Rodent in Motion

The above is a short project I worked on over the weekend, trying to animate the walk-cycle of a cartoon mouse.  By no means is it a life-like walk; it's really very simplified and I think a mouse would have a much faster gait.  I'd imagine it almost like a quick trot.  Or perhaps the front legs trot while the back legs bounce like a rabbit.  It's impossible to find a good reference video.  I typed in "mouse walk" on YouTube.  I got 20 ways to sync sound effects to foot-falls.  I tried "mouse slow-motion".  I got 100 videos of small toys and lightbulbs being decimated by mousetraps in epic slow-mo.  (Why lightbulbs?  I'll never know.)

Between Mickey-mousing and shattered filaments, I did find this very talented rodent.  Unfortunately he is too quick, and the video is too poor quality, to actually get a reference from.

Speaking of references, I found a fascinating book with detailed drawings of various animal skulls from all angles.  The skull is the underlying reason (quite literally) to why heads of all vertebrates look the way they do.  The book was made for biology students, but it practically begs the 3D modeler to put a page in the scanner and create an bison or lion skull to add to their portfolio.  I'm debating weather to do so, and if so what animal to pick.  Decisions, decisions...

Earworm for the day:  I've got nothing.  Enjoy an annoying-song-free day.