2dActor Plus — New Solution to Unreal 5's limited 2D animation support

[subtle drift]

A data-driven 2D animation framework for Unreal Engine

2D Actor Plus comes as the ultimate solution to Unreal 5's limited 2D animation tools, addressing even many of the known limitations on the popular PaperZD plugin.

Features:

• 100% done using Blueprints
• 1 Flipbook for All. (No more manual labor setting up individual flipbooks "Idle_up", "Idle_down", "Run_up", "Run_down". 1 Flipbook handles everything.)
• Intuitive Architecture, create fully animated characters in minutes
• Easy Reskinning (as easy as drag & drop 1 file) as long as animations match
• Easy Layering, easy to create characters with multiple layers. Simply add a new flipbook component and you're done.
• Multiple animation options, such as PingPong, repeat a random number of times, etc
• Supports any number of directions (1,2,4,8,...) and auto-mirrors user-defined directions.
• Per-frame Signals to implement custom behaviors, such as triggering sounds, etc on a specific frame of the animation.
• And much more!

This plugin is on the final stages of development and the beta version will be released soon on Fab. It will be available for free for the first week, so I can gather some quick feedback on the plugin as soon as it's released. If you'd like to be informed on the plugin's release date, consider following this post, as I'll make sure to leave a link for the store page once it's launched!

[merry hatch]

Dude this is so damn cool! Pixel art manny is sick lol

[subtle drift]

Thank you!

[silver grail]

Interesting, I’ve been using paperZD for my project of about 3 years would be curious to see how this compares

[subtle drift]

Hopefully you'll find it useful! I'm currently finalizing the documentation, and should be ready to deply very soon!

[drowsy sleet]

This is so interesting
If you’re open to it, I’d be happy to learn more about what you’re building and see whether I can help on the art side, even if it’s just an initial pass or consultation.

No pressure at all, just thought it was worth connecting.

[blazing pivot]

This is one I would really like to use. I'm making a game with the world style of the old RCT tycoon games and was planning on combining 2D and 3D together.

[silver grail]

Curious if this would work similar to how a 3D anim Bp would work, cause if you want multiple sprites to be animated , they would all need their own animation component to match. So if you have a body sprite and maybe some equipables they would all need their own specific anim component. Would this allow for multiple sprites to be animated by 1 anim component by any chance?

[subtle drift]

Sort of. While there isn't a dedicated state-machine BP like for 3D, the way it works has some slight similarities.
The thing that sets this system apart from traditional Paper2D and PaperZD is that instead of setting up individual Flipbooks for each animation, you use a single Flipbook asset for the entire character (all animations included). Then you configure each animation in a Data Table. Which then allows you to reuse that same animation data table across different character skins, provided they have the same frames and animations.
And to answer your question, yes it will allow for multi-layered characters, much in the way that you're describing! All you will need is for the other flipbook components to have the same number of frames and animations as the base character and it will just work, no extra setup required even!

I'm still awaiting for the confirmation from Fab so that I can release this system. (They actually require me to release this as a system instead of a plugin since it's 100% done using blueprints)

If you'd like to take a look at the documentation to see what is achievable, feel free to check out this link:
https://www.widsey.com/2dactorplus-documentation
You can jump to Multi-layered characters on quick navigation to check how it is achieved.

Here's a gif of what the tutorial will teach users to achieve. In this case, the sword is a different Flipbook Component:

[silver grail]

Hmmm I like it, very cool. I like the sprite too in that gif. Looking forward to the tutorial I’ll def be trying it out when it’s released

[subtle drift]

Appreciate it!

[true token]

Where can I get this? How much does this cost?

Got a question for you - @subtle drift Would this be suitable for a Retro FPS similar in visuals to Doom, Duke3d or Blood?

[subtle drift]

Hey! It's not out yet, I'm awaiting for fab's approval, as soon as it's approved I'll announce it here!

I expect it to be ready by next week. It will be released as a public beta, and the personal license will be free during the first week after release. The pro license will be $30.

Regarding your second question, yes it is suitable for games such as those, however you will need to implement the Billboard effect yourself, as I didn't implement it on the system yet. I do plan on adding it on a future a version though.

[true token]

Awesome good to hear!

Will pick it up when It is available then 🙂

[subtle drift]

I would like to announce to everyone that has been following this project that the 2d Actor Plus system is now available on Fab!
The personal license is available for free for the first week.
I released it on beta, so if you find any bugs or problems don't hesitate posting them on the support server! I still plan to improve it and add some more features.

I hope you find it useful, get it here:
https://www.fab.com/listings/dcac02ac-ee6c-4423-a5ab-2b490f5b1e70