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These drawings were the first pass in an attempt to find the character that would eventually become Spyro.
The creative direction was simple and basic. Draw a dragon that a video game can be developed around.
It didn't really matter what the dragon looked like at this point. Decisions would come later based upon the
sketches that were generated as Charles embarked upon the creative journey. An important factor in the concept
design process was that the character would eventually be modeled digitally and animated in a 3D program,
so technical considerations and the final medium were something that had to be kept in mind
while the conceptual sketches were in progress.



After the first creative pass into the project, the producers came to their first important decision.
They decided that the dragon would be a character that appealed to 8 to 10 year olds. The character
had to be cute, but at the same time, mischievous, bratty, unpredictable and something of an upstart.
By the end of this pass, the character design that would become the basis for Spyro was defined.


After the central character had been designed, Charles spent some time
coming up with some supplemental concept sketches that could
possibly serve as additional dragon characters in the game.



Other supplemental characters were designed for the emerging
video game. These characters were called "gnorcs".

Among the last phase of the initial character designs for the project,
Charles sketched out a few suggestions for little incidental creatures
that could inhabit Spyro's world and which he could chase down and scorch.





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