Ladder climb animation for games
Three clips that join without a seam: get on the ladder, a climbing loop and get off at the top. Rung spacing is a slider, and so is the order of the hands and feet
Two ways to climb
The same loop in two limb orders, six phases each, with a ladder drawn for scale. Top: diagonal, the default - the right hand moves with the left foot. Bottom: one limb at a time - right hand, left foot, left hand, right foot
Diagonal
One limb at a time
The three clips
Get on
- From the idle pose to the first frame of the climbing loop
- Hands reach for the rungs, the right foot steps onto the first one
Climb loop
- A seamless loop that moves up two rungs per cycle
- Speed in rungs per second and rung spacing are sliders
- The root speed, including the vertical part, is written next to the clip
Get off at the top
- From the last frame of the loop onto a platform three rungs higher
- Half a step forward, then back to the idle pose
Options
- Limb order
Diagonal (default), same-side hand and foot, or one limb at a time. Get on and get off follow the order you chose
- Character state
Weary, hurried, injured, sneaking - the climb takes the state's manner like every other clip
- Root motion
Off by default. With it on, the character travels up the ladder, forward and sideways, and Moveset adds a root bone if the rig has none
- Export
FBX for Unity and Unreal, GLB for Godot, with a JSON file of lengths, loops and root speeds