Question: many different NPCs

[ELFpix]

Hello,

I'm just starting with character creation and animation. So I would need some help.
For my project I need about 20-30 different NPCs. To make this as less time consuming as possible, I thought I could model about 7 general body shapes, rig them in 3DS max and animate them. And then I could add any clothes, hair and items to them. But I'm not sure wether or not it is possible to add these things afterwards and still have them animated.
I mean, I can imagine it with hard objects, like shoes, which won't change their shape during the animations. But I think it gets even more difficult with objects like trousers or jackets.

I would be glad, if you could help me.

Best regards,
ELF

[Ardan]

im not good at this at all, but if everything you want to change is in the texture, just make different textures for all the npc's

other then that i dont know

[Denny]

What you're looking for is Parent Anim Component. If you open up the Skeletal Mesh / Animation Preview window/editor you'll be able to select four meshes from a drop down list, that's essentially how parent anim works.

To get this going you need to do a bunch of scripting. I'm sorry if I can't show you in a better direction but it's a start at least.

[Fallen667]

if your gonna spawn your npcs with kismet then you have actions>actor>set material.. just duplicate source material of the npc and change it then link "set material" after spawn and set new material for your skletal mesh.. its that easy.. you dont even need UTs complex character materials, can be just basic diffuse and normal..
and i think thats how its usualy done.. few meshes, each one with few different materials.