I drew up some redesign ideas for the Big Bright World characters.
These are very, VERY likely not their final designs. I'm just letting you know what I'm going for. These are just ideas I have for their designs. Think of this as concept art.
Queen Carnelia is a peahen.
The clothing she wears is, of course, very elaborate, and inspired by Indian (Rajasthani) clothing!
I was thinking she would look GORGEOUS in a rajputi poshak, or some kind of lehenga.
I'm thinking of the embroidery patterns being gemstone-themed, if that's okay. (Elegancia has gemstone theming.)
In the past, I drew her with a beauty mark on her cheek, but she can have a bindi instead.
I drew Carnelia wearing a rakhdi, and her daughter wearing a tikka.
She could wear a nath on her beak.
I see her with some kind of choker. It could be based on a jadau kundan choker.
She can wear long necklaces based on rani haar.
Bangles! And maybe forearm bands resembling a baju band.
How could haath phool look in this style?
She could even wear anklets, and/or toe rings (bichua).
Carnelia has two kids, who are also peafowl. They're twins, and her daughter is the older twin.
Carnelia's daughter was named Anastasia, but now, this is VERY subject to change.
I see her with a tikka. She could also wear a rakhdi like her mom, but I want to give them distinct designs.
She could also wear a choker and bangles.
I imagine her dress resembling a ghagra choli.
The embroidery could also be themed around gemstones and diamonds and the like.
Carnelia's son was named Alfrendo, but this is also VERY subject to change.
I imagine him wearing a headdress based on a pagri.
His outfit could be based on a dhoti, but but I also see it taking influence from a bandhgala.
I drew him wearing shoes in the past, so he can wear juttis.
Germafrost. He's still a German shepherd/ice unicorn hybrid.
In this world, there are two types of unicorns- warm unicorns and ice unicorns. Germafrost is partly an ice unicorn; they look like they're made of snow, ice, and ice cream. Unikitty is partly a warm unicorn; they resemble kirins, and also western unicorns.
I want to redesign Germafrost to where he isn't a Unikitty/Puppycorn clone.
But, I still think that dogs and cats in this world look at least somewhat similar to them.
He's canonically babyfaced, so he looks like a puppy.
He's just a little bigger than Unikitty and Puppycorn.
His horn is an ice spike.
He doesn't have a crown this time. I see Germafrost making the conclusion that he doesn't want to be king. (Neapolitan, on the other hand, does.)
His ears are pointed outward.
He has somewhat thicker eyebrows.
His eyes shine like ice crystals. (I drew triangular shines on them.)
His snout is more rigid/square than Puppycorn's.
His collar now has sugar sparkles and an ice gem on it.
There are iceberg patterns on his paws.
His tail resembles spikes/sheets of ice.
His back is always slanted, even when he isn't flying.
Germafrost's family will look similar to him, but they will each have different theming.
Dairycone has ice cream/dessert theming.
Snowcorn has snow theming.
Crystalline (RIP) had crystal theming.
Neapolitan has triple-flavors theming.
Can you tell that Germafrost's theming is ice?
I once had the idea that some of his family members could be another dog breed, such as huskies. I didn't use it because I didn't want to rip off Unikitty and Puppycorn being different species.
Germafrost is a German shepherd, but I don't see him being coded as anything. (He doesn't have to be German.)
Thus, he can be one of the characters in Big Bright World who is open to interpretation.
Piano. She is a hybrid of an Awassi sheep and booza.
My idea is that she's cake-flavored, but she could be another flavor.
She's squarish to match the show's pseudo-Lego style.
Her wool goes up high AND down low, to just below her shoulders. Booza is very stretchy.
I drew her with cake toppings sprinkled in her wool. There could also be almonds in it.
Her wool is brown from the neck up.
The bottom of her face can be a lighter shade.
Piano is a tall woman. Awassi sheep are pretty big, from my understanding.
I want Piano to wear something elegant, but business-like.
Here, I drew her with a turtleneck shirt and a long, fancy coat. She's also got a pair of trousers and some boots.
Maybe she can wear a belt, too.
Piano's parents are from Ice Cream Land's booza area. It can be called Leben, which refers to fermented milk or yogurt. (Also, it kind of sounds like Lebanon, which that area takes inspiration from.)
She was raised in its gelato area, which is called Gelataria (and is Italian-inspired).
Piano and her family are all very smart!
Piano's dad was named Jamison, but I'll probably rename him to something like Jamil.
He is an Awassi sheep and a tall man.
He's got big, swirly horns.
He has brown wool, but it's lighter than Piano's wool.
Maybe there can be a white patch of wool atop his head?
A more oblong, hexagonal face? (In contrast to Piano's squarish face...)
He is a renowned concert pianist. That's what inspired Piano's name. She'd go on to be a pianist herself, as well as an operatic soprano.
Piano's mom is shorter than her husband and daughter.
Her name was originally Dawn, but I might change that. (Fajar means dawn in Arabic, right?)
She is a booza creature. She's cake-flavored, but again, I might change it.
I drew her with her booza "hair" stretched and swirled into a bun. There are also sprinkles and nuts in it.
She wears a winter coat that resembles a lab coat.
My idea was that she is a chemist and mathematician.
I gave Piano this whole plot where her mom learned to respect her interests and chosen path, because Piano didn't want to get involved with science. But, everything is subject to change!
Maybe some of the booza people could wear head coverings, such as a khimar or al-amira?
Unikitty can do head coverings! In the episode Unikitty News, there was a very brief shot of nuns.
Waterlily. She's gonna be a moon jelly/crown jellyfish hybrid. The crown jellyfish half represents her status as Mari royalty.
@/lizardlullabye on ArtFight sent me an attack with this redesign.
Her hair is a moon jelly's tentacles, and it's styled in a high bun.
She wasn't gonna have any eyes, because most jellyfish in real life don't have any. This was going to be a metaphor for blindness/low vision.
She has rhopalia, but she uses navigation tools like a seashell cane, or something like that.
Please let me know if I should give her eyes, and just let her be blind/have low vision that way.
Her arms are jellyfish arms/tentacles.
Her body is wide and pretty pear-shaped.
Her clothes are based off a hanfu, but they resemble a jellyfish's body parts.
I don't know. Like I said, Waterlily is the princess of Marili, so I imagined her usually wearing something presentable and semi-formal. Something along those lines. She doesn't need to wear that all the time, but I wanted to give her SOMETHING to indicate that she is a princess.
In this world, merpeople can ask to have legs made for them so that they can go on land. When they swap their tails, tentacles or legs out for land legs, they get the ability to breathe air.
In her land form, Waterlily's jellyfish bell could turn into a weimao.
Her land feet would also be jellyfish arms/tentacles.
I definitely see her with shoes, but I don't know what they'd look like.
Waterlily's parents are the rulers of Marili.
Their clothes, like hers, are also based on traditional Chinese clothing.
Her dad is a crown jellyfish. His name was Nettle, but I should probably change it now that he's not a sea nettle anymore.
His jellyfish bell could resemble a mianguan, or some kind of futou.
His clothing looks like a crown jellyfish's body parts.
Her mom is a moon jellyfish. Her name was Moonlily.
Her clothes resemble a moon jelly's body parts.
Maybe her jellyfish bell could resemble a fengguan?
She could have a huadian, and some makeup.
One or both of Waterlily's parents actually could have eyes.
One or both of them could be blind like her.
One of them could be a hybrid of two different jellyfish species.
In this world, merpeople look more human than their regular animal counterparts, but they still look very non-human.
Shelltop is now a volcano snail/scaly-foot gastropod.
It reflects the sea volcano biome he's from, as well as the volcano symbolism I give him.
He can probably have small antennae eyes, as sea snails do.
His hair pokes out from beneath his shell. I had the idea that it's red.
Shelltop is an athlete. He is BUFF.
His chest is large and looks like volcano stone.
I see him having scales on his arms and his leg thing.
The scales on his leg thing could be split in the middle.
In his land form, Shelltop can have scaly pants!
Snails have one foot, so what if Shelltop was some kind of monopod on land?
My idea is that he's Indonesian-coded. I plan to have his home region take inspiration from the Lampung province.
In the show, Hawkodile often mentions karate. Maybe, similarly to him, Shelltop or one of his parents studied some form of pencak silat?
Edit (3/27/2026) - I've now decided to have Shelltop be Javanese instead of Lampung.
Shelltop's dad is a volcano snail, just like him.
He looks a LOT like his son. Almost exactly like him, which he often jokes about.
I also gave Shelltop a mom.
She was a clam, and here, she's supposed to be a giant clam. But, of course, she and Shelltop's dad are merpeople.
How do I make them look humanoid, but also not human?
To note: I'm considering changing some of the characters' family dynamics so that nuclear families with M/F parents won't be considered a norm that most people follow.
Careen Ingle, one of the show's directors, stated that these creatures don't have... THOSE parts. Children in this world are built with Lego pieces that look like the parents. The genders of the parents don't matter.
Some species will build their kids and then put them in an egg.
The way I see it, how many parents there are doesn't matter either. Some people have had a single parent all their lives with no others, and some people are the children of polyamorous relationships.
Some of the characters' families will be changed to a nontraditional dynamic.
Shelltop is the Seagang member who I'm particularly leaning towards changing in this way.
Spike is a hybrid of an octopus and a black sea urchin.
He's named Spike because sea urchins in Marili are named after sharpness/sharp things.
Spike was named and designed after Spyke from Splatoon.
He has a calm, kind expression in his eyes.
His eyes are bulgy because octopuses have bulging eyes.
Sea urchins in this world can style their spines.
Spike combs some spines down over his face and leaves the rest out.
His spines are also meant to be shaped like sun rays. I gave him sun theming.
His teeth are very sharp and pointed, like urchin spines.
There are also spines on his arms and torso.
Wristbands are a popular fashion choice in Marili. So are waist sashes.
Spike could have suckers on his hands.
Maybe his legs could have spines on them, too.
He could have an octopus beak like his maternal family do.
But, I want Spike to look like a good mix of both his parents.
Spike is fat/plus-sized, like many merpeople in Marili. He and his family take design inspiration from Ursula, so it didn't feel right for them to be thinner before. Besides, fat people can sing and dance like Spike loves to do!
And, many merpeople would have to have larger bodies to withstand the water pressure.
On land, Spike's body turns into a dance unitard. Octopuses are very flexible, and Spike is a theatrical performer.
He won't wear ANYTHING revealing. He has to be covered from his chest to his ankles. That's his personal preference.
Maybe on land, his feet could be octopus feet?
Spike's full name is Akída Lucian Ekhinosakis Cecae. His last name, which comes from his mother's side, is based on the word cecaelia, which refers to an octopus merperson.
And yes, I know that ακίδα is a feminine noun, but Spike isn’t a man. Or a woman. He doesn’t really care about that.
Edit (3/27/2026): I'm considering another Caribbean country for Spike and the Cecaes. Specifically, I'm considering Cuba, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, and Trinidad and Tobago.
I imagined that Spike and the octopus side of his family are Caribbean reef octopuses because they are from Marili's coral reef biome. So, I imagined that they are Caribbean-coded in some way. I still need to decide what nation.
I had them as Cuban, but Spike and his family live in the capital city of Marili since Celina works as a swordswoman. The capital of Marili is Chinese-inspired. But I still didn’t think it was a good idea to have them as Cuban if it implied they were gusanos.
They have octopus beaks and bulgy eyes with rectangular pupils, just like octopuses do.
Spike's mother is named Celina.
Her hair is shaped like a cloud. She has rain theming.
I gave her a seashell hair clip.
I also gave her raincloud wristbands.
She wore a waist sash like Spike, but maybe she can wear some kind of dress.
Spike's body is black, but Celina's is more of a dark blue.
I see her being a swordswoman, or some kind of royal guardswoman.
I said once that Celina is greyromantic. She mainly sought the emotional attachment that came with relationships.
Spike's grandmother is named Diana.
Her hair could be shaped like lightning bolts, or storm clouds with lightning bolts.
Maybe she could have a lightning/thunder ponytail?
I gave her lightning/storm motifs.
She has a bluish-grey body.
She is an engineer who works with undersea tech.
She could wear some kind of coat.
She was going be named Xenia, but now I'm thinking that's the name of Spike's PATERNAL grandmother.
Spike's grandfather is named Emilio.
He is a meteorologist, which explains the Cecae family's weather theming.
His hair is shaped like gusts of wind. Or ocean currents, because that's basically just ocean wind.
The sea urchin side of Spike's family are black sea urchins.
They all have sharp rhombus-shaped pupils with pinkish scleras, and VERY spiny bodies.
They have arms with spines on them, and hands with spiky fingers.
Spike's uncle is named Spear. He was originally going to be named Dory, after dory spears.
He is Needle's brother, but not even he could stop Needle from giving in to his greed.
I'm still trying to think about what Spear does for a living.
Maybe he plays the flute, and he taught Spike to play it.
Sea urchins don't have eyes, so I was thinking that Spear won't have eyes.
Pin is his young daughter, and Spike's little cousin.
Her spines can be styled to look like spiky pigtails.
She can have little eyelash spines.
Her spines are still small because she's a kid.
Spear and Pin are on good terms with the Cecaes.
Needle is Spike's so-called dad.
He has a firmer, more disapproving look in his eyes.
He's probably more conventionally attractive, but he's a horrible person.
Needle is selfish and fame-hungry, only caring about profits.
Spike, on the other hand, is humble, kind, and doesn't chase fame and glory. He doesn't want to be anything like Needle.
Needle is always trying to make himself look good, but the Doom Lords would still like to recruit him.
After Celina divorced him, Needle tried to win her back by luring a sea monster to a market. It was destroyed with Spike and Waterlily inside it, but thankfully, someone got them out.
His actions got him banished from Marili, which is the worst punishment you can receive there.
Needle would definitely try to start a family blog/channel.
If social media was a thing when Spike was a kid (which it wasn't), Needle would have used him and Celina as an opportunity to go viral.
The sea urchin side of Spike's family comes from the mountainous biome that's full of benthic caves. That biome is Greek (Cretan) inspired.
I thought up a surname for them - “Ekhinosakis.”
Maybe Spear and Pin could wear something that reflects this.
There are more of these to come.
