Unreal Engine 4: Problem adding animations to a door that is a Geometry+Box.

Development Character & Animation
1

Hello! Welcome tu UE4! I am a **New User **I’ve been wondering on how to ***Add Animations ***to random objects in Unreal Engine 4, and I found about this great instrument called ***Matinee ***that allow you to do it!

It is very simple: (I know only few steps because I’m stuck there, but here is how the tutorial starts:)

1. You select n place your (in this situation) Door;

P.S.: You can find Doors in the following path in the window **Content Browser: (Content > StarterContent > Props)
**
2. While it is highlighted/selected, click on Matinee
2b. > Add Matinee
3. Check that your Door is selected (maybe click it) and then Create a new empty Group (and name it)
4. You obtained a “Track”! Keep the Track selected and right click on it
5. Click on “Add new movement”

6. Check the timeline, and use the green and red triangles to adjust the lenght (in seconds) of your animation (probably 2 seconds or 2.50 seconds to see the door opened)
6b. Use third button on your mouse to zoom in and zoom out the timeline
6c. Activate the Snap Toggle up in the window and to the right. (You can activate it simply by clicking “S”). Activate it if you want to interact with the timeline second by second precisly, without having to go through all the decimals in seconds (Snap toggle will allow you to easily “fall” on x.00 with the small green&red triangles, without having to go through all the x.01 'till x.99 etc.)

7. After you adjusted the lenght of your selected/highlighted object’s animation, which is in this case a door, by using the small triangles in the timeline, that are red and green, you can proceed.
8. Go to Second: 0:00 and press on Add Key
9. Go to the Last Second of your Timeline, which now is 2:00, and leave the wheel there
10. Click one more time on Add Key while on the last second
11. Now, you can adjust the door’s position and adjust it in the Final position, which in my case, would be Closed.
12x. Press play to verify the animation.

I can’t continue the tutorial because im stuck here
Check this link, it will help you:

(//Problem Solved)
Here goes my big problem.
1. I am inside the Add Matinee window,
2. I have to use this button: Add Key. Problem is it’s not functioning.
3. When i click it, while the “track is highlighted” and the door is not, it says: **Nothing to keyframe, or selected object can’t be keyframed on this type of track.
**
3b. The object in this case is not a door, but simply a wall behaving like a door (tooken from the Modes, in this Path: Geometry > Box > plus edits). I think it should work anyways, so, unless you dont say so, the problem is not the object/wall, but something else…

4. So when I try to “highlight the door/wall and the track” at the same time, one gets dis-selected, so basically when the door/wall is selected the track becomes grey, announcing it is not selected anymore: And this is the error when I press Add Key with only the door/wall selected: No track selected. Select a track from the track view before trying again. balblabalblabl

5.** IT DOESN’T WORK!** I followed the tutorial step by step… What should I do to add the Add Key and realize the animation? What is wrong with Unreal Engine 4? Please mods help, I’m running out of time.

Good luck answering,
It was nice to text you.

:wink:

2

Problem Solved!

Problem Solved! If you have this problem, you have to be sure that when you Create the 3. Empty Group in the Matinee (at step 3) you must be sure and check that the door is also selected, at the moment of the Group creation. If you create the Group while the door is not selected, the animation won’t work and probably show my same error, showed in this post, or maybe some other extremely annoying/time-trap error.

Good luck having boring issues like me!
Best joy wishes!

3

Secondary Problem found!!!:

If you want to use Matinee on a door from Content > StarterContent > Props , there will be no problem in animating it.
Otherwise, if you pick a big Box from Modes: Geometry > Box and convert it into a “door” with the colors and the re-shaping, you will have problems at the step 3, that is when you have to create a new Group inside the Matinee…, the BoxBrush will not be compatible with the Group creation in matinee. The door yes, it would.

At the moment of the 3rd step, while adding a New Empty Group, you will be checking that your door is selected. If the Door is instead a BoxBrush, at the moment you’ll press: “Add a new empty Group”, you will see the following error generated: **Cannot add BoxBrush to matinee PersistentLevel. It is static and cannot be movable.
**
If your BoxBrush is instead a Door from the ./Props, you will be able to create the Group and sync it to the door, so it can be animated.

In my case I’m not using a door from Props, because that is not the door I would use for my creations. I am using a BoxBrush as example only, but if i wont be able to import a “door” that is not the one in the props, i won’t be able to animate it in UE4 at all! In this case i cannot use the software anymore… But, if the mods know some other trick to animate a Box Brush, I invoke your help.

Mods of UE4, Can you please tell me what is the way of animating a BoxBrush inside Unreal Engine 4?

The BoxBrush should be acting as a door (sliding instead of opening) and make it work in a similar way a Door would;

Can I animate a BoxBrush inside the Matinee?
Or maybe there is another procedure to animate a BoxBrush, instead of the classic procedure of animating a Door inside the Matinee?

Please answer as soon as you can,
I’m waiting.

Best regards,
Please be fast!!!

Secondary Problem Solved
If you are attempting to animate a BoxBrush from the path Modes > Geometry > Box into the Matinee… you can’t do it. Apparently. Unreal Engine 4 recocgnize the immense (ironic) difference between the two boxes, where one is located in Modes > Geometry > Box and the other in Modes > Basic > Cube.
The Cube can be movable and so animated.
The Box cannot be moves, and so cannot be animated.
The Matinee takes care of the animations.

I’m sorry for those of you stuck into animating a Box, but this demented version of UE4 is not able to move a box! Blame the devs!

Wish you good luck!
…and less depression

4

Mods, your times in reaction is very poor and sad. You need more mental and phisical activity! Wake up! Do your duty, do your job, and all the things you are called to do!
You have tons of suspended topics that are looking for an answer, why to let them in big depression? Answer them, do what you came to the world for, and prove there is still Hope!

Stay sane and let we stay sane too.

5

Huh what? The Mods are not there for answering questions, they are there to moderate the forums.
Also Quadruple post within 24 hrs.

You are impatient. If someone knows an answer, he or she will help you. No one is obliged to answer you.

6

Agreed

It is funny, he demands less than 1 hour response time. And all while some searching and watching tutorials would solve that problem.

Again reminder that mods here are volunteers, we do not represent Epic, we do not work for them.
We are here to maintain order, delete spam, rename your threads etc.
Anything more complicated or serious is usually escalated to Epic.