Cheetah designs

Rarrr.

A.O.T.D. (Animal of the Day) Cheetah

I'm not going to talk much about cheetahs since I've already done much about them in earlier posts. One quick fact I will throw in is cheetahs are only member of the large cats that doesn't roar. When they fight they sort of sound like women yelling and screaming. It's actually kinda scary. They're built for running being the fastest land animal, however because of their slender frame, they're not good fighters. When they kill prey, they eat at lightening speed because if any predators come along to steal their meal, they will not fight.

Much of my animal art is heavily inspired by wildlife artist Kim Donaldson. Unfortunately he doesn't have a website, but here's a few samples. I have a book of his that's so beautiful called Africa: An Artist's Journal. I came across it amazingly in Borders' bargain section years back when I was in school for $5! I've since seen it on Amazon for $60! ZING! Anywho, amazing artist, born and raised in South Africa. He'll spend weeks at a time in the bush studying, sketching, and painting animals. I'm hoping to visit South Africa myself some day.

Test Run

Here's an early test for the Cheetah run cycle in Flash. I just want to start exploring body movement and gesture with it. Weight of course will be very important to capture as well. I've watched a LOT of footage thus far on cheetahs (with I'm sure more to come to aid me in this process). After I get all this down, along with more sketches and paintings, will be the tough part...Maya! I'm still very novice with the program and will be watching MANY tutorials, so I hope it will all pay off in the end. Either way, I'm lovin' this and having fun!
Side note: I saw Kung Fu Panda today, and loved it! The design of film from the backgrounds to the characters was beautiful and so colorful. I know that one of the people who designed the characters was artist Nicolas Marlet, who has also done work with Pixar, and someone who I greatly admire. The story was great, good message, and very inspirational, both aesthetically and in general. Thanks Dreamworks!

All Natural

Yes I can still do art if my computer dies, and no I'm not a photographer. I did this on large Canson paper, and of course I need some brush work in this conversion process from paper to computer. Regardless you get the idea. This is for my continuing cheetah project.