In this stream I retargeted rifle anims, set proper holster sockets, and built equip/unequip montages that actually play on the right arm slot. I then battled snap bugs and solved them by using a clean base pose with Mesh Space Additives plus matching curves. I drove recoil with a Timeline and a Modify Bone setup, and experimented with camera shake through the Player Camera Manager.
If youâre mixing GASP locomotion with ALS overlays and want Last of Us quality polish, this walkthrough shows the exact Blueprint nodes, animation settings, and debug steps to get there.
Most valuable lessons and insights:
– Make sure holster locations are right: preview the mesh in the anim asset, place rifle/bow/arrow props, then copy those transforms into the Blueprint.
– Make sure equip and unequip use proper Montage slots and Notifies; a wrong slot (or no notify window) = snapping and timing bugs.
– For Apply Mesh Space Additive: base pose must be a clean, non-additive animation; the up/down poses stay Mesh Space Additive and reference that base. Curves must match across all three.
– Drive recoil or shoot poses with a Timeline feeding a float into Normalized Time (or a Modify Bone alpha) so you control the kick precisely frame by frame.
– Camera shake: call it through the Player Camera Manager, tweak pitch/yaw amplitude, duration and blend in/out. Start small, test feel, then iterate.
đ Resources & links
– Download all the project files from all the livestreams:
đ Unreal Engine Version used: UE5.5
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– Discord Server: https://discord.gg/ZB7SMbbxQz
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Chapters:
00:00 Quick start: goal is finish, not fluff
01:39 Importing and retargeting rifle equip/reload/unequip anims
03:02 Placing rifle and bow on spine/arrow pocket sockets (holster setup)
06:26 Copying transforms and testing holster swaps in game
09:13 Creating rifle equip/unequip Montages (slots, rate scale, notifies)
11:06 First test: montage plays but snapping appears
12:25 Foot slide noted, polish deferred
13:22 Slot choice talk: using ALS arm right slot vs custom equip slot
16:05 Q&A: splitting upper body (weapons) and lower body (motion matching) with Layer Blend Per Bone
17:34 Overlay layers and curve-driven blends inside ALS complex graph
22:01 Unequip montage added and tested, snap persists
24:52 IK suspicion ruled out, problem is montage/slot, not IK
27:02 Building handgun aim using Apply Mesh Space Additive (base vs additive clips)
29:40 Forward base duplication, curve copying and fixing weird pelvis motion
32:12 Testing blend space approach, then reverting to simpler single poses
37:10 Cleaning curves, pelvis/head weights, finding what actually moves the spine
42:00 Rule learned: base is No Additive, additive clips are Mesh Space Additive with the base set
46:13 Swapping pistol to two-hand idle, iterating until it feels natural
57:47 Timeline setup to drive shoot blend time, plugged into AnimBP
1:00:51 Hooking timeline on shoot input, normalizing from 0 to 1 in 0.07s
1:02:29 Adjusting play rate and smoothing for snappier recoil
1:45:02 Modify Bone nodes for left and right hands to push recoil visually
1:52:50 Adding camera shake blueprint and wiring it to fire
1:56:06 Tuning amplitude, duration, and waveform (sine vs Perlin)
2:02:08 Comparing to The Last of Us feel; deciding next tweaks
2:08:52 Wrap up and next stream plan
Voir sur youtube
