Stepped Animation Practice
It's my first time trying this technique, so it's a bit rough. But it can save a ton of time in the future if done right. Also helps with style.
THIS has a lot of uses in the future when learned correctly.
I just wanted a simple scene and some random action scene done.
First of all, in UE4 there's a stepped animation option for import. Only works on stuff imported that's already set below 60 fps using Blender's export framerate options in the properties panel. Ryuko is animated in 30fps and exported as such. No baking needed.
For stuff that's calm, general camera movement is steady as well. Not much swooping going on and it usually starts with linear keyframes going into interpolated stops. The character doesn't need to be fully animated 100% of the time with this technique since the resting parts look natural. (While fully interpolated, frozen parts look alarmingly bad)
When it comes to action shots, i've done LOTS of failed experimenting in order to get the sliding still motion effect that 2d animation usually has since it's attached to the camera that's at a higher fps than it. But as of now, it's far easier to limit the fps of the camera in UE4 to match the character due to the weird import method adding lots of interpolation into baked constant keyframes. Still looking into this.
[Approach 1. Lock the camera to the same fps as the character.]
Honkai Impact 3rd: Reburn
• Honkai Impact 3rd Animation - Reburn
[I didn't even know this was possible until I saw this Digital Foundry video on Guilty Gear Xrd]
Digital Foundry analysis:
• Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator: PS4/PS3 Ga...
The way you do this is going frame by frame. You put a keyframe at each point the character moves with the camera then set them all to constant. This removes ghost judder our eyes see.
[Approach 2. Root motion]
Star Fox Zero Opening:
• Star Fox Zero – The Battle Begins
If you put this video in slowmo while watching the characters run down the tunnel, then you'll see them slide a bit every other frame.
The way THIS works is that the characters are animated in a stationary place, but are moved using a root bone. Just like a game. This works well for huge moving scenes and you need the camera to be smooth. This also removes judder from any possible waist ik-based animation like mine.
But if you look at Slippy sometimes when he's talking, that ghost frame judder is unavoidable even though it's not actually there. Another thing to spot is that most character shots have the camera kinda stiff so that the judder is reduced as much as possible. Very interesting!
In conclusion. Both are used.
Approach 1 for close-up action.
Approach 2 for wide shot stuff or multiple characters.