Oz was always going to be a ferret. In this phase there should have been more development for the type of symbolism behind the secondary leads animal but the initial idea was that ferrets are cunning and strong minded so it made for a very confident second lead. Oz wears a proud top hat with a cane helping him stand over most other plushies.
The reason I chose plaid/flannel for his pattern was because his design is meant to be reminiscent of prestigious toys at Christmas that have flannel in their bear toys. However this backfired since it made him look much more bear like which ended up being an issue when colouring. Secondly flannel is associated a lot with the west and lumberjacks not exactly prestigious but in this case it worked out in the end.
In his final design his hat was made to look even larger, this was because it was too reminiscent of a character from a horror game franchise so it separate them more I opted to extending his hat.
I used an Albino ferret for the reference of the colouring. This design choice worked well for this character since he is a proud ferret the white coat looks upkept and prestigious unlike Sol which is much more dilapidated. The white coat stands out too from other dolls that will be appearing in the animation later on. Originally he was meant to be twice the height of Sol but when we put them side by side it was apparent that was too small so we made Sol be 2/3 of the height of Oz.
Overall Oz is a good character however there could have been more thought behind the type of animal chosen as well as the main colour associations with him since flannel again could be substituted for a more premium texture but even with these flaws Oz still stands out well in the final animation.
