What is the best way to have attack animations with inertia/momentum like in DMC?

Hi, I’m trying to replicate moves like Stinger(Dante) or Calibur(Nero) but I haven’t managed to find a good way to keep the inertia after the move is over with varying frame rates. The following are what I’ve tried:

  1. Animations with root motion: Creates animations that don’t vary with frame rate, but don’t give the sense of momentum

  2. Animations without root motion, but Position is moved with tick which decays with time: Creates animations with momentum after the move ends, but depending on frame rate, can travel different distances

  3. Animations without root motion, but with Velocity: Motion decays weirdly with time, especially when transitioning from ground to air (Stinger off a ledge)

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks! :slight_smile:

Having checked out the references you mentioned, I don’t see much variance from standard animation montages and root motion. Some possibilities as to why you see it differently may be:

  1. Camera shake and zooming – cinematic effect

  2. Camera lag – this gives the false impression that the character is moving so fast that the eye (viewer) needs time to catch up

  3. While in the air, the character naturally engages with inertia and gravity.

  4. Finely tuned root motion data – starting with a sudden burst and ending gradually

  5. Cloth physics and secondary movement – once again to convey the character’s speed

I could be wrong, however, as you’ve likely spent more time observing your references.

One other possibility would be the ‘Add Impulse’ node–this could be used to supplement movement a bit beyond the range of root motion. Though, you would need your animations to accommodate the latent movement to avoid sliding while in an idle animation.

Lastly, there’s physical animation; but this might be more trouble than it’s worth.

Just my thoughts.