Understanding Model Requirements

The Animation Editor can support a variety of models, as long as they are connected together as a rig with Motor6D’s and contain a PrimaryPart. If you aren’t familiar with rigging custom models together, you can insert a default R15 model because that is what we’ve used for this chapter’s exercise.

To begin, open a separate baseplate, just to be extra safe and have your animations in a separate spot. Then follow these steps:

1. In the Plugins tab, click Build Rig (Figure 16.2).

   

2. Select Block Rig for this example (Figure 16.3).

With the test rig in your workspace, you’re ready to open the Animation Editor.

Opening the Animation Editor

1. Open the Animation Editor, which is also located under the Plugins tab (Figure 16.4).

   

2. Click your rig in the Animation Editor window (Figure 16.5) to select it. If prompted, name your animation and click Create.

Enabling IK

To start animating using IK, click the IK button in the Animation Editor (Figure 16.17) to bring up the Manage IK window on the left of the screen. At the bottom of the window, click Enable IK.

Roblox IK can be categorized into two separate modes: Full Body and Body Part (Figure 16.18).

In Body Part IK mode, when you move a body part, only that part experiences any movement. For example, moving the right arm only affects parts that make up the right arm (Figure 16.19).

In Full Body IK mode, when you move a body part, all parts of the rig will be considered. For example, moving the right arm calculates effects in the rest of the body (Figure 16.20). If you don’t want certain parts to be calculated, you can pin them to keep them stationary (see the next section).

Pinning Parts

With Full Body IK, you may want to pin parts so they don’t move. Simply click the pin icon next to the name of the part you want to pin (Figure 16.21). In Figure 16.22, the feet of the rig are pinned.

Looping

You can enable looping for animations by toggling the Looping button (Figure 16.23). When this button is enabled, it will export the animation as a loop. Be careful, though: When it loops, it stops at the final keyframe’s row in your timeline and then goes back to the beginning without any transition. To get around this, if you’re making animations that need to loop, you can copy your first set of keyframes to the end of your timeline to get a seamless loop.

Priority

In a gameplay setting, different player states may require different animations. For example, a player’s attack animation would be different than an idle animation. In most scenarios, you’ll want the attack animation to have a higher priority than the idle animation so that the two actions won’t conflict. Animation priority can be represented visually as shown in Figure 16.24.

To view and adjust animation priority, click the ellipsis near the top right of the Animation Editor and select Set Animation Priority (Figure 16.25).

In the window that opens, you can see your current animation priority and change it as needed. An important thing to remember is that the lower the priority, the more likely the animation is to be overwritten by an animation with a higher priority.

Adding Events

Adding animation events is a pretty simple process. Add an animation event to mark both the beginning and end of your animation. Later in this hour, you use these events in a script. Follow these steps:

1. Right-click the point in the timeline where you want the event, and select Add Animation Event Here.

2. Create two new events at the beginning and the end of the animation named AnimationStart and AnimationEnd.

3. Once you define the necessary fields, click Save. You see a new keyframe marker where your scrubber bar was last placed (Figure 16.28).

For scripting, you can have additional parameters to pass to your GetKeyframeReachedSignal() event.

Moving and Deleting Events

If you ever want to move an event, it’s as simple as dragging the animation event to a new position on the animation track. To delete events, you can press the Delete key on your keyboard or right-click an animation event and select Delete Selected from the context menu.

Cloning Events

As you create events, they become available for use throughout the animation, and you can clone them for reuse. For instance, you can create a HandWave event marker at the point where a character’s right hand is raised, and then use the same event for waving the other hand.

To clone animation events, you first select the animation event you want to clone and press Ctrl + C (or Cmd + C on a Mac). Then move your scrubber bar to where you want to paste the animation event and press Ctrl + V (or Cmd + V on a Mac).

Implementing Events in Scripts

To implement animation events in a local script, you use a mixture of GetMarkerReachedSignal() and the animation object. For the following example, when a player presses F on the keyboard, the character stops and attacks. You need to create animation events for both the beginning and end of the animation.

1. Make sure your animation with events for AnimationStart and AnimationEnd has been saved and exported to Roblox.

2. Select StarterPlayer, StarterPlayerScripts and add a LocalScript named ZombieAttack.

3. Type the following code:

   Click here to view code image

   local UserInputService = game:GetService("UserInputService") -- Detecting
         player input
   local Players = game:GetService("Players")                   -- Get local
         player
   local player= Players.LocalPlayer                            -- Our player
   
   -- Get the player's character model that needs to be animated
   local characterModel = player.Character or player.CharacterAdded:Wait() 
   local humanoid = characterModel:WaitForChild("Humanoid") 
   
   local animation = Instance.new("Animation")       -- New animation object
   animation.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://000000000"  -- Use your animation asset
         ID
   
   local animationTrack = humanoid:LoadAnimation(animation)
   
   -- Detects if player is pressing F and plays animation
   UserInputService.InputBegan:Connect(function(input, isTyping)
         local normalWalkSpeed = humanoid.WalkSpeed
         if isTyping then return end
   
         if input.KeyCode == Enum.KeyCode.F then
              animationTrack:Play()
         end
   
         animationTrack:GetMarkerReachedSignal("AnimationStart"):
         Connect(function()
              humanoid.WalkSpeed = 0               -- Stops the player from
               moving
         end)
   
         animationTrack:GetMarkerReachedSignal("AnimationEnd"):Connect(function()
              humanoid.WalkSpeed = normalWalkSpeed  -- Allows movement again
         end)
   end)

This code detects when the player presses F, plays the animation, and stops the player from moving until the animation ends. If you’ve followed the steps properly, now when you press F, your very own custom attack animation will play!

Replacing Default Animations

By default, Roblox player characters include common animations like running, climbing, swimming, and jumping. However, at some point, you might feel like you want to replace these defaults with your own animations. Luckily, Roblox enables you to do this pretty easily through the use of scripts. If you have a valid animation ID, you can replace the default animations with your own custom ones.

The process of replacing default animations goes as follows:

1. Insert a script in ServerScriptService.

2. Type the following script but replace the animation IDs with an ID you’ve created. Also edit animations as needed.

   Click here to view code image

   local Players = game:GetService("Players")
   local function onCharacterAdded(character)
         local humanoid = character:WaitForChild("Humanoid")
   
         for _, playingTracks in pairs(humanoid:GetPlayingAnimationTracks()) do
                playingTracks:Stop(0)
         end
   
         local animateScript = character:WaitForChild("Animate")
         animateScript.run.RunAnim.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://616163682"        
               -- Run
         animateScript.walk.WalkAnim.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://616168032"      
               -- Walk
         animateScript.jump.JumpAnim.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://616161997"      
               -- Jump
         animateScript.idle.Animation1.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://616158929"    
               -- Idle (Variation 1)
         animateScript.idle.Animation2.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://616160636"    
               -- Idle (Variation 2)
         animateScript.fall.FallAnim.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://616157476"      
               -- Fall
         animateScript.swim.Swim.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://616165109"          
               -- Swim (Active)
         animateScript.swimidle.SwimIdle.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://616166655"  
               -- Swim (Idle)
         animateScript.climb.ClimbAnim.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://616156119"    
               -- Climb
   end
    
   local function onPlayerAdded(player)
         player.CharacterAppearanceLoaded:Connect(onCharacterAdded)
   end
   
   Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(onPlayerAdded)

Note that sometimes it takes an animation a bit of time to go through moderation. If you only just published the animation and it isn’t working, try again in a minute.

Quiz

1. What plugin allows you to add R15 and R6 rigs to your game?

2. Saved rotation and position information within the Animation Editor timeline is called a ______.

3. True or False: To create an animation event, insert an AnimEvent object into the rig.

4. True or False: Toggling Looping on only loops the animation for testing purposes, not in game.

Answers

1. The Build Rig plugin allows you to add R15 and R6 rigs to your game.

2. Saved rotation and position information within the Animation Editor timeline is called a keyframe.

3. False. Animation events are created by right-clicking a keyframe and selecting “Add animation event here.”

4. False. Toggling Looping on causes the exported animation to loop in game until it is interrupted.