Quadruped Locomotion by Maria Robertson

Quadruped Locomotion by Maria Robertson

We're adding more animation tutorials to our Vimeo channel, including now a full series of videos on quadruped locomotion.

The trick with tackling quadruped locomotion is break down an apparently complex motion into a manageable, simple workflow.

After all, in animation you get nothing for free. You start off with a digital puppet, and then have to figure out the rest yourself.

Escape Studios' 3rd year animation undergraduate Maria Robertson has recorded a series of videos for our students, showing how to take a quadruped shot from zero to hero. 

In the series of 19 videos, hosted at Vimeo, Maria explains how to go about blocking out the three basic forms of animal locomotion: Walks, Trots and Runs.

Maria shows a stripped-down approach to building and blocking the shot. Animators are actors, and we need to create a memorable performance, but we also need a workflow that we can depend upon.

Sabre Tooth by Truong
The tutorial uses the excellent free Boxy Sabre Tooth Tiger Rig from Truong CG, and available for free download from his official site. (though you can use any rig you like, of course)

Vimeo Channel

Maria

There are 7 short videos to watch, each about 10 minutes long:

1. Setting Your Scene Up
2. Laying the Groundwork
3. Posing the legs
4. Building
5. Animating secondary elements
6. Animating the tail
7. Polishing

To find the videos at our (password-protected) Vimeo channel, follow this link. Like all our videos, this one is password-protected, meaning it is only available for our current students and Escapees.

Quadruped Locomotion

Stuart Sumida

While we're on the subject, don't forget to check out Animal Locomotion for Animators, a free eBook by paleontologist and animal locomotion expert Stuart Sumida, which you can download from his website here.

The book is an excellent resource on animal locomotion.

Stuart Sumida is a paleontologist who also works in showbiz; he has acted as advisor to countless Hollywood films including Spirit - Stallion of the Cimarron, and he is a regular guest at Escape Studios, lecturing on animal biology, locomotion and mechanics.

To find the free download, follow this link. And to read more about Stuart Sumida's work, see this blog post.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, now recruiting for September 2019, follow this link.   To apply, visit the official page here.