The primary way to create a Skeleton asset occurs during the importing of a Skeletal Mesh. If you are new to animation in UE4, to obtain a greater understanding of Skeleton assets, it is recommended you check out the Working with Skeletons tutorial series: Storing Animation Curves (which can be used to drive Material Parameters or Morph Targets) and Slot Names (which can be used to play Anim Montages for a Character). Storing Anim Notifies - which allow you to add effects to animations like footstep sounds, particle systems or even custom events that may trigger other code.

In addition to driving animation, the Skeleton asset is responsible for:Īnimation Retargeting - which allows the adjustment of animations for characters with different proportions.Ĭreating and saving Sockets - which allows you to attach things to your characters.

The sharing of a Skeleton asset between Skeletal Meshes provides a way for you to share animations between characters or even entire Animation Blueprints used to define animation logic for a character.

The primary focus of the Skeleton asset is to handle animation data, not the Skeletal Mesh.Īnother important facet of the Skeleton asset is that if your Skeletal Meshes share the same Skeleton asset (pending some basic rules are met), you can share animation data even if the hierarchy does not exactly match.

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