At first i would like to say hello, I’m and this is my first post on the Unreal forums.
I’m fairly new to Unreal Engine 4 but have been able to figure out quite some things by myself like importing objects, collision, materials and setting up the wheels for animation in Unreal Engine 4. At this moment i am stuck on importing vehicle animations like a weapon valve. I’ve seen tutorials on the web which say to use bones for wheel animations and such but i can’t find how to animate other parts of the vehicle for use in Unreal Engine 4. For example: i modeled the truck as shown in screen 1. I would like to animate a weapon valve for in game as shown in screen 2. I usually would animate this as a seperate object using the set key button but am not sure if this would work with Unreal Engine 4. Do i use the bone system for this part as well and does the valve have to be a seperate object or does it have to be an element of the truck?
are you using UDK(the free version of UE3) or UE4?, if your using UDK you should post this on the UDK forum found here UDK - Epic Games Forums as this forum is for UE4 and you would get better help there.
The van is mostly made of the same object. The wheels are attached as elements and so are the fenders and engine for the miniguns. I will use a bone system to make the wheels work but have not done that yet. The valve on the other hand, is a seperate object because that seemed to me the best way to animate it.
I am not sure what you mean by “valve”, are you talking about that flap on the front?
If your going to use bones before importing to UE4 that will make things easier, anyway If you are talking about that flap there are basically there are 2 ways I would do it.
1: give it it’s own bone, make the animations for it, import the skeletal mesh/animations and then just drive the anim’s using a blueprint.
2: import it as a separate static mesh, attach it to the van using a socket and then use a timeline in a blueprint (triggered by an event) to animate it.
the second way should work with or without bones although I personally always give a bone to any part of a vehicle I want to move before I import.
Thank you! I will try this both ways and give an update later this week. With the “valve” i mean the flap on the front indeed, i’ts meant to open up so a weapon can come uit and shoot on trigger.
