Character Design

I decided I wanted my two characters to be based around villains or criminals, perhaps aimed at a more mature audience.

I experimented with facial expressions on the human face to get an evil or sinister look, while also thinking about how to develop my characters personality and appearance.

I looked at the idea of having a stereotypical good versus evil pair of characters that conflict with each other.

However I decided I wouldn't have much to work with in developing personalities around them.

Shady looking character and his rabid dog, inspired by Bill Sikes from Charles Dickens 'Oliver Twist'.

I was also inspired by David Attenborough's nature show 'Africa' which displayed animals that shared a mutual relationship, or a 'symbiotic relationship'.

This gave me the idea of developing my characters personality and interaction they have with each other based on one of these mutual relationships that real animals have between one another.

Most of these mutual relationships involve a bird and an animal.

An example of this is a zebra and an oxpecker. The oxpecker eats fleas and other parasites that live on the zebra's skin and is fed, while the zebra is rid of an annoyance. It's a win-win situation for both of them.

After researching symbiotic relationships, one of them caught my eye, the crocodile and the plover.

As I wanted to design at least one of my characters around a sinister personality, the crocodile fit this criteria. 

The crocodile benefits by having left over food stuck between its teeth eaten by the plover and the plover benefits by being fed. It's never actually been documented but based on an Egyptian myth. 

I thought I could do a lot with this mutual relationship and use it as a base for my characters and the relationship they have with each other.

I developed the crocodiles personality for his sinister character which led me to the idea of him being based on a 'Godfather' like mafia boss. The Crocfather.

The bird could be his accomplice who feeds from the left overs of the crocodiles victims.

I experimented more with the birds look and design, trying out different colours and appearances.

 I had the idea of the bird being the crocodiles dentist instead and developing something around that.