Custom LoadAnimation (Load any Animation)

[CinnamonLambda (Cinnamon)]

Have you ever tried to load an animation made by someone else and been frustrated to find that LoadAnimation won’t let you do it? Have you ever had to re-upload someone else’s animations to get them working in your game? I sure have, and it’s an experience quite a few of us share.

Today I want to alleviate this burden for developers. I have rewritten LoadAnimation and the underlying animation system from scratch, without the limitation preventing developers from loading untrusted animations.

The intention is to allow developers to create portable systems that can be easily imported into any game without needing to re-upload KeyframeSequences. The module works as a drop-in replacement for LoadAnimation calls.

Examples

Normal LoadAnimation

local Animation = Instance.new("Animation")
Animation.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://182436842"

local Humanoid = script.Parent:FindFirstChildWhichIsA("Humanoid")
local Animator = Humanoid:FindFirstChildWhichIsA("Animator") or Instance.new("Animator",Humanoid)
Animator:LoadAnimation(Animation):Play() -- errors if animation isn't created by game owner

Custom LoadAnimation

local LoadAnimation = require(17382720234).LoadAnimation -- you can take a local copy if you don't like ID requires

local Animation = Instance.new("Animation")
Animation.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://182436842"

local Humanoid = script.Parent:FindFirstChildWhichIsA("Humanoid")
local Animator = Humanoid:FindFirstChildWhichIsA("Animator") or Instance.new("Animator",Humanoid)
LoadAnimation(Animator,Animation):Play() -- LoadAnimation can still error if there's server issues; consider a pcall!
-- you can call LoadAnimation on the client and it will replicate if the client owns the Animator, like normal LoadAnimation

Custom LoadAnimation on Client

-- !!! The module must be loaded on the server first or this will not work.
local LoadAnimtion = require(game:FindService("ReplicatedStorage"):FindFirstChild("ReplicatedAnimation")).LoadAnimation

local Animation = Instance.new("Animation")
Animation.AnimationId = "rbxassetid://182436842"

local Character = game:FindService("Players").LocalPlayer.Character
local Humanoid = Character:FindFirstChildWhichIsA("Humanoid")
local Animator = Humanoid:FindFirstChildWhichIsA("Animator")
LoadAnimation(Animator,Animation):Play() -- replicates to server automatically

Features

What this module can do:

• Automatic replication + StreamingEnabled compatible; no jitter
• Matches AnimationTrack API; drop-in replacement
• AnimationController support

What this module cannot do:

• LoadAnimation only works on Animators (calling it on Humanoids and AnimationControllers has been deprecated for a long time anyway)
• No CurveAnimation support (yet)
• Some AnimationTrack API members are still missing
• Fade-in/fade-out not working… soon™!

Notes

This system is inherently insecure. There is no animation “whitelist”, which means an exploiter could load and run any animation they want on an Animator that they have network ownership of. If you want, you can use the API exposed through the module to perform your own security checks (ReplicatedAnimation.Created event).

I uploaded this as a MainModule so that you can load it via require(ID) (see the example). This has the benefit of you receiving bug fixes automatically. If you don’t like this, you are welcome to create a local copy. Please make sure you are using the latest version before reporting an issue.

I have not extensively tested this system. There are almost certainly bugs. Please let me know if you find any and I’ll do my best to fix them. I don’t recommend using this in production yet, but you are welcome to do so if you feel daring.

Finally, please note that the code is a mess and could use some serious optimisation. This is intended for projects such as weapon systems that need portable animations. You should definitely use the default animation system if you can. You will likely run into performance issues if you try to run all of your game’s animations through this system. Please consider supporting the Public Animations feature request.

I hope you find this resource useful. Please leave any feedback below.
-Cinnamon

[baseparts]

I dont see the appeal to using this over Roblox’s LoadAnimation?

The only plus you added is

@CinnamonLambda

Automatic replication + StreamingEnabled compatible; no jitter

But Ive never had a problem with this before? Could you provide more details on this problem?

@CinnamonLambda

Have you ever tried to load an animation made by someone else and been frustrated to find that LoadAnimation won’t let you do it?

Interesting. This is something I could see being useful. Im not sure if the solution is to make a custom animation loader though, I think it wouldve been easier to make something like an animation downloader.

@CinnamonLambda

This system is inherently insecure. There is no animation “whitelist”, which means an exploiter could load and run any animation they want on an Animator that they have network ownership of.

This is… a really bad vulnerability. Roblox does this for us, along with all the stuff that this lacks.

I just dont see why you made this given all the lacking features and downsides, when Roblox’s is still an option.

[https_KingPie]

@baseparts

This is… a really bad vulnerability. Roblox does this for us, along with all the stuff that this lacks.

I just dont see why you made this given all the lacking features and downsides, when Roblox’s is still an option.

Clients have ownership of their own character, so this is a risk regardless of whether you use this or not. Additionally, all modules have a downside of some form, since they are designed for certain use cases.

@CinnamonLambda

The intention is to allow developers to create portable systems that can be easily imported into any game without needing to re-upload KeyframeSequences. The module works as a drop-in replacement for LoadAnimation calls.

I think this alone is a big rebuttal to the idea that OP released this lacking features. Granted, I think OP could be a little more precise that this is stepping away from actual AnimationTrack instances and mimicking the behavior instead through Motor6D transformation under the hood. Regardless though, it’s pretty sick that this is a drag and drop functional replacement for LoadAnimation pretty much netting you expanded capabilities without having to change your codebase at all . It’s also a cool concept/display of method that OP is creating pseudo-AnimationTracks via metatables which (if people dive into the code of this) is a great way for someone else approaching to either leverage that portion for another project or use it as a starting point for other developments.

[CinnamonLambda (Cinnamon)]

@baseparts

I dont see the appeal to using this over Roblox’s LoadAnimation?

Roblox’s LoadAnimation has the restriction of not being able to load animations created by other people. There is no way to circumvent this limitation, aside from reuploading the animation yourself. My module is a reimplementation of Roblox’s animation system, with the restriction removed.
There is demand for this feature, shown by the feature request I linked to in my original post.

@baseparts

I think it wouldve been easier to make something like an animation downloader.

Downloading AnimationClips is a built-in feature which my system leverages in the custom LoadAnimation implementation. Without it, KeyframeSequences would have to be serialised and downloaded via HttpService.

[Magus_ArtStudios]

Very cool module! I just released intelligent-emotes-from-text module , your module makes its implementation 100x simpler. Alleviating the need to import all of the animations.