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FelisGlacialis — Searing elegance
#animation #bigcat #black #elegance #feline #horselike #lava #stallion #trotting #orientalcat #håkan #siderian #orientallonghair #fire
Published: 2019-03-17 22:55:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 4518; Favourites: 344; Downloads: 0
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Description
I know, the title is a little subjective
This is the black siderian named Håkan, showing his unique, elegant nearly horse-like trot. Many siderians have quite a unique personal gait, but I found Håkan's elevated trot rather outstanding and I wanted to animate him.
I have made animations of walk, and gallop before but never trot. That was quite a challenge to get him anatomically correct (I know, his paws are huge, even compared to other siderians, in full detail, without too many glitches. It took me nearly two months of hard work to make these 12 frames. Especially the fur was quite a pain in the ass(damn that tail). Let me know if you're interested in seeing some WIPs; I may upload the line-art of him without fur (or I may not, because reasons) and the llineart of him with fur in my scraps.
The background matches his fiery energy.
See here his charactersheet.
Siderians are northern big cats who share some similarities with tigers, oriental cats and eurasian lynx. They are roughly as tall as a horse and are rather long and slender.
DON'T COPY/USE THIS WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. You can use this as a reference but NO tracing or too close copying.
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Comments: 60
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This is one of the most impressive animations I've ever seen..... I'm truly speechless
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Thanks! I'm really glad to hear that!
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Oh my God this is absolutely gorgeous. I am speechless....
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Wow! I can barely put into words how impressed I am with this animation. The movements are fluid and seem absolutely natural. I love how much his fur shimmers and how neat and elegant he looks because of it.
As far as how I got to know Håkan, I can say that this animation captures his personality very well. Your hard work has definitely paid off and I can imagine that it must have been a great moment for you, when you finished this and saw Håkan in movement.
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Wow thanks again! Yeah it took me a long time to make this...two months of intense work with many works in process. I started with the bare skeleton and built it up gradually, checking that every inbetween state was feeling natural.
That was indeed the intension as well - to show who he is in lively movements.
I can't help but having stared at him for a long time, yes ^^
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Ahh its so nice and impressive to see this one finished! I can see how much work and dedication you put into this animation! The attention to all the details and specially the fur! O.O detailed fur like this is SO tricky to animate properly in drawing animations! Also the illumination, that small but SO nice detail of the shinny of the necklace and how it moves..its all so well done! something i can clearly see how much love you also put into too, as all your drawings..
Since when you showed me the bones base it was already so well done and fluid (and properly animated process, to start the drawing using the "bones" and animating them first and them muscles-skin/details and this is also how 3d animations are properly done too so it only makes all more insteresting too!)
I can also see since the day you uploaded this that you made some more edits and adjusts! 8D 
Ive been watching him trotting for some minutes now properly in my computer's screen way bigger than cellphone and i love this even more now! 
Also love the fire and dark background, the embers and all.. gives the perfect contrast to those animation of Stian too 
Im just.. so impressed! you really inspire me to try animating something like this too! (i always wanted to make a flying cycle animation of Svartya)
And Håkan is really elegant, i love how with this animation we can imagine better how his movements may look like! I can also feel.. this tension and the literally fire within him.. a raging fire but also the flaming passion.. so i think this animation defines and represents Håkan really well! 
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Hehe thanks for the comment! Always really appreciated! (despite my sometimes lack of reply 
yeah all those bloody details made me take like 2 months on this. Funny thing that many mention the necklace and how it catches the light.
Yeah I've made these other two animations and rememered the common errors of messing arround with limb-lenght. Alhtough I realize that in canter and walk, there is also foreshortening which would have made the skeleton-step quite difficult. Glad that's not the case with trot, hehe. Trot is actually a rather easy gait to animate becuase it's so symmetrical and 'systematical' - the tricky bit is the up-and-down movement of the body because there is a little 'jump' with every step. I'm now even tempted to make a line-art version of Stian, just to show the differences...the huuuge differences. Håkan has this 'elevated' elegance with the long, 'high' steps, while Stian has a very heavy, nearly plump and 'low' trot with that's not unlike a bear/heavy tiger. So yeah once I'm done with some stuff that I wanna finish first, I can consider that.
Ha would be cool to see a flying cycle of Svart as well. I've always been impressed by your animations and would like to see more! Though flying movements seem difficult @.@ but I guess there are some good refs.
Yeah now I realize that this animation shows an interesting side of him. At least it shows how he comes across on others as regal, powerful, passionate and kinda like a leader. I think that despite his shyness and timidity, that this is what he really is. If he hadn't had such a horrible past, he would still have been shy in some ways but this regal power would have been much more prominent.
(also - will slowly get back to your other comments - including the one on skype - but am now fully focussed on the final - horrible- chapters of Håkan's story...so I will need a week or two more before I can get properly back to everything....be prepared for that story....)
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ahh you know I'm a slow ass slug, sleepy shit to reply too and my keyboard is half working, its WONDERFUL
The detail on the necklace is one of those small details- but that makes a HUGE difference on the realism and clearly shows the love and attention you put into this! ^^ as i always say, thats one of the things i love about your art!
Yess i noticed that you edited and added the little "jump" too and its indeed difficult to make it right in a way that looks fluid and not weird! yes, only by seeing that animation of Stian walking forwards you can already notice how they move differently!
I love that Håkan is a big guy but still very elegant and even delicate in the movements!
yes i died a bit to make that flying gif but i hate myself so i wanna do more XD just gotta figure out which angle i would die less to make a flight animation XD
yes and seeing Håkan moving makes me wonder how Åmund moves too? probably so silent and invisible..
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Ah, and it's finally in the public. I gotta say it was incredible to watch it come together, all the way from the skeleton (which was totally amazing in itself), through all the phases until here. I've given you plenty of comments throughout, so now I have just one: there is absolutely nothing subjective about the title. Enough said.
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Thanks! Well many thanks go to you. If not the most for the detailed feedback.
Ha I agree with the latter. This is just the plain truth mahaha.
I'll tell Håkan that.
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When you for the first time showed the animation of Håkan in our note, I was deeply delighted and amazed, how beautiful he could be in motion. His trot is elegant and elegant, and his head held high only complements the image of a strong, proud black siderian. And I just have to add what White said to me then, because he finds a fiery background with flaming of sparks and ashen earth incredibly bewitching and most appropriate to describe the personality of Håkan and what he had to go through.
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Thanks! yeah I dare say he has one of the most elegant ways of moving that I have ever seen in siderians. Indeed with his head held high and his paws lifted high off the ground. I can even see him 'dance' like a dressage horse. That would actually be something that he would like -especially on music. And he trusts his masculinity enough not to be coming across as gay (which is nonsense anyway -males should be able to do whatever they want and gender stereotypes work differently in siderians anyway).
Wow and that what White said...damn that is accurate! That means a lot.
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Indeed, despite the fact that Håkan is a very large siderian, his movements are smooth, light, like a stallion dancing in a field. I think Stian would have a more impetuous trot, in which all the crushing power and might of the White Devil would be felt. I remember, you already did a comparative table of Stian and Håkan, but I would be interested to see in the future how their ways of moving differs))) And, BAT? What moron called him that? Because it never occurred to me to call Håkan gay! The fact, that he is well-groomed and elegantly folded, is not at all an indication, that, hell, he is gay! Human steriotypes are just disgusting, I'm already sick of them -_-
*purrs* There is something very important, that I wanted to tell you in our personal note, this concerns the hard history of Håkan, which I read, and ... oddly enough, White. I have to take the time, to write to you, but if my memory fails me again, just remind me of that.
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Thanks! much appreciated!
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Thanks! At some point I regretted having drawn this in such a high resolution. I think the original drawing is like 4x as big O.O Good that I had a new gaming-laptop that could handle the graphics. My old ancient laptop would have died by the thought alone.
And yeah I just saw Håkan's stallion-gait so clearly that I wanted to animate him. And I realized that I had never animated a trotting siderian, so now was the chance. Although this is not very representative for a typical siderian-trot...I think most siderians trot quite a bit like tigers or other pantherines.
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Magnificent. The amount of detail you put into every frame is amazing.
The movement itself is fascinating. A big cat that moves like a horse stallion.
Awesome combination and it looks so majestic a.f.
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Thanks - this was like making a detailed digital painting but then like 12x the same @.@
But yeah I like that discription. Maybe I'm gonna call this his 'stallion-trot'.
He has definitely a more elegant trot than Stian, this big white one.
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I can just imagine the sheer amount of work you put into this...
But it payed off, it looks awesome. *goes to check out Stian*
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yeah - aww I only have Stian in gallop and walk, but I'm getting very temped to do a line-art version of Stian's trot, just to compare them...
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That's amazing.... He looks so real, even more when he moves. I really can imagine how hard it was to do this with all that fur and tiny details - The few times I tried, I already had enough when sketching the frames.
You did such an awesome job. All those details, the necklace, the fur, the movement of tail, ears just gives the feeling as if he's really moving, and not just his legs. Also how the mane moves above his shoulders, the ribs just so many things *___*.
The fur looks just so silken and soft with the shine. And the background feels fitting.
And he definitly looks elegant. I love how wide steps he makes. He definitly takes his room, when walking (in general, too just with his presence, ugh I don't know how to translate the expression I want to use.)
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Thanks! Glad to hear that. That was indeed what I wanted...to bring him even more to 'life' (he already is, but now we get to see him move with our own eyes). The fur was indeed quite a big challenge (here is he without fur 66.media.tumblr.com/243252f899… ) - and even that was already very difficult with all the subtle movements and muscles. I actually struggled a lot with his head and tail. Particularly his tail because it is so...'fluent' and dynamic. And I know that he often moves his tailtip a bit from side to side.
Ha and again, I'm glad that visible ribs are not being seen as him being skinny. I've had too many people going bananas as soon as they see ribs...where as I am like...he's just slender and on a healthy weight for a wild cat.
This stallion-like trot was definitely quite weird and challenging to animate. Stian, for example trots very differently. More like a tiger or even like a bear with his head on the same line as as his back and with very heavy shallow steps. Quite the contrary of Håkan.
But indeed, it is very tedious work...i worked for like 2 months intensely on this.
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It looks georgeous without the fur, too. Thanks for showing it to me. I find it amazing to see how you include muscles and tendons (that ones especially around the legs/paws) in the movements.
All those subtle movements make it more believable. I think you did very good in bringing out the dynamic movements of his tail, too. Definitly "fluent".
I don't think he's skinny. The shading on the ribs in this is maybe a bit strong, when the fur could possibly made it "softer"? He looks totally fine/healthy to me. I think if one starts seeing the ribs heavily when there is fur present, it may be seen as too thin. But that would be dependent on the kind of fur (soft and silky versus more rough coated) and the surrounded lightening.
We had sphinx cats (or normal/long hair cats that sometimes had to be completely sheared, because the fur was so matted), that were on healthy weight and the ribs could always be seen. But we had also extremly thin cats that were starving, but when they had longer/thinker fur they would "just" look thin. At least from my experiece the fur often makes it look less extreme.
If you ever happen to do an animation of Stians trot too, I'd love to see that. Even if it's "just" a version without fur. I'd love to see the differences in the way they move. But I can totally understand if not. It's so much work and 2 months is a lot of time. I can just say thanks for sharing that with us.
I already can get part of the differences of their movements from your description and it gives also gives a different feeling from imagine that.
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Wow, I'm in awe.
I can't even figure out what to say.
Just...Wow.
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Thanks - I take that as a compliment ^^
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You're welcome! You probably should
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Two months of hard work, indeed
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hol' up
2 months
excuse me wtf
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Well done! I love the details of the ribs and the necklace flashing in and out of sight.
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