Above: Bowerbird (2016) - Two birds share an aesthetic appreciation, raising the question: What's the difference between being great, and making something great?
Programs Used: Adobe Illustrator (concept art), Adobe Photoshop (stroyboards, color palette) Adobe Flash (animation), Adobe Premiere (animatic, combining animation and music for final export).
A bit about the birds: Male bowerbirds are known for building bowers, a twig construction used to attract a mate. Male bowerbirds decorate their bowers, collecting objects of a specific color en mass. There are many species of bowerbird, the one in this film is based off of the Satin Bowerbird. Click here to read more about the Satin Bowerbird.
Peacocks (male peafowl) are well known for their bright plumage and extravagant displays, which they use to attract mates. The peacock in this film is based off of the Indian Peafowl, click here to read more about the Indian Peafowl.
Below: Concept sketches showing various iterations of Bowerbird.
The color palette I created and used while animating.
Sketches trying to pin down the design for the bowerbird.
At one point I was considering creating the animation in After Effects, so I started out with angular designs made in Adboe Illustrator.
Below: Animatic from when the film involved an owl and a kingfisher in additon to the peacock.
In the first draft of the film, the protagonist was a quail who was envious of the impressive pulmage of other birds that lived in its neighborhood.
Drawn in Adobe Photoshop with a round brush at partial opacity.
Below: Stills from the final version of the film.
