Animation events and workspots

A scene can schedule skeletal animation directly, change an actor’s idle or look-at state, or ask a scene-local quest node to place an actor in a workspot. Those mechanisms overlap visually, but they have different resource owners, completion signals, placement rules, and cleanup obligations.

Clean-save requirement: active scene state, actor AI tier, workspot use, transforms, quest checkpoints, and community ownership may survive a rebuild or reload. Test from an untouched save made before actor activation and scene start. Give changed scene/workspot identities a new candidate namespace when an older save could retain them.

This page teaches native scene composition and inspection. It does not teach animation creation, rigging, retargeting, or Wwise/lipsync production, and it does not require a project-specific scene generator.

Pick the correct owner

A direct animation event does not create a workspot or navigate an actor to one. A workspot node does not schedule an arbitrary scnPlaySkAnimEvent in a section. A world AI spot is not the same object as a scene-local scnWorkspotInstance.

The cinematic animation join

The smallest useful engine view is a three-way join:

resouresReferences
  cinematicAnimSets[slot] -> soft .anims depot path
  cinematicAnimNames[slot] -> names available in that set
                ^
                |
actor.bodyCinematicAnimSets[] -> slot
                ^
                |
section.events[]
  scnPlaySkAnimEvent.performer -> actor
  scnPlaySkAnimEvent.animName  -> a compatible available name

Focused mq007 observation

Inspect the installed resource:

base\quest\minor_quests\mq007\scenes\mq007_01_gun_found.scene

Its root contains cinematic animation slot 0 with this soft asset:

base\animations\quest\minor_quests\mq007\anim\body\mq007__talking_gun__male_fpp.anims

The corresponding cinematicAnimNames[0] row lists three names. V’s bodyCinematicAnimSets contains scnCinematicAnimSetSRRefId(0). One focused event then uses:

This exact table is Observed in vanilla. The row proves how that scene connects an asset, an actor-visible slot, and a timed event. It does not prove that the animation is compatible with another rig, perspective, body type, component, mask, root-motion mode, or scene marker.

Event time is not graph completion

An animation event lives inside a section and has startTime and duration. The section separately has its own duration and output sockets. Therefore:

• an event ending does not emit a questphase signal;
• a section that ends too early can clip an event;
• a section staying open longer can preserve blend-out or following events;
• an event ID is not an animation-set slot or graph-node ID;
• reaching the next scene node does not by itself reset AI, camera, look-at, or workspot state.

When events overlap, calculate the latest required event end and account for tested transition/reset time. Do not copy Lab 5’s 400 ms spoken-line tail as a universal animation constant.

Direct animation, idle, look-at, and camera boundaries

The mq010 scene contains several event families in the same sections:

base\quest\minor_quests\mq010\scenes\mq010_02_barry_talk.scene

Observed in vanilla: focused inspection finds scnPlaySkAnimEvent, scnChangeIdleAnimEvent, scnLookAtEvent, and scneventsCameraParamsEvent rows. Their decisive responsibilities differ:

Copying one event without its partner reset, target, animation-set row, or section timing creates a different contract. A visually acceptable normal run does not prove interruption or reload cleanup.

The scene-workspot identity chain

A scene-local workspot has more identities than the .workspot path:

workspots[]
  scnWorkspotData_ExternalWorkspotResource
    dataId ------------------------------+
    workspotResource -> .workspot        |
                                          v
workspotInstances[]                       dataId
  workspotInstanceId <--------------------+
  localTransform + originMarker
           ^
           |
scnQuestNode / questUseWorkspotNodeDefinition
  entityReference -> actor
  paramsV1.workspotInstanceId
  Work Started / Success outputs

Focused mq010 observation

One inspected route in mq010_02_barry_talk.scene joins:

The repeated value 241 is the arrangement in this one route; it does not collapse the typed ID domains. Its data ID remains a distinct value, and other vanilla resources may choose different node/instance relationships.

The instance also owns a local transform and an originMarker. That placement is interpreted in the scene’s location context. A valid .workspot path does not supply the correct actor, transform, scene marker, navigation, or interruption behavior.

The observed params include fields such as changeWorkspot, entryId, instant, isPlayer, isWorkspotInfinite, jumpToEntry, movementType, teleport, and player camera settings. Do not copy those values as a generic recipe. Extract a route whose player/NPC role, movement, camera, entry, and lifetime match the intended beat, then preserve and test its complete contract.

For persistent world AI spots and device-owned interaction workspots, use Workspots and interactions. The scene-local rows described here do not replace community or device ownership.

Manual WolvenKit authoring procedure

No downloadable cinematic-animation or scene-workspot checkpoint is claimed by this page. Lab 5 supplies a Structurally validated v5 scene with typed empty collections; every added event, asset slot, or workspot route is a new Experimental candidate.

Add one direct animation event

1. Extract an evidence-matched vanilla scene and the referenced .anims metadata from your own installation for inspection. Cite the asset; do not redistribute it.
2. Confirm the target actor’s rig, perspective, component, body type, and acquisition route match the comparison closely enough to justify a test.
3. In the mod-owned scene root, add one scnCinematicAnimSetSRRef to cinematicAnimSets with the exact soft depot path and deliberate override/priority values.
4. At the matching collection slot, add scnAnimSetAnimNames containing only the animation names expected from that set. Add the slot’s scnCinematicAnimSetSRRefId to the intended actor’s bodyCinematicAnimSets.
5. Add one scnPlaySkAnimEvent to a section. Assign a unique full unsigned scnSceneEventId, the correct performer, component, animation name, start/duration, blend, mask, and root-motion settings.
6. Size the section and subsequent transition deliberately. Add required reset/idle/look-at/camera events rather than assuming End cleans them up.
7. Save and reopen the scene in WolvenKit 8.19.0. Convert a focused copy to JSON and verify collection indices, actor visibility, event name, performer, timing, and all typed IDs.

Add one scene-local workspot route

1. Add a scnWorkspotData_ExternalWorkspotResource row with a unique scnSceneWorkspotDataId and evidence-matched .workspot depot path.
2. Add one scnWorkspotInstance whose dataId selects that row. Allocate a unique typed instance ID, then set its origin marker and local transform.
3. Add/update the corresponding scnWorkspotSymbol debug row if the chosen vanilla-compatible shape uses it.
4. Add an scnQuestNode wrapper around questUseWorkspotNodeDefinition. Target the acquired actor exactly and use scnUseSceneWorkspotParamsV1.workspotInstanceId to select the instance.
5. Copy the complete params/socket shape from a compatible player or NPC case; do not infer teleport, instant, infinite use, entry IDs, or camera behavior from their names alone.
6. Route Work Started, Success, interruption, and cut behavior according to the narrative requirement. Decide which output is allowed to advance the scene and which owner releases the actor.
7. Inspect data/instance/node/debug joins after a WolvenKit round trip. Pack and list the archive before entering the game.

Reopen the cooked resource, then test animation playback, navigation, camera framing, workspot completion, and cleanup in game.

Acceptance and lifecycle matrix

If the game forbids saving during a cinematic state, record that limitation and test the nearest checkpoint. New animation playback, root motion, workspot entry, camera behavior, interruption, return, reload, and cleanup remain Experimental until the exact route passes.

Failure routing

Vanilla references

Observed in vanilla: the focused fields and paths in this guide were inspected in installed Cyberpunk 2.31a resources:

• base\quest\minor_quests\mq007\scenes\mq007_01_gun_found.scene
• base\animations\quest\minor_quests\mq007\anim\body\mq007__talking_gun__male_fpp.anims
• base\quest\minor_quests\mq010\scenes\mq010_02_barry_talk.scene
• base\workspots\common\wall\generic__stand_wall_lean_left__stand_around__01.workspot

These are citations. Extract focused references from your own installation; do not publish the vanilla CR2W resources or full serialized exports.

Lab 5 supplies empty animation/workspot collections and a scene-local PuppetAI wrapper. Add and test your own animation or workspot route separately.

New animation, camera, and workspot combinations are Experimental until tested through normal completion, interruption, return, and reload.

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