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The Recoil Animation component generates smooth, layered firing animation at runtime without requiring hand-keyed recoil clips. It combines randomised pitch, roll, and yaw impulses with a continuous noise layer and a first-shot pushback effect, all shaped by normalised animation curves and smoothed with configurable spring parameters. Each weapon carries its own RecoilAnimData ScriptableObject so you can tune recoil feel independently without changing any code.

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The Recoil Animation component

Add a Recoil Animation component to your character’s prefab. The component exposes no configuration of its own in the Inspector — all parameters live in the RecoilAnimData asset you pass to it at runtime. The component exposes three methods that your shooting code must call:
Call Init whenever the player equips a new weapon or switches fire mode, Play on every shot, and Stop when the trigger is released. CAS handles the curve sampling, smoothing, and layer blending internally between those calls.

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Creating a RecoilAnimData asset

Right-click anywhere in the Project window and go to Create → KINEMATION → Procedural Recoil → Recoil Data to create a new RecoilAnimData ScriptableObject. Give it a descriptive name tied to the weapon it will be used with, for example RD_SMG_Default. Create one asset per weapon type — or per fire mode if you want semi and auto to feel different.

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Recoil Targets

These properties define the maximum and minimum angular and translational impulses applied on each shot.
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Vector2
Minimum and maximum values for the upward (pitch) rotation applied per shot. The system picks a random value between X (min) and Y (max) each time Play is called.
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Vector4
Random roll rotation per shot. Because roll naturally alternates direction, the value is a Vector4: X–Y defines the range for the minimum value and Z–W defines the range for the maximum value. A random number is drawn from [X;Y] for the negative direction and from [Z;W] for the positive direction.
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Vector4
Random horizontal (yaw) rotation per shot, defined the same way as Roll — two separate ranges for the min and max random draws.
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Vector3 multiplier
Multipliers applied to all rotation and translation values when the player is aiming down sights. Set values below 1 to reduce recoil while aiming — a common feel-design technique where ADS tightens the weapon.

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Smoothing

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float
Interpolation speed for the rotation component. When greater than zero, the rotation impulse is smoothed over time rather than applied instantly. Higher values snap more aggressively toward the target.
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float
Interpolation speed for the translation (pushback) component. Set to zero to disable translation smoothing.
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float
Rotation multiplier applied only in auto or burst fire mode. Use this to increase felt recoil accumulation during sustained fire without changing single-shot behaviour.
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float
Translation multiplier applied only in auto or burst fire mode. Mirrors Extra Rot for the pushback axis.

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Layers

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Noise layer

The noise layer adds a continuous 2D position offset that simulates inaccuracy and organic movement during sustained fire. It runs independently of the per-shot impulse.
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Vector2
Minimum and maximum values for the lateral (X) and vertical (Y) noise displacement. The noise drifts randomly within these bounds.
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float
How quickly the noise offset accelerates toward a new random target position.
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float
How quickly the noise settles or decelerates when the target changes. Balance Accel and Damp to control how erratic or sluggish the noise feels.
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float
A multiplier applied to all noise values when the player is aiming. Set below 1 to tighten the weapon while in ADS.

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Pushback layer

The pushback layer applies a one-shot translational impulse on the first shot of an auto or burst sequence, simulating the initial physical kick of the weapon.
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float
The maximum backward translation applied on the first auto shot.
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float
How quickly the pushback reaches its maximum value.
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float
How quickly the pushback decays back to zero.

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Misc properties

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Vector3
Offsets the rotation pivot point of the weapon during hip-fire. Adjust this to control which part of the weapon appears to kick when not aiming.
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Vector3
Offsets the rotation pivot point during ADS. Typically set closer to the optic or iron sight so the view stays centred through the sight during recoil.
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bool
When enabled, the sign of the random roll value alternates with each shot — positive one shot, negative the next. This produces a natural left-right rocking motion during sustained fire rather than random directional bouncing.
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float
Scales the playback speed of the recoil animation curves. Increase to make recoil snappier; decrease for a heavier, slower kick.
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VectorCurve × 4
Four normalised animation curves that shape how the rotation and translation values are applied over time. See the section below for authoring rules.

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Recoil Curves

The four Vector curves in the asset animate rotation and translation over a single fire cycle. Two curves are for semi-auto fire (rotation and translation) and two are for auto fire (rotation and translation).
All curves must start and end at zero. If a curve does not return to zero, the recoil value will accumulate across shots and quickly produce extreme, uncontrollable motion.

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Semi vs. auto curves

The key difference between semi and auto curves is that the auto curve must pass through or very near zero at the point in time equal to the delay between shots. For example, at 600 RPM the delay between shots is 0.1 seconds, so the auto curve must approach zero around the 0.1 second mark. When CAS runs in auto or burst mode it crops the auto curve length to the fire delay (0.1 s in the example). This cropping is how the system chains successive shots together smoothly — each new shot restarts the curve from where the previous one reached zero. If the auto curve is not near zero at the crop point, shots will not chain cleanly and the animation will jump or stutter. Semi curves have no such constraint — they simply play out fully between trigger presses and return to zero at their natural end time.
A reliable starting point is to author your semi curve first, then duplicate it and drag the peak slightly earlier so the value is close to zero around the intended fire delay interval. Fine-tune from there with the Play Rate property.

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Connecting recoil to the Procedural Animation Settings

The Recoil Animation component produces two output properties — OutRot (rotation) and OutLoc (translation) — that you bind into the procedural modifier stack.
1

Add the component

Add a Recoil Animation component to your character’s Skeleton_ prefab and apply the prefab change.
2

Add a Modify Bone modifier

Open the PA_ asset and add a Modify Bone modifier. Place it in Stage 2 of the modifier stack — after the ADS Modifier and before the IK solvers.
3

Bind the output properties

In the Modify Bone modifier’s Property Bindings section, bind OutRot to the bone rotation input and OutLoc to the bone translation input. Select the Recoil Animation component on the character as the binding source.
4

Call Init from your weapon code

When the player equips a weapon, call recoilAnimation.Init(weaponData.RecoilData, weaponData.FireRate, weaponData.FireMode). Then call Play() on every shot and Stop() on trigger release.