Hey, got an early animation test. Theeth whipped up a rig for me so i got started. Animating a quadrapedial, galloping animal is quite difficult, so this is but an early test. It still looks a little light, but i’ll add wieght as theeth refines the rig.
Also, no textures, because, even though ENV did an awomse job, my computer cant render them right now (getting better comp). so he is plastic for now 
And modeling by blengine…
Is it really a quadruped? It moves in an almost gorilla-like fashion at the moment, i.e. biped with added quad support for disproportionate upper-body bulk. Which is fine. But if you’re thinking quad and he’s really not, your motions will always be a little off. If you really want him to move as a quad, you may need to refine things a bit.
It’s good to see the nasty thing moving, though.
Very interesting,
yup it walks gorilla like, on forepawn knuckles, but I always thought he would move like that from the first sketches 
COngrats! Get that better comp 
Stefano
well, i make him run like that because he is not really an earthly animal. He can rear up on two legs, but mostly moves on four, like a gorilla.
Walks on knuckles… nice n different
And one thing that I have noticed that may make everything lool unnatural is the shoulders. They don’t move along with the pressure. Plus the shoulders don’t look like they would support like a quad animal’s shoulders do.
Making sense here?
Nice anim. I think the movements are great. Some ancilliary movement, like DM7 said about the shoulder, will make it look incredible.
For a first test, it was awesome.
BgDM
hmm looks good, as a first test, but it will need a lot of cleaning up (as everything always does). Yet, as a first stage, it’s looking good.
I can’t wait to see the textured version…
d52477001
nice. i would like to see some additional movement (shoulders are a good example) but a slack jaw would also be awesome. maybe not “slack” but a little opening and closing with the head bobbing. also, i think the neck should bend somewhere in the middle. looks too stiff right now.
keep it up! i wanna see the beast textured!
hey ,update… still not what I want… but I think I know what I did wrong. The next update should be pretty close to a finished run cycle… I did however add some shoulder movement (slight bobbing), made the jaw bounce (now that it’s rigged) the tounge bounces a little, and his ribcage breaths and bounces. Thew weight of such a large character id difficult to convey, but hopefully I will figure it out. I think his legs need to come farther forwards on the stride, and his hands need to make more contact with the ground so he shifts his weight between feet/hands during the different poses…
http://cgi.third-era.com/~Nayman/compressedtest.avi
Please comment, critisize.
Need reallyu good movement
looking better! i think the upper body needs a little movement though (bending in the spine, particularly). He seems robotic because his limbs all move in nearly perfect syncronization. adding a somewhat “limping” gait would greatly improve it I think.
keep it up!
what your creature isn’t doing, is rocking… he should have a certain “balancing” point where he pivots on… which should be somewhere in the spine, so have him move more up and down, and have him rock back and forth…
great job for just a test
IMHO his back needs to react more i would look at a cats for reference after each jump it doesnt look as if his knuckles are giving any support for balance/movement maybe if he dug his claws into the ground?
finally, he does need longer strides
oh and near the middle of the vid his elbows seems to pop
ANOTHER UPDATE!
Getting closer ot the desired. “bound”.
Still a little stiff, but i think I am getting closer… ideas?
he clings to the ground too much with his front feet, loosen him up a bit, so he more glides UP into the air… more like a bird, like a dog… they don’t cling to the ground… they leap!
looking WAY better! i still think his forelimbs look a little too synchronised. i suggest making one of them hit the ground a few frames before the other, i think it would make it look a little more natural.
looking VERY good! keep it up.
Yes, I agree with NateTG.
Coming out very good and realistic, IMHO.
One thing: if Anaix hit the ground with the forelimbs, it should make it with knots, not with fingers (as gorillas do).
Env
I liked the first one the best. I know that’s not a cycle, but that’s why I liked it. It’s limbs are not synchronized in that one, it has a much smoother movement, it leaps, etc.
Also, for a cycle, I don’t think in this case repeating one movement is efficient. I mean it disturbs me that it raises it’s head exactly at the same moment every step. And yeah I agree, it should bend it’s spine. it seems to remain linear even when it’s forlimbs are behind his legs.
However teeth should write a tutorial about rigging
(if he hasn’t already)
You said you wanted perfect movement that’s why I wrote my crit. I have to state this, because I couldn’t do something even nearly this good
Another Update… Gettin really close to final look for his run
http://cgi.third-era.com/~Nayman/test4.avi
I think the leaping, bounding limp is finally coming through, and I made it less cyclic
very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very nice! ( yes it’s all hand typed )now all that needs, is some minor tweeking… and a fixed camera… (like “walking with one dinosaur”) so we can see this beast move! don’t move his jaw so much… when they are moving that fast… tongue hanging out… huge jaw… sharp teeth… well you get the idea, don’t have his jaw fling open like that! he could chop his tongue clean off!(or break 's jaw!) anyway, some minor tweaks… make it a little more smooth and graceful… too static… as in he SNAPS when he is running… dogs don’t do that, and neither does any animal I know… so fix his snap, and make it clean cut, and you should be set for ANIMATIONDOM! weeeee!cool stuff
DMBadCat
EDIT: and more shoulder movement! he should have bones moving under that skin!
EDITEDIT: and did you notice that his shoulder doesn’t even move! ACK! IT’S NOT ATTACHED! EWWWWWWWWWW… his shoulder is above where you have his body joint moving… so have that part move!
Very cool.
What you still lack (IMHO) is the idea of ‘weight’ as stated by others.
THe forepawns shout close sligthly, the wrist going down, as the knucles receive the weight (It does so a little—too little) and the shoulder should go ulp a little.
Head movements, nothing to say 8)
Stefano