How would one go about animating an object being built/constructed, either in Blender or UE4?

Development Character & Animation
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1

Basically I have a guy with a high tech multi-dimensional nanotech backpack (Adam Drake from Body Harvest N64). When the character brings his arm to his backpack, a gun handle should appear in his hand, then as he’s pulling his hand back into ready position, the entire gun should begin to reconstruct itself on the handle until it’s ready to fire. Sort of like this:

@anonymous_user_da8fec3a:14 to @anonymous_user_da8fec3a:17 you see how he takes out a pistol from his backpack? I’m creating a remaster for that game and I want the pistol to built itself when it’s being pulled out.

EXACTLY like this: Blender Tutorial: Automatic Construction Animation - YouTube

Only problem with the above method is that I can’t animate it and import to UE4.

I’ve tried morph targets and while I was able to animate them in Blender, they just refused to work in UE4. Did absolutely nothing. when animation is played.

2

Why not try using a mask with gradient, usually I use that to create walls and stuff for SCI-FI. So let’s say you have a gradient from left to right, so the gun’s UVs should be placed in the correct order from left to right, plus add +1 to emission that it looks like the gun is spawned with nanotech or something like that.

So let’s say use this dissolve tutorial Unreal engine | Dissolve materials tutorial - YouTube but add order to mesh UVs and use gradient mask instead of noise mask.

3

YASS I CAN USE THIS! Make it a bit mechanical rigid and viola! And while watching that video, I found the PERFECT WAY TO DO IT! Its and official Unreal Livestream! Creating a Vanishing Effect with Advanced Materials | Feature Highlight | Unreal Engine Livestream - YouTube