How to Make an Animation on Roblox Studio

Creating animations in Roblox is not difficult, but it's not a quick process either. It involves both animation creation and scripting to achieve a workable result that you can use and publish for the entire community.

Poses

Creating a character animation in Roblox Studio involves the creation of poses. You can make poses by moving specific body parts at various angles. Once you have several poses, the animation will blend them to create a smooth transition from pose to pose.

How to Define a Pose

1. Set a frame position for your pose by moving the scrubber bar with your mouse.
   
2. Click on a rig component.
   
3. Rotate the element whichever way you want.
   After this step, you'll notice that the scrubber bar will indicate the creation of a new track. It will have a diamond symbol. Each pose will have its track.
4. Select a new body part and make your adjustments to add to the pose.
5. Press the Play button from the top left corner of the window.

That will allow you to preview your animation. Always do this to make sure you're on the right track.

Fine-Tuning Poses

Once you're done with poses, it's time to work on the animation. As previously stated, the animator will smoothen the transition. But this doesn't mean that you can't manually improve things on your end.

You can adjust keyframes to improve your final animation. You can add new keyframes and delete what you think is unnecessary. You can also edit the timeframe to help make the transitions smoother and more believable.

Reusing Poses

Not every frame of animation needs to be a unique pose. You can reuse certain poses to maintain animation continuity. And, the standard copy/paste key combinations work on both Windows and Mac.

1. Click on the diamond icon next to the keyframe you want to copy.
2. Press Ctrl+C.
3. Move the bar to a new position.
4. Press Ctrl+V.

By selecting a keyframe and pressing Delete or Backspace, you can remove it from the animation. As you can see, Roblox Studio makes things very beginner-friendly with standard keyboard commands.

Choosing the Animation Type

There are a few types of animations that Roblox can use to piece your poses together.

1. Linear.
2. Cubic.
3. Constant.
4. Elastic.
5. Bounce

Each option refers to a different type of animation easing. Easing is a concept that refers to how an object moves in between keyframes. Linear easing refers to the steady motion or constant speed. Elastic will try to move the object similar to how it would move if it were attached to a rubber band.

Cubic easing uses cubic interpolation to ease in and out of keyframes. Bounce easing can make animations look a bit, well bouncy. Particularly at the start and end of the animation.

Last but not least, constant easing can make things look more fragmented. This type is done by snapping keyframes together and eliminating the interpolation in between.

You'll have to try each to figure out what's best for your character model. No one type of easing is superior to others. The character models and the kind of rotation you apply will determine what animation can make things run smoothly.

Animation Settings and Events

In the Animation Editor, you'll find a Looping button. It will allow you to loop specific animations. However, it won't optimally blend the final keyframe with the first keyframe.

A workaround for this issue would be to copy your first keyframe and use it as the last one. If you do this, the looper will be able to interpolate between the two keyframes.

It's also at this point where you'll want to assign a priority for your animation. Priorities are listed as follows from lowest to highest.

1. Core.
2. Idle.
3. Movement.
4. Action.

Note that setting a higher priority will allow you to override a lower priority animation while it's playing.

How to Reveal and Create Events

1. Click the gear button in the upper right corner of the timeline.
2. Select the Show Animation Events option.
3. Select a position on the timeline for a new event.
4. Select the Edit Animation Events button.
   
5. Click the Add Event option.
6. Give your new event a name.
7. Go to the parameter field and input a parameter string.
8. Hit Save to register the new event.
   You'll know if this worked once a marker becomes visible at that location on the timeline.
9. Select the event marker.
10. Copy the event.
11. Move the scrubber bar to the right as far as you think the event should last.
12. Press Ctrl+V.

How to Save Animations

You save an animation as a KeyframeSequence. Here's how to do it:

1. Click on the three-dotted icon in the editor window.
2. Select the Save option.
3. Click the three-dotted icon again.
4. Select the Export option.
5. Copy the asset ID given by the URL – it's the last number in the URL.

If you just save your animation and don't export it, you won't be able to use it outside the editor. And, you will need the asset ID to script the animation for use in games.

Easing Young Designers Into Animation Creation

By all accounts, Roblox is a sophisticated platform with a powerful and advanced studio editor. That said, at least the animation editor is an easy-to-learn aspect of the Roblox Studio.

Based on your experience with Roblox and other animation creation tools, let us know what do you think needs improving? Do you prefer the current interface, or would you prefer there was more scripting involved?

How to Make an Animation on Roblox Studio

Source: https://www.alphr.com/roblox-make-animations/

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