Wednesday 12 September 2012

Ok, so I just had a more fantastic Idea


I was sitting musing on how to storyboard my mountain idea... when I was reading on wikipedia about greyhounds (you know what kind of strange places the internet takes you to!). Then it hit me. A cheetah and greyhound race... :v

Let me explain a little bit.  When I was a kid, from the ages of about 7-13, I had many obssessions. Some usual for kids, yknow: Pokemon Cards, Spyro the Dragon, SMTV: Live, skateboarding... and some not so. I've always loved animals, and I still do, but when I was that age I was particularly passionate about big cats. I think it was the program 'Big Cat Diary's' fault, but I was obsessed with cheetahs- I thought they were the coolest cats around! I used to get a lot of stick for it, always drawing them and boring people with random facts about them, draw spots on my hands, I even had really sciency books about the species. I pretty much wanted to be one. I know I know, what a furry.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, that is how I got into animation (besides the lion king and looney tunes ofc). I used to doodle runcycles in the corners of my textbooks, make flipbooks out of pads of sticky notes. I got pretty good at them too, and it remains one of my strengths today. I understand quadruped walk and runcycles better than I do human ones, if that makes sense. I always wanted to do a proper animation involving a cheetah some day, whether just animating a hunt or doing something more story oriented. Which brings me back to the subject of this brief!

My idea is inspired by an article I came to after a bit of research. In the 1930's, several races took place involving dogs and 2 cheetahs. The cheetahs won, of course :D I thought despite the obvious issues with animal rights (don't get me started!), that must have been something else to watch.
But then I thought, cats being the independant bastards that they are, those cats must have taken some bribing. Imagine if one had turned on the handler instead of chasing the hare!
There lies my story. An arrogant, boastful owner has somehow acquired a cheetah and disguises it poorly as a dog, parading it past the other dog handlers and even the poor-sighted judge, who probably cannot see his hand infront of his own face.
However, the cat he has is very grumpy, and after reluctantly getting into the trap, the bell goes and the dogs race round. The cat flies ahead but instead wheels around and goes after the handler, comically chasing him out of the stadium as a dog wins the race.
It'll make more sense when I storyboard it out, but this would be so fun to make XD

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