Hi there. I am trying to learn more about creating animation poses and sequences in general (custom ones for just non-human models or FPS arms for example).
I read the “IK Setups” page in the docs (along with many other pages) but in the page they refer a lot to the AnimationMap example project.
After reading about and trying to find where to download it, I read it should be in the ‘Learn’ tab in the Launcher. However I cannot find it and also I cannot search in that section for some reason.
Can anyone help me find this example project or something similar. Here is link to the page in the docs (which sadly doesnt seem to link to download it anywhere) Animation Content Examples | Unreal Engine Documentation
thanks
Oops I think I found it. The page does say in the middle there that this can be found by downloading “Example Projects” in the Launcher. 
Keep in mind that literally none of those examples are worth the time it took you to figure out where they are located.
In fact, epic should probably admit to it and shamefully remove the whole map.
Foot ik isn’t even remotely close to how it actually needs to function.
Hand ik is “okish” as a baseline example.
But then when you implement it in actuality you have to use a different ik node with elbow correction pole vector…
The rest of the map is just stuff you can setup in a minute or 2 on your own like physical animation and hit reacts.
The premise of all those animation blueprint automatically disables fastpath optimization. So again. Should just be thrown out and started with the new system in mind…
Darn, that’s sad to read!
At the moment I am struggling to know the best way to build poses and animations for FPS game. I could make the whole animation in Maya fairly easily however then I would still need to somehow affect those from within Unreal so that the animations aren’t always identical. (Another problem I’ve found with this, is that I then need to make sure the gun model is actually part of the SAME fbx the arms are, otherwise I am left fiddling still in Unreal to make the fingers fit around the gun -a much easier process in Maya for me at the moment 
)
I am hoping that I can learn to do almost all from inside Unreal. I want to start off with a straight arm (plus the skeleton) exported from Maya, then I hope to actually fully pose (inside Unreal) the arm to suit each gun. This way, I will be better set when I want to apply small physics inputs to the animations (for example some gun recoil).
I will keep trying to learn as I do think the tools are there once I figure out how to use them. But for now I have stopped trying to figure it out and moved my attention to ‘Material Parameters’ ie. making changes to the UV Coords on the fly (currently so I can show a deck of playing cards all showing the correct face values).
Thanks for letting me know your thoughts on the Unreal IK System (and docs lol). I have used Unity much more than Unreal and must admit the IK system they have seems to just work (in true Todd Howard fashion!!) straight out of the box with my Mixamo exports.
Complicated stuff I will get there in the end though 
My 2c.
Use outside tools to create animations.
Use the engine for retargeting. Then export the animations for fixing and re/import them.
Re fitting fingers.
You can actually Use the same base poses, and correct the hand with a blend by bones or any other type of a correttive.
The animation you use for this can literally be an A pose with only the fingers position modified.
Additive works too.
Animation making is probably one of the hardest things to do right.
Using them correctly is also quite complex…
Thanks for the tips. I’ll try to put it all into practice now. The additive pose idea seems perfect, however I am still struggling to get the ‘whole thing’ working in general of all the animation setups.
Your steps here will save me some headache for sure and gives me a direction to go in from here. Nice one!