Buckbeak in the lime-light
USA Today has an article on the creation that is Buckbeak, and what it took to bring him to life....

"Buckbeak is very gracious when he flies, but very clumsy when he walks and eats like a glutton," says Alfonso Cuaron, who directed the third film in the Potter series. "He is not very smart, but very loyal and very proud."

Underlying his distinctive character traits was a complex musculature created by a team specializing in computer-generated imagery.

"The hippogriff was probably one of the most complex creatures we've ever done (in the three Potter films)," Potter producer Mark Radcliffe says.
Several artists, Radcliffe says, "combined the bone structure of a bird with the bone structure of a horse, then started to figure out, 'How does an animal like that walk? Does it walk around like a horse or like a bird?' "
"We wanted a smart, powerful animal, but it's also a bird of prey," Radcliffe says. "We wanted to create a creature that would be emotional and have a real personality. We wanted a creature the audience would love."

For the full article, go to USA Today