OVERVIEW VIDEO | DOCUMENTATION

Stepped Animation applies a classic stop-motion visual effect to any skeletal mesh by throttling animation update rate and disabling frame interpolation - Optimizing the output, instead of alternate methods like adding 'pose snapshots' overhead.

Drop the component onto any actor, tag your skeletal meshes, and instantly get stepped, choppy, quantized animation reminiscent of stop-motion films. Fully controllable from Blueprints at runtime.

Inspired by Retro style games like Megabonk Motorslice Valheim and Playstation PSX Era

CORE FEATURES

• Automatic detection of tagged skeletal mesh components on the owning actor

• Configurable stop-motion FPS (1–60) for precise choppiness control

• Configurable Noise for randomized choppiness

• Toggle frame interpolation on/off for classic stop-motion vs. smoothed stepping

• Start/Stop the effect at runtime from Blueprints

• Add/Remove individual skeletal meshes dynamically

• Delegates for state changes, mesh added, and mesh removed events

• Exposed Bp Library and Bindable Delegate Events for add/remove/start/stop

How To

1. Drop the StopMotionAnimation component onto your actor

2. Add the "StopMotion" component tag to your Skeletal Mesh components

3. Play!

CONFIGURABLE PARAMETERS

• Skeletal Mesh Tag: Which component tag to scan for (default: "StopMotion")

• Stop Motion FPS: Target framerate for the stepped effect (default: 8.0)

• Interpolate Skipped Frames: Whether skipped frames blend or snap (default: false)

• Noise Rates for extra Choppy controls

BLUEPRINT API

• SetStopMotionFPS - Change the effect framerate at runtime

• SetInterpolateSkippedFrames - Toggle interpolation on/off

• StartStopMotion / StopStopMotion - Enable/disable the effect

• AddStopMotionSkeleton / RemoveStopMotionSkeleton — Manually manage affected meshes

• RefreshStopMotionSkeletonList - Re-scan the actor for tagged meshes

• GetStopMotionSkeletonList - Retrieve all currently affected meshes

• SetFrameRateNoise - Vector2D interval and range for chaos

DELEGATES

• OnStopMotionChanged(Component, AffectedMeshes) - Fires on start, stop, FPS change, or interpolation change

• OnStopMotionMeshAdded(Component, Mesh) - Fires when a mesh is added to the list

• OnStopMotionMeshRemoved(Component, Mesh) - Fires when a mesh is removed from the list

USE CASES

• Stylized games with stop-motion or claymation aesthetics

• Per-character animation style switching at runtime

• Performance-conscious animation LOD on distant characters

• Artistic effect toggling for cutscenes or abilities

PRIMERS

Part of the Primer series, this plugin prioritizes clarity, control, and practical workflows.