Research
I research some German shepherd movements to look at their postures. The creature animation is difficult to animate because animals have more sections that need to pay attention to, like ears, tails, etc.
The Unreal animation state machine allows skeletal animations to be broken up into various states, with full control over how to blend movement from one state to another.
Digging Animation Process
I start to make the digging animation, which is separated into multiple states. Max as the dog character should bend at first, and then he starts to dig. I should make the cycle animation for digging movement as the player holds the button, he will keep digging until the player releases the button. The first version of the animation is a bit rigid because I just key-frame some important postures, I want to improve it to make Max looks more natural when bending and digging.
In the refined digging animation, I add some rotation to the neck to make it looks less rigid. Also, I add some slight turning movement to the head. The ears are shaking slightly while digging too.
I bake the animation and test it in Unreal Engine to see the final effect.
Turning Animation Process
I make this turning animation and the whole movement is like moving in a circle shape. The problem is the turning body will break the skeletons sometimes so I need to focus on the locators and ensure the legs or feet are in the right position. Another problem is after making the whole animation, the dog turns weirdly in the Z axis to be back to the original pose. I solve this by using the Euler Filter in Maya. Because the turning movement focuses on the Y axis more, instead of the X axis. Therefore, the rule should be like “YXZ” instead of “XYZ”.
I refine the movement of some steps because the feet step too big. I add more movement to the tail and make it looks more curly and natural while turning.
I bake the animation and test it in Unreal Engine to see the final effect.