is it possible to generate an animation sequence using unreal? i’m kindof having a hard time locating source material on the subject, everything i seem to locate seems to point in the direction of 3rd party software. I’m not a huge fan of blender and being that i’m on a low budget project I don’t exactly have the means to buy other software. Any advice or direction to an article would be greatly appreciated thanks all
I believe you are looking for Matinee. There’s probably a standalone example project in your launcher.
I thought Matinee was just for cutscene aimed projects?
I think it is Persona, what you are searching for
https://docs.unrealengine/latest/INT/Engine/Animation/index.html
Do a double click on the skeletal mesh - in persona you have to click on the record button - move the bones - save the animation 
how effective is Persona for creating animations though?
Is it typically overshadowed by external software? Can it be a substitution?
In my opinion it’s not so effective -> you can do it much faster and better in a 3d program like blender 