We hope you're having a wonderful day, and thank you for joining us to take a little look into our design process again! Today's character: Orio!
When we first started sketching Orio, we were really just exploring - throwing down blobs, bacteria-inspired shapes, and all sorts of wiggly little creatures to see what felt right. Even though the early designs went in a bunch of strange directions (some of them hilariously reminiscent of Plankton from Spongebob), one thing stayed surprisingly consistent from the very beginning: the softness. The gooey-ness. The absolute squishability we wanted Orio to radiate. No matter how odd the silhouette got, Orio always needed to look like something you could poke, prod, or gently smush, but what would return to it's original form.
As we refined the designs, we found ourselves leaning toward simpler forms, great-expressive eyes, and eventually a subtle cat-like ears naturally formed around those soft, blobby foundations. Following this trailer, we truly loved how expressive ears can be! It had become a must from then on.
Moving into this next stage felt a bit like we were just letting the drawings lead us. Every time we sketched Orio, they kept drifting toward something a little cat-ish, so we decided to follow that path and see where it went. We tried everything ranging ebtween fully fluffy, chonky cats and these funny little cat-blobs that still clung to their gooey origins. None of them felt quite right on their own, but each version taught us something. Little by little, Orio started finding their own balance point: that oversized head, those tiny pointy ears, and a small, soft body that still carried the squishiness we fell in love with at the start. It was the moment where we stopped trying to decide what Orio should be, and instead realized they were already showing us who he was :D You could just imagine the ears and hat peeking from beneath corner, table, listening intently with their cute, yet mischievous form ^^
Some of you may already know, that Orio is a Metamorph! That means they can change their size and shape and just happens to be every so slightly transparent! That posed a very important question: how do we make Orio stand out, if people can literally see right through him?! Although we've tried several colours and loved the way they worked together, we had to find the perfect match for Orio's vibrant personality - one that would still highlight their presence like a big sign saying: HERE I AM! The answer was pink! Strong, really eye-catching and absolutely unmissable. It also added a little bit of extra magic to Orio's design - pink is a rare sight in animals for sure! And so Orio came to be, as the perfect little helper and the greatest friend for Lunne! We truly love how they come together, each very different and yet unapologetically, equally unique and vibrant!
We hope you enjoy seeing this little look into our design process! 💖
💬 Tell us in the comments: What other behind-the-scenes looks would you like to see? ^^
And until then… stay magical! 🌟