a little pink square body and a triangular yellow head,  aptly called YellowHead.  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQLDNmllbiU" title="">Even at that early stage</a> the character that would become Sackboy had started to emerge, but how did he evolve from that set of simple shapes into the Sackboy we all know and love? It’s been two years this week since LittleBigPlanet was released, what better time than this could there be to find out? Last October was the <em>first </em>anniversary of LittleBigPlanet, and being relatively new to Mm, I was keen to find out where Sackboy came from. In order to enlighten us all, I grabbed two of the key artists involved with his creation, dragged them into a room and, bombarded them with questions…. Unfortunately we never actually published the results… until now… <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mediamolecule/5149270178/" title="Flickr"><img src="http://www.mediamolecule.com/images/uploads/yellow_head_character_sheet.jpg" alt="Oooooh!" width="266" height="700" class="floatleft" style="margin-left: -24px;"/></a>?He had a lot of personality, even then? reflects Kareem, as he, Francis and I glance at some concept artwork and look back to the early days of the now iconic character?s origins. ?I think it was the cheekiness.  Dave always does that, pays attention to personality and very subtle things. When YellowHead was pulling the big old rock, the character looked like he was straining, even though there was no supporting animation… his little debug arms stretching as he pulled.? YellowHead was very much placeholder programmer art created by Dave for the first playable CraftWorld code which was taken up to Sony on that fateful day of the pitch. But although he was merely a stand in, he ended up dictating the proportions of Sackboy, and the things he would need to be able to do. After the team got the go ahead to develop the game, the character needed to evolve into a proper character to fit the game?s developing art style, and so Mark, Francis and Kareem all went to the drawing board and started to concept.  For quite some time the character was still called YellowHead and indeed kept the yellow head after which he was named. ?I don't know why but I always drew him with this little mosquito antennae on his head. My designs were always very anatomical, with legs and arms, whilst Francis was exploring body proportions and shapes - how the head relates to the body. It was Mark who was really pushing the handmade look, the buttons, patches, and the hessian fabric.? As Sackboy was reshaped time and time again, it was these handmade aspects that stayed true throughout everyone?s designs. There were three distinct versions of Sackboy shape wise, but you could see the similarities between them too. ?We were struggling. But then Dave came along with some doodles, once again bringing a bit of personality and the subtle shapes. It refreshed us all? Dave?s sketches show the arrival of the trapezium head, the attitude, and the wrinkles in the cloth from his expressions. These tiny things were a huge influence on the final design. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mediamolecule/5148632501/" title="Flickr"><img src="http://www.mediamolecule.com/images/uploads/sackboys3.jpg" alt="Oooooh!" class="fullimg" /></a> ?This really helps to illustrate the Molecule way - Francis is a character designer, animator, artist, I?m a concept artist, Mark is an experienced 3D artist, but a programmer was the one who came in to the mix and added an iteration to the character design that really helped us all, and solidified what we were trying to do? By now, one of the most distinct features of Sackboy was prevalent throughout all the designs. The zip. These days it's just a cute feature of the character, but it was not always just for show; once upon a time it had an important function. ?There was always a concept of a place where you play, and a place where you build that eventually became the Moon. But at this stage various ideas were flying around - an extra room in the pod, a warehouse somewhere. But then Mark came up with a crazy concept…? ?Maybe the place where you go to create is… in yourself. Let?s put this zip on Sackboy, he opens the zip, folds in on himself and goes and creates inside himself, because creativity and ideas are all inside you.? ?I?m kind of glad to say that this idea didn’t manifest? laughs Kareem ?it's a legacy part of design, but it makes him really distinct.? From this moment on, Francis took the wheel ?we thrust all these designs into his lap and said - ?make it cool!??  Francis looks bemused, and shakes his head. ?Sackboy ended up being a combination of these 4 concepts? Francis pipes up ?and you can see it - Mark?s crafty vibe, Kareem?s pinched limbs, the more appealing shape and proportions of my drawings? Sackboy evolved into a very familiar shape, but his legs were still very much from the abstract design by Mark, short and pointy. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mediamolecule/5148632643/" title="Flickr"><img src="http://www.mediamolecule.com/images/uploads/sackboys2.jpg" alt="Oooooh!" class="fullimg" /></a> ?The green light used this version? Francis points to a semi formed Sackboy render ?ultimately though his legs felt cute but stumpy and very different from the language of the arms. When he was animated, running and jumping looked weird, so the legs were evolved.? It was the animation of Sackboy that would help to give him more character. Animations which evolved only when the designers started making levels and people started seeing him in different situations. ?From day one he was grabbing and swinging, but for instance he looked strange as he swung about. Sackboy doesn?t need to build up momentum to swing forward, he just somehow creates energy from nothing, and the animation needed to support than.? The solution became the little peddling motion you see now. ?I bet Bruce Lee can do it? quips Kareem….  ?But it looks convincing, you know?? Kareem turns and asks Francis about animating Sackboy compared with animating traditional scenes, or films.  ?Animating Sackboy was very fragmented… it's not as satisfying to animate a character like him as it is to work on a whole movie, because you are designing procedural animations rather than acting a scene.? ?It's the user controlling the actions. It's less satisfying to create, but the reward comes from seeing what people do with it. The mad dances and machinima really amazed me, and the way people use the basic acting emotions to talk to each other - they almost became a sort of language people used to communicate to one another whilst playing. The Dances mainly though. But yeah it's not quite the same as animating something that gets played out the same way each time? ?The Death animations however, they were really fun to do…? LittleBigPlanet features numerous lethal objects or materials to hinder Sackboy?s path, and each one required a unique animation to accompany it. Tom and Jerry would be the key inspiration for the animations that made the final cut, fairly violent, but whilst still feeling harmless and funny. But it very nearly wasn?t like that. <div class="center"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AF8wy_VRLCI?fs=1&hl=en_GB&rel=0&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f&fmt=35"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AF8wy_VRLCI?fs=1&hl=en_GB&rel=0&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f&fmt=35" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

2010-11-08 14:30:00 Author: Spaff_Molecule Posts: 421

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lol awsome concept arts! (kinda violent though) Very glad sackboy is how it now is

2010-11-08 14:38:00 Author: Smelling-Cowboy Posts: 668

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Wow, Sackboys definitely been through a lot! It's interesting to see how he turned up now.

2010-11-08 15:27:00 Author: booXely Posts: 654

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Awesome info but honestly there should be more Death animations and ways to die by now... also i say you MMs should sell us animations as DLC for things like better punching and kick animations for Sackbot's animation logic chips, would be very useful in a big pack of tons of animations, I'd buy it. =o *mew

2010-11-08 15:28:00 Author: Lord-Dreamerz Posts: 4261

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Yeouch Sackboy's had a rough past, no wonder why he doesn't talk!

2010-11-08 17:17:00 Author: JKthree Posts: 1125

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*steals art for avatar*

2010-11-08 17:33:00 Author: ARD Posts: 4291

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Those pictures are awsome! and the video too!

2010-11-08 17:35:00 Author: himoks Posts: 734

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It's nice to see the evolution of a character we have all grown to love and cherish <3

2010-11-08 17:52:00 Author: Plasmavore Posts: 1913

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?There?s more to come for Sackboy, definitely, it's very exciting - you?ll see him as you never saw him before?. say something like that.? smiles Kareem, and we all chuckle knowingly and head off to make some coffee. ********. tell us I don't know why but after reading this and about five seconds of brainstorming I think it'd be cool if Sackboy was really a wool sock. Like this - and you could maybe pull things out of it to build stuff. You'd jump around as the sock and you would be able to customise it just like Sackboy. http://www.cambridgebaby.co.uk/catalog/images/WoolSocks-Thick-2prb-264.jpg

2010-11-08 18:04:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391

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I had a good laugh watching at the stages and reading through, but poor sackboy, the animation is almost painful to watch D:

2010-11-08 18:09:00 Author: moonwire Posts: 1627

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Wow! The concept death animations are amazing!! Do you think you'd be able to include them in a future update for LBP2 ? That would be awesome

2010-11-08 18:18:00 Author: Weretigr Posts: 2105

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Very interesting to see the development process, thanks Spaff! Im sure glad sackboy turned out the way he is now, not that creepy old child's toy that looks like its been dropped down a drain!

2010-11-08 18:27:00 Author: Mr_T-Shirt Posts: 1477

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This looks awesome and I like the Death concept.

2010-11-08 19:19:00 Author: Eronninja13 Posts: 637

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*steals art for avatar* *does the same*

2010-11-08 19:46:00 Author: Alec Posts: 3871

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. Excellent! All those drawings look both great and... somewhat creepy! But in a good way, it's strange, curious. I love those eyes, sewn into Sackboy's eyes. They remind me a lot of Coraline, which is a pretty good book. .

2010-11-08 19:48:00 Author: Oddmania Posts: 1305

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Great read and lots of nice art. Thanks for sharing all of it with us

2010-11-08 20:07:00 Author: Dragonvarsity Posts: 5208

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i want more of the death concepts. plus, how did they come up with the death for water? it is kinda creepy.... and, i kinda wish they would have made it so that when sackboy gets squished, there was a kind of, well, explosion of fluff. that would have been funny. though, the fallind and squishing on the face... is actually, very, very creepy.

2010-11-09 00:02:00 Author: flamesterart Posts: 585

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I loved the sackboy concept that had the little stubby legs and was winking. Probably the best concept stage! Anywho, thats for sharing this info with us.

2010-11-09 00:19:00 Author: dragonember Posts: 607

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I want that fire one back xD Anywho, love the concept! Thanks for sharing...

2010-11-09 03:16:00 Author: AA_BATTERY Posts: 1117

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?There?s more to come for Sackboy, definitely, it's very exciting - you?ll see him as you never saw him before?. say something like that.? smiles Kareem, and we all chuckle knowingly and head off to make some coffee. ********. tell us Since this interview was done before the announcement of LBP2, they probably meant the new sack shapes like Davinci and Eve, or maybe sackbots or animated costumes.

2010-11-09 11:24:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284

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Awesome article! Anybody like mah new sig?

2010-11-12 01:18:00 Author: Silver39 Posts: 1703

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