Dog Run Cycle

After animating a dog walking, the next step was to animate a dog running. Like with the walk cycle, before animating anything you have to collect visual research. I used the videos below; the first one is very useful as the dogs are running in slow motion.

I decided to do the run cycle as a more anatomical drawing because it's easier to get the movements right, which is the most important part. My first attempt looked like this:

However, the rib cage was too static, but I am happy with the leg movements and the squash and stretch. So I altered animation;

As with the walk cycles, the next challenge is to make the dog start running from a stand still, then to slow down to a stand still again. There's not a huge amount of research out there for this part but I did find a very helpful video on youtube of a dog who starts and stops running multiple times, from several different angles. It gave me enough information that I was able to figure out how a dog places it feet and applies force to counteract the weight of its body for stopping, as well as how it applies force in its back legs to be able to jump into a run.

I was then able to use the knowledge I gained to create my final run cycle, with which I am very proud of how it turned out as I believe I have captured the movements and weight shifting effectively.