Rope-Tension Field Drum (Playable: UE5 Mannequin Drummer Animations, Separate Sticks, Knock-Over)

A game-ready rope-tension field drum of the 1830s pattern, the kind carried by infantry drummers of the period: a wooden shell with dark tack ornament and a brass vent, cream flesh hoops and calfskin heads held by red-painted counterhoops, hemp rope laced in ten Vs over the hoops and pinched by leather tension ears, knotted round the bottom hoop, gut snares under the bottom head and a brass carry hook. A pair of hickory drumsticks with acorn tips rests on the batter head.

Playable on the UE5 mannequin. Drummer animations for the Unreal Engine 5 mannequin skeleton (SK_Mannequin): Drum_MarchBeat (1 s loop: quick time, 120 steps a minute, marching in place, a stroke on every step and half step), Drum_LongRoll (2 s loop: double strokes), Drum_CallToArms (3 s loop: accented strokes, a closed roll and a flam) and Drum_Rest (4 s loop: both stick tips resting on the head). They are baked on the stock mannequin's own proportions and were checked in Unreal 5.8 on SKM_Manny_Simple: every stroke's stick tip lands within 0.5 cm of the drum's strike point. Characters on the same skeleton with other proportions play the same clips, with the tips landing close rather than exactly.

Separate sticks. MilitaryDrum_StickL and MilitaryDrum_StickR are their own meshes (FBX and GLB) with the drum's own baked maps, each with its origin at the grip on the stick's balance point. At rest the sticks are part of the drum and ride its stick bones (KnockOver throws them off); when a drummer takes them up, hide the drum's copies and attach the separate sticks to the hands.

Attach points. socket_strike sits on the batter head where the tips land; socket_carry at the brass hook. DrummerSetup.json and the README give the three sockets to add to your mannequin, the drum on the pelvis and a stick in each hand, with their exact location and rotation.

Built for the battlefield too. KnockOver tips the drum onto its side, where it settles on its ears and ropes, and both sticks slide off and drop to the ground. RollAway rolls it a little over a metre and lets it come to rest, its spin matched to the distance so it rolls instead of sliding. Knocked holds it on its side. Tighten and Loosen slide the ten leather ears down and back up the ropes, the way a drummer tunes a rope drum.

Drum rig: 21 bones (roll, lift, tip and spin of the drum, the ten ears, each stick, and the two sockets). Drum clips: Idle, Tighten (2 s), Loosen (2 s), KnockOver (1.8 s), RollAway (3 s) and Knocked (loops).

Includes the drum as FBX (skeletal mesh plus one FBX per clip for Unreal) and GLB (every clip embedded) with baked 2K colour, normal and roughness maps; the two sticks as FBX and GLB; the four drummer clips as FBX in Drummer_UE5_Manny/ (import as animations onto SK_Mannequin; each file also carries the body it was baked on, which you do not need); and DrummerSetup.json.

Not included: a character (use the UE5 mannequin or a character on its skeleton), sound, or an Animation Blueprint. The drummer clips play in place.

• 1830s
• alamo
• animation
• civil war
• drum
• drummer
• drummer animation
• drumsticks
• field drum
• game ready
• historical
• manny
• military
• military drum
• musical instrument
• napoleonic
• prop
• rope drum
• snare drum
• ue5 mannequin
• rigged
• animated