Play Animation Without Animation Blueprint

Development Character & Animation
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1

Hi all,

I am very new to animations and just want my player character to play an animation on a key press. I created an animation by copy pasting then modifying one of the animations from the animation starter pack. However, when I use the Play Animation node in my character bp it doesn’t do anything. I think this is probably something to do with the fact that copy pasting the animation probably copy pasted the animation BP too, and something about the animation BP is stopping me from playing an animation simply.

Is there any way I can play this animation from my character BP without using animation BPs at all? If not, can someone give a really simple explanation for how I would modify the anim BP so it can play an animation when I press a key?

Thanks!

2

Yeah you can if you do something like.

Set the mesh animation mode to “Use Animation Asset”, this step is actually not needed as play animation will overwrite your Anim BP but I did this just to show the process without Anim BP at all.

235444-setanimation.png
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Then with any event you can have it play an animation, something like this.

235445-playanimation.png
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Of course you lose the benefits of blending and the robustness and power of the Anim BP system, but it definitely can be done.

3

i cannot find play anymation node in the Unreal Engine 4.21, why?

4

You have to drag off a skeletal mesh component reference pin (or turn off context sensitivity) to have access to it. It’s definitely still there.

5

UE4.27: Is there a way to make this work for a Character BP (which has an anim BP by default), but I want to override that BP and “Use Animation Asset” ?

  • I dragged a copy of the Char BP in the map > then at individual (Instance) settings, I switched the “Animation mode” > from using AnimBP to “Use Animation Asset,” then set the Anim to play.
  • I did the exact steps that work for an SK, on this Character BP (same skel).
  • And I can Press Simulate, and it plays the anim on this CharBP (in Editor preview window).
  • But if I Play the game (Game window), the Char resets to playing its anim BP (and by default plays an idle anim - not the anim I selected to play).

I want a fast way to force an anim on a Char BP. (I know I can edit the anim BP to create a Bool switch > anim to play. I dont want that, just a test of the anim in the map, but with Char BP, which sets modular meshes.) Ty