Importing a Weapon With Its Own Animations

Development Character & Animation
1

Hi guys,

I’ve managed to take a character through the maya+ART process and get him working fine in-game, and I’ve also managed to rig some melee weapons that only required a socket to work (hammers, axes, etc.).

However, I’m now trying to import a bow that has its own animations (drawing back the bow by pulling the string back, releasing to fire the arrow). What does the process look like for hooking up an animated bow to an animated character and ensuring the sockets are lined up properly? We’ve been able to animate some arrow firing in Maya but we aren’t sure about the process on how to import it properly to UE4.

Any suggestions/links to documentation or tutorials?

Thanks!

2

My guess is that you use the normal SkeletalMesh import process (make a new skeleton). Then you set up your graphs and anims like normal on a character and play them at the appropriate time.

Haven’t tried it at all, but I’m guessing that the setup is largely the same as for an animated character (save y’know, lots less complex).