Big Dog animation

This week we were told to animate the big dog, if you have not seen the animation, do look at the video above before continuing to read the rest of the text. First thing first, we were told to animate the big dog to look exactly like the reference video. Basically, the big dog is being kicked and is trying to balance itself to avoid falling to the ground. The whole animation shows the how the big dog regain balance after being kicked.

Our teacher taught us a very useful method to animate this big dog. It is to start animating the body without the legs first which I feel that is really very efficient. Without seeing the legs moving all over the place, hiding them first and adjust the body slowly helped me to concentrate on one thing at a time.

Moving on, the body is easy to animate as it is pretty much rotating it that's all but now the hard part comes. In order to make the animation look smooth, I have to coordinate the legs and body to move natural while trying to re-balance itself. The bending effect of the knee was tedious to make it look natural but it I managed to make it look smooth.