Michelle Cao
Biding Ox
Animation, 3 second loop

I imagined a more monstrous character with which I wanted to study how windblown hair and breathing moves. With this character, I’ve always been trying to push her ferocity, both in motion and in design. Many elements of her appearance are inspired by how the eyes and teeth of dragons are drawn in many traditional Chinese works, as well as the teeth in masks of monsters across many Asian cultures. For me, this character embodies and serves as an outlet for a restless energy and primal intensity sitting deep in me, which is something I want to further explore in my art practice. I gained a better understanding of hair physics with this piece, as well as a better idea of where I might want to take her character’s design in the future. I also really learned how to efficiently navigate the Autodesk Flipbook feature after having to manually color in every frame, as well as how to use Krita!