Rigging & Animating From Scratch With Unreal Engine 5's Modular Control Rig

Compared to the earlier versions of Unreal Engine 5, the Control Rig suite of animation tools has become much more powerful and robust, allowing artists to rig and animate characters directly within the engine. A Reddit user known as pattyfritters documented their process, utilizing the Modular Control Rig animated with Root Motion and IK.

The character mesh in this showcase is fully rigged, skinned, and weighted using the new Skeletal Mesh – Skeleton and Skin tabs. The animations are created using the Level Sequencer, with the Control Rig applied to the character (the small stationary figure visible in the video) in the scene and the Animation Mode selected from the dropdown above the Level Editor viewport. To bake the animations, pattyfritters right-clicked on the main Control Rig in the Sequencer and chose Bake Animation Sequence for use with an Animation Blueprint. From there, it's a matter of setting up which animation corresponds to each key press and other interactions.

See the original Reddit post here, and if you'd like to learn more about the Modular Control Rig system in Unreal Engine 5, check out this official talk from Unreal Fest Prague 2024:

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