Animating in unreal: what framerate?

dregoloth

I've recently decided to take a stab at animation, but I find myself at a loss for what frame rate at which to animate for unreal, namely because I can't find out whether or not unreal takes into account what frame rate you animated at originally.

Also- what's a good amount of frames for a walk cycle or an idle animation?

Thanks in advance.

Vailias

I believe the animation is processed in seconds out of your DCC app rather than in frames. I've just stuck with 30fps as it was usually sufficient for what I needed to animate.

[big]HOWEVER[/big]

Your animations playback in engine from 0-1 with your keyed positions at what is essentially a percentage of the overall animation length. The animation is then scaled to N seconds based on the sequence settings. This allows for smooth motion at any framerate, and you can scale time within the engine or editor or even the rate at which a single animation plays back all in engine.

As far as number of frames.. a better idea both for unreal and in general, is to go with what speed the character will be moving in that walk. Animate your master controller for your rig along the distance you chose over the time you choose (a brisk walk is about 3mph ~1.5m/s (1.34 actually but thats a bitch to gridsnap) A slow stroll is more like 1-2mph (.5-1 m/s)

Most FPS characters run at between 30 and 50kph (8-15 m/s) (aka a marathon in 45minutes). Yeah they're not human at all. If you have a game you want to put them in, see if you can find the player movement rate, go bug a coder, or set up a map with known distance flags, and time yourself over a flat stretch for the known distance. This will give you the speed you need to animate at.

Once you've figured out speed, then make your steps so the character doesn't slide, and you should see if your chosen gait looks in the least natural. Typically its good to choose one (or just a couple) strides for the cycle portion, whatever distance that naturally covers.

Once you've built up the moving walk, delete the keyframe for your master controller at the end of its translation, Shorten the timescale to just the one or two strides you're going to export, and clean up the ends so they flow naturally between each other. DO NOT HAVE YOUR FIRST AND LAST FRAME MATCH EXACTLY. It will cause the slightest of pauses in the animation that you will notice.


Idles vary depending on how your character idles. If they scratch their bum, then just a second or two will do. If they pull out a cigarette, light it, take a few puffs, then stomp it out in the dirt.. well.. time it out.

Good luck on your animation journey. Its a lot of fun to breathe life into things.

dregoloth

Thanks for the reply! This information not only answers my questions, but it also answers questions which I hadn't given thought to yet.