Dog from Half Life 2

Because I'm working with a quadruped, as part of some research I just had to include Dog. I think Dog is one of the main characters in Valve's Half Life 2 and to me is amazingly animated. He has such character about him and his movement is really impressive. In fairness his movement is more similar to that of an ape because he runs around using all four limbs but then stands on two when interacting with objects. Either way I just wanted to write about him because he's an awesome character.

The way dog moves I find is really suiting of his shape and build. When he runs around there's a sense of weight to him and when he rolls over it's quite a slow animation. Yet, dog is very flexible and has quite dynamic movement which becomes more apparent when you see him fighting. This video is a good example but another great scene which also shows a bit more diversity is his battle with the strider.



I really love the end of this cinematic where Alyx thinks Dog might have been done for and he shakes it off and gives her a hug. He's such a lovable character and one of my favourite moments has to be when you play catch with Dog when Alyx teaches you how to use the gravity gun. When Dog is introduced, although he doesn't have much of a face, the movement in his head when he's petted and gretted by Alyx never fails to make me smile. It imitates that moment when you greet a dog and their ears flop because they're happy to see you. And I just think the way he was animated is really impressive full stop really. To give a robot such personality and character through his movements I think is admirable. His movements are also accompanied by very quirky but fitting sound effects.

All in all, Dog is just a great package to work with as both inspiration and as a reference.