What you'll learn

Animate a realistic Indominus Rex run cycle in Maya using professional creature animation techniques
Understand dinosaur run mechanics, including stride length, hip drive, and tail counterbalance
Block, refine, and polish a fast quadruped run cycle using clean animation curves
Apply production-ready workflows to create a portfolio-quality creature animation
Analyse reference footage to achieve believable speed, weight, and aggression in large creatures

Course content

5 sections • 5 lectures • 3h 0m total length

Introduction0:58
In this introduction, we’ll break down what makes a convincing Indominus Rex run cycle and what you can expect to achieve by the end of the course. We’ll look at the overall goals of the animation, discuss reference and scale, and cover important considerations when animating large, fast-moving creatures.
This lecture sets the foundation for the workflow and mindset used throughout the course, ensuring you approach the run cycle with a clear plan before diving into animation.

Blocking the Irex Run Cycle – Part 01: Strong Poses & Stride Setup40:13
In this first stage of the blocking process, we focus on building strong, readable key poses for the Indominus Rex run cycle. You’ll establish the core contact positions, passing positions, and stride length to define speed and weight.
We work in stepped mode to clearly shape timing, balance, and body rhythm. By the end of this lecture, you will have a solid pose-to-pose foundation that defines the structure of the entire run.

Blocking the Irex Run Cycle – Part 02: Weight, Hips & Full Body Integration42:44
In Part 02, we refine the blocking pass and bring the entire body together. You’ll adjust hip mechanics, torso counter-rotation, head balance, and timing offsets to sell scale and aggression.
This stage transforms the run from simple pose blocking into a convincing, powerful creature performance. By the end of this lecture, your Indominus Rex run cycle will feel grounded, heavy, and ready for spline refinement.

Upper Body and Tail Mechanics51:14
In this lecture, we develop the upper-body mechanics that make the Indominus Rex run cycle feel powerful, grounded, and believable. You’ll animate the spine and chest motion, connect it directly to the hip drive, and shape torso compression and extension to support realistic dinosaur locomotion.
We then build the tail as a dynamic counterbalance system—controlling drag, overlap, directional changes, and follow-through to enhance weight and speed. These principles are essential for convincing creature animation and quadruped run cycles in Maya.
By the end of this lesson, your Irex animation will have strong upper-body rhythm, coordinated spine mechanics, and a tail system that reinforces balance and scale before moving into final polish.

Final Polish and Secondary Animation45:45
This lecture focuses on refining and polishing the Indominus Rex run cycle to a professional, demo-reel-ready level. We transition from blocking into splines, clean up animation curves, and refine timing to improve flow, energy, and continuity across the full quadruped run cycle.
You’ll add controlled secondary motion to enhance realism and aggression—subtle drag and overlap in the torso, spine, tail, and head—while maintaining clarity and strong silhouette readability. We refine weight shifts, ground contact, and momentum to ensure the animation feels heavy, fast, and believable.
By the end of this lesson, your creature animation will be polished, physically convincing, and ready for inclusion in a professional animation portfolio.

Requirements

Basic familiarity with Autodesk Maya is recommended, but no prior creature animation experience is required. All animation concepts are explained step by step.

Description

Animating a realistic dinosaur run cycle is one of the most demanding challenges in creature animation. Large theropods such as the Indominus Rex combine speed, mass, balance, and aggression, requiring a deep understanding of biomechanics and timing to feel believable on screen. Creature animation is a unique skill to master and who better to teach it than the former creature animation specialist who worked as the Lead animator on the Game of Thrones.

In this course, you’ll learn how to animate a powerful Indominus Rex run cycle step by step in Autodesk Maya. Guided through a clear, production-proven workflow, you’ll explore how weight, stride length, hip drive, and tail counterbalance work together to sell speed and scale in a running dinosaur.

You’ll begin by understanding the limitations of the rig and analysing reference to break down realistic run mechanics. From there, you’ll block the run cycle by establishing strong poses, correct foot placement, and clear directional force. As the animation develops, you’ll refine timing and spacing, animate the upper body and tail, and apply secondary motion to enhance realism without losing clarity.

The final stage focuses on polishing the animation using clean curves and subtle adjustments that bring the run cycle to a professional standard. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on understanding why each animation choice works, so the techniques can be applied to other dinosaurs and large creatures.

By the end of the course, you’ll have a studio-quality Indominus Rex run cycle suitable for inclusion in a demo reel or portfolio. This course is ideal for animators interested in creature animation for film, VFX, or games, and includes the Irex rig, scene setup, and lighting so you can follow along with confidence.

Who this course is for:

This course is for beginner to intermediate animators who want to learn professional creature animation techniques. It is ideal for students interested in animating dinosaurs, quadrupeds, and large creatures for film, VFX, or games, as well as artists looking to strengthen their demo reel with a high-quality run cycle.
It is also suitable for animators transitioning from character animation into creature animation.

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 1min

Blocking the Irex Run Cycle1 lecture • 40min

Blocking the Irex Run Cycle – Refinement & Body Dynamics1 lecture • 43min

Upper Body, Spine, and Tail Mechanics1 lecture • 51min

Polish, Secondary Motion, and Final Pass1 lecture • 46min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: