Hey folks - Blueprint newb, so please explain to me like Im 5 with any answers etc -
Ive got some set dressing vehicles Id like to pose some parts on - turning wheels, opening doors, and other mostly just rotating parts, although I do have some parts aligned or “connected” to the rotating parts that will have to move on multiple axis’ to stay aligned with the rotating parts they are attached to -
This would not be animated, will not have a rig or bones - just using BP nodes to set up basic rotation/transform movement - the goal being simple options/features in the BP world artists can use to pose the parts on the vehicles -
I’m curious what sort of nodes and node set ups I might need or use - also too, if anyone has any links to info/vids/tutorials on the matter, that would be great -
I’m also curious about building a “switch” to chose between posed states - for example - a forklift having a switch to set the forks up or down - instead of a manual rotation/transform control.
So yeah, if anyone had any insights would much appreciate hearing them.
Thanks.
The easiest option is to simply make changes to any instance of an actor you place in the world by clicking on the specific component in the actors details panel (I’m assuming the parts you want to move are separate components to the static part of the car?) and rotating it relative to the body of the car. This is the absolute simplest, most basic, and some would say best solution, as it allows the artist total freedom without having to make any kind of data changes, they just have to understand how an actors hierarchy works.
If you’d prefer you could also connect a bunch of variables to the different components world transform in the construction script if you want it to be run through data like that, useful if it’s information you need to have access to, and has the added bonus that this would be able to do random transforms if you wanted as well.
As far as switches goes, using your forklift and my truck example above you could drive the vertical axis of the forks the same way as I’m driving that wheel which would allow for more precise control (or simply do it by hand like the first example if you don’t need to animate it in game). But a pure “switch” you were asking for would simply be the same but driven by something like a boolean, which would set the height to either 0 if false or 100 if true.
Of course you could look into things like The Variant Manager or PCG but these might be overkill for what you’re after.
This is probably a bit of a higher level breakdown than you were hoping for but without knowing the specifics of your team/resources/scope it’s hard to get right down into the weeds. Of course if you want specific examples, happy to provide.
