Crash Bandicoot: WARPED - Uka Uka
The following art and commentary was posted by Charles Zembillas on his blog. Charles was one of the main artists for the game and provided many of the original designs and ideas for the series. Check out Charles's blog for more art and development history, including not just Crash Bandicoot but also many other projects, such as Jak & Daxter.
Origin of Uka Uka 1
Here we are in October already and a great way to usher in this special month is something special for the Crash fans.
On January 29 1998 while working with Naughty Dog on what was to be the third game of the series I began work on Uka Uka. He's the evil brother voodoo mask spirit that is in opposition to Aka Aku. While the later is tied to Crash Uka Uka is allied with Neo Cortex.
These are the first 3 sketches in order of their completion. They're photocopies of the originals made the day they were drawn at ND's studio at Universal. I dolt know if they've been published before. I tend to think this is the first time.
Origin of Uka Uka 2
Continuing with everyone's favorite evil voodoo spirit mask from Crash Bandicoot 3. The first two drawings are the last designs I did while working on the character on January 29 1998. At this point the look of Uka Uka had been pretty much finalized as per Naughty Dog. The follow up session on February 12 1998 started with a sketch of the definitive version of Uka Uka which is the third image below. These are photocopies of the originals made on the day I created them to keep for my records which I'm able to share with you now.
Origin of Uka Uka 3
Here's the last body of work I created for the development of Uka Uka for Crash 3. These drawings are dated March 26 1998. The look for Uka Uka had been defined and now it was time to establish his relationship with Neo Cortex. If this series Cortex is being chastised for his incompetence and inability to deal with Crash. These are photocopies of the originals. They've probably been posted online prior to this although I don't know if all three have. In any case I hope you enjoy them.
