Four-legged walks: hind legs that bend, hips that ride the step
The hind legs no longer walk like stiff sticks: the hock bends with the knee and pushes off. The hips rise as each hind paw takes the weight, the body no longer sinks suddenly when a front paw lands, and every leg lifts off and lands softly.
A walking dog does not carry its body on four stiff poles. Its hind legs fold at the knee and the hock together, its hips rise and fall with every hind step, and its paws leave the ground gently. MonRig's four-legged Walk now does the same:
- The hock bends with the knee. On a leg with a hock, the hock used to stay at one angle while only the knee bent, so the hind legs looked like walking sticks. Now it bends together with the knee, opens a little as the leg reaches back, and pushes off at the end of each step.
- The hips ride the hind legs. The hips are highest when a hind paw stands right under them and dip between the steps. The back bends at the loin, so the shoulders and head stay calm.
- No more sudden sink. A body that had to drop so a front paw could reach the ground used to drop all at once, in one or two frames. The height is now planned over the whole step and the dip is spread out smoothly, the same on the left step as on the right.
- Softer lift-off and landing. Legs ease off the ground and ease back down, so a front paw no longer twitches as it lifts.
- Standing a little taller. A walking body settles less into its legs, so it no longer shuffles along with bent knees.
- New dial: Back + pelvis rock. Sets how much the back rocks and the pelvis tilts with the steps: 0 keeps the back rigid, 0.35 is the default, and a horse uses 0.15.
- Dogs lift their paws less. Dogs, wolves and foxes on the dog layout now walk with a foot lift of 0.2, a low, easy step.
Open any four-legged creature's Walk to see it; the hock and the taller stance show in its other animations too. Your own dial settings are kept.