Action Analysis: Flight Dynamics (Secondary Research)

After I got the assignment to study flight, I sought out videos of birds, and got very lucky when I discovered this clip from the Natural World documentary "Super Powered Owls":

Scientists set up an experiment designed to examine how an owl achieves silent flight - the perfect thing for an animator to study. I dove straight into the full documentary on BBC iPlayer and did as many sketches of owls (and a few other bird species) as I could. Click Read More to see these sketches (with a few dog and otter studies mixed in).

I learned from this documentary that several things contribute to owls' silent, efficient flight: their bodies are curved and very aerodynamic, with proportionately large wings, allowing them to fly slowly and with few wing beats. The silence of those wing beats is due to the fluidity and delicacy of their movements, coupled with the softness and lightness of their feathers.

All perfect examples of how an animal or character's physicality affects its movement, and good stuff to keep in mind when animating.