Can I animate custom actions in UE4 using Def Mannequin

So considering I don’t have money to ask people to set up a 3D Skin, and then Rig it to a skeleton for me, I thought lets just use the UE4 default mannequin. As I am thinking a little more before I commit to a single action I was wondering if I could animate specific actions within UE4, or would I have to take the Skeleton and Skin out of UE4 into blender for example and then have to animate there?

Yes, you can animate specific actions in-engine in UE4 using animation layers on an animation asset. Here is a video of doing just that. You may want to duplicate an existing asset to start with and then delete its frames by right clicking in the animation timeline and removing them, then adding in some new blank frames after that (as shown in step 6 of this doc).

My personal opinion is that using these tools in engine is bit fiddly and you would probably have a smoother time in full-blown DCC like Blender.

Another option is using a plugin like AllRight Rig in-engine. Though, I haven’t used it myself so can’t comment about using it in practice.

A final and more experimental option would be to use the improved control rig feature announced in 4.22 and use that in combination with sequencer to make some animations. I can’t comment how smooth a workflow that is though. Nor, the amount of effort required to setup a control rig like the one linked at that video time-stamp.

Thank you so much, This is exactly the information I was looking for!

Happy to help :slight_smile: