Kismet: Animating with Matinee

This is a general way of animating using Matinee. Some functions like movable platforms, have shortcuts to get it working so this chapter can be skipped altogether. The reason for this chapter is because we may have specific needs to do certain animations, and thus knowing the steps to get things animated is important. Many things can be animated: Movement, Rotation, Colour, Intensity, Effects and even Sound.

Select a Static Mesh, right click on the floor and either add InterpActor or Mover (as I understand it, they can be used interchangeably).


With the InterpActor/Mover still selected, open up Kismet and create a new Matinee.


Double click on Matinee to get into keyframing mode for Matinee.


In the dark grey area, right click and "Add New Empty Group". Give it a name like Test Anim.


Select the Test_Anim track and right click on it. A wide variety of animation choices becomes availalbe. If we want to animate movement, then select "Add New Movement Track".


You should end up with this:


With the InterpActor at starting point (red arrow), click on the "Add Key" button (circled red) and it should add a keyframe at time zero (pointed by red arrow). Scrub the black bar to the next keyframe area (yellow arrow) and click on "Add Key" again. Move the InterpActor to it next destination.


Done! With this basic knowledge, you should be able to animate in Matinee with some logical thinking in place.