why do only certain characters have siblings?

[rosie]

Why only certain characters have friends of their own species and other don't?

[Malte279]

Let me tell you about birds and bees...
In case of Littlefoot there were several other eggs in the original movie all of which seem to have been destroyed before they hatch.
In case of Cera her sisters and her mum just "disappeared" and nobody knows for sure what happened. Apparently they were not considered suitable story elements.
For the same reason the siblings of Ducky and Petrie might have disappeared, but they didn't. Most of the time they don't play any real role though (Petrie's siblings being given at least a minor role in LBT 7, 12, and a TV episode, while Ducky's are passive so far).

[landbeforetimelover]

They don't add characters that have no purpose.  Animation is hard and I'm sure they don't want to make it any harder than it has to be.  If the story doesn't need any siblings for a particular character, they're not gonna add them for no reason.

[Malte279]

There are often characters in the background though which are not part of the story. I don't think it would be more difficult to create non-interacting background characters who could be recognized as the siblings of other characters than general non-interacting background characters.

[landbeforetimelover]

The question is why would they do it?  They're trying to pop these out of the production studios and onto the shelves as fast as possible.  They're not going to add useless animation where it's not needed.  They might have added siblings once in one movie just so they have characters to work with down the line if they really need them, but they aren't going to add them any more than need be.

[Kor]

We don't see the siblings all the time.  They may indeed have many friends outside of their own family, but that is not shown since they are not the focus of the series and movies.  Also they reduce the number of characters that are animated, likely why Ducky's father is hardly shown, and there seems to be so few kids in the great valley, even characters that should live there and be shown like Mr. Thicknose & the bullies are not really shown outside of the movie they are part of the main plot.

[Malte279]

In LBT 2, 3, and 4 there are still glimpses at dinosaurs though who might be easily interpreted as Cera's mother or siblings of her. Putting those in the background made no more effort than putting other not active characters in the background which are still present in the later sequels. I don't see why they had to change that original concept of characters being present but not acting.

[landbeforetimelover]

I'm sure the LBT artists charge A LOT of money to draw the things they draw and any new character has to be DESIGNED, which I would imagine costs Universal more money then just having the artists just draw the same character over and over again.  Think of it.  They probably have to pay big for each new character because instead of just drawing the character, they have to totally design that character out of their own mind and transfer it onto paper.  That's a lot harder than just drawing one of the main characters that we see all the time.

[Kor]

I assume they are salaried employees like the janitors, working from x to x hours.

[landbeforetimelover]

Animators and artists are different.  Most of them don't just contract out for a job.  The company that hired them tells them what needs to be done and the artist gives them a total.  I'm sure that total represents how much work drawing the characters will be and I'm sure they charge more if they have to create a brand new one out of thin air.

[Cancerian Tiger]

It seems as though the LBT world is much like the human world in that some children have siblings, some are single children, and some have deceased siblings.  It would seem too ideal for the Gang to all have a "full-house" of siblings yet rather strange for all of them to be single children.  I'm not certain the animation team is entirely to blame :unsure:...

[Malte279]

I still don't see why non-active background characters which can be identified as Ducky's siblings (e.g. LBT 8) should be more expensive or more difficult to create than non-active characters who can not be ascribed to any character's family. Note that I am not referring to any active or talking character (such as Petrie's siblings in LBT 12) but really just to mere background figures without any direct involvement in the story.

[Kor]

Especially the way they have cgi backgrounds.  They could come up with some cgi short clips of some kids playing in the background, good for use on medium and long shots, of some different species and colors, playing on land and in water.  Some adults, or kids, standing around eating or drinking water, flyers of various ages, ect, including some shots of siblings of the main characters.  They can also use this to show 1 movie only characters in the background like Mr. Thicknose, the bullies, Guido, Tinysauruces, and others in the background in medium and long shots.  Even if the cgi animation of say Mr. Thicknose was a total of only 1-2 minutes that is enough for several movies or more before they'd use the same 5 or so seconds here and there.

[Vaan360]

Malte279 Posted: Sep 3 2008, 03:03 AM

I still don't see why non-active background characters which can be identified as Ducky's siblings (e.g. LBT 8) should be more expensive or more difficult to create than non-active characters who can not be ascribed to any character's family. Note that I am not referring to any active or talking character (such as Petrie's siblings in LBT 12) but really just to mere background figures without any direct involvement in the story.

Agree,I don¥t think it would be that expensive to do that or so worky,it would be better to see ohter kids,  we rarely see any kids if not the gang itself.

[Kor]

Very true.  Like I mentioned they could do that with at least long shots.  I think there are some long shots of the gang as cgi characters, why not some other characters, even unnamed kids.  Or even medium or in the background.  Each one can be even just short animated clips that they use from time to time.   Like some kids chasing each other, playing in the water.  Things like that.  Once done the clip of the kids can be dropped into the background of a scene.

[NeoGenesis005]

I guess that happens just to bring out the Story polt for the Sequels and the Episodes.