I have been doing some research into the development of characters from initial concept to final in game characaters. After some deliberation I decided to look into one of my favourite characters - Jak, from the Jak series (Jak and Daxter: the Precursor Legacy (2001), Jak II: Renegade (2003), Jak3 (2004) and JakX (2005), all on Playstation 2). All of these games were developed by Naughty Dog.

The concept artwork for this character was completed by artist Bob Rafei. I respect Refei as an artist because of his ability to show clear developement in his characters, showing the story of their life through the way that their appearance changes through years of developement:





From the developement in Rafei's work it is easy to see that not much is changed from concept to in-game model. The final concepts are clear and concise and easy to translate into 3d model.

The thing that I appreciate most about looking at Rafei's work is that it is possible to see the developement of his own abilities as an artist over the years, as well as the character.

After researching into this I now have a better knowledge of how important it is to show a clear crisp path of 2D development that can then be easily realised into 3D.