Handling animations with State machines / Montage

Development Character & Animation
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve followed the “Third person blueprint” tutorial entirely for the second time but i didn’t get one thing…
When should i manage the animations using state machines instead of animation montages and viceversa?

For example,in the tutorial,the “run->jump” cycle is handled by switching states inside a state machine,and then the punching
is handled on animation montage.
But the same run->jump thing could have been accomplished by using an animation montage and looping through section of it.

So,what are the benefits of one method over another?

Thanks in advance.

2

I personally use montages when I want to do special stuff like, stopping the anim, getting a variable when the montage has finished, root motion,… (right click into the event graph -> search for montage) I’m doing everything else in the state machines -> running, jumping, idle, walking,… :slight_smile:

3

What would you suggest doing for a “sword slash” animation? (charge hit -> slash -> return to position)
Do you think it would be a thing suited for a montage?

Thanks again.

4

Use a montage for it :slight_smile:

5

Will do,thanks! :smiley:

6

I think the basic divider is use montages when you want to control animations from code/bp such as a punch etc. and if you want to do root motion.

7

Thanks,i’m starting to realize how true it is,creating transitions in the state machine for every little change just makes things less manageable.