Chapter 9. The Unreal Animation System

When you see a character run across a playing field in a game, you are looking at a polygonal mesh that is changing shape as the character runs. This deformation allows the mesh to move as if it were a human being—or any other kind of character. This is also true of vehicles that have moving parts such as flight control surfaces, turning wheels, suspension, and so on. The animation system within Unreal is responsible for handling this deformation and turning otherwise static models into living and moving elements in your game or project (see FIGURE 9.1).