Anatomy

For a while now, I've been trying to decide on how my dragon will be rigged. He has been modelled and designed in a way that is similar to a bear, however in some respects he will be acting more dog like. There is a difference between both bears and dogs, specifically in their legs. Bears have plantigrade legs, whilst dogs are digitigrade legs. What makes them different to one another is that plantigrade, as the name suggest, plant their whole foot on the floor, whereas digitigrade walk on their digits. I think it will work best and fit the dragon well if he was a plantigrade, however I will still be referencing dog videos to get their excitement and the way in which they jump. Bears tend to keep their heads low due to their necks not being able to bend too far backwards. My dragon is slightly more upright so I will have to create a neck that resembles that of a dog. It's going to be a mixture of both in the end I think, but hopefully it will all work out and produce a good result.

Below I created a skeletal sheet that will help me when it comes to rigging. I've put the rough outline of where I want each joint/bone to go. In the past I've just placed them and not really thought about where the correct place will be. Hopefully this will help me a lot and give me a better result than previous rigs I've created.