Rayman Raving Rabbids: The evolution of… DAAAAAA!!!!
Since (and before) the release of Ubisoft‘s Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Wii (and soon enough, on the Xbox 360 and DS as well), many have already been smitten by the fluffy bundles of impending disco doom. And the person behind it all? No other than character designer Hubert Chevillard. In his latest update on the dev blog for RRR over at IGN, Chevillard explains just how exactly the Rabbids came to be what they are now: “everybody’s favorite fauna” in his words, and “Ubisoft‘s impromptu mascot” in ours.
According to him, the concept of the Rabbids plotting to take over the world and all that, was actually Michel Ancel‘s idea (so I suppose this makes HIM the mastermind, and Chevillard the evil genius). So, working from Ancel’s original sketch of the Rabbid in his head, Chevillard and his team then proceeded to create various 3D models that would keep up with the delirious bunny menace that rabbids are meant to be. Working with various prototypes, they eventually hit upon the rabbid look which we are now all familiar with. They then added the big, open mouth, and the two, big teeth which were inspired by Japanese cartoon characters.
More details, images and a video on the evolution of Rabbids, right after the Jump!
Since (and before) the release of Ubisoft‘s Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Wii (and soon enough, on the Xbox 360 and DS as well), many have already been smitten by the fluffy bundles of impending disco doom. And the person behind it all? No other than character designer Hubert Chevillard. In his latest update on the dev blog for RRR over at IGN, Chevillard explains just how exactly the Rabbids came to be what they are now: “everybody’s favorite fauna” in his words, and “Ubisoft‘s impromptu mascot” in ours.
According to him, the concept of the Rabbids plotting to take over the world and all that, was actually Michel Ancel‘s idea (so I suppose this makes HIM the mastermind, and Chevillard the evil genius). So, working from Ancel’s original sketch of the Rabbid in his head, Chevillard and his team then proceeded to create various 3D models that would keep up with the delirious bunny menace that rabbids are meant to be. Working with various prototypes, they eventually hit upon the rabbid look which we are now all familiar with. They then added the big, open mouth, and the two, big teeth which were inspired by Japanese cartoon characters.
Later on, when the “Bunnies Can’t” series of videos started to be shown, they then came up with the idea of giving the rabbids blue eyes during their calm moments, and then having them change to red during moments of stress (or when they’re just being plain neurotic). This turned out to be a good move, since the red eyes are still reminiscent of the red-eyed, albino rabbits which people are familiar with.
Once they got the basic rabbid look pat down, it was then up to the team to come up with styles of rabbids which would fit the various levels and settings of the game. Hence, we have the Maid-rabbid, Super Bunny, Ninja-rabbid, Terminator-rabbid, Chef-rabbid, Pirate-rabbid, and many others. According to the creators, when it came to modeling the rabbids, “Their pure stupidity really makes it fun to manipulate them and to put them within the various game contexts.” Amen to that.
So there. That’s how the rabbids came to be, and how the world became a slightly happier place.
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