Apes galore!

To get ideas about character design, I looked at a variety of different types of apes from popular culture.


I. R. Baboon

Quite the contrast from wise old Rafiki, this baboon is dim-witted and very silly. His character design is full of interesting shapes though, like his muzzle and protruding buttocks (hehe).






The apes from Tarzan have a multitude if different facial expressions throughout the film, I'd like my baboon to be expressive too.







Kerchak has the type of build I'd like for my baboon- huge and scary-looking.



This is a great machete of Kerchak for the artists and animators to look at for a 3D view of the character. I will be making a machete to help when it comes to modelling my baboon.



Rafiki is wise and old, yet still lively, agile and mischievous. The Disney style characters tend to look too realistic, I'd like to exaggerate and play with the baboon's proportions a little so the character will be instantly recognisable.





This is Sky Ape, a flying super hero ape from a black and white comic book series. I like this character's simplicity.



Let's not forget Evil Monkey!



And of course I will look at imagery of real baboons too.

Look at those teeth!



I like mandrills as they are the most colourful baboon species.