Extinct mammals in walk-cycle purgatory (Patreon)

A video!

So, I've been working on an evolution sequence for this film for quite a while now.

Before I could even begin animating, I had to map out evolutionary lines of several placental mammals and do a bunch of reading, and then run my grossly simplified science through a meat grinder of other considerations like "how do I fit all these animals on screen". The process got so daunting I got partway through, and then went back to add several other shots preceding it.

Since then, I haven't had many film updates to post because the main component of this sequence is a silly amount of walk cycles, that I didn't want to spam on here individually.

Now, the sequence as a whole isn't finished, and I still have to animate all their modern day counterparts- BUT I have finished all the prehistoric animals walking, which felt like a good enough milestone for me to share!

To best demonstrate the gradual change from "little rodenty thing" to whatever it becomes, the video keeps going back to square one for each animal, and I map it all out at the top of the screen as it goes.

For any paleontologists looking at this I know it's not especially accurate and this isn't for a display in a science museum. For instance, that glyptodon is going to become an armadillo in the next shot, even though I'm aware he's a distant crusty uncle and not a direct ancestor. But it was a fun detour in a patchy fossil record, and I also don't explicitly show any of these animals giving birth to their successors either (though actually maybe I should have????)

For the purposes of my story, it's just to show the shared history and broad specialization of mammals, for a story that's actually set in the present day. Wait hang on why did I have to animate all these prehistoric animals at all? Nvm it's done now and I can't wait to do the next bit!