Quad Digitigrade Stilts issue

[IronTiger]

New to the forum- hello!

I have a great plan for an original werewolf costume I want to build. I know i want to be able to walk/run on all fours. I have seen a ton of videos and how-to instructions on building the leg stilts and have a solid design in mind.

The issue is when it comes to the arm stilts- I want to be able to have them be paws when I want to walk on all fours but then convert to articulated hands when I want to walk on 2 legs.

I have searched all over for something similar and can't really find anything.

I want to have "normal", articulated monster claw hands that are controlled by cables and bungees. When I pull a special cable, the fingers will bend back over the hand and scrunch up to form the paws.

This is going to require an extremely high degree of engineering skill and probably just as much trial and error to make them work properly but I am up to the challenge.

ANY advice/help/input will be appreciated!!

 

[fallimar]

Your problem is going to be proportions.
A four legged creature needs "arms" that are very long in order to match the length of human legs, so if you stand up you're going to have incredibly long legs and arms and a very, very short body. Awkward proportions for any critter! Especially if you actually pad out the chest to where it needs to be (halfway down the arms) to look natural.

I'll show you what I mean - here we go, a sketch I did up to help some folks out with quadsuits ages ago.


Basically, to make it look natural you have to pad things to shorten the hind legs, lengthen the forelegs, pad out the butt to lengthen the body (because we have very, very short torsos compared to quadrupeds), pad out the neck (again, tiny human neck problems) and pad out the chest to bring it down to elbow level when standing.
If it's more of a monster look and less of an animal look you want, then I'd still recommend against adding any height to your legs at all and as little to your arms as possible whilst maintaining the outline you want. Definitely pad out the chest though.

In short - upright werewolf = leg stilts, quad costume = arm stilts and leg padding.