Third person shooting animations (Just Cause 2 style)

Hi, i’m not really good with animation and I need help, advices and ideas to set shooting animation like in the game Just Cause 2 for exemple.

For people who don’t know this game:

  • crosshair is centered and the character position is offset so the crosshair is at the character’s shoulder location (done)
  • when you’re not moving, moving the mouse let the camera orbiting around the character (done)
  • when you walk, moving the mouse change the direction of the character (done)
  • when you’re not hitting the “fire” button, the character is not aiming (nothing to do here so, done)
  • when you hit the “fire” button, the character’s torso rotate to align with the camera and the weapon is pointing at the crosshair but not the legs untill the difference between the torso’s and legs rotation is over a certain limit. Over this limit, the legs align with the camera too. (that’s where I need help)
  • the character keeps aiming for 1 or 2 sec and then, stop aiming (no problem with this I guess)

I know about blendspace, aim offset, blending animations and filter animation by bone name but I don’t know what should I use and how. Thanks for you help.

Any idea? i’m looking for some tutorials but I can’t find what i’m looking for.

Hi, if you look at the Official Unreal Engine Youtube channel, you’ll find a series by Wes Bunn about Third Person Animation (4.8+).