Leaping squirrel motion breakdown

 

While preparing to blockout an animation of a squirrel, I did some analysis on some footage of one, https://youtu.be/l5Bdid3Bxt4?si=dvhgChHN-gCrKBHc

I combed through this slow-motion footage to find keyframes and see anything notable about the motion. I also did a trace-over with some notes about what I noticed.

 Before the squirrel readies for it's jump, it seems fairly relaxed as it looks toward it's landing point. 

The body begins to tense up, and the squirrel flicks it's tail around, which made it look excited.

The body begins to squash and lean back

Something I noticed, before the squirrel actually leaps it forms a noticeable arc in it's back

This exact arc almost seems to transfer like a wave to it's tail as the squirrel begins it's leap.

The squirrel also lifts it's forearms very early in the jump, almost immediately after leaving the branch. I also observed the wave-like pattern of the tail's overlapping motion.

Finally the squirrel stretches as it arcs forward, as it reaches max speed the tail finally starts to smooth out as it drags behind.

As the squirrel approaches it's landing, it's body actually starts to compress and squash, it positions it's arms and legs in front of itself with it's eyes locked on it's target.

The arms and legs stretch out dramatically as the squirrel prepares to catch itself. You'll also notice the tail starts to lift upward as the rest of it's body descends.

This part was fun to see, between this and the next pose the squirrel is very naturally counter-balancing the bounce of the branch it lands on. In turn the branch is about to absorb the energy from it's landing. Just pay attention to the hips and the branch.

 

The video goes on to show 3 more jumps, but I'll just focus on the next one and be more brief. First it tenses and anticipates it's jump

This tension is a visual and literal compression of energy, the squirrel leaps by releasing this energy.

Once again it fronts it's forearms as soon as possible, also worth noting that it leads with one forearm and the other follows, in this case left than right.

This is a much more extreme compression as it anticipates it's landing, I really love this pose.

And finally it makes contact. In this leap the squirrel almost slides down the branch to dissipate the energy from it's landing.