AdamCodd/unreal-engine-5-raw · Datasets at Hugging Face

text stringlengths 0 17.2k
Once the element track is added, add a specific Material Parameter to animate. Click Add Parameter (+) on the Material Element Track then select a parameter. Add as many parameter tracks as needed for your element.

Depending on the type of parameter added, Sequencer will interface with it using compatible Property Tracks. For example, adding a Vector Parameter will create a Color Track

Once the parameter tracks are added, you can keyframe them normally to animate the parameters. Afterward, scrub or play your sequence to observe the effects of the parameter changing.

As you can with usual section usage, Material Parameter Sections can be blended with one another by overlapping their sections. This can be useful to blend between different preset material states, rather than directly animating them.

Sequencer also contains the Material Parameter Collection Track for animating Material Parameter Collections. Use it to directly animate any material where the collection is referenced, so Sequencer can affect multiple materials at the same time.

To create a Material Parameter Collection track, click Add Track (+) in Sequencer and select your Material Parameter Collection Asset from the Material Parameter Collection Track menu.

You can then add individual parameters from this collection by clicking Add Parameter (+) on the track and selecting a parameter. The parameters listed here are based on the parameters created in the collection asset. Once a parameter is selected, its corresponding track is created with a keyframe set at your current time along the timeline.

Due to the arbitrary nature of Material Parameter Collections and how they are set up within each Material's graph, there are a variety of ways the Material Parameter Collection Track can affect your scene. In this example, a vector parameter is used to control additional color tinting on the character. Changing this parameter affects all child instances of this material.

Switch Materials

Animate Material Parameters

Animate Material Parameter Collections

Remarks

Once the parameter tracks are added, you cankeyframethem as usual to animate the parameters. Afterward, scrub or play your sequence to observe the effects of your animated parameter collection.

Animation Blueprint Linking

As you start to create more and more complex Animation Blueprints for your characters, there may be times when you want to reuse portions of an Animation Blueprint within another Animation Blueprint. There are a variety of ways you can do this, from linking specific Animation Blueprints, linking Animation Layers, or using Templates.

This document provides an overview of modularizing your Animation Blueprints in various ways.

Within an Animation Blueprint, you can reference another one by using the Linked Anim Graph node.

To create this node, right-click in the Anim Graph and select Linked Anim Graph from the Linked Anim Blueprints category. You can also select a specific Animation Blueprint reference from this list to add the node and reference it.

The node contains the following properties in the Details panel. These settings also apply for Linked Anim Layer nodes:

Double-clicking a Linked Anim Graph node will open the linked Animation Blueprint asset, if one is assigned,

One of the ways you can use your Linked Anim Graph is by exposing animation inputs using the Input Pose node. Create this node by right-clicking in the Anim Graph of your linked Blueprint and select Input Pose from the Misc. category. You can then connect this node to an animation node.

You can optionally rename the Input Node by selecting it and changing the Name in the Details panel.

You can create as many Input Poses as needed, and all of them will display on the Linked Anim Graph Node as input pins.

Variables can also be exposed to the Linked Anim Graph, in a process similar to the Blueprint process of making a variable public. Select your variable and enable Instance Editable. This will expose the variable on the Linked Anim Graph.

With Linked Anim Graphs, you link to a specific Animation Blueprint. With Linked Anim Layers, you use linking in a more standardized form. Linked Anim Layers require you to create an Animation Layer Interface, which defines the preset Animation Layers of your graph. You can then create a primary Animation Blueprint which contains the main logic structure for these different layers, and then different Animation Blueprints for each gameplay differentiator.

You will typically want to use Linked Anim Layers when you are creating an animation project of high complexity, for example a live-service project where new animations are added and updated. This is due to the workflow centering around creating new, or removing, Animation Blueprints for specific gameplay logic.

Rather than continuously update and manage a single Animation Blueprint, you can separate your logic into these layers. This enables multi-user collaboration and memory savings, as the system will only load the relevant Animation Blueprints if they are being linked and used.

You can control animation memory with Linked Anim Layers by breaking your Animation Blueprints into multiple asset files. An Animation Blueprint that contains linked layers can be loaded and unloaded when necessary using Unreal Engine's memory management systems. Therefore, you must set up additional streaming logic if you want to remove Animation Blueprints from memory when they are unlinked.

To create a Linked Anim Layer system, you must create an Animation Layer Interface Asset, where you will define the animation layers to use in your Animation Blueprints. In the Content Browser, click Add (+), then select Animation > Animation Interface.

Open the Asset to view the Animation Layer Interface editor. The primary way you will interact with this asset is by adding Animation Layers, which can be done by clicking Add (+) in the My Blueprint panel.

Layers under the same non-default Group name will share the same Animation Instance. It is recommended to use a new/non-default shared name for the layers in your Layer Interface.

For some layers you may want to also expose pose and property inputs, as this may be necessary for the Linked Anim structure, such as if this layer is to modify an incoming pose. To do this, click Add (+) on the Inputs section of the selected layer's Details panel. You can also add property inputs under the Inputs property.

For an example Animation Layer setup, you may want to create a general system of Full Body, Upper Body, and IK layers. These layers provide the following functionality for your character:

In this case, your Animation Layer Interface may look like this:

The Animation Layer Interface graph is read-only and is only used to pre-define a list of shared Animation Layers and inputs for your Animation Blueprints.

When using Linked Anim Layers, you construct a "Base" Animation Blueprint, which you assign to your character. This base may contain the general structure of your linked animation layers, but not necessarily the logic or data within them.

First, you need to bind the Animation Layer Interface to your Animation Blueprint by selecting Class Settings, then clicking the Add dropdown menu in the Interfaces section. Select your Animation Layer Interface.

You will now see your predefined layers appear in the Animation Layers section of your Blueprint. Drag these layers into your AnimGraph to build the base logic. In this example the overall structure order is Full Body > Upper Body > IK. Both the Upper Body and IK layers have pose inputs added to them to allow for animation to be passed through and modified.

Depending on how complex and modular you want your setup, you can choose to not create any specific logic within your base Animation Blueprint. Your layers can be left empty and default, with the true logic coming from various linked Animation Blueprints.

Next, you need to create your specific logic for one of the Animation Blueprint states on your character. This requires you to create a second Animation Blueprint and also bind the Animation Layer Interface to it.

Once you have created, opened, and bound the interface to the Blueprint, you can now create the logic within each of the linked layers. To continue the example from before, this Animation Blueprint handles the overall animation and behavior for a weapon-equipped character. The layers contain the following logic:

In this way, you partition the entirety of a weapon's Animation Blueprint logic into this Blueprint exclusively, enabling different users to work on these Blueprints. You can create as many different Animation Blueprints as required, with different logic in them depending on the context.

For these logic-specific Animation Blueprints, you do not need to recreate the same Anim Graph logic that exists in the base Blueprint. Instead you can consider the base Blueprint to be a "parent" Blueprint in terms of maintaining that overall logic structure in the Anim Graph. You only use these specific Blueprints for creating logic within each linked layer.

The final step in using the Linked Anim Layers is adding the Link Anim Class Layers Blueprint node. You use this node to bind the layers of one of your specific Animation Blueprint classes to the Animation Layer system, causing its internal layer logic to overwrite the current logic.

Continuing the previous example, create a Link Anim Class Layers node, with the character mesh connected and the In Class input set to the specific weapon Animation Blueprint. In some cases, you may also want to play a Montage after the layers change, to help transition the change with an animation, such as a "weapon equip" animation.

To summarize this example:

Below, a use case for Linked Anim Layers used on Fortnite is shown.

In this example, there are two interfaces—one for weapons, and another for vehicles. You can have both active at the same time. It is also possible for a single Animation Blueprint that implements one of these interfaces to override multiple points of the graph, such as a weapon overriding WeaponUpperBody and WeaponAdditive.

Here are some possibilities with the above setup:

In this way, weapons can override several different points in the main graph. For example, a locomotion State Machine with states like Jump, Fall, Land, and Zipline, is used. Rather than duplicating this State Machine for each weapon, the State Machine lives in the main graph, and weapon Animation Blueprints have a Layer they can override for each state.

Once the element track is added, add a specific Material Parameter to animate. Click Add Parameter (+) on the Material Element Track then select a parameter. Add as many parameter tracks as needed for your element.

Depending on the type of parameter added, Sequencer will interface with it using compatible Property Tracks. For example, adding a Vector Parameter will create a Color Track

Once the parameter tracks are added, you can keyframe them normally to animate the parameters. Afterward, scrub or play your sequence to observe the effects of the parameter changing.

As you can with usual section usage, Material Parameter Sections can be blended with one another by overlapping their sections. This can be useful to blend between different preset material states, rather than directly animating them.

Sequencer also contains the Material Parameter Collection Track for animating Material Parameter Collections. Use it to directly animate any material where the collection is referenced, so Sequencer can affect multiple materials at the same time.

To create a Material Parameter Collection track, click Add Track (+) in Sequencer and select your Material Parameter Collection Asset from the Material Parameter Collection Track menu.

You can then add individual parameters from this collection by clicking Add Parameter (+) on the track and selecting a parameter. The parameters listed here are based on the parameters created in the collection asset. Once a parameter is selected, its corresponding track is created with a keyframe set at your current time along the timeline.

Due to the arbitrary nature of Material Parameter Collections and how they are set up within each Material's graph, there are a variety of ways the Material Parameter Collection Track can affect your scene. In this example, a vector parameter is used to control additional color tinting on the character. Changing this parameter affects all child instances of this material.

Switch Materials

Animate Material Parameters

Animate Material Parameter Collections

Remarks

Once the parameter tracks are added, you cankeyframethem as usual to animate the parameters. Afterward, scrub or play your sequence to observe the effects of your animated parameter collection.

Animation Blueprint Linking

As you start to create more and more complex Animation Blueprints for your characters, there may be times when you want to reuse portions of an Animation Blueprint within another Animation Blueprint. There are a variety of ways you can do this, from linking specific Animation Blueprints, linking Animation Layers, or using Templates.

This document provides an overview of modularizing your Animation Blueprints in various ways.

Within an Animation Blueprint, you can reference another one by using the Linked Anim Graph node.

To create this node, right-click in the Anim Graph and select Linked Anim Graph from the Linked Anim Blueprints category. You can also select a specific Animation Blueprint reference from this list to add the node and reference it.

The node contains the following properties in the Details panel. These settings also apply for Linked Anim Layer nodes:

Double-clicking a Linked Anim Graph node will open the linked Animation Blueprint asset, if one is assigned,

One of the ways you can use your Linked Anim Graph is by exposing animation inputs using the Input Pose node. Create this node by right-clicking in the Anim Graph of your linked Blueprint and select Input Pose from the Misc. category. You can then connect this node to an animation node.

You can optionally rename the Input Node by selecting it and changing the Name in the Details panel.

You can create as many Input Poses as needed, and all of them will display on the Linked Anim Graph Node as input pins.

Variables can also be exposed to the Linked Anim Graph, in a process similar to the Blueprint process of making a variable public. Select your variable and enable Instance Editable. This will expose the variable on the Linked Anim Graph.

With Linked Anim Graphs, you link to a specific Animation Blueprint. With Linked Anim Layers, you use linking in a more standardized form. Linked Anim Layers require you to create an Animation Layer Interface, which defines the preset Animation Layers of your graph. You can then create a primary Animation Blueprint which contains the main logic structure for these different layers, and then different Animation Blueprints for each gameplay differentiator.

You will typically want to use Linked Anim Layers when you are creating an animation project of high complexity, for example a live-service project where new animations are added and updated. This is due to the workflow centering around creating new, or removing, Animation Blueprints for specific gameplay logic.

Rather than continuously update and manage a single Animation Blueprint, you can separate your logic into these layers. This enables multi-user collaboration and memory savings, as the system will only load the relevant Animation Blueprints if they are being linked and used.

You can control animation memory with Linked Anim Layers by breaking your Animation Blueprints into multiple asset files. An Animation Blueprint that contains linked layers can be loaded and unloaded when necessary using Unreal Engine's memory management systems. Therefore, you must set up additional streaming logic if you want to remove Animation Blueprints from memory when they are unlinked.

To create a Linked Anim Layer system, you must create an Animation Layer Interface Asset, where you will define the animation layers to use in your Animation Blueprints. In the Content Browser, click Add (+), then select Animation > Animation Interface.

Open the Asset to view the Animation Layer Interface editor. The primary way you will interact with this asset is by adding Animation Layers, which can be done by clicking Add (+) in the My Blueprint panel.

Layers under the same non-default Group name will share the same Animation Instance. It is recommended to use a new/non-default shared name for the layers in your Layer Interface.

For some layers you may want to also expose pose and property inputs, as this may be necessary for the Linked Anim structure, such as if this layer is to modify an incoming pose. To do this, click Add (+) on the Inputs section of the selected layer's Details panel. You can also add property inputs under the Inputs property.

For an example Animation Layer setup, you may want to create a general system of Full Body, Upper Body, and IK layers. These layers provide the following functionality for your character:

In this case, your Animation Layer Interface may look like this:

The Animation Layer Interface graph is read-only and is only used to pre-define a list of shared Animation Layers and inputs for your Animation Blueprints.

When using Linked Anim Layers, you construct a "Base" Animation Blueprint, which you assign to your character. This base may contain the general structure of your linked animation layers, but not necessarily the logic or data within them.

First, you need to bind the Animation Layer Interface to your Animation Blueprint by selecting Class Settings, then clicking the Add dropdown menu in the Interfaces section. Select your Animation Layer Interface.

You will now see your predefined layers appear in the Animation Layers section of your Blueprint. Drag these layers into your AnimGraph to build the base logic. In this example the overall structure order is Full Body > Upper Body > IK. Both the Upper Body and IK layers have pose inputs added to them to allow for animation to be passed through and modified.

Depending on how complex and modular you want your setup, you can choose to not create any specific logic within your base Animation Blueprint. Your layers can be left empty and default, with the true logic coming from various linked Animation Blueprints.

Next, you need to create your specific logic for one of the Animation Blueprint states on your character. This requires you to create a second Animation Blueprint and also bind the Animation Layer Interface to it.

Once you have created, opened, and bound the interface to the Blueprint, you can now create the logic within each of the linked layers. To continue the example from before, this Animation Blueprint handles the overall animation and behavior for a weapon-equipped character. The layers contain the following logic:

In this way, you partition the entirety of a weapon's Animation Blueprint logic into this Blueprint exclusively, enabling different users to work on these Blueprints. You can create as many different Animation Blueprints as required, with different logic in them depending on the context.

For these logic-specific Animation Blueprints, you do not need to recreate the same Anim Graph logic that exists in the base Blueprint. Instead you can consider the base Blueprint to be a "parent" Blueprint in terms of maintaining that overall logic structure in the Anim Graph. You only use these specific Blueprints for creating logic within each linked layer.

The final step in using the Linked Anim Layers is adding the Link Anim Class Layers Blueprint node. You use this node to bind the layers of one of your specific Animation Blueprint classes to the Animation Layer system, causing its internal layer logic to overwrite the current logic.

Continuing the previous example, create a Link Anim Class Layers node, with the character mesh connected and the In Class input set to the specific weapon Animation Blueprint. In some cases, you may also want to play a Montage after the layers change, to help transition the change with an animation, such as a "weapon equip" animation.

To summarize this example:

Below, a use case for Linked Anim Layers used on Fortnite is shown.

In this example, there are two interfaces—one for weapons, and another for vehicles. You can have both active at the same time. It is also possible for a single Animation Blueprint that implements one of these interfaces to override multiple points of the graph, such as a weapon overriding WeaponUpperBody and WeaponAdditive.

Here are some possibilities with the above setup:

In this way, weapons can override several different points in the main graph. For example, a locomotion State Machine with states like Jump, Fall, Land, and Zipline, is used. Rather than duplicating this State Machine for each weapon, the State Machine lives in the main graph, and weapon Animation Blueprints have a Layer they can override for each state.