What’s the difference between using AnimMontage vs AnimNotify for triggering gameplay events?

Development Character & Animation
1

Hey folks,
I’m a bit confused about when to use AnimMontages versus AnimNotifies for triggering gameplay-related events like spawning effects or dealing damage.

For example, I want to trigger a hitbox during a sword swing animation. I’ve seen people do this both using an AnimNotify in the animation timeline, and also by calling events inside a Montage section.

What’s the general rule of thumb here? Are there performance or reliability considerations between the two? Would love to hear how experienced developers handle this in production projects.

Thanks in advance!

2

If it’s Animation Sequence driven (Anim Graph → State machine, IK etc) Use Anim Notify.

Montages are called from the character class.

Anim Notifies can call events in the character class. They aren’t strictly bound to the animation class.

Montage for the swing, but let the sword collision trigger the hitbox independently.