Procedural Animation
Motion generated by rules and physics instead of keyframes
Also known as: Procedural animation · Spring bones · Look-at IK · Procedural walk · Secondary motion procedural · Physics-based animation
Definition
Procedural animation is motion created at runtime by rules, math and physics instead of hand-authored keyframes. Common examples are look-at systems that turn a head toward a target, inverse kinematics for feet and hands, spring and jiggle bones for hair, tails and cloth, and fully procedural movement for creatures such as spiders and robots that adapt to terrain. It reacts to the game world, which keyed animation cannot do, and is often layered on top of authored animation.
In production
Use it for details that depend on the world, such as foot placement, aiming, head tracking and secondary motion, and keep the base performance authored by an animator. It needs a technical artist or animator who understands rigging and the engine's tools, such as Control Rig in Unreal Engine or the Animation Rigging package in Unity. Tune it carefully, since procedural motion can look mechanical or jittery if it is not blended and smoothed.
