High level/generic overview question about animation

Development Character & Animation
1

Hi All,

I know I have a lot of searching, reading, experimenting and tutorials to watch, practice, and learn with regarding blueprints and animation, but I was wondering if you can answer or point me in the right direction.

First off I see how powerful and the amazing potential UE4 has when looking at samples such as this: King of kings Hard Battle 03 - YouTube

My question(s) are this:
1- does a game like that appear to be all created from a blank blueprint template with imported 3d (fbx?) models and skeletal mesh animations custom created or can you start with the premade 3rd person template and customize the player/ai from there?
2- does the 3rd person template contain ai pawns of an ‘animal’ (maybe wolf/bear) models or again, do you have to import 3d models and custom make them with texture, animate the moves/behavior, etc like I was saying above.

I believe I am correct in thinking this is all done in the blueprint system.

If you could point me in the right direction that would be appreciated or even a very generic explanation will do.

Thanks!

2

  1. Yes you can take the 3rd person template and expand on the Blueprint system it has to create what you see in that video. It would take some work but I’m sure it can be done all within the blueprint system.

  2. 3rd person template only has the pawn character setup with basic movements. You would have to import the 3d models from a modeling program, and rig them up yourself. Then it would be a re-targeting issue for all the animations you want using blend spaces and Animations Blueprints. There is plenty of free assets in the marketplace to get you started.

Watching the video I could see how they created a lot of the combat system, probably used Behavior trees for all the AI pawns. If your just starting out with UE4 then a good approach would be to work on one thing at a time and take it slow. I was able to accomplish many things I thought i couldn’t do, it just took a lot of research and time to develop.