 American Exitus artist Charles Zembillas was hired ( alongside environmental artist Joe Pearson ) and met with weekly to design and develop Willie and the other characters of the game . It was decided early on that there would be no connection between the real animal and Willie 's final design . Instead the design of the character was determined " 51 % by technical and visual necessity and 49 % by inspiration " . To determine the color of Willie 's fur , Gavin created a list of popular characters and their colors , and then made a list of earthly background possibilities ( such as forests , deserts , beaches , etc . ) . Colors that wouldn 't look good on the screen were strictly outlawed , such as red , which would " bleed horribly " on older televisions . Orange was selected as the color of Willie 's fur as the last available color . Willie 's head was made large and neckless to counter the low resolution of the screen and allow Willie 's facial expressions to be discernible . Jason Rubin noted the increased difficulty in turning Willie 's head with this type of design . Small details such as the gloves , the spots on Willie 's back and a light @-@ colored chest were added to help the player determine what side of Willie was visible based on color . Willie was not given a tail or any flappy straps of clothing due to the PlayStation 's inability to properly display such pixels without flickering . The length of Willie 's pants was shortened to keep his ankles from flickering as they would with longer pants . Andy Gavin owns the original ink sketches of Crash by Charles Zembillas . 
