In this tutorial, Rant Senior 3D Animator Gleb Sitnichenko walks through a practical workflow for animating a character petting a dog, from idea and reference through blocking and a first spline pass. The focus is on clear planning, strong poses, and believable interaction between a human and an animal stand‑in. Watch the full video above.
Planning and Gathering Reference
Gleb starts by stressing that any interaction shot should begin with reference, not with posing in Maya. He searches online for existing examples of characters interacting with animals, including first-person game sequences from Far Cry and a stylized fox interaction, to study how other teams handled approach, contact, and affection.
He then records his own reference with a toy dog, acting out the full action: noticing the animal, reacting, sitting down, petting, and standing back up. This self-shot reference becomes the blueprint for the animation exercise.
Preparing the Reference for Maya
To use the reference efficiently in Maya, Gleb first processes it in Adobe Premiere. He trims unwanted parts of the clip, then exports the shot as a numbered JPEG image sequence at 30 frames per second to match his Maya scene’s frame rate.
In Maya, he creates an image plane in the perspective view and connects the first image, enabling “Use Image Sequence” so the frames update as he scrubs the timeline. He scales and offsets the image plane so it sits in a corner of the viewport, always visible but never obscuring the character rigs.
Setting Up the Scene and Rigs
For the demo, Gleb uses a simple biped rig for the main character and a small dog proxy as the animal. He keeps controls visible via a picker tool so he can easily select body parts without cluttering the viewport with controllers.
He sets his scene to 30 fps to match the reference and saves an initial file with both characters in an idle pose. The shot will start and end in this idle, which is important for game-style or loop-friendly animations.
Blocking the Human Performance
Gleb blocks the human first, focusing on a minimal set of strong key poses:
- Initial idle, looking forward.
- Looking down to notice the dog at his feet.
- A small upper-body reaction with arms lifting slightly (“Oh, there’s an animal”).
- Transition into a sit-down pose next to the dog.
- First contact pose with one hand petting.
- A two-handed scratching pose.
- Poses reversing the action as he stands back up and returns to idle.
He keeps the blocking light—around 20 key poses for the body—then adds more keys only where the arms need extra breakdowns for the petting motion. At this stage he does not animate the dog yet, and only roughly avoids major intersections, leaving detailed contact cleanup for later.
Using Leading Parts, Overlap, and Arcs
As he refines the block into a spline pass, Gleb emphasizes leading parts and overlap to make the motion feel more natural. For example, when the character looks down, the head leads and the torso follows with a slight delay, instead of everything rotating together.
When the character sits, he doesn’t simply drop straight down. Gleb adds a subtle overshoot and settle so the pelvis goes down, then slightly up in an arc before coming to rest, which adds weight and organic movement to the action.
Building the Petting Action
For the petting section, Gleb focuses on clear contact and readable silhouettes rather than extreme detail in the fingers. He shapes the hands into relaxed, slightly open poses that can plausibly rest on the dog’s back or head, and mirrors finger poses from one hand to the other for consistency.
He keeps the body relatively stable while the arms drive most of the motion, adding a bit of secondary follow-through in the shoulders and spine. Later, he notes that animating the dog reacting with subtle body shifts or head movement would greatly increase realism, though he does not fully polish that in this demo.
Timing, Posing, and Clarity
Throughout the process, Gleb continually checks three priorities:
- Poses: Are the silhouettes clear and readable from the camera angle?
- Timing: Do the reactions and transitions feel natural and motivated by the dog’s presence?
- Intention: Does the audience always understand that the character sees, approaches, and affectionately interacts with an animal?
He reminds viewers that you don’t need to copy the reference exactly, especially if your rig’s idle pose and proportions differ. Instead, aim to capture the intent and rhythm of the reference while staying compatible with your character’s design and project needs.
From Blocking to Polish
After achieving a “blocky-spline” version he is happy with, Gleb explains that the next polishing step would involve:
- Cleaning intersections, especially at hand–dog contacts.
- Adding more nuanced overlaps in the spine, shoulders, and head.
- Animating the dog’s reaction to touch for a more lifelike feel.
He reiterates that a good interaction shot starts with a clear reaction/anticipation, moves through a believable physical contact, and returns cleanly to idle, all while keeping poses strong and timing purposeful.
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