2d Vector to UE4 animation help!

Hi,

Let me preface this with a disclaimer, I’m very new to both blender and game dev. (UE4)

I’m creating a 2d platformer with my original artwork created in Adobe Illustrator, vector or SVG files.

Initially i was going to animate these characters using an IK plugin with After Effects to create flipbooks (frame-by-frame animation files for Unreal Engine 4) but realized I wanted something more organic, when I found out UE4 supported Inverted Kinetics (IK) and the kind of physics I was looking for, but only for “3d type” assets. But what if that 3d asset was actually 2d with skelly elements that I could program like any other 3d model except on a 2d plane :smiley:

Anyways, I’m looking for reading material on 2d animation in Blender, specifically vector characters. Has anything like this been done? Should I even attempt to try it? What are some pitfalls from those who know the program and is there a workaround that would make this project even worth it?

So far in my head the pros/cons look like this:

Cons: idk wtf I’m doing

Pros:
Character skeletons could be copied/pasted for similar characters?
Which means similar character animations could be copied/pasted? (Walk, Run, Idle, Jump cycles)
Animation Blending in UE4
Physics in UE4
IK integration may or may not transfer over to UE4?

Or should I just go back to animating frame-by-frame and piling on a crap-ton of different transitions and variations flipbook style.