Animating a chest in UE4

BrandonBerryCG

So I'm pretty new on the workflow on animating props in Unreal. I've tasked myself with creating a functioning chest opening animation in game to learn and understand blueprints better. 

I thought I would just animate the mesh and bake it out in Maya and then import that into unreal. But after reading up on some older threads here it seems that a better alternative would be to rig the chest with a few bones and animate it opening inside UE4. Stating that it would be easier on the engine and more predictable in calculations. 

I was hoping to get some insight from others to what the best approach would be and maybe learn a few things about efficiency in Unreal. I thought the fewer bones you have in a scene, the better. And if things are baked out, its a lot lighter on resource demand. I could be absolutely wrong on all points as I've only dabbled with character animation blending in unreal and Its kind of new territory for me. 

I would be extremely grateful if some of you could give me some insight or direct me towards some solid information or tutorials on the subject. 

musashidan

For a very simple animation like this you can just do it in a blueprint. It cuts out the extra time/resources of using a skeletal rig.

https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Blueprint_Automated_Door_Tutorial

BrandonBerryCG

I kind of want to avoid rezzing a old thread but thanks for the help, musashidan! The tutorial was pretty informative, even if I did end up rigging the chest with a couple bones to allow for more interesting animation. I think I just need to start more projects dealing with unreal so I can just get more exposure with how everything works. I'm guessing the best way to understand how to remain efficient in Unreal will just come down to me experimenting in unreal and lots of duplicating rigs. Though if you know any general rules of thumb or resources on how to stay optimized, I'm all ears (or eyes).