The Night Pig actually had a bit of an interesting history to him, because when I was a kid playing with toys, I used to pair the "Super Sheep" toy and a plush toy of the character Iggle Piggle from the hit TV show, "In The Night Garden" (which I don't actually own anymore because I've long since grown out of the show he's from), recasting his as Bat-Iggle Piggle (or sometimes even "Battle Piggle"):
I wouldn't end up actually doing the first design for The Night Pig until some time in 2017, when I was hopelessly trying to get Super Tomorrow 3D Land and Matilda 64 off the ground, where he would end up resembling is source of inspiration the least out of all the core characters I created for the franchise, in part because Iggle Piggle was a copyrighted character and even if I did re-jig Iggle Piggle's design, I don't think it would be enough to avoid the ire of Cbeebies' legal team anyway (and by extension the rest of the BBC's legal team):
This design for the Night Pig is actually quite interesting because here, he's not only missing the belt I would end up giving him in the current version, but he also has a pretty snazzy cape that totally wasn't just stolen from Batman, I swear. (you know, sarcasm is actually quite difficult to portray in text) Well regardless of this little fact, I actually originally envisioned him as a character that would get introduced in a hypothetical Super Sheep 2 (which is still being planned), but then after a while I decided he'd be good enough to put in the first one (which as of right now, still hasn't even been written yet), since I'd be able to establish his character and his relationship with Super Sheep right out of the gate, plus it means I could fill the original role that "bat Iggle Piggle" had as Super Sheep's sidekick when I'd play with the toys I had, although eventually I would drop the idea of The Night Pig being nothing more than Super Sheep's second banana.
Eventually, I decided to give The Night Pig his red belt (which I can't quite call iconic just yet):
I decided to give him this belt because I felt it would make the character look cooler, and it made the fact he wears his underpants on the outside of his suit less awkward (although given how these are cartoon animals, I doubt that The Night Pig not having his belt would really change much given the fact that he isn't a human being), but it was actually with his next design that I would make one of the biggest changes to the character. Are you ready? Take a look at this:
As you can see, The Night Pig decided to take the advice of a certain incredible fashion designer and lose the cape. The reason I decided to drop the cape in reality was actually because I felt like having the cape would actually make him way too similar to Batman visually. Looking back, this was perhaps the earliest instance (besides Lorange) where I changed a character's design specifically so that they'd be less similar to their source of inspiration, so in other words, I was starting to at least show some hint of originality for once. Now you might be thinking "Ok, great, he's become what he is today, can we go home now?" Well that's where you're wrong, as that's where The next design would come in:
The modifications I made this time were that his symbol now three colours instead of just two (the colours in question now being Pink, Yellow and White), which is supposed to give the impression of a crescent moon, I made his nose way smaller than it's ever been in the past, this also goes for the pig nose that's on his belt, I resized the nose because I figured doing so would give me more room to play with his expressions a little bit more whenever I feel the need to exaggerate his facial features when drawing the next piece of art for the character. (which admittedly, I haven't been doing as much due to being busy doing various projects)
Much like Lorange, The Night Pig would also go through a bit of a character overhaul in terms of their role in the story, but in this case, he goes from being a simple Batman knock off to becoming Super Sheep's adopted father who's parents will always be with him in spirit, as well as his stomach if you catch my drift. I'm not saying what happened out right is because the first (and last) person I told the current backstory to ended up finding it quite disturbing due to it contrasting with the more child friendly nature I want to give the Super Sheep franchise as a whole, although I do still want to have darker elements of the story to make things interesting. (it'll be a matter of finding a way to balance the light-hearted and cartoonish side and the darker, more gritty side so that I can bring out the best in both sides and tell stories that'll be capable of being something that people will really love) The other major change as a result is that The Night Pig and Lorange are now a super hero couple (think of Mr Incredible and Elastigirl in that regard, only they're incapable of having their own children biologically due to being two different species), the reason for this change was because I thought to myself "hey, what if DC's banner characters (those being Super Man, Batman and Wonder Woman) were all part of the same family instead?" And from then on (at least so far), Lorange and The Night Pig would become one of the first (and so far only) couples I ever created. (at least until Lorange dies in the hypothetical sequel and gets replaced by Hugo The Shape-Shifter, leading us to where the cartoons I've made thus far would take place)
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