Big Dog Kick Weight Shift

In this exercise, I had to study videos about robots maintaining their balance in order to animate the model. Unlike the previous models, Big Dog uses 4 legs to maintain balance. Big Dog is moving and I had to check where the center of gravity is at every key pose. Before Big Dog stops, he is moving quite fast and I had his right leg suddenly move out to prevent the body from tilting over when Big Dog stopped.

I noticed that the front legs and back legs are alternating between opened and crossed. This is because if both sets of legs are crossed, Big Dog would have minimum balance but if both set of legs are opened, the legs will not move fast enough to be able to cope with the speed of the main body.

In this exercise, I have learned to use the body's center of gravity to prevent the character from falling or making the model's balance looking unrealistic. I have also learned that the body tries to get the best balance to prevent falling.