Animating a Quadruped “Quadrupeds have different proportions than human bipeds. In particular: The rib cage is elongated downwards, unlike the flatter human rib cage. The shoulder blades lie along the side of the rib cage, not on the back. There are no collarbones. The lack of collarbones gives the shoulder blades more freedom. This affects weight distribution on the front legs. When you use Biped to animate a quadruped, its “clavicle” parts behave more like shoulder blades.” - from 3DS Max If you’re looking for something a little more complex, YouTube is your best friend. For instance, let’s say you were animating a scene of a puppy first seeing his reflection in a mirror. YouTube has millions of videos that make great reference for animators. So you find this, but it’s not the right layout. You can capture the gestures of the pup and relate those to what you picture for your final animation. And if you’re animating a creature or something you can’t reference, figure out what it’s basic body structure is and if it’s similar to an existing animal. i.e. Disney’s Beast has a body similar to a bear, and legs of a wolf. If you were to animate him on 4 legs, you’d look at reference videos of both animals and create a mesh of their different movements. Hope that helps! Requested by drawnbydiego
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Animating a Quadruped

“Quadrupeds have different proportions than human bipeds. In particular:

  • The rib cage is elongated downwards, unlike the flatter human rib cage.
  • The shoulder blades lie along the side of the rib cage, not on the back.
  • There are no collarbones.
  • The lack of collarbones gives the shoulder blades more freedom. This affects weight distribution on the front legs.
  • When you use Biped to animate a quadruped, its “clavicle” parts behave more like shoulder blades.” - from 3DS Max

If you’re looking for something a little more complex, YouTube is your best friend. For instance, let’s say you were animating a scene of a puppy first seeing his reflection in a mirror. YouTube has millions of videos that make great reference for animators. So you find this, but it’s not the right layout. You can capture the gestures of the pup and relate those to what you picture for your final animation.

And if you’re animating a creature or something you can’t reference, figure out what it’s basic body structure is and if it’s similar to an existing animal. i.e. Disney’s Beast has a body similar to a bear, and legs of a wolf. If you were to animate him on 4 legs, you’d look at reference videos of both animals and create a mesh of their different movements. Hope that helps!

Requested by drawnbydiego

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    take about three steps,...the back take about two.
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