Animation

[finger563]

animation-field-guide-v1-1-final-f431a792f4b2.pdf

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/real-time-character-animation-training-roundup-free-resources

We have a couple of options:

• use animations targeted towards UE skeleton and rig our characters using the UE rig skeleton)
• make our own skeletons / animations in blender or other tools
• get animations for other skeletons (e.g. from https://mixamo.com)
• Retarget between skeletons of any of the above

Animations consist of a few things:

• skeletal mesh (character mesh + rig in either T-Pose or A-Pose)
• skeleton (generated by UE from skeletal mesh)
• Animation sequence
• Animation blend space (optional, but we use a 1D blend space to blend between idle/walk/run based on a speed parameter)
• Animation Blueprint (which has event graph + animation graph (state machine))

Discussion on how to plan / develop attack animations well (different phases): https://80.lv/articles/separation-compensation-principle-in-strikes-animation/

Tutorial on stylized run animation in blender: https://80.lv/articles/in-depth-course-make-your-blender-character-run/

There's also support within UE for reusing animation graphs / nodes between different blueprints:
SubAnimInstance

If you want to retarget, then you want to select the lowest on that list that you have (ideally the blueprint) and right click, select retarget and select the skeletal mesh you want to retarget to (you may have to un-check only show compatible skeletons). This will ensure that the blueprint, blendspaces, and sequences are duplicated and retargeted appropriately and does so with the minimal amount of work from you. When you do this you can select what folder you want to put the retargeted assets into - I suggest keeping each character in a separate folder so when you retarget you can just select the new character's folder.

Currently, the majority of our animations come from mixamo

Note: when importing animations, right now we configure the root motion like this:

As opposed to this (which we currently use for our attack animation because it has to move):

Doing this allows the mesh to not move so that we keep the mesh with the player controller.

Some documentation on animation:

• https://www.raywenderlich.com/383-unreal-engine-4-animation-tutorial
• https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/ProgrammingAndScripting/ProgrammingWithCPP/CPPTutorials/FirstPersonShooter/4/

Helpful tools (not used):

• https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/mixamo-animation-retargeting