How do I animate a mesh being picked up by an actor during an animation?

For example, we want our player to interact with a crate. He’d then see what happened with that crate in the very same room while is still able to walk around.He would see people taking out guns from the crate. How do I make it that the animated character(That appears after you interact with the crate) actually is able to take out a gun from the crate?(You see him bending forward, reaching for the gun in the crate and as he lifts his hands, he needs to be holding a Tommy-gun with both hands) Do I have to animate the gun with the character? Or can this be done trough socketing/blueprints? In short: How can I animate meshes during an animation?

You can animate it with the animation desk app on your multimedia phone. Just imagine your character with your creative mind & activity and draw it through useful application. It really helps you to get a visualize character you want to see with a gun.