How do I create a Poseable Mesh "clone" of my (ThirdPerson) Character?

How do I create a Poseable Mesh “clone” of my (ThirdPerson) Character?

For debugging purposes, I’ve tried to set up the basic version of this by hooking up the C-key to try to “duplicate” the character’s mesh - in the same location, in the same pose - but at TWICE the scale (just to make it easier to see if it worked). But nothing seems to happen when I press C (although in the simulation mode, I see my wires lighting up, so at least the script is being triggered).

What am I missing here?

Here’s how my current Blueprint looks for my ThirdPerson character:

http://s16.postimg.org/6n6o809ar/2015_07_07_2221.png

In c++ you can create an actor using another actor as template. Maybe you dive into that and add a little plugin to do the trick? either you would have to create a copy of your actor and set all variables and stuff to what you need

I don’t think C++ should be necessary for this, and I wan’t to avoid writing any code for as long as possible anyway.

Anyway, your reply inspired me to just hit the “Add Component” button and add a “Poseable Mesh” actor into my ThirdPersonCharacter actor - which I managed to set the Master Pose of - so now when I hit the C-key, I get a clone of my character!

Now I got 2 new problems to solve:

  1. As this new component is a child of my character, he follows the mesh around, but I want the clone to STAY stuck in the world position wherever I was at the time I hit C. Like frozen in time.
  2. I also want the pose of the clone to be frozen/static; but it keeps being updated after it has spawned (when I move the main character). So I guess I got to “disconnect” the relationship between my clone’s pose and the master mesh’ somehow!?

PS. Here’s my new Blueprint for anyone else who’s interested in how to get this “far”:

Ok, I managed to freeze the clone with a “Set Active” node (set to false; which stopped updating the Poseable Mesh I guess).

Now I just need to have this actor be “a child of” the world instead of the character, so the clone stays stuck in his original place…

BOOM! All solved :slight_smile:

  1. Created a new Blueprint class > type Actor > called PlayerClone. Edited its blueprint to become inactive (Set Active = false) after 0.1 delay upon Event BeginPlay. To avoid getting stuck in the bind pose, which happened without the delay node.
  2. Then spawned this new PlayerClone actor in the world using a SpawnActor node in my character blueprint.

Here’s the effect after applying a purple material to the Clone; then running and jumping while hitting my C-key a couple of times:

2015-07-08_2258.png

And here’s how it looks with a decent material that fades out in sync with the Actor’s LifeSpan (so it disappears gradually before being destroyed):

PlayerGhost_02.png

My work here is done.

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That’s pretty cool! Very neat effect. Makes me kind of think Samus when she does her dash in Super Metroid, leaving a little ghost behind as she moves.

Now THIS is a really cool idea for some travel powers I’ve been messing around with lately. Definitely going to have a look at implementing this.