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Digitigrade vs Plantigrade
#463881 - Thu Mar 11 2004 01:46 AM
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Many anthro characters in the dream, and although most are closer to humans with their feet, or their animal type has plantigrade feet in the first place, I'm sure there's a fair number that follow their non-human half with digitigrade.
So what's the difference? What are the pros and cons of each? Stability? Speed? Power? Grip? Agility?
The bottom line should be survival, so, the ability to evade, chase, or move in a certain terrain. I'm sure there's an evolutionary rationale between the two, but I'm not finding anything reliable from either web searching or randomly asking people. The only thing universally agreed on is that digitigrade is faster, and it's sort of agreed that plantigrade is more stable at rest, though digitigrade offsets that commonly with a tail.
True? I have no idea, maybe someone who's taken biology would know about this.
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Saira
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Member #1953
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Posts: 257
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I haven't really studied biology, so I'll try to go at this with common sense. Beware 
I have seen both types of anthropomorphic characters in the Dream, and both are fine. I consider digitigrade characters to be more on the animal side, and plantigrade to be more human. Of course exeptions are fun.
The difference should be in where the character is from, I think. If they're from the wilderness and have to hunt for food, they are more likely to be digitigrade. However, the need for speed and chasing things decreases with 'civilisation'. A people that lives of growing crops or that uses trde for their survival are less likely to walk up straight. This does not mean that digitagrade characters are dumber, just that they have no need to walk.
My theory probably doesn't make sense, but I thought I'd share anyway.
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This is my logic, based on movement study for animation - not from biology.
A digitigrade foot is designed to propel you forward, while a plantigrade is more aimed at pushing up. You, as a human, lean forward when you walk, your foot pushes you up, you catch yourself from the tipped-over-fall with the other foot.
On the other hand, your cat uses his/her back feet to propel her forward and the front feet mostly keep the front end from being driven into the ground. If you watch the run cycle of a 4 legged animal its
1) push off with back feet
2) front feet on the ground while the body bunches up and momentum carries the body for a moment
3) rear legs make contact close to where the front legs leave off, giving them the maximum push from halfway under the body to nearly that distance behind the rear end, which is sortof rehashing step 1.
-repeat as necissary
Shure, Digitigrade feet will be faster if you're running on all fours, but they're impractical for an erect standing creature. That's why we dont have them ^_~ and why humans really -cant- run on all fours. The physics is completely wrong.
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Thanks Nez!
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Standing up straight isn't really isn't much different. It depends on paw placement to be on average "under" the center of gravity of the body.
However, we must make an important note. The hip and leg structure of anthropomorphic, digitalgrade furs is closer to human than to nonhuman, because that base animal doesn't have all his/her weight on their hips, standing upright. It's spread out along four legs! (Not to say that they can adapt -- just dip the AP news archives to prove that out) Most every artist draws the hip joint area as human.
So there's not really many differences design wize. Maybe a little more pressure on the paws than on a full foot, but that depends on how large the paws are anyway.
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(Right now I'm not coherent enough to back up my arguments thoroughly, so take anything I say with however much salt you want.  )
Something that a digitigrade leg may provide is a bit more "springiness" - look at the kangaroo for one example.
The "human" foot and leg design can allow the body to stand for fairly long periods, but the smaller pads of the digitigrade foot make balance a little trickier in that situation. But there's another appendage furries are often depcited with that can help the balance problem: a tail. Even gentle motions could shift the whole body around. By constantly moving and adjusting the center of balance the character could still stand comfortably.
...My $.02 (US), but of course I could be full of something... 
--S
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Digitigrade feet have an extra exotic factor to them. Simply because they're *not* on humans makes your average anthro look a little less like animal parts tacked on a human body.
This is a pure aesthetic view.
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Thank you Oni!
Sweet and thoughtful cat,
Though he sometimes stutters, he
Always speaks the truth.
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