The Replacements: Character Design

Howdy Folks!

A lot of people who have seen the show have wondered how much the look of the show has changed from my original pitch and truthfully I'll have to say that I don't think it changed too much. 

It was to be expected that it all wouldn't look EXACTLY like my work. I tend to think that my work is so rough and painterly that it would be hard to translate for animation. It's like that old kid's game "Telephone" where you whisper something into one persons ear and they whisper it into someone elses ear and so forth and down the line you get a completely different response from the original line. Same with artwork.  People draw their own way and you take one character and  put it into different hands it's going to change. 

Thankfully everybody at Disney wanted the show to look like my artwork (which I found to be pretty flattering) and director extraordinaire 'Heather Martinez' made it a strong point to look as closely to my style as possible.

Now I'll get off my soapbox and show you all some sketches...

Here is a  poster of the family for the initial design of the show. As you can see Agent K is a redhead, Dick Daring has a bigger head and shorter neck and Todd and Riley are quite modified from the final designs. Still, they all share many similar traits that still exist in the show as we see it today.

Here are more sketches of the characters...

Dick Daring

Riley

Todd

Agent K

Tasumi

and Buzz

Director Heather Martinez and I soon after my project was optioned updated the character designs to be more "animatable"

Here is a rough image of the characters pulled from our 'Leica Reel 'because I can't seem to find the old files (NOTE: The drawings in this leica reel are not how Heather and I draw on a regular basis. This was a rush job and the design sheets look a lot better)

When the show was initially picked up for a full season Disney then asked animator and designer extraordinaire Mike Moon (Annie Award winner known for his HUGE contributions on shows such as" Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends" and "PowerPuff Girls") to take a stab at my designs and he made them...well.... AWESOME!

Mike took a caring approach to improving my designs by making the animatable characters just stylistically more cool and better proportioned. Honestly, my style is very rough and would probably look pretty ugly on a TV screen for a prolonged amount of time. Mike took a pass at the Agent K design and I knew I wanted her redesigned because I quite frankly suck at drawing sexy women (It's not often called for in children's books).

When the show staffed up we ended up acquiring a real gem in David Cutler (art director for "Home on the Range", character designer for "The Critic" and "Nightmare Before Christmas") to be our character designer.

Basically, who was I to tell this industry giant how things should be done? David was a really cool and humble guy and he really respected my opinions and ideas and he came up with what you see on the show today (which includes a much sexier Agent K)....

So that's it. From one design to another you have seen the evolution of the design. I'm pretty pleased with who I got to work with and I'm proud of the results. I hope you all watch and enjoy the show!

Now I leave you with an old painting of Agent K being chased by ninjas....

Comments

[SomeNick]

Interesting story indeed!

[Jhonatan Caceres]

WOW! What a strange story... but I like the show.

[Jimmy]

I kinda crushed on Riley.Because shes cute.But why they have to change her look in the 2nd season cause she looks kinda different.I like her character design on the first season more cuter.

[Allen]

I think I like Riley better than other character.Her look is very cute & preety.She is the greatest character in the replacements.

[eric]

really truly cool to see this succession of images... I'm a big fan of the show and the design (I think riley is an absolute crackup both visually and in her character) so it's great to see who made it! thanks

[cailin]

i love that show it is funny. riley is DORKEY todd thinks hes SOO kool agent k gives bad advise dick always fails (what is up with those racoons?)

[Jared Chapman]

Very cool post, Dan. Thanks for the inside look at the process. Love your designs, as always.

[Blake Hunter]

great post, my wife and I love the show so far!

[jurgen wolff]

Great! thanks for sharing this.

[Coyoteloon]

I'm always fascinated to see the evolution of characters from initial sketches, to final model sheets. Thanks very much for making this post! As much as Agent K and the kids have changed, it's amazing how much Dick Daring hasn't. You had him nailed down from square one.