In a New York Times article, the people behind the Pixar 3-D animated feature “Up" talk
about how they designed the characters.
While they’re talking mainly about visual identity for animation, it’s not too hard to see how you could transfer some of these concepts to creating written characters for a novel or a live-action screenplay. They also talk about the research they did. Here's part of what they say about the way they came up with the dog:
"Dug is overweight and lovable. His owner has fitted him with an electronic collar that allows him to vocalize his thoughts. (The creators of “Up” wanted to avoid the humanlike talking animals that populate many animated films.) Mr. Nierva said Dug was inspired by a dog seen on the Internet. “Pete was looking around to adopt a dog and found this golden retriever-Labrador mutt,” he said. To help create a realistic-looking animated animal the designers took another road trip. “We went to the local dog day care, and we would ask the owners if we could see the overweight dogs,” he said. “We wanted to see how the fat hangs on the dog and how the fur hangs and, in movement, how that belly jiggle works.”
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