I am very new to animating and decided to make a very simple gun animation. It is a star wars gun and doesn’t require a reload animation. I also decided not to make a recoil animation, so literally the only animation I am making is when the player has the gun equipped. I already made the super simple animation and uploaded. It is 2 frames and it is just the player holding a gun with both hands and I saved it as an idle animation playing on a loop. so now how would I put it into the tool so that whenever the player is holding the gun it will play this animation.
I’m not a huge fan of Star Wars and never watched more than 3 of the movies. But I do study firearms, and I do know that firearms recoil. If you want realistic recoil, you can animate the character in a specific way.
1: Aiming. When aiming a firearm, it isn’t just point and shoot. You need to get your eye ready on the sight (most likely your right eye if your right hand dominant). For a realistic animation, I would consider having the player’s legs at an arc sort of, like your bracing something. The arms should be more simple, since you have one arm holding the grip, and another supporting the forearm.
2: Recoil. Real firearms tend to be confusing when animating. When a firearm recoils, your shoulder will tend to be pushed back a bit (if your shouldering it). With a handgun, your arms don’t just fly up. If your one handing a firearm, the gun isn’t just going to go upwards, but also left (if your shooting with your right hand). This happens because the pistol isn’t being supported by the left hand. When you fire any gun, your body will tend to get pushed back (meaning shoulder, arm, and possibly your back, not being pushed as if your falling down). With a rifle, the gun will shoot into the shooter’s shoulder, and “bend” the shoulder back a bit. This is because your shoulder is flexible, and so are your joints.
You said it was a Star Wars gun, and from what I can tell, they shoot light. Light weighs almost nothing, and therefor wouldn’t recoil very much. Or possibly, won’t recoil at all. A gun’s recoil is determined by the weight of the bullet, the velocity of the bullet, and the weight of the bolt or slide it’s working against. Since light doesn’t weigh anything, and you don’t need to reload, your laser gun shouldn’t have a cycling bolt or slide, and therefor won’t have any sort of recoil.