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Vertex Animation Studio for UE5

Convert skeletal mesh characters into high-performance vertex animations for rendering crowds and multiple animated characters. Vertex Animation Studio preserves animation quality while reducing CPU overhead and enabling efficient GPU-based rendering through mesh instancing.

Important: This plugin requires Unreal Engine 5.4 or above.

Crowd Cheering

Core Features

Main Components

  1. Vertex Anim Mesh Component: For single-character implementations requiring individual control
  2. Vertex Anim Instanced Mesh Component: For efficient rendering of multiple characters
  3. Animation System: Manages animation playback through Single and AnimList modes
  4. VA Asset Collection: Manages and stores all data required for vertex animations. It serves as a container holding meshes, animations, and associated data
  5. Crowd Tools Editor Mode: For visual management and configuration of character groups

Vertex Animations

  • Animation Types:
    • Bone Animations: Enables sharing between meshes, ideal for memory-flexible projects
    • Vertex Animations: Reduces material costs, requires more texture memory, unique per mesh
  • Blueprint Integration: Program animation behavior using Blueprint-based control systems
  • Sequencer Integration: Use vertex animations in cinematic sequences and cutscenes

Workflow Integration

  • Convert skeletal meshes with right-click menu
  • Automatic material fixes during conversion
  • Editor tools for placing and managing crowds
  • Timeline control through Sequencer

Use Cases

Crowd Cheering

The plugin is most effective for:

  • Dense urban environments with background NPCs
  • Large-scale battle sequences
  • Games requiring numerous background characters
  • Performance-critical scenes with multiple animations

Technical Overview

Performance

  • Eliminates per-frame skeletal computation overhead
  • Uses GPU-efficient instanced rendering
  • Optimizes memory usage through shared resources
  • Scales effectively with large numbers of characters

Development

  • Compatible with UE 5.4 and above
  • Flexible animation management
  • Integrated editor tools

Crowd Cheering

To Get Started

  • Follow the Getting Started guide to begin implementing the Vertex Animation Studio in your project
  • Explore the Troubleshooting page if you encounter any issues