Animating In Unreal Engine

Learn to animate characters entirely within Unreal Engine 5's Sequencer

What you'll learn

Animate in Unreal Engine 5

Learn the basic interface and tools for animating

Understand the core principles of animation

Learn various tips and tricks for character animation

See the full process of different animation workflows

Create character animations for any style of character

Object interaction for your character

Export your animations for use in-game, or render for cinematics

Requirements

A basic familiarity with Unreal Engine 5 would help. No prior experience with animation necessary.

Description

In this course you will learn how to animate characters in Unreal Engine 5.We begin with the basics of animating within the engine, and then build up your skillset with various tools and techniques. You will explore different workflows as well as seeing full animation processes in action, which you can follow along with, or passively watch to absorb the information and apply to your own project.This course is suitable for any recent Unreal Engine 5 version, and will include further updates for 5.6+ specific features.Throughout the course you will be shown the important tools for character animation, with tricks and tips along the way. This isn't just a list of features, which could be overwhelming, but is instead a gradual build-up of techniques where you will be shown how they can be used in different workflows. You will not only pick up the specifics of animating in Unreal Engine's Sequencer, but you will learn the fundamentals of character animation.Included is a weapon model I have created for the course, where you will be shown the process of rigging it to be ready for animation. You will then be shown how to animate it alongside the character. This method/approach can be applied to any character or weapon model. We also cover creating walk cycles and I share my formulaic approach for taking out any guess-work or estimation, freeing you to create the style of animation you need without having to worry about cycle times, distances, loop length and so on.The examples shown in the course feature the UE5 mannequin for demonstration purposes and mainly focus on more realistic human character movement examples, but the principles taught can be applied to any style of character and any style of animation.Animation takes time and practice, but this course should get you up to speed with all of the most important tools and how to navigate the interface, as well as many tips and tricks for character animation.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction & basic tools

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 Posing the Character

Lecture 3 Gizmo Options

Lecture 4 Mannequin Rig Controls

Lecture 5 Keyframe Types

Lecture 6 Curves

Lecture 7 Tweens

Lecture 8 Advanced Curves

Lecture 9 Arcball & Motion Trails

Lecture 10 Animation Layers

Section 2: Jump Animation

Lecture 11 Animating a "Jump"

Lecture 12 Blocking Phase

Lecture 13 Adding Interpolation

Lecture 14 Base Animation Refinement

Lecture 15 Detailing with Animation Layers

Section 3: Advanced Animation Techniques

Lecture 16 Constraints

Lecture 17 Constraints Advanced & Troubleshooting

Lecture 18 Saving & Restoring & Mirroring poses

Lecture 19 Curve Editing Tips & Tricks

Lecture 20 Workflows & Cameras

Lecture 21 Space Switching

Section 4: Animating a Walk Cycle

Lecture 22 Calculating the Perfect Walk Cycle Timing

Lecture 23 Modular Rigging & Custom Weapon Rig Mesh

Lecture 24 Starting the Walk Cycle

Lecture 25 Adding Pelvis Motion

Lecture 26 Timing & Curve Tweaking

Lecture 27 Adding Cycle Variations

Section 5: First & Third person Shoot Animation

Lecture 28 Shoot Animation Blocking

Lecture 29 Completing the Shoot Animation

Lecture 30 "Shoot to Empty" Animation Variant

Section 6: Inspect Animation

Lecture 31 Blocking the Inspect/Reload Animation

Lecture 32 Refining the Animation

Lecture 33 Finalising & Cinematic Setup

Game developers looking to create their own character animations directly within the engine,Professional animators switching to animating within Unreal Engine,Cinematic/trailer creators,Anyone interested in learning the basics of character animation for games