What is the best free 3D animation program for doing stuff like making a character model do walking animations?
I use Blender, don’t be overwhelmed by the options, just like UE4 there is a learning curve but besides that its great.
Check out Maya(trial version / Student), Daz3d(free), MakeHuman(free), Blender(free).
If your are not a 3d artist or if you goal is just to make a character model do stuff, this is the easiest option:
- Make a human character complete with bones using Make Human.
- Export this make human character as a .FBX
- Upload this asset into UnrealEditor.
- Look for animation Starter pack in UE Marketplace. You can add any of these animations to your character.
Another option:
There is this technique called motion capture. Basically, many kinds of motion a human character makes is captured into a digital file. This motion is captured using sensors on an actual human. Using these files (.bvh), you can add this motion to a human character. You can make and human character perform any of the motions. You can do this in Blender or any animation tool. The tricky part is exporting this into UE4.
For mocap files, check this link out: Motion Capture Files
For tips in exporting into UE4, Check this out mocap to UE4
Again, exporting assets from one tool into other is tricky and would need some trial and error.
Hope this helps