Jerome Ranft and Joe Farrer both had clay in common, and by the end of the day, he was making fun of Jerome, which he loved. Ranft jokes, "It was like a warm hug from that guy, because he was laughing at the way I worked."
It's a great sign once you start talking about those details, that the general form is being accepted and it's what the design leads are going to want as the character, which is the goal. The goal is to pre-visualize character design.
John Lasseter and the other executives at Pixar provide us with the details on CARS 3, ranging from the Chevy parts department to gender reassignments, during a media Q&A.
Pixar’s Jay Shuster (Production Designer), Michael Comet (Characters Supervisor), and Jude Brownhill (Directing Animator) get down to the details on the Cars 3 animation process.
UPDATE: Zootopia wins the 2017 Oscar & the Golden Globe for Best Animated Picture! When the need arose for automotive designs for the animals in the movie, J Mays was the natural choice. Here's the AutoDesignO exclusive interview with Mr. Mays.