How Link's Climbing Animation Works in Breath of the Wild
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Watch a professional game animator break down Link's climbing piece by piece to figure out how this animation system is structured!
Check out Dan Root's video about the animation of Link's sword attacks!
• How Link Swings a Sword
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Written and produced by Daniel Floyd
Special thanks to:
-Carrie Floyd
-Soraya Een Hajji
-Eric Luhta
-Dan Root
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You missed one small part of Link's climbing animation suite. When you jump upwards while climbing while your stamina is in the red, you get a completely different leaping animation that goes significantly further, where Link streeeeetches his arm out as far as he can to try to reach the ledge. I always thought that animation was particularly good.
Izandai This. I love how well they managed to convey Link’s desperation and effort in that last, reach-for-the-stars lunge.
For links jump animation they also have him "match" hands putting them together like a proper climbing dyno before he launches.
And the moment leading up to that moment is particularly satisfying because you got it just right lol
He forgot to mention what happens when Link's legs have nothing to grab on to. His legs dangle.
@@MascottDeepfriar - Ah, "match" and "dyno". Takes me back.
Climbing is how you get to the High Ground so this is critical information.
Hahahahaha
There is no point to this, but I love it
Oh, Hi Ground.
Hello there, general kenobi
Sandro Martens NO
as a climber, for link’s idle it would be cool if he sat back and extended his arms to get into a rest.
Good call; I tried bouldering for the first time several weeks ago. That's exactly how I rested while latched on to the hand and foot holds.
It might not look realistic, but having him let go with one hand and look around would be a nice touch. Might make it appear more natural as he surveys his surroundings.
Just cause does this when you grapple onto a wall, but it works for exactly that reason: he's attached to the wall. How do you expect a half nude slippery boi climbing up a 90° incline with all his might to lay back and relax
Link has no harness securing him to the surface he's climbing though...
as someone who has looked into the files of botw, i can confirm that climbing does indeed have 8 different directions, additionally, there are 2 alternate versions of each, one which is a "45 degree angle slope" version, and one "narrow" version, which has the hands and feet closer to eachother, so while that isn't 100% part of the IK, IK is still used in combination with all of these to make the climbing look and feel really natural.
um wat
Lol why do you feel the need to say "as someone who.." I mean ya could say maybe. "When I looked through the files" lol idk
@@gagelink2457"Why did you say this thing instead of saying literally the exact same thing in a slightly different way?"
Come on...
It looks like the Zelda series prioritizes "feels right" over "looks great" with their animation, and I like it. Zelda games always feel great with each action you perform!
I love those suggestions you made at the end, I hope they implement that in BOTW 2.
That's not just zelda, it's nintendo as a whole that usually goes that way. Gamecube was sampling colors over 24 bits for example. Why ? Because it looks (mostly) just as good as 32, but it's way less intensive for the hardware.
I want to slightly disagree with the "always" by pointing out the weird jump animations in Majora's Mask.
But the running animation for link is TP is god awful, it doesn't "feel right", it looks stiff.
@@davidflores909 I loved those animations
@@MrMoon-hy6pn link runs like a little girl in a skirt 😂
7:41 those sweat droplets have a really clever purpose:
They show how much effort Link is putting into his climbing, which is also telling the player that their stamina bar is going to deplete faster. Its those subtle things that matter :)
Really? The energy bar depletes faster if he's climbing a difficult terrain?
@@ootay4473 Yup! When Link is climbing a flatter surface his stamina bar will deplete slower, and when he's climbing a steep wall the stamina will disappear faster!
@@AsaTU I have more than 200h and I never noticed! I'm learning something new everyday with this game!
I like the sweat drops because they give me Link to the Past vibes
@@ootay4473 One of the hints also states this.
I love how you giggle every time Link falls. That's a sign of some good characterization animation.
There's something wonderfully funny about a simple ragdoll animation in this era of overly complex animations
@@harrylane4 It's too true. I don't care that it's not realistic, I will never not chuckle a little whenever a character in such a good looking game comes down like a bag of wet leaves.
For those that don't know but want to know, here's how kinematics work in animation. A character's animation skeleton is made up of a bunch of joints connected in one direction. Each joint will "point" to all the joints ahead of it and will move all those joints. For example, if you rotate the lower spine joint, all the spine joints above it, the arms shoulders and head joints will rotate around it. That is forward kinematics, which is how most animation is done. Inverse kinematics, what Dan mentioned here, is where a joint is defined as the movement point and the rest of the mesh and joints have to move around it. In the case here, Link's hand is the root of the inverse kinematics system. The hand's location is determined, then the elbow, shoulder, and even a bit of the body is moved to match where the hand is. IK is most commonly used, as Dan said, with feet and hand placement. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages, so most games will implement a combination depending on what animation they need to create.
This is such a good, concise explanation that I almost want to see it on Wikipedia.
A+ explanation. Kudos :).
Thank you, that clears it up and is a lot simpler to understand than I thought it would be.
ozi Not exclusively. You could definitely focus more on IK than FK if you wanted to, but there are some animations that are really difficult and may even be impossible with IK. The first one that came to mind was crouching. Whenever an animation’s base point is not the most external joint on a part of the skeleton, IK probably isn’t worth it.
Tyler Duncanson, which game would say has the smoothest character kinematics? I’m trying to program my own animation and would love to find the best examples
Takes me back to 2000 when I was working on game for the imminent PS2. Our game had a massive (think SOTC size) quadruped that had the character's village on its back. The game would have (had it not been canceled :( had the beast walking on uneven terrain, and the fact that we got "real time inverse kinematics" working was MIND BLOWING at the time. It's so fun to work in an industry where the mind-blowing of one year becomes the mundane of the next.
The way you talked about freedom of exploration... It reminded me of Skyrim, how you could 'climb' any mountain (with some determination and patience) by simply walking up it.
Only Link's wall climbing was, you know, _intentional._
Even when playing BoTW my wife and I refer to climbing mountains as Skyriming up a mountain.
Now if only your horse could accomplish the same thing.
I agree, but there are other game that also had intentional... Spiderman games 🤣.
Not "Shadow Of The Colossus" tho, yes they had similar climbing mechanic, but you can only climb at a certain areas/locations.
I wouldn't be surprised if Skyrim's walk-climbing had an impact on BoTW's climbing system.
Who needs climbing mountains if you can utilize a long preset of glitches including saving and loading your game to wrong warp and launching yourself into the sky further than the man can see and cancel all fall damage by saving and loading once more?
"latches on like a house fly" I just love how that was phrased
Regarding adding fidgets to the climbing idle, maybe the reason why they didn't add them is because most people will never see them, I've stood still in games a lot of time, but I'd feel bad about leaving Link hanging there on the wall, haha
I see it a lot just cause I'd rather just wait the rain out if it starts in the middle of my climb than go around
Rain and lightening storms are the reason I would not want to idle on climb. For reasons the game likes to rain for a few seconds even in clear weather. I don't know if it's my luck but it always seems to happen mid climb for me. I don't really like stopping and having to wait.
Normal brain: _Spider-Man PS4 is the best Spider-Man game_
Big brain: _Spider-Man 2 on PS2 is the best Spider-Man game_
Galaxy brain: _Breath of the Wild is the best Spider-Man game_
9:11 One animation fidget I really wanted to see on Link's climbing idle would be him wiping sweat from his forehead using the the back of his hand, or even using his forearm. Maybe could do that only when on low stamina or something. It would really add that extra flavor you were talking about. Maybe we can get something like this on BotW2.
Honestly I really enjoy the utilitarian aspect of it. To me it sells the whole "spirit of the hero" thing, where it feels like some of this stuff he has been doing so long that it's just second nature, only just the required movements and nothing more.
I don’t know how link latches onto these super steep slopes but I won’t complain.
I’m gonna say Hyrulian Velcro.
Same reason he can block a Gold Lynel's charging hammer swing with a pot lid.
I bet if you could look closely, you'd find him leaving a trail of bowlingball-style fingerholes in the rock.
A little known fact is that the Triforce of Courage also bestows Spiderman powers.
Link was bitten by a radioactive Skulltula
@@FriendB
This
A great fidget animation for the climbing in my opinion would have been if he'd released his hands one at a time to shake them and stretch his fingers. It's something very common for people who are regularly using grip strength to do when it's not needed to loosen the muscle and ease strain. It would also lend to the fact that he's a swordsman and uses the grip heavily for fighting and climbing.
Him: The only thing you have to worry about is managing your stamina and finding your way
Me, when I hear the high piano notes and red beam: ah shit, here we go again.
The fact you ragdoll off and they lock on you again adds insult to injury. I made the poor decision to try to climb in the castle once. Fun times.
Spider-Link, Spider-Link
Thinks whatever the spiders think
What I'll have for my lunch?
How to not fall from this branch?
Look out, it is the Spider-Link!
There's also IK in the lower spine and hips. This allows Link to bend around edges and not look weird. I worked on what I think is one of the first games to implement this (Spiderman 2/3). Doing IK in this way is very tricky because the lower spine is a child of the hips, so they have to be programmically decoupled, solved separately, then blended back together with the keyed animation. We had very smart Russian and Bulgarian programmers doing the maths.
I never really paid attention to the animations when it came to climbing. I always thought that the climbing was super cool, but I never realised how much work went into it. This video just makes me love botw even more!
Not gonna lie, the thumbnail made me think this was a gmtk video
Considering the attention to detail they put into Botw, imagine the refinement that might be the sequel!
Or they'll go the Majora's mask way and make him do awkward, stiff flips every time you jump
This youtube is big enough for two video game animation Dans.
It's really just a modernized version of Shadow of the Colossus's climbing, which is a really good thing imo. A functional system that lets you climb anywhere and does its job without trying too hard to be flashy.
Cover the jiggle physics of DOA: Xtreme 3 next! Also I haven't considered becoming a patron yet
I love how Dan takes a minute to gush over the really satisfying parts whatever animation he's breaking down. It's important to call out the things that make us love this stuff.
"Inverse Kinematics," eh? I always struggled to describe that feature as it appeared in Virtua Fighter 3.
10 minutes of an explanation of Link's climbing animation? Well, don't mind if I do.
(don't take this the wrong way, I'm not saying it isn't interesting)
Wait, no "Spider-Link" jokes? Damn it, Dan! You had ONE job!
lol All jokes aside, I really liked the video. I hope you deliver videos like this a bit more often, Dan.
Could you talk about the animation in Minecraft? It's so simple but so satisfying
There's a small foot wiggle when you stay idle for a bit.
Great video!
Your videos always remind me of how much work goes into the tiniest details in games that I always take for granted.
What's nice about the ragdoll animation is that, during the entire duration of the ragdoll, Link will attempt to block his face with his arms. You know, just like actual humans do when falling down a slope. Gives a little extra liveliness to our silent friend here.
Am I the only one here that whenever link is climbing, (or swimming or anything for thar matter) just feels it, like u feel tired as link climbs and starts to run out of stamina, or u feel it when link slips, the animation might be simple but it is very very immersive. Like I feel like I'm doing something completely different, or playing abwjolr different game, or that im In a completely different mood when link starts climbing or something.
In my opinion botw is a master piece.
Still more Dans? :D So is this New Dan going to be in the next Battle of the Dans?
(Assuming and hoping will be more BotD, someday.)
Breath of the dan
Could be cool if in BOTW 2 Link gets a few assassin creed type climbing animations in addition to the house fly climb.
I'd call Zelda's animation a consistent B.
And to be honest, that's good enough to make a great game, so long as the other parts are hitting As.
Well said.
Yeah, if nothing else, Nintendo has a pretty solid grasp on where to spend its projects' budgets. It could spend 50% more money to make the animations 10% better, or it could throw in another minor gameplay feature or tweak the timing on the combat system, etc.
It's interesting that Zelda has such understated animations, considering series like Mario and Metroid repeatedly prove that their animators are some of the best in the game.
Even in the 16-bit era, Zelda's animation was "just enough" to get you going, and the focus was on puzzle and world design
@@harrylane4 I am guessing it has to do with the "if it's not broken, don't fix it". And also probably because there are diminishing returns on that stuff.
Also maybe pushing those too far would create a disconnect in the whole visual appeal of the game ? Like you have ultra detailled animations (like RDR2), but 720p textures...
Hollow Knight episode?
I know you only mentioned it briefly but, it would be cool if you did a whole episode on idle animations!
A video about my favourite game from my favourite channel, sweet
I know I'm not a patron, but I'd love to see an episode on creature animation using Horizon Zero Dawn
I felt Botw actually had really quality animation when I played it. It stuck out to me. The way the divine beasts moved with real weight, the expression of different characters like the champions and the Great fairies and horse fairy, the way the different enemies move and their over exaggerated actions and how they react to the environment. The way skeleton enemies fall apart and come back together, the way link holds and wields different weapon types, the personality of link when it comes to environments, hazards and eating and cooking. The way guardians move themselves over the environment, I especially love how all the Ganon forms move especially calamity ganon. Idk it just left an impact on me on how fluid and full of life it felt.
As a climber im real life i appreciate that i can climb everything in botw
U should react to 2b's fighting animations from Nier Automata. I thought they were very good
Oooh. Good idea
I was expecting a comment about the special jump animation when you have literally no stamina left. It's so heart wrenching.
I love how the guys behind New Frame Plus and Video Game Animation Study are both named Dan and their logo is practically the same.
Devil May Cry 5??? That would definitely be an awesome topic to cover. Itsuno did say it was a challenge to marry the game's flashy animations with the newer photorealistic visuals. Personally, I feel like DMC5 and God of War 2018 are two of those rare games that aimed for realism without sacrificing the snappy responsiveness of their gameplay. I was so relieved that DMC5 stayed true to itself as a high-octane action game, and then I was blown away by how it pulled off while retaining its graphic fidelity.
I'm a huge fan of your content, and I refer to your videos when practicing with 2D animations. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, and keep up the amazing work!
Can you talk about beauty in simplicity with Celeste and Madeline?
the other Dan root has done that one: ruclips.net/video/h2VMnzawfh0/видео.html
Only you can make 10 minutes of content out of Link climbing
AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH That's what I said when I saw this in my feed AAAAHHHH New Frame Plus and BOTW?!!?! And the CLIMBING ANIMATION, a part of the game's system that's fascinated me for ages?! Aaaahhhh it's such a cool video, and so awesome to see that it's surprisingly 'simple', I love that! I love Link's animations in BOTW so much, I think they just feel so nice and also still kind of cute and charming. I can see what you mean about the charm of fidgets, and there are definitely 'idle fidgets' I've loved in games before. At the same time though, I also have felt like fidgets can feel kind of... gamey? Like, I can't help but distinctly notice how they are an extraneous new action stuck into a loop after a set amount of time to add some interest, or something. Well, if they are played at too frequent a cycle, at least, it feels really gamey to me. If they are rare and subtle, those are nice! Like, I noticed Link have a fidget while crouching once where he seems to quickly bat away an insect near his face. I've played hundreds of hours of that game, and I can only distinctly remember noticing that animation the one time and finding it kind of charming. If I'd seen in a hundred times, or if it was more exaggerated and long, it would have felt 'gamey'.
Please ! I want a episode about Metal Gear Rising's Blade Mode. The procedural cuts, the animations of the cutted things, the animations of Raiden during this mode... Please please please !
An episode about the wonderful animations of Noctis in FFXV would be great too btw !
Honestly the disconnect with the little bits of expression in what link is doing... the little jingle while cooking, the bounce when climbing...
compared to how he just stares blankly in every single cut scene... constantly aggravated me in this game. windwaker proved that link could be expressive without really saying anything. and yet in breath of the wild he basically acts like he's trying to pass for a cardboard cut out.
This is made especially obvious when the other main characters had so much effort put into some of their character. Princess zelda especially has a few scenes in the memories where she really gets some expression... and link just... kinda stands there... often not even looking at her, just staring at the background... Really bugged me... especially at the end of the game as well
"I fear not the man who has practiced 1000 kicks one time, but the man who has practiced one kick 1000 times."
If it ain't broke, why fix it? XD I think Nintendo made a smart decision with the climbing animations. This way, they could for the most part use an already created system and focus their attention into other things.
9:38 As soon as you started talking about it, my first thought was to have Link shift his weight to one hand and shake out the other, and then repeat on the other side.
We have a sequel in the making. I bet they’re going to take some of your climbing tips. Also, nice video!
+1 Sub
Actually, I'm pretty sure his animation for climbing ladders is different from climbing a mountain, in that, when you climb a ladder, Link actually grabs each rung instead of just grabbing anywhere and calling it a day.
Which I find to be yet another nice attention to detail.
To breath of the wild animation videos right after each other in one day??!
Cool the clip for the next video shows Link's quick spin attack. I've never yet actually used it in combat though
Love Link's animation and general climbing paradigm of the game, but can't even begin to express how awful rocks look up close
Great video! However you did make a mistake about the assassins creed explanation. Their animation framework is not hand crafted completely for the level. They use neural networks. Basically mocap is used to train a model how human movement works. Then the crevices are used as parameters for the model to automatically figure out how the character would move. So basically you could make a randomly generated map and the animations would still work!
You also missed another climbing animation, where if you climb a flagpole or a lightning pole, say, on the top of Temple of Time, Link has a dedicated idle animation where Link would hook his leg around the pole.
Art direction, game design, animation and even hardware, Nintendo seems to apply the idea of being very simple but always to great effect - it's part if what creates this Nintendo feel...
You missed a little detail. When climbing on the meshy surfaces (like the Shika towers), link actually locks his hands and feet on the gaps of mesh
I posted this on a 9 month old video, but perhaps Ni no kuni could get a good analysis? I'd love to see how ghibli's game animation stacks up with their movie prowess
5:28 It's official. Link is part house fly.
I love this video! Speaking of climbing, is it possible to do a comparison/evolution of climbing animations in Assassin's Creed games through the years? Keep up the good work my man.
Thinking about how Link is able to hang on just gives me crippling anxiety
In addition to your ideas about idle animations, I think that it would be cool if Link shook off a hand or leg from time to time, like he's getting cramps from hanging on and waiting for you to make a decision about where to go. That would add a little more to the feeling of how hard climbing is.
I would love to see how animation works for horizon zero dawn (prob fighting ), or something like resident evil 2 remake, it would be cool to see how they do all different animations. Even shadow of the tomb raider would be awesome to see!
One thing that I would like to see you cover is the horse animation in BotW, they really nailed horse movement extremely well in that game and as someone who used to ride horses it was really awesome to see. Speaking of idle animation they also really nailed some interesting ones of those to the horses as well.
It's not something that a lot of people may think about but it's still something they really put a lot of effort into and I really think it deserves some recognition.
Whoa, this is so something I'm interested in. I love when RUclips recommended is actually good! The music and voiceover work was just solid. This is some high quality video content. Great job!
This may be just me but, I noticed that extra credits is not in Daniels channel feed.
What happened?
you missed the aninmation he does when Link climbs the top of a tree or a flag, he holds to the pole with one hand with the body away from the pole looking at the scenery, in this state he can rotate and change hand. ^^ awesome video btw!
I'm not sure if there's enough material to fill a video on this, but I'd love to see a video on Toon Link's character animation.
There was one animation or I guess pose when Link climbs to the top of a tree. He looks out over the wilderness all pioneer style. Great content
One of the great things about this fully dynamic game engine is...it just works.
2:05 oh look it's that thing I test in the first hour I spend with every single video game in existence
Can't get enough from this channel. Would love to hear you talk in more detail about animation in the Monster Hunter games. The monster animation has always been on point, but they really stepped it up for World and now Iceborne. The character animation has also gotten really great, with all the weapon attacks feeling just perfect, and the NPCs getting some good action scenes, especially in the newest Velkhana trailer.
nice icon :)
I love your insight to videogame animation, i'm an animation student andi love seen your videos because you have taught me a lot
Me wanting to see this video, yet not wanting to get spoiled because i still haven't played this godforsaken game. Because I don't have a switch and i'm waiting for that upgraded one with the better battery life, but I live in the EU. ARGHHHHHHHHHH
This one is quite spoiler safe. almost all of the BotW footage is of link climbing common walls
@@extragarb ahh thank you random citizen I can now enjoy this video without worries!
Make sure to CLIMB that subscribe button ;D
I'm curious how it knows to round corners when you jump to the side.
Like I guess it could shoot off a bunch of rays and find the best hit surface to cling to, but I have a feeling it might be more elegant than that.
I always wanted a proper climbing system in a video game where it works as good as what we saw in BoTW. Maybe one day we will see another game utilize climbing and elevate it to an even higher level (aside from BoTW 2).
Blade and Sorcery elevated it to a higher level. It's the first 3D game made where you can climb anything using physics. There are no animations, and you don't need to use your hands if you don't want to. You can stab daggers or swords into a wall and use them as ledges to hang onto. You can even use a long spear, hook it to a ledge, and then climb up the actual spear before reaching the top, and you have sub-millimeter accuracy for climbing which is an order of magnitude more than BOTW.
10:02 of course i notice the time being 4:20pm
I hope the animators get to see how their work is being thoroughly appreciated.
I was today years old when I learned you can jump climb around corners
There you are playing a open world adventure game and suddenly You are a cartographer. You didn't ask for this but there it is.
That's just Minecraft with maps
Zelda & chill.
A man of culture I see
There's another Dan who talks about Animation on RUclips?? Small world. Imma go check him out real quick.
Ok Dan you have to tell me if there's just a HORDE of Dans who talk about animation. Seriously, how many Dans are there??? LOL
As expected, a wonderful look at some animation. This is a good explanation for why I had such a good time just climbing things in BOTW.
ikr ? Hands down my favorite thing in the whole game, only seconded by cooking.
I want to see the Animation sequence of Splatoon Inklings changing back and forth from squid and human form
Link is just so cute
ah, those pretty blue eyes.
It would be super nice to tackle the animations of Super Mario Odyssey, and why controlling Mario is so satisfying. Mario’s jump has gotten so expressive that it can be chained in a combo-like system of leaps, controlled exclusively by 3 buttons (B, Y, LR).
i have a Postive and Negative thought to add to a video like this...for the Good stuff, watch Link's animations while his stamina is recovering from a full drain...not so much for the actual Refill (thats just a Panting For Air animation, and Nintendo has included that for SuperMario64 and the two Zelda64s, when Mario/Link are at low health)...im talking about when your Stamina is 'Filled', and useable again: Link breathes one last sigh, while he pumps his arms in a "alright, break's over! back to work!" kinda way...a great example of Polish, because most of the time, youre trying to hurry up and Use that stamina you just regained...but if youre standing still when it hits Full, youll see his little "Ready!" pose...
...as for the Bad stuff, i just want to complain about rain-slipping some more...specifically, while youre wearing the Climbing Outfit...if you look at the Item Description for the torso or leg pieces, they mention "non-slip" or "slip-proof" materials...but it offers absolutely NO slip protection from the rain!! why would they type in a False Description like that?? i mean, it should at least Reduce (if not completely nullify) your chances to slip for each piece of Climbing Gear that youre wearing...at least the Head piece makes sense in that regard...but for the Gloves and Shoes, "Slip-Resistance" is an outright LIE...
I've never played the original, but Ocarina of Time 3D also has Inverse Kinematics, you can test it out by stepping right beside Link's bed when you first wake up. (Can anyone confirm if the original does this or not?)
its still jarring hearing you speak and it being the voice of a man and not that of some kind of six-inch tall pixie behind a tiny podium :p
What is inverse kinimatics you ask? Well there just kinimatics, BUT INVERSE. Ya your welcome explanations
You know what's sad? Skyrim, a 2011 game, doesn't have I.K. while Ocarina of Time, a 1998 game, does.
I love how every type of clothing gives him a different standing idle animation. My favorite is when he's in his underwear and occasionally checks out his own biceps