On August 5, the Roblox Developer forums announced the company was introducing its Live Animation Creator into beta in the massive sandbox game. Previously, Roblox animations required keyframe animations, which meant developers would have to painstakingly craft each image to get the animations precisely correct, pairing it with Inverse Kinematics to manage avatar joint rotations and FBX files, which handle 3D models.
However, the Live Animation Creator now allows players to upload videos of their movements, which the tool can then map to the avatar to create a custom animation.
Since the announcement, Robloxians have jumped on the chance to upload videos of their most ridiculous movements. At first, players started with basic motions, such as one in which Twitter user sleitnick experimented with a series of motions.
Robloxians have since tested the feature by uploading music video dances, such as one featuring the song “Attention” by NewJeans and another featuring Fatboy Slim’s remix of “Body Movin'” by the Beastie Boys.
And of course, because Robloxians are never gonna give us up, never gonna let us down, someone had to create an animated rendition featuring a certain Rick Astley classic.
Still, few will beat the avatar reenactment of the dance from the outro of 1989’s The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, starring Lou Albano as Mario. A Discord by a user named trodge originally posted the video, which was then shared as part of YouTuber KonekoKitten‘s video praising the update.
And, while Robloxians are mainly animating dances from popular songs, there is a breadth of possibilities in terms of developers’ abilities to construct unique roleplay animations and recreate popular memes within the platform.
The feature is presently in beta, so it’s possible users may encounter some errors or other glitches as they experiment with what’s possible.
Per the blog post announcing the tool, Roblox’s development team encourages people to do the following when taking advantage of this new feature:
- Keep the camera steady with just a single person in your video
- Make sure the full body is well-lit and visible throughout the video
- Keep videos to a continuous single shot of <15 seconds
For those hoping for even more variety in how they can use the tool, Roblox’s development team says they may extend the duration of the animations in the future. Should that happen, we can expect to see many more custom Roblox animations appear on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. The team is also working on reducing the keyframe count, allowing users to have more editing options for their animations.
The feature is only available on R15 avatar rigs, which are distinct from R6 rigs. R15 rigs split the avatar animation into 15 parts, while R6 allows only six.
To gain access and begin uploading your own live animations, check out Roblox’s handy setup guide, which also explains the video import process in detail.
And, if you want to explore everything else Roblox has to offer, visit our guide to the best Roblox games in 2022 and get free avatar gear with our August promo codes.