Animal Gang - Hardy the Aardvark (research)

Now, here's some concept arts for animated shorts projects in the context of my animation curriculum ! I decided, for one of these, to exploit my gang of animals. But I also proposed other character designs for the same character ! Here, we have concept arts for the learned but pompous aardvark of the group, whom I formerly named Robert. But I thought that, even if it suited the character, it was still unoriginal, so I went for "Horace l'Oryctérope", that I shall translate by "Hardy the Aardvark" in english.

He was born in Kenya, and for a long time, he had a typical aardvark life, hiding from predators in burrows during the day, and hunting termites all night, sometimes moving away several kilometers from his burrow. But one night, he stumbled upon an old abandoned base of English missionaries. Feeling the presence of a predator nearby, he hid inside, and, curious, he started to investigate the old building. Hardy, thanks to a still functioning torch light, started to read the many books that rested here, used formerly by the ancient settlers to "educate" the natives. And so, during several weeks, the man made building became his new hiding place, and he learned all that he could in many subjects, may it be history, geography, and culture in general, while still going out at night to hunt. He indeed became a real scholar, but a slight sense of superiority had developed in him. And somehow, this sense became a social handicap for Hardy. A bit less than a year later, a lioness broke into the missionary base, so the aardvark had to run away from his now unsafe "home", and started to live in burrows again. Explorers noticed him, and were amazed by his capability to actually communicate with them. They told him about the zoo where other strangely intelligent animals were gathered, and he agreed to go live a safer life there, as long as he was given cultural distractions, and big jars full of termites each day.

Being an aardvark, his sense of smell and hearing are highly developed, and his claws are made to quickly dig deep burrows. Hardy also has vast knowledge on a whole bunch of subjects (though he admits that he never understood anything about the religious books he found back at the settlers' base), but his sometimes pompous and superior attitude tends to annoy his friends, to the point that they dryly tell him to shut up . But they always forgive him in the end, and he forgives them for getting upset at him. He has tons of books, movies and disks that he shares gladly with his animal friends, but he's a bit too greedy on termites, which he eats with his long, sticky and prehensile tongue.