I’ve always believed even the simplest moves are a chance to explore workflow and storytelling. That’s why I decided to kick off this motion library with a set of Idle Cycles.
Starting with Idles felt like the right way to test the pipeline with something "light" before diving into heavy action. I ended up creating three variations (Idle 1, 2, and 3) to experiment with different moods and methods.
The Process & Tweaks:
Character Refresh: I decided to change up the outfit slightly and clean up the character removing the blood effects for now to have a "cleaner" base to work with.
The Technical Puzzle: I’m currently exploring two ways to handle these in-game: either using a system in Unreal to trigger them randomly or stitching them into one long, seamless sequence.
The Golden Rule: Regardless of the method, I made sure all three idles start and end with the exact same pose. This "matching frame" approach gives me total flexibility later in the engine.
While animating these, I paid close attention to the breathing rhythm and subtle weight shifts. It’s these tiny nuances that give a character personality making "standing still" feel truly alive.
#Animation #Week01 #IndieDev #UnrealEngine #Maya #GameAnimation #ProcessOverPerfection