He's some more early concept art I dug up. Originally the carrion bird was to act like an Owl, which is often symbolically used in Film and Literature to show that every action taking place is being carefully observed.
The idea was that the Monster naturally preyed upon these birds, snatching them out of the air with his long slender fingers. When the monster's eyes were taken, and the blame strongly hinted towards the Shepherd as the culprit, the monster is forced to find easier prey. Thus the cycle of Karma returns to the evil Shepherd, as the monster begins stalking his sheep.
I wanted to put further emphasis on the theme of "An unbalanced Ecosystem" As when the monster is defeated, the birds are free to breed into plague proportions. The Shepherd, thinking the equilibrium of his world has been returned through the death of the antagonist, returns home to find the Carrion birds ceaselessly devouring his crops. With little to no choice left, the Shepherd is forced to eat his last precious lamb, and forever tormented by the act.
The story pokes fun at who the real monster is, thus allowing the monster to be both fearsome and sympathetic, and the Shepherd becomes both loving and cruel.
This story was rather dark, and I found the 3d style of the piece was better suited to something light heartened. But after being force fed a number of Disneyeske, kid friendly short films, which seem to dominate the 3d market, I began to think that backing something hideously dark and twisted would be well adapt at making it into film festivals.
The bird in itself however was way too complex for a student, and a limited team to pull off. Usually words like "plague proportions" can be translated into animation terms as accurately as "Fuckloads of endless work" or "Epic unrealistic goals."
Due to his ability to hop about on the ground, as well as fly, the character required an advanced rig, and considering we were already pushing 3 characters (the bird being the 4th) we sadly decided to axe him, as well as the theme of an Unbalanced Eco-System.
Probably the most frustrating thing about animation is having ideas, but not having the man power to pull them off.
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