You can do it with a skeletal rig but my approach would be to separate it into two meshes, the tower and the the boom, and make the tower be the root component and the boom be a child component in a blueprint.
Or maybe even make the boom a separate blueprint and mount it on the tower where the tower is just a static mesh.
You can use any approach you like, but you’ll have to use different functions to move it depending on that. For skeletal you’ll have to make it not animated and move the bone(s) yourself, or make it “ragdoll” and use physics to drive its motion.
So my approach seems like it would be easier to set up for direct control by the player.
i agree. if the crane were background art or a non intractable then going with a rig and animation would be good, but its much easier to add player control and input if you make the model in separate pieces then do the movement through blueprint. scripting the movement will give you greater control and flexibility.
