Why Your Demo Reel Needs Quadruped Gaits

Horse gallop by Mark Lawson-Hall

Most student demo reels focus on human characters, but if you are looking to get hired onto animal and creature projects, you will need to show an understanding of quadruped locomotion - one of the core skills we teach at Animation Apprentice. 

A solid walk, trot, and run cycle for a four-legged character shows range, versatility, and an understanding of animal and creature mechanics.  Layer in some acting and personality, and you have a great demo reel. 

How to Animate Quadruped Transitions

Free tiger rig from Truong

How do you animate quadruped transitions? That is to say, how do you animate the change from a walk to a trot to a run, and then back again?

Quadruped transitions are a tricky thing to get right, which is why all our MA students have access to video tutorials at Animation Apprentice showing step by step how to do it. 

Our MA animation students are currently tackling their third module, DA703 Animals and Creatures, mastering the art of quadruped locomotion and performance.

Best Horse Rigs for Maya Animators

Right now we're encouraging all our animation students at Bucks to make sure they have plenty of horse animation on their demo reels, as one of our favourite London studios crews up for a big horse-related project.

The Animation Apprentice official site (to which all our students have access) has a series of horse video tutorials, teaching students how to animate a walk, a trot and a run.

Quadruped Locomotion Explained - and Some Fun With Rusty...

Rusty explains Quadruped Locomotion

How do quadrupeds walk? On four legs? Or on two? We decided to seek a little assistance from Rusty, the official mascot of Bucks New University,  to help us figure it all out. Animation course leader Alex Williams got Rusty to demonstrate how real deer walk, trot and run. Sort of.

Dave Berry models and rigs his own quadruped

Paddy rig v1.0 overview from Dave Berry on Vimeo.

Dave Berry is one of our talented animation students at Bucks who has taken a highly pro-active approach to learning 3D animation, doing tutorials on his own time and pushing the boundaries of his knowledge.