Eadward Muybridge "The Father of Motion Picture" 1830-1904 was the first person to record animals and peoples movements in series of photographs. Initially Muybridge set out to end the age old debate of where a horses legs are placed during a trot and later gallops also.
These inital finding were published in the book The Horse In Motion (Full name of the text way to long to type in entirety) and proved so revealing (In many ways the foundation for gait analysis) that Muybridge went on to take some 100,000 photos of animals and people engaging in acts of locomotion.
Before Muybridges photographic evidence of how animals truly move at speed many artistic depictions showed all four limbs outstretched at once. This look rather ridiculous now but in the book examples are given of the ''mythical gallop'' extracted from the Elementary Drawing Books used in schools of art at the time.
A quote in the book in regards to artists I found particularly apt:-
"Quadrupeds will be recognized as being possessed of locomotive machinery, self moving, with all the parts acting in perfect harmony, and not passive projectiles. If art is the interpreter of nature, as is claimed, she is false to her mission when she willfully persists in perpetuating a falsehood."
In more modern terms, if your working on creature animation based in realism always have some reference footage on hand. Also as artists trying to depict animal movement throughout the centurys couldnt see the detail in realtime, always take the time to go frame by frame through your footage!
Finally to round of this post here is a wonderful , slightly more modern, reference of quadruped movement. The dog being almost in silhouette really keeps the information presented very clear.
(Muybridge Image of a horse galloping)
These inital finding were published in the book The Horse In Motion (Full name of the text way to long to type in entirety) and proved so revealing (In many ways the foundation for gait analysis) that Muybridge went on to take some 100,000 photos of animals and people engaging in acts of locomotion.
(Excerpt From The Horse In Motion)
Before Muybridges photographic evidence of how animals truly move at speed many artistic depictions showed all four limbs outstretched at once. This look rather ridiculous now but in the book examples are given of the ''mythical gallop'' extracted from the Elementary Drawing Books used in schools of art at the time.
(Examples of "Mythical Gallops" Throught History)
A quote in the book in regards to artists I found particularly apt:-
"Quadrupeds will be recognized as being possessed of locomotive machinery, self moving, with all the parts acting in perfect harmony, and not passive projectiles. If art is the interpreter of nature, as is claimed, she is false to her mission when she willfully persists in perpetuating a falsehood."
In more modern terms, if your working on creature animation based in realism always have some reference footage on hand. Also as artists trying to depict animal movement throughout the centurys couldnt see the detail in realtime, always take the time to go frame by frame through your footage!
(Just some lovely Illustrations from The Horse In Motion,
If you want a look at the book itself I will include a link down below.)
(For those not in the know, if you wish to view a youtube video frame by frame use the buttons < and > )
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