Evolution of a Raptor Run

The evolution of my Deinonychus run cycle for my final animation. Ok, its not technically a RAPTOR, but it fits in the title better.

The first one was the oldest one, back when I was first roughing out scenes. I didn't like it. It didn't look like a run, it looked like a fast walk. He wasn't getting his feet high enough off the ground, and there was no real squash and stretch going on.

The second one...I hated it. It still looked like just a fast walk. He never had both feet off the ground at a time, and as my instructor put it "it looks like an angry woman that forgot her purse." I don't see the exact metaphor, but I knew what she meant. It had to change more.

The third one, using the same body as the second one with the legs on a different layer, was much better. However, much better didn't make it GOOD, and certainly didn't make it RIGHT. It looked like an ostrich from the REALLY old Disney shorts, with highly exaggerated leg movement. My biggest problems were were that his thighs were moving way to far past their normal range of movement, and that I was spending too much time trying to break it down bone by bone, and not enough time paying attention to the body as a whole. Time to move on again.

Number four...now that's more like it. Finally, I found just the right reference to help me get the legs down, and with way more in-betweens (this cycle is done on ones, as opposed to the past three, which were each done on twos), the legs and feet had a much more realistic movement, with no massive jumps between point a and point b. But there's still a problem. This guy is supposed to be hunting. Instead, it looks like he's skipping through a field of daisies, singing Hi-Diddly Dee....His head was to floppy and uncontrolled, and i don't know WHAT was wrong with his tail...

Finally, I arrived at number 5. The head movements became much more steady and controlled, intent on whatever's ahead of him. The tail didn't flop around like it was broken. It remained straight and balanced, with a slight spring to make it believable. The arms still needed some help, but it was still a vast improvement from where it started out.

This guy still needs a lot of help, and I have 7 weeks to figure things out and get the rest of the animation done. But I'm working fast, and getting a lot of input from my instructor (who was extremely pleased with the improvements already) She also (thank GOD) told me she thinks I should go with a rough style, rather than the primped and cleaned up one I had been aiming for in my style sheets (which would take forever, and I don't have forever to do it). She thinks, like I and several others I know of, that rough animation is beautiful, and we're both aiming to turn this animation into such...more cleaned up than THIS of course, but still, something that shows the work and study of the anatomy under the characters.

Still nervous as hell that I won't finish it though...

All input and comments are welcomed, whether I can apply it to this or not (in the end, if i want to pass, the instructor has the final say in what goes into this )