PlayAnimation (widget) — play a Widget Animation

Animation Blueprint

An AnimBP — drives Skeletal Mesh animation via a state machine + transition rules. Set AnimClass on the Skeletal Mesh Component.

PlayAnimation on widget — play UMG widget animation

Play animation montage on character with callback when finished

Pattern: EventBeginPlay or custom event → GetMesh → PlayMontage(MontageToPlay=AM_Attack, Rate=1.0) → Bind to OnMontageEnded delegate on AnimInstance for completion callback. Simpler approach: use Delay(Duration=MontageLength) after PlayMontage as rough callback. Key: PlayMontage is called on SkeletalMeshComponent (GetMesh()). Inputs: 'InSkeletalMeshComponent' and 'MontageToPlay'. Returns montage length as ReturnValue.

Timeline — animate values over time with a curve

Timeline is a special node — NOT a function call. Create by right-click → Add Timeline. Add float/vector/color tracks in the editor. Exec inputs: 'Play', 'PlayFromStart', 'Stop', 'Reverse', 'ReverseFromEnd', 'Set New Time'. Exec outputs: 'Update' (fires every frame while playing) and 'Finished'. Data output per track is named after the track. 'Direction' is ETimelineDirection enum.

GetAnimInstance — get the anim instance from skeletal mesh

USkeletalMeshComponent method. Cast to your AnimBP class.

PlayMontage — play animation montage

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

GetAnimInstance — get the AnimInstance from a SkeletalMeshComponent

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

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.

StopAnimMontage — stop playing animation montage