As with Birds in Flight, I began my exploration into Quadrupeds with photography. Below are photos taken at Ashton Court Deer Park, Thornbury Sailing Club, and Noah's Ark Zoo Farm.
I also photographed some quadrupeds in the Bristol Museum.
Next I filmed some quadrupeds in motion (both walking and interacting) at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm, providing me with many valuable references.
Whilst at the farm I had a little time for some life drawings of quadrupeds, the most informative of which are compiled below;
I also filmed my cat, Arthur, going about his daily business. I captured him walking, sitting, grooming etc, but also just sat observing the world, as I find the way he thinks as interesting as his broader movements.
From all this footage I was able to break down most of it into sequences, so I now have a wealth of references to animate quadrupeds with.
As with my bird sequences, I drew out some of the quadruped sequences to help me understand them. As I was using my own footage broken down into frames, I had limited information. I've also scanned in two walk cycle references I used to help me, one being a section from the Animator's Survival Kit;
To conclude my studies of quadrupeds, I created this Flash cycle of a cat walking. I tried to accumulate all the information I had learned, but there are still many mistakes I haven't managed to iron out. I struggled to get the hang of such a complex walk cycle.