🔶Animation Blueprint
In this section you will find out how to set up the animation blueprint
Step 1 - Add Virtual Bones
To get the system working, you need to set up the IK system. The idea is simple - hands IK targes are parented to the WeaponPivot bone, which is modified by the recoil. As a result, arms will be animated.
The bone hierarchy is the following:
VB WeaponPivot -> targets head bone
VB hand_r -> targets right hand
VB hand_l -> targets left hand
Tip: make sure that the head/neck bone is not scaled! This might happen when you "hide" the head mesh by using the SkeletalMeshComponent function HideBoneByName - it will reduce the scale of the bone, which will lead to incorrect results!
Solution A: parent the VB WeaponPivot and its children to the root bone.
Solution B: if you need to hide the head bone, try using an invisible material for it.
Step 2 - Retarget Bones
Add these nodes at the end of your animation blueprint:
Node settings:
For VB WeaponPivot select the hand_r as a Source bone, we will fix it later so it's aligned with the weapon's physical pivot.
Step 3 - Add Recoil Node
Now you need to add the RecoilAnimation node after the retargeting nodes:
Node settings:
Bone to Modify - bone to be modified by recoil.
Axes Order - defines how recoil axes will be applied. By default, the recoil uses XYZ order.
Translation/Rotation Scale - multipliers for each rotation/translation axis.
Translation/Rotation Space - similar to Transform Modify Bone.
Translation/Rotation - recoil values. Only used when Use Auto Update is false.
Select the VB WeaponPivot, Component Space, and YXZ order.
Step 4 - Add IK Nodes
For IK you can use FABRIK or Two Bone IK nodes - there's no a big difference. Let's use Two Bone IK in this example:
Select hand_r as an IKBone, and VB hand_r as an Effector Target:
At this point the animation setup is complete - now it's time to find out more about curves and how recoil works.
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