Changing colour

Basics - I wanted to have two lights change on the casino building. These lights would change then the player activates one of the switches. I couldn't figure out a way of doing this myself, so I found a tutorial called 'UE4 Tutorial | Change / Animate Material Colors In-game' (Ormstad, B.2015). This tutorial example how to change a colour of an object using materials. 

How-  Sadly I wasn't able to use this on a light but I could have a box represent a light on the casino. First I need to make two materials within the Unreal engine. I created the 'Base_Colour' which is red and the 'Change_Colour1' which is green. I want my red light to which to green.  

Next, I create a matinee and create a group, to that group add 'Vector material parameter track'.Then I need to add a keyframe and set the start keyframe to 'Base_Colour', then at the end keyframe set the colour to 'Change_Colour1'. I was able to get this working first time.

Why - These boxes are placed by the door to show that when the switch is activated it's doing something to the door. I wanted to use semiotics to show the players that they have activated something. On most technology red means off and green means on. I wanted to use the same logic for the lights by the door. If the player activated the switch and nothing happened. The player may be annoyed that the switch was 'useless'. Even for colour blind people, the changing colour goes through a transition from red, to light orange, to light, to green. This transition means that most people will be able to notice a change in colour.


bibliography

Ormstad, B. (2015). UE4 Tutorial | Change / Animate Material Colors In-game. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XoFKCoU6-0 [Accessed 9 Jan. 2017].