Now that I know where the rough positions of each bone is, I needed to study their function. As an interconnected system, I would be able to find out or at least plan what joints would need to be IK's, or splined IKs, which may need to have FK capabilities and what set driven keys I would needed.
Similar to the animators, I would need to study the way in which quadrupeds move. Examples of this can be found in the way dogs, cats, lions, panthers and even bears/gorillas when they walk on all fours.
This would give me an idea of the capabilities that the rig would need to live up to if an animator wanted to use it. A rig should always be able to meet extreme poses even if they are never used.
Here are a few video examples that I collected to assist me:
A panther walk cycle
A tiger walk cycle
a tiger run cycle
A running cheetah
Cheetah CG run
Summary
The lessons that I have learned from the above examples are
1. the way in which the back moves- we may need ik/fk control to have separate control over the mid body as well as the top and hips
2. the amount that each limb is required to move, especially the front paws and hind legs
3. What is typical motion- and therefore what set driven keys may be needed to save animation- i.e a decent foot roll/toe roll.
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