Learn to RIG and ANIMATE a static mesh prop directly in Unreal Engine 5.

You can quickly convert a static mesh into a skeletal mesh, build a skeleton, paint weights, and even create a Control Rig for a simple prop so that you can animate it in a level sequence - or just deform it for a static pose. So powerful!

[@outtoplay]

This is terrific. Soooo much handier than having to export to Maya or whatever and rig, animate and reexport back. Thanks for the post, very damn cool! 🍻

[@3dJC]

Totally is handy!! Especially for quick lil deforms and such.

[@RandallLowetx]

Underrated tutorial, but I'm so glad I found it. I didn't know the first thing about animating in UE5, and this was great. No story telling, no filler bs, just to the point, clear instructions, and great narration. Thank you so much!

[@3dJC]

That’s great to hear as feedback, thanks! Yeah I generally haven’t got the time to add all that fluff anyway haha!

[@lolaswift111]

Imagine every tutorials out there has this level of quality: the clarification, simplification, how concise it is yet how much it covers. you know exactly what a beginner really struggles with and this is one in a million. thank you so so much.

[@FuzzyMelox]

Absolutely stellar tutorial. Straight to the point, simple.

[@3dJC]

Thx!!

[@GaryParkin]

This is a game changer. Thank you for teaching us this. It's very cool.😯

[@3dJC]

Glad it was helpful!

[@NyoraiFidesTV]

An incredibly useful run-through of animation workflows in Unreal! I think you are the only one on KZbin showing how all those assets (skeletal mesh, skeleton, anim sequence, control rig ecc ecc). For somebody coming from traditional animation software, this is gold. It would be great to see maybe how to create a physic asset so have some elements of the rig flapping on their own like hair or clothe parts 🥹 In any case super thanks! I finally understood how everything works altogether

[@3dJC]

Thanks for the feedback! Good idea for a next video, I’ll put it on my list!

[@NyoraiFidesTV]

@@3dJC Thanks, man! That would be great to close the circle In my case so glad I found you! Looking forward to more content

[@Medwedius]

Instead of "painting" all bones "black". You could "paint" 1 root bone 100% "white". All the influence would go to the root bone. It's much faster. At least that's how it works in Maya.

[@randomancy]

It also reduces bugs that way for painting cars, and not leaving UV islands begging to stretch when other parts are moving

[@aryyamwko]

Cool tutorial, thank u! Looking forward to find a good tutorial about animating an object in the hand of the Manny, would be cool to see one from you

[@3dJC]

I have an older video on that, but things may be different now in 5.5, I may need to update and make a new one… Use Attach Tracks to pick up and throw a banana in Sequencer. #UE5 #UnrealEngine #Animation kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYvNXptorah2hs0

[@franciscoromero2202]

wow, nice tutorial friend, ill subcribe. it helped a lot. Muy Chido

[@gamawoodev]

thanks you sir i learned so much and i didn't even finished the lecture KUTGW !

[@3dJC]

Glad to hear !

[@ryanoconnor7957]

When I right click on a skeletal mesh in the sequence editor there is no option for "Edit with FK Control Rig". Do we have to use custom control rigs now?

[@necessary_invantions]

i can't thank you enough cuz i saw someone do this but i didn't know that i needed to activate a plug-in to do it and i was frustrated thank you

[@3dJC]

Glad it helped!

[@gamejamreject]

oh thats cool you can add physics bodies and then add the jiggle node make it really crazy hope you try it out and make a vid.

[@DLVRYDRYVR]

Best Traffic Delineator video everrrrrrr

[@3dJC]

Ha!!

[@alhusseinali]

Great job bro.

[@3dJC]

Thanks!!

[@dieselshot9768]

Hihi! This is an awesome tutorial, but I'm a bit stuck (v5.4 and I have some extra buttons on my Skeleton Editor so maybe there was an update?); I've followed the directions but "Edit with FK Control Rig" /does not appear/ as an option, it's just the filter asset and bake to control rig options there on mine.

[@ashleyteh374]

Same with me too😅

[@romanbruni]

umoshiroi brilliant ! would that react to a colision ? cheers from Rio

[@W200me]

THANK YOU

[@lz4090]

Thanks for this, do you think you can make a video creating simple animations using these newer stuff. I was thinking of converting a static mesh of a lock and key mesh, make a skeletal mesh of them, then create animations that will be baked like opening the lock with the key that we can use these "baked animations" within unreal engine? It will demonstrate two objects that will be animated. I think you provided a good base in this example. Thanks again

[@kushvyas271]

Can You please make a tutorial on how to create a IK rig for this model

[@emintaskirunreal]

Amazing! Thanks mate

[@3dJC]

You’re welcome!

[@pdubulous2222]

This is a great and simple tutorial. Well done. Subbed! Anyone know how to update the base static mesh after you convert it to a skeletal mesh?!

[@ukmonk]

nice video thank you!!

[@3dJC]

Glad you liked it!

[@ezgetems1399]

I know this is an experimental plugin, but have you found issues with using it over time? How strong does it seem in terms of stability and such thus far?

[@guille_ibanez]

This is awesome, how helpful!! How would you take that skeletal mesh and animate it through a spline (i.e: snake) thanks!!!

[@Doubleaa500]

So if I have 3 sections of an "antenna" hanging from the ceiling... am I able to attach a "projectile" to the end of it that homes in on the player, but still attached to the antenna... will the movement of the projectile at the end still be able to move the antenna while staying within the constrains of the bones and weight painting?

[@rushbbro]

Hi jc pls help I have an issue with plugins, I manually enabled Movie Render Queue and Skeletal Mesh Editing Toools from the plugin list as usual, but I realized that these plugins are often disabled the next time I launch UE5, so I have to go in there and find all of them and re-enable them, restart UE5. It's quite a tiresome, is there anyway to fix this? Thanks

[@decorix]

Hello , Great tutorial thanks so much!!! I'm using real size measurements like 10 cm x 6 cm, but when I want to draw the bones they are really big? How do you go about using smaller measurements? I just want to keep using real size measurements for certain meshes isn't that better als for the lighting?

[@OPGaming17]

Need help. How would one make an AnimMontage that would could be attached to a BP? If at all possible

[@B4NTO]

Hey thanks for this tutorial. Is there no easier and faster way to for example animate a simple cube spinning around and moving around and scale without setting up bones and stuff? Coming from Unity this seems a bit overkill for static simple meshes like a spinning sword etc? Learning so appreciate if anyone knows more about this.

[@3dJC]

Ah for simple transform animation you don’t need a skeleton, you can key the TRS values on any static mesh. Skeleton is handy for deformation of base shape. For simple object animation, scrub thru this vid: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4W6n61-hq-peKcsi=Aopk1ZSFjBvsQis4

[@B4NTO]

@@3dJC Thanks I will have a look :) 💛 I tried a lot of tutorials but never was it possible to bake the animations unless i used a skeleton mesh. Thanks hope this tutorial helps :) I basicly want to animate a couple of static meshes within a blueprint and have a few different ones that will be triggered at different points etc.

[@3dJC]

jump to 34:50 and it shows how to keyframe the transforms... in that case it is a character's transforms, but the same tracks apply on static mesh shapes too

[@B4NTO]

Thank you:)@@3dJC

[@hotsauce7124]

Is there a way to correct skin weights on a character exported from Blender? After importing a Blender rigged character into UE5, can I edit the weights in UE5?

[@3dJC]

Yup, just did a quick test, the same method allows you to modify the weights for a pre-rigged asset imported from Blender.

[@hotsauce7124]

@@3dJC AWESOME!!!!! Thank you.

[@interista-1908]

Enabled plugin, restarted ue5.4 but "Edit with FK Control Rig" is missing, any ideas?

[@EpiKnightz]

Same here, can't find it but there is a bake -> FK Control Rig option. Not sure if it's the same thing though, I'm still trying to figure it out

[@tatehoward5405]

​ @EpiKnightz Was this the same thing?

[@EpiKnightz]

@@tatehoward5405 sorry for late response, but yeah it's the same thing as far as I'm using it.

[@raycast2186]

how to use this in blueprint??

[@shivnuman1203]

After i convert my mesh to skeleton mesh ,Materials elements gets disturbs like its not same as they were in there previous state, anyone facing same issue ?

[@FrenzyRecords06]

Thats amazing ability thanks for sharing this tuts but i was waiting for you will teach make a IK rig of this object with control rig. If this control rig doesnt have a ik rig why we made a control rig

[@3dJC]

In this example of a simple prop, tossing on a control rig just makes it easy to have somewhere handy to grab the joints, instead of needing to select the joints in the animation outliner… also depending on how you’re going to animate the object, and I K Rig may not be needed or necessary or wanted. However, I’ll try and make a video of a simple prop that would benefit from an IK added… Got anything in mind?

[@3dJC]

Maybe a cactus, like the ones from bugs bunny/roadrunner?

[@FrenzyRecords06]

@@3dJC It would be great if you showed how to add different ik controllers to different objects with differents systems i know its not easy like how i say its can be easier if we can understand make ik conroller of anything more easier

[@FrenzyRecords06]

@@3dJC also do u have discord or any community for ask something or share about your tutorials?

[@hotsauce7124]

May I ask, do Blender rigs made with "Rigify" need a different Primary and Secondary Axis plugged into the UE5 Basic IK node?

[@3dJC]

I don’t think so, it should be just based on the XYZ orientation of each joint… but I have not tried that one to know for sure

[@hotsauce7124]

@@3dJC Cool, I'm running into a lot of weird things trying to work in Blender into Ue5 Control Rig. Blender's Rigify rigs seems to need special export settings and a different method in Control Rig.

[@s.patterson5698]

I was trying to do this with a simple cylinder. I scaled up it up to make it taller nad shrunk the diameter. But when I converted it to a skeleton mesh amd then opened the Skeleton ,esh editor, it would not show the scaled size

[@3dJC]

Was the cylinder you used the base shape that’s in unreal?

[@s.patterson5698]

@3dJC Thank you so much for replying. I finally figured out that once I changed the sizes of the basic cube, then I had to go to the TOOLS tab and then do "Merge Actors". That was the only way I could get the shape to change in Thumbnail of the mesh in the Content Drawer folder. Then when I opened the Skeleton Editor, the correct size appeared. Then I was able to follow along. That is what worked for me, but I am a newbie, so there may be a better way of ensuring the modified size of the object shows up when you open the Skeleton Editor. Anyway, all your videos have been awesome...they make a newbie like me feel capable. 😃

[@decorix]

​@@s.patterson5698 Hello I was reading your post. I'm using real size measurements like 10 cm x 6 cm, but when I want to draw the bones they are really big? How do you go about using smaller measurements?

[@IamAxe163]

Cant find this plugin, i have UE 5.0.3, this is a reason?

[@3dJC]

The manual for 5.0 mentions it, so it should be there? dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/modeling-mode?application_version=5.0

[@IamAxe163]

​@@3dJC I am already update vers. UE ti 5.3 :) and instaled this plugin

[@DjblackgameBlackgamers]

I don't have that plugin how is possible?

[@3dJC]

Should be in the list of plugins to add… you’re using 5.3?

[@Vversel]

Hi bro can you help me with island creator program sign up

[@3dJC]

Ah I kinda don’t know too much more than what I followed on the webpage…

[@Vversel]

@3dJC ok thanks bro

[@cartoonbay]

Is it possible to teach us how to use City Sample Crowds in Unreal Engine 5.2 ? I am going to test NVIDIA Omniverse Audio2face for Metahuman but I got stuck with the Metahuman setup.

[@HardLeafTV]

posht