On Penguins of Madagascar, we had the unique challenge of rigging several octopus characters to antagonize our heroes. Unlike normal octopuses, they spend most of their time on land, and had to be able to scurry around, operate machinery, and do kung-fu. However, tentacles are notoriously difficult to animate, so we needed a solution that Animators could easily pose both for walking and gesturing, without taking significantly longer than they would for a normal bipedal character. On top of that, combining the range of motion that a boneless octopus requires with the exaggerated cartoony motions and art-directed shapes that are a part of the Madagascar
style, meant we needed shaping solutions far beyond those found on a typical character. We solved these needs through careful design choices, a custom tentacle setup, special silhouette controls, and a unique approach to combining the face and body deformations.

Research Paper for Rigging Octopuses in Penguins of Madagascar