ANIMATION PERFORMANCE
Animation Budget Calculator
Compare a simplified game-animation workload across character counts, deform bones, update rates, and clips. The results are planning proxies, not hardware benchmarks.
CHARACTER WORKLOAD
Estimate game animation workload
Enter a positive whole number in each field. Estimates are hidden for invalid inputs or totals outside JavaScript’s exact integer range.
Animation budget and workload guide
Use this browser-based animation budget calculator to compare a simplified bone-workload estimate, a rough pose-data proxy, and the assumptions behind both results.
How the bone-workload estimate is calculated
Bone evaluations per second = animated characters × deform bones per character × update rate. At the defaults, 20 × 60 × 30 = 36,000 evaluations per second.
This is a simplified workload proxy, not CPU milliseconds, frame time, or a platform-specific budget.
What the pose-data estimate means
Rough pose data = characters × deform bones × clips × 64 bytes per bone per clip. At the defaults, that is 153,600 bytes, or 150 KiB (1 KiB = 1,024 bytes).
The 64-byte factor is this calculator’s explicit simplifying assumption. It is not a measurement of a particular rig, animation format, compression scheme, keyframe set, or runtime memory use.
Read the budget signal as a heuristic
The signal uses this calculator’s own bone-evaluation bands: below 100,000 is Comfortable; 100,000 through 499,999 is Watch mobile; 500,000 or more is Heavy. These categories are not measured device performance or an engine limit.
Actual performance also depends on rig and mesh complexity, vertices, blend shapes, animation graphs and jobs, visibility, engine, and target hardware. Profile a representative scene before making a production budget.
Compare scenarios consistently
Use the inputs to compare the same scene with fewer animated characters, simpler rigs, or a lower update rate. Change one assumption at a time, then measure on your target hardware.
This is a game-animation workload calculator, not a production-cost estimator or an animation profiler.
Frequently asked questions
How are bone evaluations per second calculated?
Multiply animated characters by deform bones per character and the animation update rate. The result is a simplified workload count, not measured CPU time.
What does the rough pose-data estimate include?
It multiplies characters, bones, and clips using a fixed 64-byte-per-bone-per-clip assumption. This is a comparison proxy, not measured rig or runtime memory.
Does the budget signal predict frame rate or performance?
No. It groups this calculator’s simplified bone-evaluation count into heuristic bands. Profile representative content on your target hardware to set an actual performance budget.
Does my input leave the browser?
No. The calculator runs locally in your browser; its inputs are not uploaded.
Privacy note: animation budget calculations happen in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.