How Link's Climbing Animation Works in Breath of the Wild

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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