This Spider Model Was Animated Without Any Animation Data

Believe it or not, but the spider model seen in the demo above was animated 100% without animation data or rigging, according to the project's author Promise Emmanuel Oluwadare, a Game Developer, Engineer, and an avid procedural movement enthusiast.

Leveraging Unreal Engine, the author has set up a simple event-based AI for the model, which allowed it to move around in a lifelike manner, adapt to its surroundings, and dynamically navigate and interact with the 3D environment, created, in Promise's case, using Epic's Infinity Blade: Ice Lands asset pack. According to the author, the goal of the project was to learn more about how procedural movement works and tackle arachnid locomotion in general.

Moreover, Promise promises to share a detailed breakdown of the project later this week, so we highly encourage you to follow the developer on LinkedIn so as not to miss any future updates.

Earlier, 3D Modeler and Animator Cartesian Caramel, a.k.a. Bbbn192, also showcased a procedurally animated spider model, set up using Blender's Geometry Nodes toolset, and shared a detailed tutorial explaining how it was made.

And here's a cool 3D steampunk-style mech model "animated without animation" by Digital Artist Valentin Winkelmann in Unity: 

If you would like to learn more about procedural animation in Unreal Engine, we also recommend checking out our 2023 interview with Roy Livne, who showed us how his procedural turret animation was created using Control Rig in Unreal Engine 5 and shared some tips for beginner artists.

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