mannequin

Mannequins that move like a character: CopycatAnimInstance is a parent for Animation Blueprints that copies a character’s movement (ground speed, direction, moving, falling), the player’s unless told which, and BP_CopycatMannequin is the Intro To Unreal template’s mannequin that walks, runs and jumps with the player. ReachingMannequin reaches for a ReachTarget placed in the level with its right hand, a two-bone IK solved in Rust.

rusteal new MyGame --template third-person --feature mannequin
rusteal plugin new Mannequin --template mannequin   # in an existing project

It becomes the Mannequin plugin, in Plugins/Mannequin/. It brings the engine’s Characters pack (Content/Characters/Mannequins) when the project lacks it; the third person and first person templates already have it.

Trying it

Place a BP_CopycatMannequin, and a ReachingMannequin with a ReachTarget as its Target (Plugins > Mannequin Content, Place Actors), then press Play.

Screenshot: the mannequin feature in play. (images/features/mannequin.png)

Its classes

The Rust classes are in Plugins/Mannequin/Rust/mannequin/src/:

Its Blueprints, ABP_Copycat and BP_CopycatMannequin, children of those classes holding the meshes, materials and widget layouts, are in the plugin’s content: in the Content Browser, click Settings and check Show Plugin Content, then open Plugins > Mannequin Content.

A mannequin that copies the player

1. Create a project with --feature mannequin, or add the plugin to an existing one.
2. In the Content Browser, right-click and choose Animation > Animation Blueprint; pick the SK_Mannequin skeleton and, as the Parent Class, CopycatAnimInstance.
3. Open it. In the My Blueprint panel, click the gear icon and check Show Inherited Variables: Ground Speed, Direction, Should Move, Is Falling, Velocity and Character appear under Copycat.
4. In its AnimGraph, blend the idle, walk and run animations by Ground Speed and Direction, and switch to a jump loop when Is Falling is set.
5. Drag SKM_Manny_Simple from Content/Characters/Mannequins/Meshes into the level.
6. In its Details panel, set Animation Mode to Use Animation Blueprint.
7. Set Anim Class to the new Animation Blueprint.
8. Press Play and walk: the mannequin walks, runs and jumps with you.

Screenshot: a copycat mannequin running beside the player in the third person level. (images/getting_started/feature_copycat.png)

The copying is plain Rust in Plugins/Mannequin/Rust/mannequin/src/copycat.rs: the speed ignores the vertical axis, the mannequin moves only when the speed is above 0.01 and the character accelerates, and the direction is kept within 45 degrees when the character turns toward its movement.

Recipes that use it: Animation.