96. Quadrupedal Dölf the Christmas horse

Finishing off the quadrupeds with a Christmas theme. Today I worked on a X-Mass horse. The shape of the figure is inspired by a large Maurovic painting I’ve seen as a child. 

The large over exaggerated musculature of the body and top part of the limbs creates a powerful animal. Dölf is walking with a parade march, his front limbs resembling that of a soldier, while the back leg push offs are closer to a classic equine placement. They both push off and slide on the ground moving the large trunk in a forward attentive pointer stance. The front legs are also breaking the joints on their way down creating a stronger swing arc and accenting the solid stance frame afterwards. The neck is doing a figure eight with a small loop at the front and a large one at the back. 

95. Quadrupedal Doom Yoga Metal Ocean

Today's walk has been largely inspired by a Yoga session and a healthy smattering of Ahab (doom metal German symphonic music with a distinct aquatic theme). The figure itself has joints which are broken in many ways compared to a standard animal. 

It resembles an insect/ arachnid or a hand. I wanted to play with the form which would create quadrupedal walk  cycle if I broke all the rules I learnt so far. So the figure is propelling itself forward by using the top torso, it’s spindly legs dragging itself. On an odd accent beat the back leg catches up and pushes forward becoming so stretched by the figures spine movement that it rubberises and turns tentacle. This then slams in the ground bouncing off in a ‘normal’ step for such an odd figure. These walks are taking a lot longer than 30 minutes currently as they are more developed. A twisted cycle today.

94. Quadrupedal burly bison

After the zany walks of last week I wanted to create something a bit more conservative. A powerful and somewhat slow animal like a bison would be ideal for this task. 

Though it has some similarities with the ‘raging bull’ of the past post this figure is much more ponderous and slower moving. In order to emphasise it’s size a 45 degree angle was used in it’s front feet comparative to the ground creating an reverse obtuse angle and a powerful negative shape which allows it to move forward with grace whilst emphasising the weight. The front legs curve and unravel while the back ones stretch out. Majority of the muscle mass moving it forward is in it’s powerful upper torso. Maybe it will create small puddles as it navigates the prairie. 

93. Quadrupedal floppy sniffer from Melmac

Having more fun and playful animations. The walk cycle is of a lazy canine like creature. 

The movement is floppy all the way through, keeping only a semblance of bone structure and entering into rubber-hose, without any rubber. The concept was to imagine that the creature crawling is a sock puppet. The front limbs raise only slightly, while the back legs curve  as they flop into place in order to create forward momentum. The head is forced into bends as the bottom pushes on the torso unnaturally bending over itself (an influence from a bloodhound from early Termite terrace walk).  The only snap is in the head. This would could be slowed down with 8-10 in-betweens in order to give a lazy character illusion. 

92. Quadrupedal twisty froggy

Continuing with odd and twisted walks today I went with an amphibian crawl. To make it more interesting I attributed the walk onto a humanoid figure. 

The back legs break and twist back as they supersede the front ones. The front legs shoot forward with a snapping force stretching out. This is transferred back with elasticity which moves the entire torso and the head forward for another stretch as the whole body duck down to balance itself.  Each of the accents is revisited and the pose re-framed in order to create them into additional keys. A very amusing walk where one of the limbs is shooting out at all times.

91. Quadrupedal brawny bulldog

I went with a more complex quadruped today. Having re-watched some early Spumco, and a host of other nineties toons in the background I think that feel of animation permeated into today's walk. The overtly muscled bulldog has echoes of Mark Anthony whilst having playful motion. 

I aimed for him to be moving forward in a corkscrew motion, front legs crossing each other, back legs leaping through air on a spiral arc reaching under the body and crating a huge accent for the next front arm movement. The action is mirrored with a mirrored change in the motion on the action arc between the front and back leg. There is a lot happening in this arc and I could have kept animating it for a lot longer, adding more in-betweens but time crept up. The whole action is kept away from realism using what I’ve learnt with the quadrupedal studies grounding it in unreels cartoon world.