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...Prime 8

	Ooooooh, what fun! Prime 8 is a great example of character development. Prime 8 started out as Agent 9, a character from the Spyro the Dragon franchise owned by Vivendi Universal Games. Universal wanted to spin off this character into his own game and so development began to make a stand-alone world that surrounded Agent 9. After several focus group presentations to youthful audiences, it became apparent that no matter how young a participant was, he or she always said this game was for a younger person than them, meaning they wouldn't buy it. And the last group consisted of 7 years olds! So it was obvious that Agent 9 needed to be transformed into a more adult-themed character. Producer Steven Townsend coined the name Prime 8 (get it?). The developer was Blue Tongue in Australia and they had created an ingenious game mechanic to support the many abilities Prime 8 could perform. The effort began to re-create the character into something that would be more marketable. Watch the original .mpeg trailer! (you'll need to right-click and save target)
- Concept Art Kim Dwinell
. . .. ..	I first contacted two cartoon animators, Kim Dwinell, formerly of Disney, and Sheldon Borenstein, ex-Warner Bros. animator and Senior Lead Artist for "HeMan". I gave both of them the motivation on what I was trying to portray, a James Bond knock-off, with the latitude to use exceptional skills and weapons. I emphasized with both, the need to make sure that the work could be "broken down". (It's a Disney term referring to the ability of the character design to be broken down into separate elements, like separating eyes, mouth and ears. You can then focus on expressions if you're satisfied with his face. It also gives the 3D character modeler the ability to translate the objects into 3D space easily.) Kim had based her first sketches on the classic 'Peanut' shape that is so ubiquitous in classic cartoons; you can see it forming his body shape. She was also staying true the to original Agent 9 art work. I didn't want her to create any finish work, just random concepts to give me more ideas with which to direct. She came up with some retro 50'ish sketches as well as a more likeable looking character than the original Agent 9 from Spyro the Dragon.
- Concept Art Sheldon Borenstein
.. ..	Sheldon got into Agent 9's mental state and approached the sketches from a facial point of view. Nail the expression, then let the body language support the face. I asked Sheldon to give me some concepts that would use his tail as an expression of his emotions, a way of having a side-kick that would be able to express humor. You'll notice a frame here with that in mind. Sheldon's work was moving in the right direction but because of the poor focus group feedback, it became apparent through our audience that a more aggressive and mature character still needed to be defined. Sheldon developed two different looks, one that was closer to the original Agent 9 and one with a more human face and body that could wear recognizable clothing.
	After sending the developer the images that Kim and Sheldon had completed, Blue Tongue contributed these on the left. Blue Tongue gave him a flak jacket that might have some sort of high-tech abilities. With these images something went off at Universal and boom, we were off into a direction that was offering a number of options. Excitement mounting and with another round of conference calls we were off to the races.
- Final Pass
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..	It was Blue Tongue that came up with the Tron-like high-tech suit and it was a joint brainstorming experience that brought out the concept of using a hologram control panel from his suit. With that element, Agent 9 immediately became Prime 8 and his identity was formed. When the art started flowing in, it was the Australian developer that got the vision and inevitably came up with the best work. Prime 8 then became a lot easier to develop and Blue Tongue took the next step to create a 3D model. Wow... all of a sudden within one deliverable Prime 8 had new weapons, new bionic suit, and had garnered an attitude that was worthy of the competition. His body language was defined and through still shots of action sequences, he was looking fantastic. We added sunglasses mostly for attitude and to separate him from a younger crowd. We went through another round of focus group presentations and it was a resounding success. Almost all age groups wanted to know more about him, about his armor, his weapons, and his abilities. And most importantly, they wanted to play the game. You'll see here the sequence of how he morphed through several iterations. There's a concept screen that shows just different variations of sunglasses that he could possibly wear and at the bottom is an image that shows the before and after character. Check out his 3D model here.