Bird animation tutorial by Brendan Body

What are the chances? Brendan Body, who worked as a lead animator on Legend of the Guardians (released here on the 15th), has just posted this in-depth tutorial with many tips and observations on bird flight. Couldn't be more useful when it comes to animating our falcon.

Jewel designs

Three posible design routes for the jewel. I've tried to use bird and cage symbols wherever posible. Your comments please!

Environment paintings

The fish-eye panorama was made for panning in the animatic. I prefer these slightly more subdued colours to some of the earlier images.