Transformation Animation - Unreal Engine

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Transformation Animation - Unreal Engine




For the Unreal Engine part of the transformation, I ended up using Sequencer to handle everything, as it could be used for the camera, animation and modifying parameter values, all within one track editor, which proved to be really useful.

The trickiest part of the transformation was figuring out how to blend between two materials, especially the skin shader as it was complex. For this, I ended up creating two different material functions for the skin shader, one for Jekyll and one for Hyde, then blending them in a material and instancing it, so that I could tweak the skin for both characters, whilst being able to blend between them. 

For the blending, I came across a feature called Material Parameter Collections (MPCs), which are basically global scalar or vector parameters that can be used in various ways and accessed through the Sequencer track editor. The great thing about Material Parameter Collections is that the same parameter can be used for multiple things at the same time, for example, it could be hooked up to make the eyes dilate, change the contrast, and increase the roughness, all at the same time using the same scalar parameter. 
I utilised these a lot for the blending of materials, either directly in the material I wanted to affect, just swapping out the current scalar or vector parameter with the MPC, or using it to drive the blend of two materials by plugging it into the Alpha of a Material Layer Blend node.

After setting these MPCs up in my materials, it was just a case of keying them in the Sequencer track editor in time with my animation. Again, I made sure to give the MPC parameters appropriate names so that it was clear to see which values I was editing in Sequencer.

Material Parameter Collection exposed parameters:




An example of how I used MPCs to drive the material blend:





The Sequencer track editor with keyed values for the MPCs I created:
The MPCs are added to Sequencer by going to Track (green button in top left of Sequencer) > Material Parameter Collection Track.

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