In the “Who Is Bud Luckey?” short (to be found on The Incredibles Special Edition DVD), there’s an (edited) interchange between John Lasseter and Bud Luckey that goes something along the lines of:
Lasseter: I think the one thing I’ll thank Bud for, more than anything else, is Bud is the one that made Woody a cowboy in Toy Story.
Luckey: John gives me credit for designing Woody, but I drew 200 cowboys and he picked the right one.
This is a great example of how producing a large quantity of variations on a theme lets you then choose the most appropriate for your project, and how someone with Luckey’s experience knows how vital that is to making something awesome.
-David (@dwlt)