I wanted to reboot the Up All Night animation that I've been "working" on for so long. Through the years I had various scenarios created in 3D. They ranged from wireframe test shots to fully rendered 3D stills and animations of vehicles and objects. The ideas were developing:
It all started with the main character. Actual work on him started in early 2011. Originally, I played it safe and made him simplistic and not very appealing. It wasn't my intention to make him boring, but it was the path of least resistance. Finally in March of this year, I took him to a higher level of completion and tried pushing his cartoony style further. He more closely matches the original sketch.
It actually happened by accident. I rigged the character up so I could pose him, and midway through that process, I decided to lower his eyes a little. But when I disconnected his eyes from the rig, they popped out and dropped near his upper lip! I wish I had a screen capture of it. I realized that I needed to change him to improve him. So I lowered his eyes. Funny how things happen.