How To Use Upper Body Montages - Unreal Engine 4 Tutorial

Hey guys, in today's video, I'm going to be showing you how to use upper body montages in your game, as well as being able to blend between both upper and full body so that you can utilise both.
Punching And Fighting Tutorial: • Punching With Random A...
#Ue4 #UnrealEngine4 #Ue4Tutorial
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00:00 - Intro
00:05 - Overview
00:51 - Playing An Upper Body Montage
05:33 - Blending Between Upper And Full Body Montages
08:48 - Final Overview
08:59 - Outro
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[@JozhRandom]

Thank you, you were one of the only ones to show how to actually disable using the blendspace (by using the blend poses by bool after doing the layered blend per bone). As a heads up to anyone where this kinda disables certain animations or doesnt seem to be working properly when you turn the bool on + off, try setting the True and False blend time to zero, fixed a lot of issues for me.

[@stevenwynn819]

Matt, I love this one. I had no idea how to do this, and now I'm imagining all sorts of ways it could be useful.

[@MattAspland]

Thanks so much Steve, I love this method! It can be utilised in great ways! :)

[@dawne2780]

That blend poses by bool node just got you a subscriber. I have been searching for an hour for that. Thank you!

[@anthonymorfaders5817]

even after 2 year, still really usefull , Ty Matt :)

[@candymangames5022]

Def needed this for my reloading / or weapon swapping animations while walking. You the best Matt!

[@wishyourlife6861]

I've been looking for exactly this tutorial for ages! Thank you.

[@keremius5201]

this channel the best channel for Unreal Engine 4 Tutorial in the world ,thanks!

[@iiior605]

Agree😁

[@MattAspland]

Thank you so so so much man! That means a lot to me :)

[@fleurbird]

#facts

[@RGameArts]

And what more beauty is, tutorials are all straight to the point with no story telling 😁 Thanks so much for making step by step easy tutorials

[@MattAspland]

@@RGameArts Thanks a lot bro, I really appreciate that! So happy I could help out :)

[@Developesque]

You did a great job with this video. I have setup two montages with it playing in the back (Layered Bone node was where I was missing a step). Thanks for the effort!

[@svenrawandreloaded]

great tutorial, first tutorial ive tried all week that immediately worked, and i only had to watch 5 minutes of it. good stuff.

[@Hato1992]

Great tutorial. I forgot how to do it, so had to rewatch some tutorial. Quick, clear and without wasting time, how every tutorial should be.

[@vivegamespk]

same here

[@CryptMhg]

i was having a headache trying to figure this out and u just posted this video when i needed.... man i love ur channel

[@MattAspland]

That's great to hear man, happy I could help out :)

[@officialauspecs1285]

Have searched high and low for an easy way to do this. Thankyou very much

[@tampajoeyz230]

Excellent tutorial and the very best I've seen on the subject. Thank You.

[@CloudStrife4]

Straight to the point! Cheers mate!

[@codepeas]

This is just quick to the point and perfect!

[@gfxfilms2012]

Got it after a few tries ! Very helpful and informative tutorial! Thanks

[@gabeaskew8092]

Quick and easy. Thank you! Audio sounded good to me. :)

[@DrNo_]

Easy to follow, pretty good job dude! Thanks

[@raisgamesnz325]

AMAZING VIDEO! Thank you so much.

[@boundlessunrealengine9467]

The best tutor! Really, thank you!

[@nikacola7319]

This is a fantastic tutorial, thank you so much for doing it!

[@g-dojjo]

Bro saved me again :D :D!!!!! Thanks for tutorial ^^ my old system cant work for 4.25 but with your tutorial everything working like a charm!

[@TheBruvioli]

this channel is amazing for unreal engine tutorials this really help me a lot :)

[@MattAspland]

Thank you so much Joshua! That means a lot to me, happy to help :)

[@phbakoor4363]

You are life saverrrrrrr Really thanks man

[@j_productive]

Thanks! This was very useful.

[@grothjacky]

Woah, that is awesome. Wow. Thank you so much!

[@TheOldManOmar]

Thanks man for this tutorial ❤❤

[@voxelheart]

Just found your channel and your videos have been very helpful for me and my game project. Thank you so much.

[@IsaacCode95]

works for me ! if someone is having problems with adding this to a rootmotion based locomotion, i advise to click on layered blend per bone, than untick blend rootmotion based on root bone. the result is more smooth with no lags.

[@eckl411]

Super helpful thanks a lot

[@caylemdriessen2093]

God damn it I love everything you do

[@chapter-comics]

Thanks!! super!!

[@pinoupinou4415]

Thank you very much :)

[@SuperVillianStudios]

Hey Matt, absolutely love your content super helpful for all us indies, quick question. How would I setup the layered blend per bone for lower body animations like sliding?

[@gamerdweebentertainment1616]

perfection timing :)

[@MattAspland]

That's great to hear! Happy to help :)

[@TheTruthIsGonnaHurt]

hilarous, I was just wondering how to do this, and was watching your previous punching animation video RIGHT NOW, and then i got sent to this video, I check the date. I was like , oh shit! haha

[@MattAspland]

Haha great timing on that then lol. Glad you can merge the two together now

[@KaustavMajumder]

Never really liked Montages, because I felt they were kind of a hacky or cheat approach as opposed to a more defined approach using state machines. However there could be very amazing use cases of Montages. Matt, if you're reading this, I'd like to hear take on using Montages vs. using states in State Machines.

[@anasdev1553]

wow, this is opened a lot of doors to me, il be sure to use it very well

[@masterfar35]

Thanks!

[@qki9332]

Thank you sir!

[@bruceslasher6374]

Thanks so much

[@sidewaysestranged3771]

MY HERO!

[@justpixel5717]

TYSM

[@exchd]

thanks man

[@jutuberzklockowlego1118]

Thanks.

[@TheRobJarvis]

ty so much

[@YouWillDoAsYouAreTold]

wow thank you so much

[@nagybalint1474]

thanks so much

[@peterhall4216]

Great tutorial as always! How would I incorporate this into my state machine? Not sure the reasoning behind triggering animation montages from the character blueprint (I'm guessing its because its not a state but a one time action like punching). Say I wanted to have a character do crouching and jumping states but with either holding a rifle or unarmed (different upper bodies), how would this be achieved?

[@lukesfilmltd]

great video! though I've got an interesting one for you... how on earth do you do this with the characters face too? I havent seen any videos for face animation blueprints that work in conjunction with the main character animations ( for EG I want to have idle, running and general character speaking face animation AND body animation at the same time whilst running around in the game) please help!!

[@arielgimenez_95]

thanks

[@tatatmeme]

thank you so c:

[@FF-FAN9999]

hey @MattAspland , im still confused about why do we need the slots? I have used layered blend per bone without using slots...and seems like the end result is the same? Im not sure whats the use of the slots. would love if someone could explain to me :)

[@Soyo456schannel]

Thank youu so much

[@MattAspland]

Always happy to help! :)

[@abdullahsohail5395]

Perfect 😃

[@MattAspland]

Thanks so much!

[@Olaxan4]

It is possible to play multiple montages simultaneously as long as they belong to different montage *groups*, not slots. I play full body montages in the DefaultGroup and created a new one (AdditiveGroup) for the upper arm slot. Setup is much the same. Think I wired the DefaultGroup before the cache in the ABP.

[@sarmy3d]

When you have multiple upper body animations, can you use the same UpperBody slot for all the animations used? As in, you make a montage for each upper body anim, and then use the same slot when creating the poses? Or perhaps you'd have to put all the animations that would use that slot into on giant montage?

[@Code4You1]

Gold

[@Si-Toecutter]

Frikin hero!

[@josedejesusmartinezavalos1403]

the video is very good

[@MattAspland]

Thank you so much José :)

[@theonlyjoe_]

I followed this video and literally the very last step failed me. For some reason I can't reference my UpperBody variable from my character cast, it only has the output node, and my BP's are nigh on identical.

[@Kyle-ho4lj]

hey you ever figure this out? I ran into the same problem

[@infinitious3609]

very good... continue...

[@MattAspland]

Thanks so much man :)

[@infinitious3609]

@@MattAspland I'll start my game project next week - If I need anything I will ask you

[@MattAspland]

@@infinitious3609 Great, good luck with it!! :)

[@gamermanmitchell]

is there a way I can add 2 animations? I have one for holding a gun, and another for aiming with one.

[@tajaloe5920]

Hey Matt, idk if you read these anymore or if anyone else knows the answer here, but if I wanted the blend to be true on walking, as in only use the blended anim while I am using my directional walkspace, how would I go about that?

[@astralstormgamestudios1259]

Hi! So I have a hatchet swing animation and Im also using true fps with spinal bend to look around.. the thing is that even if I have set it up like yours , when I look down and swing the whole body looks straight, because I guess thats in the swing animation.. I only want it to affect the arm, how do I achieve that?

[@RealParadoxed]

Hey i'm trying to do this with an IK rig but it doesn't work as the layered blend per bone only effects one bone and not the bones which are it's a parents.

[@umtoztrk8833]

you are uploading so much videos ,i cant catch up :D

[@MattAspland]

Haha, you'll have a backlog to fall back on lol :D

[@wildrelicproductions4879]

what if we want to use first person animations and use them with third person animations for multiplayer how would we do that?

[@xmlstudios]

would this work for vr body hands or is a blendspace a better option

[@mattmurphy7030]

I bought an animation pack that defines some slots, but those slots aren't available in the animation blueprint. If I change them in the montage to the default slot then it T-poses. What am I missing?

[@indi353]

Is there a way to use only upper body with out using anim montage ?

[@lukaskratky8408]

Hello there. how to add to slot Attack animation array montage from character BP ?? i want to have random animations in slot ?? any idea?

[@graysondyerads]

how do we do this if we are using the same inputs for both animations via a branch and condition "upperbody"

[@loafro7182]

The blending works great, unfortunately i've ran into an issue where the delay in the thirdpersonBP resets my animation if I do two in a row plz halp :

[@TornadoTwins]

Another excellent tutorial on just the topic I needed! Quick question, Matt. I have a character that can hold a torch in dark areas. It needs to work with all animations, since in a cave he should still be able to climb/vault/etc. I've setup a montage blend of using one arm only (holding the torch up). This works fine with any blendspace (walking, crawling, etc). However, when full body montages are called (like vaulting over something), they still won't blend - even when using layered bland per bone. Do you have any advice?

[@MattAspland]

Hey mate, cheers! I believe if they are in different groups, i.e. full body and upper body, it should be working just fine. So it sounds like you might have the logic down correctly for playing them both at the same time, it just maybe isn't blending properly so that they are both visual. However, possibly the full body montage will is overriding the other group you have? Below I'll link some useful threads which may explain better then I can do in this comment section. But like I say, I think the base code is correct, it may just be some incorrect values for visually blending between the two. Sorry if this wasn't that helpful forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/animation/1440576-playing-two-montages-simultaneously answers.unrealengine.com/questions/978928/fullbody-and-upperbody-in-one-montage.html

[@TornadoTwins]

@@MattAspland Cheers! Thanks for looking all that up Matt. I've looked over all the logic and couldn't find any issues. However, the "interrupt" node on the torch-montage node fires when I vault/climb/etc. So I'll look into that next. There still shouldn't be any reason why the blend gets interrupted, but I'll figure it out. Again thx!

[@TornadoTwins]

​@@MattAspland I think I figured out the problem. The torch was equipped when my character enters a trigger (OnActorBeginOverlap). However, when a full-body montage is played, the OnActorEndOverlap is called, even though the actor is still inside the bounds. Then, after the montage is done playing, the torch equips again because OnActorBeginOverlap is triggered again. I have no idea why this is happening and have never seen this before. But it's happening. So you were complete right about some code triggering. Now to figure out a solution...

[@MattAspland]

@@TornadoTwins Ah great, nice one. Well you got one of the harder parts out of the way. Figuring out the problem and what is causing it, but yeah, now the other tricky half. Fixing it. You could possibly call that montage to play again when ending the overlap if a Boolean is true, this Boolean will be set to true if you do still want that montage playing. So it could maybe be "IsTorchEquipped", and obviously set it to true or false depending on if the torch is equipped or not.

[@TornadoTwins]

@@MattAspland Yes. I feel kinda silly because the problem was pretty obvious: when vaulting/climbing, collision is temporarily turned off which obviously triggers the OnActorEndOverlap event. However, it's temporary. So I added a simple bool prior to turning collision off that tells the trigger it's not supposed to do anything yet. Problem solved. Sorry to bother you with this one and thanks for looking into it along the way. Sometimes complex things are simple and simple things are complex. This turned out simple but was digging in the wrong spot. The blending indeed works fine!

[@Don19324]

Going to read through the comments to see if I can find a solution, but I am using upper body anim montage for aim and reload. the problem I seem to be having is when the montage plays, my weapon/ite m is staying at the position that the original "default pose" would still be in... so not moving with the aim animation. any quick help?

[@milan.980]

Matt, I wanted this video last month, I think I should update COLDHEART XD

[@MattAspland]

Ha sorry for the lateness then lol, and update would be great!

[@sirtalltell]

So idk if anyone else is having this problem, but I followed the video to the letter and I have built a character only from matts videos. When I left click it doesn’t do the animation montage. Please help if anyone might know why.

[@AaaZjxjhxx]

i finished the first part of the tutorial but when i click on the ladder BP the whole engine freeze i tryed to migrit the bp to a another project maybe it would work but it didnt still freezing anyone can help

[@sebixgame7932]

I don't know if I'm going to get any answers despite the years this video has been published but I'm going to try the same... Basically, my character can only edit anims when he is in "upper", but when I want him to be in "default" the animation totally doesn't work! Can I get some help please!!

[@HariHaran-kc1ju]

but what about the kick attack ,how to do that plssssss tell me

[@thegamesmaster_]

Thank you for helping, can you make a video how I can transfer into the levels. I mean, how I can go to other level while playing with character.

[@MattAspland]

Hi, to move levels you can use the "Open Level" node, and write inside of that the EXACT name of your level. That or use "Open Level By Object Reference". Hope this helps :)

[@thegamesmaster_]

@@MattAspland I don't see those things, can you pls make a short video how I can do that? :)

[@MattAspland]

@@thegamesmaster_ It should be in your level blueprint? But I can add it to my list :)

[@sajidurrahman8018]

Have you experimented with procedural animation its pretty interesting

[@MattAspland]

I haven't myself no, although I've looked into it quite a bit. It looks great and definitely something to try and utilise!

[@ak-gi3eu]

hey matt,can you tell how to do multiple punch animation randomly?

[@MattAspland]

Hey mate, I actually have a video on this already, let me know if it helps you out :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5vbdp-MdpyaacU

[@realNoobDog]

Realy Nice Video, can you make a Tutorial how to make that if the Character jumps From a House or somethink that He make a Flip and If the House is Not so high that He makes the Flip more fast

[@MattAspland]

Thanks man, and I can look into that one yeah :)

[@tfivegames]

Doesn't work in UE5. Following the direcftions perfectly but doing this to ABP_Manny does nothing. I tried reassigning locomotion, state machine, everything. Updated tutorial needed

[@TheVoidcomp]

It worked fine for me in ue5

[@Sector333]

Ooo very useful. I wanna make a survival RPG and these should come in handy eventually. I suck tho so i dunno if or when I'll get to the point of implementing something like this. still tryna get my character to equip a damn gun, i hate animating, found my bane already after like 2-3 months of learning game development 😭😂

[@MattAspland]

Oh nice one, good luck with your game! And haha don't worry, animating is the part I hate the most too lol. It just takes practise to get better at it, and you will get there. You got this man! Best of luck :)

[@Sector333]

@@MattAspland thanks man best of luck to you and all your prohects too. Thank you for all your help and all you teach us.

[@MattAspland]

@@Sector333 Thanks a lot man, that means a lot to me. It's my pleasure to teach and help out :)

[@Desh681]

What bone name do i use if i want the montage to play everything below the neck?

[@Desh681]

Edit: Got it, I used the neck bone and reversed the base pose/base pose 0 plugs

[@snowupom]

Is it possible to let the montage only play when the character runs, and the fullbody animation when it stands? But that the fullbody animation cant play when it runs?

[@TrojanLube69]

Yes, just build the logic how you want it. All you need to do is set the boolean to true when character speed is greater than 0.1 and not falling. Or not when whatever else you have happening in idle(crouch, prone, aiming, correct weapon selected, etc).

[@MattAspland]

Yep, GaminginSlowMotion is absolutely correct, set the Boolean we made in this video to be true if you have a speed above 0, i.e. if you are moving. Thanks Gaming :)

[@snowupom]

@@TrojanLube69 thanks a lot!

[@pufisd]

first

[@artur_schutz]

I understand the concept but I don't get how this example works. Somewhere two animations have to be blended. The punch and the lower body walking animation. I don't understand where the two animations are blended together. Everywhere only "Movement Cache" is used and "Movement Cache" is blended with "Movement Cache". How does that work? I am really confused.

[@not_vdb0059]

Can you please explain how to make a skin locker

[@MattAspland]

Hi, I can add it to my list :)

[@Prydario]

i dont know what i do wrong i have it set up it was working then i have do a mistacke and now its dont work anymore it is realle 1to1 like u have made and i watching this video 21 times to look what i have do false pls can u help me?

[@svenrawandreloaded]

any way to reverse this, and use it for the legs, ie in a jump montage?

[@svenrawandreloaded]

actually a very easy fix for this, just reverse the base pose/base pose 0 plugs

[@Desh681]

@@svenrawandreloaded Excellent man, thanks! Extra thanks for coming back and saying how you fixed it

[@GBTC2011]

The upper body option doesn't exist as a default group. Choices are Full Body, Additive LandSlot and Turn in Place Slot

[@Zolkora]

You have to make it.

[@warfighter4129]

I`ve watched this tutorial twice and I still cannot understand how to reference the "Upper Body?" Variable in separate blueprints. I have made both in their respective places and followed exactly as you did in the video, but I cannot get the Animgraph to switch between the default body and upper body. Is there some way to make that variable global? If someone has a solution that would be greatly appreciated.

[@sergey4ever]

Don't you have a solution now?

[@warfighter4129]

@@sergey4ever you have to make sure that the ABP is grabbing the Upper Body Variable from the character BP. That was my issue, after staring at it long enough i figured it out. Lol

[@emincetin951]

Did not work on mine

[@DignitGR]

[@planet_asylum9059]

This doesn't work for me for some reason.. Whenever I plugg in an anime montage it wont work. If i plug in just an animation it does work...

[@TheOfficialAgNO3]

Same here

[@TrojanLube69]

I saw 99 likes and I said “ let me be the hundred.”

[@MattAspland]

Ha thank you so much, I'm honoured for you to be the 100th :)