Hi guys. Yes, the look of the villagers comes from Carla and I throwing ideas back and forth, she pretty much covered it. There's a lot of experimentation and trial and error on my end, sometimes the sprites take a few "passes" before the read well at the final size I render them out at. Heads in particular sometimes come about from experimentation, I'll send her a render, she'll suggest a change or a different color, and that's basically how we come up with them.

I have a background as a painter and illustrator, but I generally just go straight into my 3d modelling program, cooking stuff up from Carla's influences and directions, and throwing some of my own her way for approval. And the colors and outfit patterns are done in Photoshop with my Cintiq tablet. I have my favorites among the villager models, once the game is launched, I'll point them out. ;-)

-Matt