Hey everyone, and welcome to this week’s devlog! Today, we’re diving into the process of creating swimming animations for Ben. Since our previous animations were focused on ground movement and jumping, adding underwater mechanics brought forward animations for swimming for the characters.
For our water levels, we needed to create swimming animations that felt smooth and natural. Since this was our first time animating underwater movement, we started by gathering references of real swimming motions to ensure accuracy.
Ben and Abi were rigged in Spine 2D using bones and IK controls, allowing for flexible movement. We created four main swimming animations:
- Swim Idle – The character treads water in place.
- Swim on Water Surface – A movement animation for floating and swimming at the top of the water.
- Swim Underwater – A deeper swimming motion for submerged movement.
- Pushing a Box in Water – A unique animation for interacting with objects underwater.
Each animation was designed in loops, using different frame sizes to maintain fluidity while keeping the maximum frame size under 100.
One of the biggest challenges was ensuring a seamless transition when the character jumped into the water. Initially, we noticed a slight jerk when switching from a running pose to a swimming pose. We resolved this by using Unity’s animation mixing feature to create a smoother blend between the animations.
Aligning the character’s hands with the box edges was another tricky task. The arm and hand positions needed to match the box’s movement precisely. To solve this, we repeatedly tested the animation, taking screenshots of the box in Unity and importing them into Spine. This allowed us to fine-tune the arm rotation and positioning for a more natural interaction.
Since our past animations focused only on ground and air movement, implementing swimming mechanics was an exciting new challenge. Through careful planning, testing, and iteration, we successfully brought Ben and Abi’s underwater animations to life. We can't wait for players to experience them in action!
Thanks for following along, and stay tuned for more updates!
Best regards,
Playdew Team
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752540/Lost_Twins_II/