Riding

Riding is how your player looks while it sits on something: a boat, a raft, a minecart or a mount. This recipe seats your player in boats, rafts and minecarts with a seated pose, then adds what a ride can have on top: a gentle sway while you sit (in minecarts and on mounts, not in boats or rafts), a clip for when it moves, its own camera, and a lean into turns.

It is for pack makers who have a seated pose, or want to make one. The examples are the two riding rules of the example pack provided by Crafto, Fluid & Foolish, the Punchy! Moves animation pack used for the Punchy! Moves demos on this wiki: its sit pose for boats, rafts and minecarts, and its nautilus rule with a camera and a lean.

Before you start

• Punchy! Moves installed. Getting started covers the install. Moves ships no clips of its own, so a riding pose lives in a resource pack.
• A tool for the clips: Blockbench with the Punchy! Moves rig, or Punchy! Studio. If you have never made a clip, How to create custom animations goes through the rig and the keys first.
• A boat and some water to test with, and a minecart with a few rails. Creative mode is the easiest place.
• The example pack provided by Crafto, only if you want to see its riding rules in game before you make your own.

What a riding rule is made of

A riding rule has three parts, and only the first two are needed.

The three names are the same rule. Use the one that reads best for your vehicle.

A rule has up to three clips. Moves adds them on top of each other and onto the body’s pose:

• pose is held for as long as you ride. Use it for the seat itself: the legs, the arms and the body.
• idle plays all the time you ride a minecart or a mount. Moves leaves it out in boats and rafts. It fades out as moving fades in. Without a moving clip it keeps playing at any speed.
• moving fades in as the vehicle speeds up, so a mount can settle into a different loop when it runs.

A rule needs at least one of the three. Because they are added together, the usual way to build one is a pose that holds the seat and an idle that only sways around it. In a boat or a raft only the pose and the moving clip play, so the seat there is the pose. You can also leave the pose out and let the loops carry the whole pose, as the nautilus clips of the example pack provided by Crafto do.

A clip you use as a pose does not have to loop. A clip that does not loop holds its last pose while you ride. A loop is the safe choice for idle and moving.

The example pack’s seat for boats and minecarts

This is the example pack’s rule for boats, rafts and minecarts, with a shorter list of vehicles than the real one. All three ids use a wildcard, which a later section explains. In a boat or a raft the sit pose shows. In a minecart the slow sway of sit_idle plays as well.

{
  "format_version": 2,
  "defaults": {
    "animations": {
      "sitting_state": {
        "entities": ["minecraft:*_boat", "minecraft:*_raft", "minecraft:*minecart"],
        "pose": "sit",
        "idle": "sit_idle"
      }
    }
  }
}

sit is a pose with nothing animated in it. Every bone has one fixed value, so the clip is the same at every moment. This is a trimmed look at it, four bones out of the seven the real clip sets:

{
  "format_version": "1.8.0",
  "animations": {
    "sit": {
      "loop": true,
      "bones": {
        "root": { "position": [0, -10, 0] },
        "right_leg": { "rotation": [-90, 15, 0], "position": [-0.5, 0, 0] },
        "left_leg": { "rotation": [-90, -15, 0], "position": [0.5, 0, 0] },
        "right_arm": { "rotation": [0, 10, 5], "position": [0, -2, 0.25] }
      }
    }
  }
}

Both legs swing forward by 90 degrees, the thighs level with the seat, and the arms rest at the sides. sit_idle is a loop of 1.33 seconds that only moves a little around that. The root also bobs up and down by a pixel. This is the rotation of its root bone:

{
  "format_version": "1.8.0",
  "animations": {
    "sit_idle": {
      "loop": true,
      "animation_length": 1.3333,
      "bones": {
        "root": {
          "rotation": {
            "0.0": { "post": [0, 0, -3.5], "lerp_mode": "catmullrom" },
            "0.3333": { "post": [0, 0, 0], "lerp_mode": "catmullrom" },
            "0.6667": { "post": [0, 0, 3.5], "lerp_mode": "catmullrom" },
            "1.0": { "post": [0, 0, 0], "lerp_mode": "catmullrom" },
            "1.3333": { "post": [0, 0, -3.5], "lerp_mode": "catmullrom" }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The root rocks about 3.5 degrees to each side, and the legs and arms drift a little. The last key repeats the first, so the loop closes without a jump. See Animation files for every key of a clip.

Video coming soon

Make your own seat

You will make a pose called my_seat and a sway called my_seat_sway, then write a rule that plays them in boats, rafts and minecarts. The pose shows in all three. The sway shows in the minecart, because Moves leaves it out in boats and rafts. Pick your tool.

Ride it

Your legs stretch forward. Get out, and the pose fades away. A raft does the same, and so does a boat of any wood. The sway does not play in a boat or a raft.

To see the sway, lay a few rails, place a minecart on them and get in. Your body now rocks slowly from side to side. Moves also puts your hands on the minecart’s rim and tucks your legs under it, so the legs follow the minecart, not your pose.

Video coming soon

Which vehicle gets which rule

The entities list names the vehicles. Each entry is an entity id with its namespace, such as minecraft:pig.

• One * is a wildcard. minecraft:*_boat matches every wooden boat and chest boat, and minecraft:*minecart matches every kind of minecart. A second * in the same id is matched as a plain character, so use only one.
• entities can be one text instead of a list.

A file can hold many rules. sitting_state and passenger_state can be a list of rules, where each element is its own rule:

{
  "format_version": 2,
  "defaults": {
    "animations": {
      "sitting_state": [
        {
          "entities": ["minecraft:*_boat", "minecraft:*_raft", "minecraft:*minecart"],
          "pose": "my_seat",
          "idle": "my_seat_sway"
        },
        {
          "entities": ["minecraft:pig"],
          "pose": "my_saddle",
          "idle": "my_saddle_idle",
          "moving": "my_saddle_trot"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

The clips my_saddle, my_saddle_idle and my_saddle_trot are placeholders for clips of your own. Make them the way you made my_seat, or put in the names of clips you have.

When two rules match one vehicle, the last one wins. Moves reads the compat files in the order of their paths and checks the rules from the last one back, so put a broad rule first and a narrower one after it.

A vehicle that no rule matches keeps the seat the game draws. Moves seats your body only when a rule matches. The oars in a boat and the item actions in a boat, below, work with or without a rule.

Make the ride move

A mount can look different when it runs. Add a moving clip and Moves fades it in with the vehicle’s speed. The nautilus rule of the example pack provided by Crafto shows the whole set: two clips, a camera and a lean. Its clips idle_nautilus and sprint_nautilus come with that pack, so the rule works as it stands only with the pack on. With your own clips, put your names in.

{
  "format_version": 2,
  "defaults": {
    "animations": {
      "passenger_state": {
        "entities": ["minecraft:nautilus", "minecraft:zombie_nautilus"],
        "idle": "idle_nautilus",
        "moving": "sprint_nautilus",
        "speed_threshold": 0.12,
        "camera": { "horizontal": 0.88, "vertical": -0.65, "depth": 3.91, "fov": 68, "response": 3.5 },
        "dynamics": {
          "rider_vertical_offset": 10,
          "bank_degrees": 28,
          "bank_sensitivity": 1.5,
          "vertical_tilt_degrees": 22,
          "vertical_sensitivity": 4,
          "response": 6
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The rule has no pose. Its two loops carry the whole pose: the root is turned between 90 and 105 degrees on X, so the body lies forward, and the legs swing. idle_nautilus is 1.77 seconds and sprint_nautilus is 1.29 seconds, so the sprint loop is quicker.

speed_threshold is the speed at which the moving clip takes over, in blocks per tick (a tick is a twentieth of a second). Moves measures the speed of the vehicle, not of the player. The moving clip starts to fade in at 65 percent of the threshold and is fully in at the threshold, so a little below it you already see a blend. The default is 0.12. Raise it if the moving loop starts too early, and lower it if it never shows. The least it takes is 0.001.

Video coming soon

Frame the ride with a camera

A rule can carry its own camera. While the rule matches, the shoulder camera moves to the rule’s framing, and when you get off it blends back to the framing of your sliders.

• The camera needs horizontal, vertical, depth and fov. A rule with only some of them has no riding camera at all.
• response is how quickly the view blends in and out. It is optional and is 4 when left out. Higher is quicker. It cannot go below 0.1.
• The numbers mean the same as the sliders on the Camera page: horizontal is the sideways offset, with positive to the character’s right, vertical is the height from eye level, depth is the distance behind the character in blocks and fov is the angle in degrees. The nautilus camera of the example pack provided by Crafto sits a little to the right and below eye level, 3.91 blocks back.
• The riding camera belongs to the shoulder camera, so you see it while Custom Camera is on. There is no switch of its own on the Features page.
• When more than one pack camera applies, they blend in a fixed order. Camera and features has it, with the other cameras.

Framing is easiest to judge on the real view: change a number, press F3+T to reload and look again.

Lean into turns

dynamics makes the rider lean with the vehicle. It is made of numbers. The height and the two angle limits start at 0, so a rule without dynamics keeps the rider upright and level.

• Banking. When the vehicle turns, the rider banks sideways, up to bank_degrees. bank_sensitivity is how much a turn counts: higher reaches the limit with a gentler turn. Banking only shows while the vehicle moves, and it fades in over nearly the same speeds as the moving clip.
• Tilting. When the vehicle goes up or down, the rider tilts, up to vertical_tilt_degrees. vertical_sensitivity is how much the climb or the fall counts.
• Following. response is how quickly the lean catches up. Higher follows quicker.
• Height. rider_vertical_offset moves the whole rider by that many pixels, the unit of a bone’s position. A positive value lowers the rider and a negative value lifts it. The example pack provided by Crafto lowers its nautilus rider by 10.

The whole rider leans, and on a nautilus the mount leans with you. Until bank_degrees is above 0 the rider does not bank, and until vertical_tilt_degrees is above 0 it does not tilt. The two sensitivities and response only shape those leans.

What a boat or a minecart adds

Moves also places your hands and legs on what the game draws, over your clips:

• Boat or raft. Whoever steers one of the game’s boats or rafts holds its oars, with or without a riding rule. The hands follow the oars and the body leans into each stroke, so the arms of your pose do not show while you hold them. An arm that swings or uses an item lets go of its oar for that action.
• Minecart. When a rule matches the minecart, your hands hold the rim and your legs tuck up under it, so the arms and legs of your pose do not show there.

In a boat, a passenger who does not steer keeps the arms of the pose.

The root of a pose in boats and minecarts

In a boat, a raft or a minecart, Moves takes the height of your pose clip’s root bone at time 0 back out, and keeps everything else. The sit clip of the example pack provided by Crafto lowers the root by 10 pixels, and in a boat or a minecart that drop is cancelled, and the rest of the pose still applies.

This is only for the root bone of the pose clip, and only for boats, rafts and minecarts. A clip for another mount, and any idle or moving clip, moves as keyed. To raise or lower the rider on any vehicle, use rider_vertical_offset.

Using items in a boat

While you sit in a boat or a raft, with or without a riding rule, you can still swing, mine and use the item in your hand. The clips your pack gives the held item for those actions play on the body, head and arms, and the legs stay in the seat. This is for boats and rafts only. Compat files has the item actions, and retrigger_progress on an attack also counts while you ride.

The keys of a riding rule

A rule needs entities and at least one of pose, idle and moving. Otherwise it is skipped.

Compat files lists the same keys in the full reference.

Things that go wrong

Things that drop a whole file

The game drops the whole compat file, and every rule in it, when:

• format_version is anything other than 2 or "2", or it is missing from a file that has defaults, item_groups, items, empty_hand, cameras or emotes.
• The root has a key the format does not take. The root takes $schema, format_version, defaults, item_groups, items, empty_hand, variables, cameras and emotes, and no others.
• mount_state is a list. Only sitting_state and passenger_state can be a list of rules, and biome is the only other action that can. A list on any other action drops the file.
• The JSON is broken, such as a missing comma. Moves reads JSON more leniently than most tools (comments may load), but keep the file plain JSON.

The game writes a line starting with Could not load animation compat to its log and shows nothing on screen. In Studio, the line under the Raw JSON text tells you as you type.

Why my rule does not play

Related pages

• Compat files for every other action a compat file can hold, riding included.
• Camera and features for the shoulder camera and how the pack cameras blend.
• Animation files and How to create custom animations for the clips.
• Face reactions for the looks your face wears while you ride.
• Walk cycle, Emote, Item sequence and Swimming for the other recipes.
• Troubleshooting and the FAQ.