Explanation of Additive Animations in UE4/5 animation blueprint

Additive Animation refers to using the current animation as the Delta amount obtained after subtracting the reference position from the Additive animation , and then applying the Delta amount to any animation output through the Apply Additive node, so as to achieve the effect of animation superposition.

The Additive Animation case of the official case is located in the "Content Example/Animation_Basics" scene:

Although Additive Animation is not very intuitive, this feature can quickly see the fine-tuning effect and save time.

1. Convert animation sequence to Additive animation

In the settings of **Animation Sequence (animation sequence)**, find Additive Settings, and configure accordingly to convert the animation to Additive animation: the

converted Animation Sequence will change in color in the animation blueprint accordingly:

1.1 Parameter description

Additive animations have some parameters:

• Additive Anim Type animation type, Local Space/Mesh Space nuances
• Base Pose Type is used to subtract the reference Pose type
  • Skeleton Reference Pose uses the reference position of the current skeleton as the base position
  • Selected Animation Scaled: An animation sequence will be used as a reference position
  • Selected Animation Frame: Select a frame of an animation sequence as the reference pose
  • Frame from this Animation: will use a frame of its own animation sequence as a reference pose

2. Application

Taking the Additive Animation case as an example, the animation blueprint node Apply Additive of the Additive sequence is finally applied as follows:

The following animation sequence MM_HitReact_Front_Med_01_Additive is a hit animation:

Additive reference Pose needs to be configured, which is a standby animation holding a gun. After the two animations are subtracted, only the part where the end gun is hit remains. Finally, it can be mixed with the external animation to present the animation effect of the end gun being shot in any state:

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Official documentation page: https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.2/en-US/animation-sequence-editor-in-unreal-engine/