Root Motion Basics | Adv. Anim Application [UE4/UE5]
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ส.ค. 2021
- Today we're learning how to animate a root motion animation. Root motion is best used for montages such as attacking, climbing, and any other action that requires very specific movement of the character including their collision capsule. By animating the Root bone of our skeleton, we're able to control where the character ends up without any code - it usually results in much cleaner animations!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in our Discord below!
------------------------------
Patreon: / prismaticadev
Discord: / discord
Twitch: / prismaticadev
Twitter: / prismaticadev
TH-cam: / prismaticadev
------------------------------
Computer Specs:
Ryzen 3900x 12-core CPU
MSI Geforce RTX 2080 Super
64GB Corsair RAM
One of those fancy nvme m.2 SSD's
Programs of choice:
Unreal Engine 4 - (Game Dev)
Blender 2.8 - (Animation and Modelling)
OBS - (Video/screen capture)
Davinci Resolve - (Video editing)
Adobe Photoshop - (Graphics and Texturing)
Quixel Mixer - (Texturing)
ProTools 11 - (Compositions and mixing)
OldSchool Runescape - (Chillax time)
Filmed using:
Sony A7s2 body
Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM lens
Yonguo YN360 LED's for colour
Yongnuo YN760 chip LED w/ Godox softbox for key
My lovely cats names are Boycat, Girlcat and Ladycat :)
![First look at Cascadeur! | Adv. Anim Application [UE4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZjzksfR9Jfg/mqdefault.jpg)
![First look at Cascadeur! | Adv. Anim Application [UE4]](/img/tr.png)
![Animation Montages | Adv. Anim Application [UE4/UE5]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2dmqKf6w5J8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Additive Animations | Adv. Anim Application [UE4]](/img/n.gif)
Thanks for that awesome tutorial! I tried to make a jump animation based on this and I discovered a pretty weird issue in UE4 so I thought I'd mention it in case it helps someone.
Apparently, UE4 ignores all root motion along the Z-axis unless the character's movement mode is set to 'Flying'.
So to get it to work, on keypress, I had to set the mode to 'Flying', play the montage, wait for the montage to finish playing (delay) and then set the movement mode back to 'Walking'.
Have you ever faced this?
Ah very good point - It's not that the engine ignores Z axis movement, it's that Gravity always applies haha. So when your character is moving up, they're also... moving down. I ran into this issue with Climbing animations and yes, setting the movement mode to Flying temporarily is the best solution!
@@PrismaticaDev I tried making gravity scale 0 while movement mode is walking and didn't work, I think setting it to flying is a must
This series should be part of the official UE docs lol, I've learned more watching these tonight than I have in months of reading UE docs lol. Cheers mate!
I just realised. This channel has EVERYTHING I need! Why didn't TH-cam recommend me this earlier. Hats off PrismaticaDev! 🍻
This is one of the best rootmotion tutorials I've seen.
No matter how hard I try I can never get a good Root motion working.
Glad it helped out! :)
loved this video thank you so much, you explained root motion so well and allowed us to apply it so easily, you saved a bunch of us struggling!
Thank you so much for putting your time into these awesome tutorials!
No worries John :) Thanks for all the support as always!
Your cat provided an excellent example of what an attack animation is exactly when prompted to do so.
Good kitty.
Wow, amazing tutorials, thank you for all the work!!!
ooh this is really nice, very useful too for those classic parkour animations, thanks a lot for the quality content ^^
also first lol
Haha absolutely! I use it for my climbing/vaulting anims :)
You are amazing, Charlie
Thanks for getting me started in animation! 👍
You're very welcome!! Hope you're having a tonne of fun :)
woah, ur not boring the shit outta me, hollup, gotta make sure im still on about Ue4
Love it, hope to learn how to make animations for my game from your tutorials!
I can’t wait for this game to come out awesome work !!!
Thanks Twister :) Should have a very early playable demo out some time soon! (tm)
Your tutorial popped up in my recommendations. I heard the RS music and now can't click away.
I HAVE RETURNED TO LEARN MORE
I’m having a really hard time setting up my lighting for my terrain. So far it looks super super bright and I’m just trying to go for the flat look that you’re world gives but it looks so so bright.
I'll do a little breakdown of my lighting setup early next week, hopefully that can help people get a cleaner stylized look :)
I spent last week looking how I exported animations to unreal, and couldn't find it. I had blender file with mannequin and had no idea what I done with it. I had value idea that I used some kind of plugin, but couldn't remember name of it. Thanks to you I solved problem.
👍 Nice
How did i JUST now find this channel!?!
PRISMATICAL!
PrismaticUHHHHHH
thank you so much for the amazing tutorials! I always wanted to get deeper with UE4's animation system. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to read what is on your screen and I get dizzy trying to keep up. I think your screen resolution might be too high for the recorder to capture. Can you please increase the size of the icons/text in your future videos? Best wishes.
Hey Yavuz! Unfortunately I don't think UE4 can resize it's UI :( I could potentially change my screen resolution but I would have to change all of my input settings when I change from recording to streaming.
I've started recording the screen at 2k resolution so I can crop in whenever there is any vital info in the UI, so rest assured if I'm ever talking about important settings I'll zoom in on them :)
Hi, I've been working on setting up vaulting in UE5, and it's the first point in development where I've had to use root motion, but whenever the animation starts, no matter where I am, the character teleports to the world origins. I thought it was something off with my scripting, but having spent the last two hours working out the precise effect of every single node, I'm no longer convinced, and kind of at a loss.
Would appreciate any help.
Cheers.
Nice video!
How would you say Mr Mannequin compares to Control Rig for animating?
How about compared to the official Blender to Unreal and Rigify addons for general use?
Pros/Cons of each, any reasons you use the workflow you do etc?
Subbed!
Hey hey! I haven't actually tried Control Rig yet - any recommendations of videos to learn from?
As for Mr Mannequin/Blender, I just really love the rig itself and how easy it is to export meshes/animations, and it also eliminates some back and forth (for example, a particular animation might cause some clothes to clip and look janky, so I can fix them whilst in the middle of an animation etc)
Hey dude. Are you implementing Advanced Locomotion System v4 into your game. I’d love to see some videos on that.
RuneScape music ar beggining ... Aw... Só manu memories
How to get refrence of an AnimBluePrint in a normal one?, like in ur first Adv. Anim Tut only vice versa?
so i have a pretty simple character like no fingers no toes brought in through mixamo, and i dont think i have a root bone because when i enable any root motion my character is just stuck doing a weird version of the animations lol, can i add a root bone in unreal without messing up all my animations that do work?
Appreciate the tutorial! You make it entertaining to watch and I love it.
One question. When I check root motion in UE4 for the animation, the animation plays in place ingame... Any idea of what I could be missing?
Hmmmm, are you 100% sure the Root is moving? Maybe double check in the anim preview by selecting the root bone and highlighting it. Does the animation move in world space when it isn’t ticked?
@@PrismaticaDev Yup, root bone moves in the preview when root motion is not checked. Might it be related with the animBP settings when calling play anim montage?
@@Mrshiinigamii ah yeah there might be a setting somewhere about Root Motion on montages
I’ll have a search in the morning when I’m at my computer :)
@@PrismaticaDev Thanks!
When I add my animation (two steps like the megadab) the character moves forward on the first step but stays in place during the second, do you know why this might be happening?
Great tutorial btw!
root motion tutorial on phat dab in the middle animation...lol luv it.
Runescape music in the background nice
Oh cuz you're playing it...derp lmao
@@phoenixthompson1561 Haha I use the OSRS soundtrack in all of my videos, although I am always playing it anyway
Hi, how did you get it so blender has the mannequin?
Can you show how you imported the character like that into blender?
How did you export the rig from Blender to Unreal without having that stupid bug where it creates a new root bone? Renaming the rig to "armature" will stop Unreal from creating a new root bone, but then the animations will be shrunk down. Am I missing something here?
I was missing something. You need to set the scale in Blender to 0.01 otherwise your animations will be tiny.
Is there any way to root motion a floating pawn too?
Hi. When I do root animation in blender 3.5, in UE5 the character does not move along the Z axis. What could be the problem?
the cat'' i love it hahaha
Hey Charlie I just want to ask you if you took any styalized environment course or something like that because I would like to buy one but there are so many. Thanks!
Hey Stelios! I didn't take any course specifically, I guess my style just comes from setting some limitations and setting myself some rules to create a consistent style. I think knowing a bit about colour theory is a great start especially for stylized scenes, since we're always using solid colours and not very noisy textures. I always see a lot of people saturating their colours waaaay too much haha. So unfortunately I don't have a specific answer for you other than to make sure your art fundamentals are solid :)
@@PrismaticaDev Wow this is incredible that you learned it all by yourself!!! I have no idea how to create normal maps and bake hight maps on them etc. When i finish my current game i will start searching and learning thank you very much!
@@steliosstavropoulos499 you should definitely check out Quixel Mixer if you're using Unreal - I make a tonne of simple textures with it, and it's great because it does the Normals/Heightmap for you!
Mr. Mannequin tools are fucking insane, if you, you being myself and anyone who uses them for free, if you make money off your game you owe him some money. its legit insane his tools are free.
What song is playing in the background? I need it in my playlist.
It's just music from the Oldschool Runescape soundtrack :)
Noob learner here: question.
What makes root motion important? Where is it best applied?
For example: if I had a perfect walk loop cycle - would it be ideal to have the root animated? Or is it better to keep the root static and have the characters' movement driven by the controller input? I want to understand when to and when not to use root motion.
Thanks!
The main difference is that Root motion dictates the movement of the character, whereas non-root motion is designed to "follow" what the character is doing. So in the case of walking and running around, you may want to have very responsive and accurate movement without worrying about it looking 100% perfect (call of duty) versus something where immersion and detail are more important (Red Dead Redemption 2)
@@PrismaticaDev thanks for the quick reply...
so root motion = more animation accurate movement?
vs non root motion = means try to align the animation's timing and speed to the character's global movement?
(this is what im kind of understanding of the situation so far) 🤔
Can somebody pls explain Root Motion (in UE) to me or provide link to a youtube video or article explaining abt basics of Root Motion! (like what is basically Root Motion, why is it needed, when it used and when not etc) 🙏Not able to find one.
Sensei, question: can I rotate the root motion, or animate it diagonally?
I've tried doing so but the animations don't translate correctly in UE4. If I disable "root motion" in the animation asset in UE4 it plays correctly, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't play fine with the root motion option enabled.
I have a lock on to target system, and I thought that was the problem, but if I disable it the animation problem persists. I'm confused. I'm not sure if it's an animation problem or a code problem.
Any advice is welcomed :D
DId you solve this?
Have you ever given Cascadeur a go? Wonder what you think.
I gave up on my game project but still love these videos lol
Haha maybe you just need a break, or maybe a smaller scope! Never give up! :)
@@PrismaticaDev definitely needed a smaller scope. What started small blew up into a desire to make what was basically a AAA open world rpg by myself with no experience (no wonder I gave up!). If I ever come back to it I will certainly be watching all your video again
@@xJustForKiicks I'm interested - what were you creating in detail? Btw breaks are important xD Burn out is real
@@infinithoughts4002 I wanted to create an rpg game that focused on the players magical abilities which I based off of the primalist in Last Epoch. Earth, lightning, and cold magic. I wanted these effects to "come from" the environment, like having the earth magic effects have similar materials to the terrain around them, and be unusable in areas without earth. Lightning would actually come from the clouds above, and would only be usable in stormy weather (the player could create this weather if they were powerful), cold effects were based on the temperature. I got caught up and burnt out in created fluid character movement, animation, and controls before I even got to developing the magic system.
@@xJustForKiicks I had a similar idea for my elemental system - but ultimately my project focus on a entirely unrestricted dual-wield weapon system via dual sword/mace , mace/mace or ultra greatsword/mace with action combat xD
If you're willing to work together in the future - your elemental ideas sound interesting =)
Hey Charlie. I'm having an issue with my root motion animation....I've done everything you've done and hooked it up with the #1 key instead....when I press it in game it's actually not playing the anima montage, but instead it's playing my characters walk cycle as if that was the animation in the montage....it is also moving the character forward properly, just not playing the correct animation. (There is only 1 montage in my entire peoject)
Could you help me with this please
Make sure there is a Slot (DefaultSlot) in your Animation graph - it sounds like it's "playing" the montage but not animating it because there isn't anywhere in the graph to play it
@@PrismaticaDev Thank yiu very much for your reoly Charlie. Although I'm confused on where this default slot would go inside the anim graph...would it be in the state machine and then adding a new state with the animation plugged inside?
anyone knows how I can apply root motion using control rig inside unreal?
I have a very challenging question I have a moose that has both IP animation and RM that I bought online only thing is for unreal the FBX RM does not works its there but none working this is what the seller told me ( Hello! Unfortunately, to work in UE4, you need to redo the animation of the root movement in the original Blender3D file There is no other way to fix it.) would any one know how to fix? would be very helpful. would like to fix myself not sure where to start.
Hmmmm... So does the skeleton have a Root bone? There may be ways to "add" the root bone in afterwards to the animation using Curves by swapping the X/Y location and Z rotation of the Pelvis to the new Root bone (which the Pelvis is parented to)
@@PrismaticaDev From the skeleton tree starting at the top it has Arm_Moose, Base_bone, root_bone all in the same spot on the moose?
TIL what Root Motion means. Thank you so much!
Haha no worries! It's definitely one of those words that gets tossed around a lot, hopefully this was a good enough explainer :)
Whats that little thing in the right corner which playes rune scape?
That's my 3rd monitor where I always play Runescape hahaha, I always forget to hide it when I record videos. It's always up when I'm streaming GameDev
@@PrismaticaDev I kinda like it. keeps the screen rather buisy and as someone whos not even gamedeving it can keep in sections where i don't get shit my attantion span high ... but thats not that often :D
@@Seignil Haha unfortunately I'm just fishing 99% of the time lately. CONTENT! Hahaha
@@PrismaticaDev Fishing is always dangerous in games ... you get to a pond and boom three hours later you got a shoe and twelf small fish -.-
Instant like and subscribe for playing runescape
How do you add a mannequin template, i don't have it. Is it a plugin?
um so yea got it from gumroad
Ok so I guess using rigify for my rig was a bad idea because the root bone moves all the IK bones...
yoooo mega dab 😳😳🚫🧢 what a man
Yoooooooooooo
can we purchase the game pls?
Haha not for quite a while unfortunately :P But you'll definitely hear about it when you can!
Is root motion...better?
It’s just a tool that is useful in some situations :)
4:45 mine doesn't though 🙄🙄🙄
I'm going to ask a question, but it may be misconstrued as offensive when that's not my intent. So I'll ask it in reply to this comment so it has to be specifically sought to be seen:
Why did you decide to use mister mannequin?
I ask because, when dealing with workflow compatibility problems, finding the path of least resistance often leads to further limitations down the line. You are restricted to the conventions as they are, and limited by what another person will provide, update or expand.
In most areas of gamedev, I don't feel this as much as with rigging: The animations I want to use, the types of kinematics I feel are more comfortable to program and animate.. All of these led to me deciding to make custom rigs and retarget source animations as needed, so that I would have higher confidence in my ability to produce consistently down the line.
Did your team decide on using a preset workflow due to the animator's experience, preferences, or for some other reason? I'm merely seeking other people's perspectives, as animation is one of those workflows I have less experience with, and yet I've always felt confident in my decisions to make my own rigs and design my own processes to suit what needs I expect to have.
@@SomethingEternal long story short - I'm a solo dev and it's usually better to make a decision and get something done than to spend ages researching it. At the time, Mr Mannequin ticked all the boxes for my needs, for both rigging and animation. Recently, I've moved to Cascadeur for all my animation stuff, and haven't had any issues transitioning.
@@PrismaticaDev Like I said, was just curious. I'm solo too so I understand. I guess I was just too worried about animation to leave well enough alone. I tend to go overboard most on the things I expect to be hardest, and animation is a top 2 contender for things I've had a heck of a time with (the other is UI design.)
@@SomethingEternal I totally feel you on UI haha. I've opted to use very minimal UI for my project :P
Animation definitely is scary, especially when you're thinking about it long-term
@@PrismaticaDev If you come up with a good hack for finding a UI style, lemme know. I can do the same if I find one (Only tip I have... Material Parameter Collections for ALL, and I mean ALL UI colors. From text to headers to etc, for those time when I can't decide what color things should be.)
soooo... we are gonna do it thaaat way.. ... no that looks scuffed as f
ok
Hahaha me every hour of the day
ffs I can't find any source that would actually explain what those damn slots are, everyone uses them, nobody explains what they are REEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Do you mean Animation Slots? I cover them in my Anim Montage video :)