Unit Four & the Horse run
Updated: May 16
14th of February 2026
In this brief I carry on studying animal locomotion, focusing on the quadruped run. With the exercise I will explore the principles behind the running motion and the characteristics among different running animations. After animation the horse walk and the trot, we can assume the run cycle will have more speed, power and energy. Same as with any animation work, we start with the thumbnail sketches. As the run has faster movement, we will create only a 12 frame gallop. If I wanted to increase the speed, I could go with a 9 frame cycle but for now I will go with 12 frames.
In my previous animations I used the Mothman TD horse rig and I was very happy with this rig so I will work with it here too. It is a freely available rig on Gumroad or Mothman-td.com.
Following our tutorial by Alexander Williams, there are four basic positions in a horse gallop:
the 'Stretched', 'Chest down, pelvis up', 'Compressed', and 'Chest up,pelvis down'.
When starting an animation, it is advised to start with the key positions, which in this case are number 1, 7 and 13. Once these are frames are set, we can fill in the rest (3, 5, 9, and 11). Same as with any motion cycle, it is important to look at live references to achieve realistic movement.
The run similarly to the trot is characterized by the synchronized up and down motion for the front and rear end. first we set our key frames, frame 1 and 13 as they are the same. Important point was to select the whole body and all the control curves when setting the first and the last frame.
When setting the poses, I made sure to position the horse's body close as close as possible to the thumbnail sketches. First moved the legs in position, and this was followed by the body where I specifically set the shoulders and the backside of the horse, and finally by the head. The tail, the ears and the nose could wait until we finish the main movement. At this point I worked loose on the poses as this can be further refined later on.
The next step was to add the rest of the key frames and start refining the motions. I went in the graph editor and selecting each control curve, I reviewed and smoothed their curves where needed.
As we learned in the Animation blog, it is important to have sine waves in order to achieve smooth and organic animations. With periodical cycles, in order to see how a curve will flow we can turn on Infinity curves. To do this I had to select the whole body/every body control, pressed 'A' in the graph editor to see all the curves. Select all the curves, go to Curves > Pre infinity cycle, followed by Curves > Post infinity cycle.
It is much easier to tidy up and smooth out our curves and avoid clicking or sliding or further deformities.
Reference:
YouTube (n.d.) [Video]. Available at: YouTube video
YouTube (n.d.) [Video]. Available at: YouTube video
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