In this work, human myocardial motion is studied in an electrical and in an MRI‐compatible (pneumatic) version of a specialized, commercially available, human cardiac phantom at 1.5 Tesla using Displacement Encoding with Stimulated Echoes (DENSE). Work is extended to a prototype rodent phantom, designed, manufactured, implemented, and imaged on a high field (7 T) scanner using urethane‐elastomers under dynamic conditions. Mechanical properties of phantom composition (including commercially available urethane‐elastomers of variable elasticity, poly(glycerol) sebacate (PGS), and polyvinyl acetate (PVA)‐elastomeric samples were evaluated with dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Both phantoms were cyclically driven at 90–100 bpm and were molded to match accurately human and rodent anatomy. Constructed waveforms attained human and rodent torsions that ranged between 0–40° and 0–20°, respectively. The human phantom used PVA elastomer‐materials, whereas solid, cylindrical urethane‐elastomeric, and PGS samples were tested in the rodent phantom. Measured bulk storage moduli of elasticity varied between 0.7 and 1.06 MPa using the DMA, whereas AFM measurements independently confirmed the graded surface stiffness of elastomers and PGS samples. Displacement maps were generated with DENSE at time intervals ending at 25% of the cardiac cycle (due to the reduced DENSE‐MRI SNR at subsequent intervals) and yielded basal, middle, and apical longitudinal displacements that ranged between −4–6, −8–8, and −10–8 mm, respectively. Elicited in‐plane strain results yielded LV phantom values during the first five cardiac phases that ranged between 0.03–3.7% for Exx and 0.03–4.8% for Eyy. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson Part A 42A: 59–71, 2013.