This shot was a personal project of mine inspired by a interaction we had with a fox. In the beginning of the pandemic I was out in the forest with my wife and kids and a fox crossed our path. It was completly unaware of us at first and was having its own calm moment in the sun, then when it finally noticed us it ran off. It was a beautiful moment for me, with everything that was going on in the world, to see a creature that was oblivious to it all. I made a more fantasy version of the scene I encountered while still aiming to capture the feeling of the moment. To help with that I recorded some audio from the forest that day, then i made studies of fox anatomy and design to still keep the motion realistic.

Video breakdown of the process for fox loop

Time laps video of fox sketches I made while in preparation for the shot while I watched tutorial videos by Aaron Blaise on approaches to fox anatomy.

First pass thumbnails and plans for the forest background/foreground painting