{"id":49335,"date":"2025-06-23T16:46:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T07:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49335"},"modified":"2025-06-23T16:46:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T07:46:59","slug":"deltarunes-tenna-was-created-all-the-way-back-in-2016-but-toby-fox-abandoned-his-tremendously-bad-3d-prototype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/deltarunes-tenna-was-created-all-the-way-back-in-2016-but-toby-fox-abandoned-his-tremendously-bad-3d-prototype\/","title":{"rendered":"Deltarune\u2019s Tenna was created all the way back in 2016, but Toby Fox abandoned his \u201ctremendously bad\u201d 3D prototype\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Even though Tenna\u2019s first official appearance was in this year\u2019s <strong>Deltarune<\/strong> Chapter 3, creator Toby Fox conceptualized him back in 2016, roughly a year <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/undertale-sets-new-concurrent-player-record-almost-10-years-after-its-initial-release\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">after Undertale was released<\/a>. The character went through several redesigns before becoming the lovable (and loud) game show host that fans now know him as.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">About &quot;Tenna.&quot; I invented this character a long time ago. In 2016, I bought a Kinect in order to rotoscope his movements, but I quickly abandoned this idea. I also wanted him to do MMD dances (I also abandoned this idea). Anyway, this is why I was &quot;learning 3D&quot; at the time. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7yw1iG0Om9\">https:\/\/t.co\/7yw1iG0Om9<\/a><\/p>&mdash; tobyfox (@tobyfox) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tobyfox\/status\/1935631048848871659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 19, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Fox reveals that Tenna was the reason he was practicing 3D animation back in October 2016. Using an Xbox Kinect, he attempted to rotoscope his movements onto Tenna. As a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/tobyfox\/status\/782288073098919936\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rough walking animation<\/a> was the best he could do at the time, Fox quickly abandoned the idea (he also had plans for Tenna to do MikuMikuDance-style dances using the animation program but abandoned those as well).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Fox\u2019s initial plan was to render Tenna in a manner similar to the characters in Capcom\u2019s Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, the end result ended up looking \u201ctremendously bad\u201d and he slowly abandoned the idea.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It should be obvious, but I needed a lot of help to make Tenna. All of Tenna&#39;s 3D (including the intro) was modeled, animated, posed, and rendered by the amazing and talented <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PIXELATEDCROWN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PIXELATEDCROWN<\/a> . (You might know her from making 3D Toriel&#8230;)<\/p>&mdash; tobyfox (@tobyfox) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tobyfox\/status\/1935635308231770167?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 19, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Tenna\u2019s final design was the result of several artists working together. His initial design and poses were created by Fox, whereupon concept artist Gigi D.G. polished the designs and created Tenna\u2019s turnaround (allowing the character to be seen from multiple angles). Artists Clairevoire, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Everdraed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Everdraed<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SmallBuStudio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lindsay and Alex Small-Butera<\/a>, and Audrey worked on Tenna\u2019s static sprite frames, intro, intro poses, and typography respectively. Finally, all of Tenna\u2019s 3D animations were created by Chelsea Saunders, a.k.a. <a href=\"https:\/\/chelseasaunders.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PIXELATEDCROWN<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1342\" height=\"753\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1342px) 100vw, 1342px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250623-49335-001.jpg\" alt=\"Deltarune Tenna\" class=\"wp-image-49338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250623-49335-001.jpg 1342w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250623-49335-001-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250623-49335-001-768x431.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That makes seven more artists who worked on Tenna as compared to when Fox created him all those years ago. Tenna has come a long way since Fox\u2019s first 3D animated render of him, and all that hard work combined with <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/how-deltarune-and-undertale-use-manual-story-progression-to-make-you-laugh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fox\u2019s writing<\/a> has made him <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/deltarune-creator-toby-fox-didnt-expect-one-of-the-games-new-characters-to-be-as-well-liked-as-they-are\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a favorite among Deltarune fans<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deltarune Chapters 1-4 is now available for Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, PC (macOS and Windows), and PlayStation 4 and 5.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It turns out, Toby Fox invented Deltarune&#8217;s Tenna right after Undertale came out, but the first prototype got abandoned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":49337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-49335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie-games","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Deltarune\u2019s Tenna was created all the way back in 2016, but Toby Fox abandoned his \u201ctremendously bad\u201d 3D prototype\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It turns out, Toby Fox invented Deltarune&#039;s Tenna right after Undertale came out, but the first prototype got abandoned.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/deltarunes-tenna-was-created-all-the-way-back-in-2016-but-toby-fox-abandoned-his-tremendously-bad-3d-prototype\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deltarune\u2019s Tenna was created all the way back in 2016, but Toby Fox abandoned his \u201ctremendously bad\u201d 3D prototype\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It turns out, Toby Fox invented Deltarune&#039;s Tenna right after Undertale came out, but the first prototype got abandoned.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/deltarunes-tenna-was-created-all-the-way-back-in-2016-but-toby-fox-abandoned-his-tremendously-bad-3d-prototype\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-23T07:46:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-23T07:46:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250623-49335-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1348\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"758\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Deltarune\u2019s Tenna was created all the way back in 2016, but Toby Fox abandoned his \u201ctremendously bad\u201d 3D prototype\u00a0 - 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