hello and welcome to new frame plus a
series about video game animation today
I want to dig into the climbing
animation in breath of the wild this
topic was requested by asmar and if you
would like to make a topic suggestion of
your own then consider becoming a patron
of the channel but let's not waste time
here we go let's begin by breaking down
this climbing system into its component
parts link can climb most things in
breadth of the wild so if you run
yourself into just about any vertical
surface link will switch from his
regular ground locomotion state into his
climbing state and once you are on that
wall you can climb in any direction you
want the foundation of this
multi-directional climbing is built on a
set of I'm guessing eight animation
cycles climb up climb down climb left
climb right and probably an animation
for each of the four diagonals in
between just to fill in the gaps it's
hard to know exactly how many
directional cycles they're using under
the hood but however many there are
those animation loops blend smoothly
between each other as the player adjusts
links climbing direction if you stop
pressing in any direction link will
quickly blend to an idle pose and hold
position there are two mirror versions
of this idle so the pose can more
accurately reflect which foot moved last
and it is an extremely simple idle
animation just a little breathing to
keep link looking alive now for the most
part links body will be oriented
parallel to the slope of whatever he's
climbing but as the slope of the wall
starts to level out you will see a link
straighten up ever so slightly and his
climbing will start to feel a bit like
he's walking on all fours which is a
really nice touch really helps that
transition from climbing back to walking
feel more natural now there's also some
ikb ngey to keep links hands and feet
connected to the climbing surface
without getting too far into the fiddly
technical stuff I K or inverse
kinematics is a tool for making your
characters animation automatically adapt
to uneven terrain it's also used for a
ton of other things but that's one of
the most common applications you know
how sometimes you run your player
character up a slope or up some stairs
and their feet automatically raise up to
account for the uneven height of the
ground that is I K and here i ka is
being used to
help links feet and hands connect to the
uneven surface of this wall it's easiest
to see this in action when you have link
idle near a corner or an edge of the
climbing surface you see how different
that idle pose can look the I K really
seems to want to keep links hands on one
side of that corner of course upon very
close inspection you will notice that
links hands often aren't contacting the
surface of the wall exactly right
sometimes they'll clip through the mesh
other times they'll hover just over the
surface but the camera pulls so far back
when you're climbing that you're rarely
going to notice it so not really a big
deal now that covers the basics of how
the climb itself is structured but there
are several supplemental pieces
supporting this foundation for one thing
you can make link jump while climbing
sacrificing some stamina to do a quick -
up the wall you can do these jumps
upward diagonally and to either side and
this - will even round tight corners
which not super realistic obviously but
appreciated anyway I would much rather
him do this than jump off the mountain
but you cannot - downward if you hold
down on the stick and press jump link
will leap directly away from the wall
and enter a freefall and of course if it
happens to be raining out link can also
lose his grip and slide down a short
ways annoying yes but it looks nice but
most of the climbing systems supporting
animations are used for transitioning
link into and out of the climbing state
in various ways for example when you
first run the link at a vertical surface
he will initiate his climb by jumping up
the wall a little to get you started if
you manually jump at that same wall link
will do a little hop from wherever you
contact getting you just a little more
starting height at no additional stamina
cost when you reach the top of a
climacus link will sort of step up onto
the ledge and blend into his normal
standing idle dashing up to that ledge
will trigger the same step-up animation
if you run out of stamina while climbing
link will play a few frames of this odo
animation before blending into his
regular falling animation and this one's
arguably part of links regular ground
locomotion but if you start moving him
up a steep slope links Run will get more
strained and intense showing the
additional effort required to run up
that steep surface which leads into this
climbing state rather nicely even if
there isn't any
bespoke transition animation between the
two and that's basically it for the
climbing system there are tons of other
ways to initiate or stop climbing and
lots of other stuff that can happen
while climbing but none of it is
supported with additional animations
there are no custom transitions into
climbing from swimming or gliding for
example if you reach the bottom of a
climbing wall he'll just pop right from
his climbing state directly into his
landing animation if you take damage
while climbing link will just flash red
or if you take a really big hit or run
out of Health while climbing link will
just instantly react Dolph which never
stops being funny it's kind of amazing
how stripped down and simple this
climbing animation system manages to be
for a comparison if you look at the
climbing in most Assassin's Creed games
or uncharted those characters climb with
more authentic physicality and their
movements are tailor-made to navigate
every kind of complex terrain more
realistically meanwhile link just hits a
vertical surface and latches on like a
housefly when you get right down to it
breadth of the wilds climbing animation
is only slightly more robust than
Ocarina of times vine climbing it's
really simple but that stripped-down
simplicity is what allows the game's
climb anywhere designed to work when you
build your climbing system around
navigating specific types of terrain
with specific animations it looks
amazing but it often means that the
player can only traverse these specific
types of terrain that your character's
climbing system was built to accommodate
you can run across any ledge weave
through any trees branches and scale any
wall with conspicuously placed hand
holds but try to traverse a surface that
wasn't specifically designed for
climbing and nope and that's fine those
are still really fun climbing systems
but if you're only able to traverse the
terrain that the level artists
specifically designed for you then it
does put a cap on that sense of free
exploration rather than packing the
world of Hyrule with tiny crevices
complex footpaths and obvious handholds
this environment is filled with wide
smooth surfaces which are perfect for
links simple climbing animation system
and sure that does mean you sacrifice
some of that really cool-looking
animation detail but this choice is part
of what makes this world so enticing to
explore because nothing feels out of
reach you can climb all of this and the
only thing you have to worry about is
managing your stamina and finding your
route it's simple and it's intuitive but
despite that simplicity the thing I like
most about links climbing is that it is
surprisingly expressive when they
requested this episode topic as Marv
pointed out that one of their favorite
things about climbing and breath of the
wild is how you feel the effort Linc is
putting into climbing that wall and I
agree he is just throwing himself at
this there's this great rhythmic bounce
to his climb which I'm pretty sure isn't
good climbing technique but that
exaggerated movement sells both the
effort and just the sheer determination
in every step even just running up a
steep slope to get to the climbing part
he's working so hard I love how he's
always looking in the direction of that
next handhold I like how when the
incline gets really steep you even start
seeing these little sweat droplets which
is just I don't know it's cute and when
the rain causes him to slip it happens
really fast but he does this panicked
scramble and you can just feel the poor
guy's whole body clinch like no no no no
ok ok frustrating as it is to have this
happen in the rain I do adore this
little moment of fear I don't know what
it is about Zelda game animation but
somehow it's always better than the sum
of its parts
right like if you think about it there's
very rarely anything that stands out
about the animation in Zelda games I
mean it usually isn't particularly
flashy or stylish nothing compared to
what you'd see in like a Devil May Cry
it's not especially detailed or
realistic certainly not in comparison to
a Red Dead or an uncharted but the
animation also doesn't tend to be super
exaggerated or stylized either even when
a particular game's art style very much
is the acting animation usually isn't
anything special and of course yes there
are some occasional standout moments of
expressive character appeal but usually
the animation in Zelda games is always
just like good enough it's pretty good
but it is always good enough and it is
always visually clear and it always
functionally
everything each game needs it to Zelda
as a series just has this really
utilitarian approach to character
animation even when no one aspect of it
stands out as visually impressive it
always works and there is still
something very charming about it I think
for the climbing here if there's one
addition that could really improve this
it would be adding some fidgets to Lynx
climbing idle idle fidgets are just such
a great tool for getting a little more
flavor and characterization on your
player character like maybe if you leave
link just hanging on the wall for a few
seconds he could start looking around a
little taking in the view or maybe he
could look down nervously at how high up
he is or okay say we'd rather keep him
focused on the task at hand maybe
instead of looking around he could
adjust his grip slightly or try to get a
more solid plant with his foot it would
all be little stuff but you can get a
lot of character out of touches like
that those moments where the player
isn't making the character do something
are a perfect opportunity to let the
character do something to express
themselves and it kind of surprises me
that the team didn't take advantage of
that here but yeah taken as a whole I
think breadth of the wilds climbing is
extremely successful it's visually clear
its expressive it feels good in your
hands just incredibly solid work all
around thank you again to asmar for
requesting this topic if you enjoyed
this and you're in the mood for a little
more breadth of the Wild animation talk
the other Dan who talks about game
animation on YouTube also has a new
video about links sword attack
animations you should check it out I
will link to that below anyway thank you
very much for watching be sure to
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show like all of these good folks here I
will see you again soon for more new
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