Four-legged Walk Cycle

After looking through the material we were sent, I decided to do some research myself and watch some animals walking to study how they moved.

One of my favourite animals is the opossum, and I had saved a video of one walking for when I would study walk cycles.

I noticed that the opossum had a sort of, singular beat to its walk. THUD as its fore-paw hit the ground, then the limbs would glide under the body until the next paw hit the ground in front.

As the left fore-paw was extended in front of the opossum, the left hind leg would be at its furthest behind the body. Simultaneously on the right side, its fore-paw and hind paw would meet in the middle of the body.

I think this is cute and satisfying. I decided to animate the opossum walk cycle.

After watching the walk again to find key frames, I realised that it essentially was only four: outstretched paw while the other side meets in the middle, the cross-over, and then the reverse on the other side. Then in-betweens to match them up.

It still took a lot of trial and error to figure out the key frames exactly, and I learned a lot working it out.

Look at this. Adorable thing.

Here’s my first rough:

and here’s the rough with in-betweens added in:

I rolled the body from side to side as I saw that this often happens with opossums when they walk. They have such a charming walk, and I think my animation is a little bit too smooth and casual for an opossum at the moment, although I am still proud of it 🙂