The file required needs to be 3DSMax or must be importable without loss of functionality. I prefer version 8 compatibility but this is not a must.
I will render the animation myself and sort out camera angles, lighting and such myself. I will render in to 2D animations and use multiple rendered layers as to emulate a horse race. The horses will differ in color and ID number only.
1./The object required is a (race)horse and jockey. As lifelike animation is maybe too hard to achieve, I will settle with either a robot horse or a similar kind of representation. The horse and the jockey should both have a clearly readable number (I will change these myself from 1 to 6) and surfaces that can be coloured as to create a clear distinction between horses/lanes. I do not need materials, I can do those myself. Maps are allowed. All joints and pivot points required for the animation should of course be functional, The jockey can be (or should be) lacking features as I will use the same figure for 6 different horses, so elaborate facial details and such are not required.
2./animation:
I need the animation in 3 phases. The frames for phase 1 and 3 should be continuous when looping. I prefer these animations with as little key frames as possible, so I can adjust the length (number of frames) when rendering. Alternatively, these animations may have a high number of frames, so I can choose the number of frames by rendering every n-th frame.
Phase 1 is the horse standing still, but with some kind of minimal movement such as scraping one of the front legs. The jockey does not need to move at all The object of this phase is to show the horses awaiting the start of the race. The second phase is the horse going from static to running (start of the race) the third phase is continuous running (loop). The movement should appear natural, although you can cheat if you wish as nobody knows how a robot horse moves.
I may want to render in high(er) resolutions. Please bear this in mind when constructing but then again, using a robot horse makes life easy on this front.