Animating a gun in Blender is actually pretty easy. There are a few moving components (all of them mechanical, so they move uniformly most of the time) and no special rigs required in this case. My animation took a total of 5 frames, in which I packed:
- The bolt sliding back (Linear translation)
- The weapon recoil (Small, mirrored rotation along one major axis and linear translation)
- Muzzle Flare (A simple, 3 frame scaling project)
- Muzzle Flare lighting (Animated emission from a pointlamp)
- Camera movement (Small camera shakes, made by tracking and parenting the camera so it mirrors the recoil)
And some other effects alongside it:
- Animation of the floor grid (A simple effect where they move perpendicularly, and very slowly)
- Weapon “inspect” (Simple rotations showing off the different angles)
- Camera panning (Simple movements for the camera, still tracked to the gun)