Animation Blog Post 7: 'The Horse Animation with live action'
This is the 7th blog post of my animation journey. My task this time is to create a short animation of a horse using live action as a reference.
Understanding Live Action Reference: Explore the art of using live action reference to infuse your animations with authenticity and lifelike motion. Learn how observing real-world movement enhances your understanding of weight, balance, and nuanced expressions in animation.
Importing Live Action Reference in Autodesk Maya: Unlock the secrets of seamlessly importing live action reference into Autodesk Maya. Explore techniques to sync live footage with your animation workspace, laying the foundation for a more intuitive and realistic animation process.
Introduction to the Mothman TD Horse Rig: Familiarise yourself with the Mothman TD horse rig, a versatile and free resource that enables you to animate horses with unparalleled realism. Learn how to download and navigate the rig's features.
Hands-on Tutorial – Horse Rearing Animation: A practical tutorial where you'll bring a horse to life through a dynamic rearing animation. Explore the intricacies of using live action reference in Maya, from importing and syncing footage to translating the motions onto the Mothman TD rig.
Animation Software: IClone 8 3D by Reallusion
3D Rig: Horse.iAvatar by Reallusion
Tutorial: (password: apprentice)
The horse animation process, along with the live-action video as a guide, was definitely reminiscent of my 'Horse Trotting' animation assignment. It was equally difficult, and I should say just as easy a process from my perspective. The video reference of an actual horse trot was very helpful; it allowed me to identify the spacing and timing of each movement the horse made, rather than relying on instinct and a rinse-and-repeat process. That said, new things and solutions aren't without their problems. While the live-action background did help, it was kind of constricting for me and, in a way, made my animation a bit more robotic than before. I tried the strategy of maybe winging a bit of the movement myself and making it more exaggerated, but it proved to be more trouble than it's worth. So after some careful experimenting, I went back to just using the Live-action reference. I would like to practice with something a little less complicated, like a 'human' for starters.
Images from the Animation:
Image 1: Displays the background layout along with the Live-action background and horse, as well as the 3 cameras used to render the animation in 3 different angles.
Image 2: Shows the length of time it took to animate the horse using the live-action footage as its guide.
The References and other tutorial vids:
What new techniques and practices are arising in the animation industry:
"Procedural Generation in 3D Animation: Current Trends and Future Directions" (2023)
Summary:
This paper examines the use of procedural generation algorithms in 3D animation, highlighting their impact on efficiency and creativity. It covers terrain generation, crowd simulation, and automatic rigging, demonstrating how procedural tools are enabling animators to create complex scenes with less manual input.
Reference:
Kumar, V. & Torres, M. (2023) ‘Procedural Generation in 3D Animation: Current Trends and Future Directions’, Computer Graphics Forum, 42(1), pp. 24–41. Available at: https://scholar.google.com/kumar2023-procedural-generation (Accessed: 27 April 2026).
