Animation Sequence

A single recorded animation clip. Plays at a fixed rate. Looped via the state machine.

Animation Montage

A sequence-of-sequences with named sections — perfect for attack combos, dialogue cuts, etc. Triggers via PlayAnimMontage.

Timeline-driven door opening animation

Variables: StartRotation (Rotator), EndRotation (Rotator), bIsOpen (bool). Add Timeline node with a float track 'Alpha' (curve from 0.0 to 1.0, duration 1.0s). Overlap trigger → Branch(bIsOpen) → False: Timeline.Play → Update: RLerp(A=StartRotation,B=EndRotation,Alpha=Alpha) → SetActorRotation → Finished: SetVariable(bIsOpen=true). True: Timeline.Reverse → Update: same RLerp → Finished: SetVariable(bIsOpen=false). Key Timeline pins: Play exec input opens forward. Reverse plays backward. Update fires every frame. Finished fires when complete. Alpha track outputs 'Alpha' float.

PlayAnimation (widget) — play a Widget Animation

PlayAnimation on widget — play UMG widget animation

PlayMontage — play animation montage

ACharacter::PlayAnimMontage. Returns duration. Alternative: Montage_Play on AnimInstance.

State Machine

A graph of animation states connected by transitions. Each state plays a sequence/blend; transitions fire on rule conditions.

SetAnimationMode — switch between AnimBlueprint and SingleNode modes

Lerp

Linear interpolation — returns A when Alpha=0, B when Alpha=1, and a smooth blend in between. Pair with Timeline for animation.

GetAnimInstance — get the AnimInstance from a SkeletalMeshComponent

Pure node. Cast result to your ABP_Character class to access anim variables.