Autodesk is galloping ahead with its inclusion of AI tools in its main software Maya and 3ds Max, but it’s the new AI horse animation tool in MotionMaker (in Maya) that caught the eye. Four-legged animals are notoriously hard to get right, so adding an AI tool to make one of animation’s trickiest challenges easier feels like something everyone can like. While some may still see this as a Trojan horse 2.0, making us more dependent on AI, it’s hard to turn down something that makes a notoriously hard process easier.
The new tool not only creates basic animations for trots and gallops but also generates transitions between them. Usually, getting a natural, rhythmic transition from trot to canter, for example, can take hours of tweaking. MotionMaker’s new AI tool follows on from ideas announced at AU 2025 and is designed to remove that hurdle (sorry) as the animals trot from stable diffusion (really, sorry) and into the wilds of your new projects.
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(Image credit: Autodesk)
(Image credit: Autodesk)
(Image credit: Autodesk)How does it work?
In practice, that means quick changes, like redirecting a horse to jump an obstacle rather than avoid it, or increasing pace without losing its natural gait, can be handled without rebuilding the animation from scratch. The bonus is that the generated motion can be adapted to similar quadrupeds, including deer and bison, which opens it up for use across games, film, and previs work.
The pitch here is to offer a platform for generating animation of four-legged animals (it joins MotionMaker’s library of dogs and other animals) as a starting point for artists to develop and build upon. While many artists may want to stick to a standard workflow for hero animation, this kind of AI use feels like a good starting point for previs or background work, where speed matters more than bespoke performance.
This update to MotionMaker joins a slew of new AI and non-AI announcements Autodesk made today, including Wonder 3D’s improved text-to-3D generations and a refresh of Maya’s Bifrot sims; but ultimately, it’s hard not to be wowed by an easier way to animate a horse. Even AI neigh-sayers may admit this one looks okay.
Visit the Autodesk Blog for more details, and read our guides to the best 3D modelling software and the best animation software for more.