Modern Cowboy – Animation Breakdown

Here I included some of my process regarding the creation of an animation for the “Art on The Marquee” outdoor digital art exhibition. This opportunity was given to me by Signature Boston, Boston Cyber Arts and the MCCA. Please feel free to come to the open art reception.

The initial inspiration was from a book I was reading about Max Ernst, one of my favorite artists. I have also been watching a lot of classical western films, and the two influences converged together to make an animation in which I was interested. I don’t think one can make a cowboy animation without using Edward Muybridge for reference. I also wanted to add motion to this initial creative direction.

Initial Motion Study

This is my initial color study in cohorts with some animation where I aimed to combine my art style with the initial concept. I found this pretty interesting, and I decided to move forward with the cowboy scene. My original idea was to call this modern cowboy, then I wanted to see what would happen if I bred the animation with a Patriot. However, I found the New England landscape a little restrictive to my art style and decided to stick with the desert theme.

The style of the animation was born from a bunch of cactus drawings, I loved working on this project because I had total control of art direction.

Towers were drawn with ink on paper, scanned, painted in Photoshop, and then taken to illustrator and Vectorized.

Below you can see my initial animation proposal on the left. To the right, you can see the almost completed preview of the animation. Next, we will see in on the giant screen in front of the convention center.