A few notes on running motion

[robcat2075]

Here's the classic Eadweard Muybridge run photos. From 1887!

 

It's quite a smooth motion with big arcs, because smooth motion and big arcs take less energy.

 

muybridgeRunNotes.mov

 

Notice that the left and right feet are almost always moving in opposite directions... when one goes up the other goes down, when one goes forward the other goes back. This is not nearly as true in a walk where one foot has to stay on the ground until the other one is planted. The faster motion of the run requires that the body masses balance out more.

 

The foot strikes the ground a bit in front of the body, but leaves the ground a greater distance behind. The foot reaches an extreme forward point and then starts to travel back before it hits the ground. The foot continues traveling back a bit after it leaves the ground.

 

Of course, this is only from our perspective of a runner on a treadmill. In real world space, the foot is getting yanked forward by the body as soon as it is done pushing off.

 

In real life there isn't much up and down of the body. In animation you might want to add a bit more to suggest weight.

[Rodney]

I really enjoyed that.

 

Thanks Robert!

[steve392]

Some good points there Robert and I notice the body don't move mutch /bending forward and backwards.I was just sitting looking at my effort and thinking her haed would fall off if she ran like that for long

[John Bigboote]

Put a ski mask on him and he's streaking! Great breakdown, Robcat...one in a series I presume. ( I have both people and animals in motion from Ed'weird' Muybridge if you need scans made...)

[robcat2075]

There's a guy who had a far out life.

 

In 1874, still living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Muybridge discovered that his wife had a lover, a Major Harry Larkyns. On October 17, 1874, he sought out Larkyns; said, "Good evening, Major, my name is Muybridge and here is the answer to the letter you sent my wife"; he then killed the Major with a gunshot.

 

Maybe the major saw the naked men running around Muybridge's studio and figured the wife wasn't getting much.

 

The trial delayed the invention of motion pictures by several months. The jury let him off.

 

The Muybridge photos aren't great for this sort of thing because he's got a pretty low framerate going and some of the timing detail is lost. For example we don't really catch where the foot hits the ground, it's between two frames.

 

But they're out there and convenient to swipe.