I've been a fan of the TES since Morrowind in 2002, but I wish animation in Bethesda's games had improved as much as everything else. Mostly, I just want a diagonal running animation. I've looked around but couldn't find any developer comments on what they're doing with character animation in Skyrim. The gameplay footage in the latest trailer looks good, but I'm wondering how much of that is bespoke for the trailer (like the hands coming out in front of the 1st person camera when it approaches the cliff at the start of the video).

So in case any devs are reading this and are allowed to reply; can you comment on just how much have things changed? Will I finally get my beloved diagonal running animation? I'd love to see the gameplay and story telling of TES with the running animation quality of Red Dead (actually come to think of it, are you using Euphoria?)

EDIT: This is Euphoria http://www.naturalmotion.com/euphoria
It's why Red Dead's animations look so fluid.

I just want to switch to 3rd person and not have it look like I was sliding.

Almost forgot about that. Definitely want that fixed.

I think we need to see more gameplay to really tell. I'm guessing it will all be pre-made animations for the most part. But games are slowly swapping to entirely random ones. (like that)

they made a point of showing it off twice in the trailer (once in the forest and once in the Dwemer ruin) so unless they TAKE IT OUT it's in.

they're using http://www.havok.com/index.php?page=havok-behavior, which from what i've read seems similar to Euphoria but maybe not as complex.

also i feel like i'm alone in feeling GTA4 had better animations than RDR. everything in RDR seemed so practiced and stiff, even if everything blended fluidly, whereas movement in GTA4 felt a lot more loose and realistic.

Walking in a straight line looks great in the trailer (water wheel town scene), I hope I'll actually be able to play in 3rd person to some extent this time.

Well Havok Behavior will be used for better animation blending in Skyrim
http://www.havok.com/index.php?page=havok-behavior