Biomimicry: Cheetah Morphing into Paralympian

As one of my final development ideas I decided to look into a current example of biomimicry. I chose to focus on the innovative invention of the 'Flex-Foot' by Van Phillips, who was inspired by the hind leg of a cheetah. Phillips focused on this invention as he had lost a leg himself due to an accident in his early years and was determined to run again.

Therefore, I painted a short storyboard with watercolours, defining the image in pen, to see how I could morph the inspirational cheetah into its product of biomimicry.

The main focus of the storyboard imagery was the wash and transition of colour and the shape of the cheetah morhing into the athlete. I kept the shapes as simple as possible, avoiding detail to make the images more abstract and unique.

Below is a very short animation of how all the slides look together. (0.2 second gap between each image)

Overall I am happy with this technique. Even though my drawings were originally meant as roughs, I feel that the abstract versions work well and are more interesting in the sense that the audience have to think more about what is happening.

A longer animation made up of several abstracted images could be used as a final piece, presented on one or more of the televisions in the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre. The vibrancy of colour meets the brief of the client who asked for the building to be 'brightened up'.