Main Character - Terra
I chose my main character from a pack that I have downloaded from the marketplace. This character is called Terra is from the Paragon pack.
I imported the character into the my UE4 project. As it is part of a pack, it came with its own set of animations that I could choose from, as well as various other things that I could add, such as FX and audio. Once imported, I went to the maps and modes in the settings to change the default pawn class to Terra.
Re-targeting Animations
I downloaded some animations from the marketplace. I have downloaded a couple of different packs - Frank Fighting Set 2 and Frank RPG Sword and imported them into my project. I chose some of the animations from these packs that I would like to have on my character and re-targeted them.
Combo Montage
To give Terra attacks, I chose 3 animations that I wanted to be her 3 main attacks. I added blueprints so that when the player presses the left mouse button, the character will attack. Then I also added 2 more attacks, that would work as a combo - so if the primary attack had been done and the left mouse clicked again, it would activate the second attack, and again for the third attack.
I then created animation montages for the animations that I wanted to use for these attacks. Once in the animation montage, I had to make sure the slot node was attached to the right part of the skeleton for it to work. It took a bit of trial and error to work out which option worked with this character, as the normal .body option didn't work for this character. 'Upper Body' is the slot that works for this character with the animations I chose.
I added a 'combostart' animation notify on both the first and second attacks, just as the attack action hits, and added a 'reset' animation notify at the end of each of the animation montages. This will start the combo, and continue the chain of attacks if the player clicks within the right time frame for a combo, and reset the combo to the beginning if they do not.
I then added the correct animation montages to the blueprints for each attack.
I tested this and the combo moves work correctly.
Special Attacks
After getting the combo attacks working, I started working on special attacks. I looked through the animations for Terra, and looked for something that would stand out as not just another normal attack. I found 3 animations I want to use. One of her sharpening her axe on her shield, one of her laughing and one of her thrusting her axe into the air. I created animation montages for each of these animations, inserting an especial animation notify.
In the character blueprint, I added code so that after each combo attack, if the player clicked the right mouse button, it would activate a special attack.
HUD
I have set up a HUD for Terra, that shows her Health, Energy and Rage. I created a new HUD class, and added these in as progress bars. I set them as different colours so they could be easily recognisable to the player which bar they were looking at, and I used colours that fit with what the bar represents - green for health, blue for energy and red for rage.
Then I set up the blueprints for each of them. I had a bit of trouble doing this as to start with, they didn't seem to be appearing when tested it. As well as adding the blueprints for Health, Energy and Rage, I added blueprints for damage.
I couldn't really test how the bars on the HUD until I had the NPC working that the player could attack and be damaged by, so I tested this once I had set up the NPC.
After moving some things about and making sure that the code was correct - I managed to get the health and energy bars working.
However, the rage bar still doesn't seem to work correctly.
I have also set up energy regeneration for Terra, so that as time goes on Terra will slowly regenerate health that has been lost as long as she is not still being attacked. Once I had the NPC set up, I tested this and it works.
Camera Shake
A visual effect I have added is camera shake - so the camera appears to shake when my character attacks. I added the blueprints for this and created a new blueprint class called Camera Shake. In the blueprint class, I changed how the camera shake would effect the yaw, pitch and roll until I was happy with the result. I then added the new blueprint class to the character blueprint.
To add this to the attacks, I went into the attack animation montages and added 'camerashake' animation notifiers at a pivotal moment in the movement. My favourite animation to add this to was the laugh emote special attack, as she stomps her feet and I added 3 camera shakes - one each time she stomps her feet. I think the final result looks good.
FOV Change
I tried to add a field of focus change, however, when I test this I can't notice anything happening even though the events seem to be firing, I may have made the effect too subtle.
Launch
I have made it so that Terra launches as she attacks - so during her special attacks she will launch forward or sideways. To do this, I first added code to the blueprints to make her launch - and choosing how far and high she would move. Then I went into the animation montages for the attacks that I wanted to add the launch to and added animation notifiers. I tried to time this with her feet and leg movements during the animations.
Ultimate Attacks
I have given her an ultimate spin attack. I went into her mesh and added collision capsules for her axe and shield. I then added the blueprints and animations for the move.