Symposium - Animal Locomotion in Animation

In Haven all of our creatures so far are quadrupedal, meaning they have four legs. These move a lot different to bipedal creatures (two legs). This is the first time I have had any interaction with quadrupeds. As I am the animator for the game, it is my job to bring these creatures to life. Before I have always worked with bipeds. In our game last year 'Gone Nuts' our main character ran on two legs.

This is going to take a lot of research. I have tried practicing by trying to animate a CAT rig. I found this very hard as I found it difficult to visualize how quadrupeds move. No matter how many videos I watched it didn't help. The human brain can find it difficult to process fast moving objects. No matter how many times I looked at a dog walk, I knew it was walking but I just couldn't visualize it in different movements, instead of one big movement. I seen it's entire body move instead of how each leg moved. This made the animating of the CAT rig tough.

So for one of my modules in College, Advanced 3D Concept, I am to write a symposium on a topic of my choice. I thought this would be a great chance to research how animals move. So the title is Animal Locomotion in Animation. So for my research project I intend to look in to how animals move and apply that to a form of animation. I am going to lean towards quadrupeds over anything else, but if some nice information comes up I'll be sure to make note of it.

Some brief research I am looking in to is:

• Edweard Muybridge, who is regarded as one of the fathers of the motion picture
• The Animators Survival Kit by Richard Williams, animation director for Who Framed Roger Rabbit
• Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair