Full Body IK: Procedural Dragon Animations

The Full Body Inverse Kinematic (FBIK) feature in Unreal Engine 5 allows you to construct IK in Control Rig with a high degree of control and flexibility. In this feature video, we show you how to create a 100% procedural animated character with a highly modular setup.

[@SuperMontana2008]

Epic loves showing off control rig but also seems like epic loves keeping control rigs secrets , i.e. only few people in whole world know how to set it up properly

[@joehan6784]

if you listen carefully, it is all about what he Learned. He just gives you an idea of what you can do with UE . there is no way we can get a sample of it.

[@YEAHSURETHINGMAN]

good to go with 5.4

[@alekjwrgnwekfgn]

There is a real hole-in-the-market for in-depth (not beginner) tutorials on animation BP especially control rig. I hope someone makes it- I’ll buy it. It would make a great learning path on the Unreal tutorials.

[@TopazCentuallas]

Have you managed to find any course that explains all the nitty gritty of Unreal Engine 5 Skeletal Animation in-depth?

[@CosmicComputer]

There is a paid course on control rig on the flipped normals store, the author has a KZbin as well, can’t give a review though as o haven’t taken the course

[@alekjwrgnwekfgn]

@@CosmicComputer thanks… I just searched Control Rig on Flipped Normals- nothing, any hints (or a link)

[@xtruder3D]

You can go in my channel if you wisht to. I have 44 videos about control rig :)

[@alekjwrgnwekfgn]

@@xtruder3D haha, thanks brah, I’ve been subscribed to your channel for a while.

[@voxelheart]

Thank you so much for this video! I was able to get my own FBIK procedural movement working for my spider boss. This was an absolutely huge help. Cant wait to see what else Unreal, and you, have in store for the future!

[@SonaliSingh]

This is perfect. Thanks for the demo and explanation Andi 😊 Dino looks cute. Will the project be available for users to play around?

[@Spamkromite]

Really amazing... I can't wait for UE5 to be fully released and put all this into practice. I might see my procedural dinosaurs come to life finally.

[@sanyi9667]

for those wondering the dino 3d character used is available in the "Content Examples" project by epic games

[@macxike]

Any idea where the control rig asset is located?

[@nli2work]

Thanks for this really great video! the project would be extremely helpful to fully understand every part of the set up.

[@harrysanders818]

UE: HQ engine, HQ tutorials that dont jus stop with having stiff hips and rest of the body static and acting as if this would be already spectacular, like a certain other engine official proc animation tutorial does. Great looking result. Super educational. And even reaching for an apple as bonus. Plus, doing all this in blueprint coding instead of written code is so much more advantagous and empowering for game developers. Thanks for passing on the knowledge.

[@LincolnMargison]

For those interested in seeing this taken a step further, on my channel you can see a fully procedural walk system for human characters, that I hope to release on the marketplace (also applied for a megagrant). It's definitely a viable option to consider procedural animation for people who aren't "animators", control rig makes it very easy to get going if you start basic and try to improve it piece by piece.

[@m1sterv1sual]

Great explanatory! Love the ControlRig, can’t wait for more tutorial and insights!

[@CitizenMetaOne]

OMG the physics tail 😍

[@loewesspielstudio]

Can you provide this project for learning?

[@cronos_78none47]

es ist schon immer wieder toll zu sehen was du da zauberst :)

[@Energy0124HK]

I love this video! 30 mins are perfect! Not too easy and not too hard as well

[@Naughty_Ram]

Im going to be honest, this guide is cool, and I GREATLY appreciate you going out of your way to make this video, but it does not help at all. It lacks too much information to be useful in any way. Is it part of a series? How do we learn the basics of what he is showing us as his starting template? How do you correctly import your rig and mesh into unreal to be used in this system? What do you do if your rig does not react like his? Where can I find more information on this subject? There's just so much stuff that works and just plain outright doesn't work as he shows. Sure, If I had his exact file and rig, it would probably work. But why does mine not? That's the issue. There must have been a pre-setup to this video that had been done to make this all work that is not covered. We need a start to finish guide on how to go from a rigged model in blender/maya to a fully rigged FBIK animated model that moves around the game or can be moved.

[@5641616341485]

The isle of Isla De Muerta it is an island that can't be found except by those who already know where it is. Such is the same for knowledge. It's funny because an internet search on how to animate in unreal turns up nothing with the same statements even from this year and the past 5 stating that it can't be done in unreal and has to be done in a separate program. Looking it up in their documentation says to animate in Maya. The next step for me after seeing this today is to keep watching and searching Unreals videos while hoping that one day they put in phone/webcam motion tracking into Unreal. Because no one else is showing this.

[@unrealdevop]

@@5641616341485 There is actually already a system for facial mocap with the iPhone setup in Unreal and some people have attempted to make a webcam body tracking app they work in that the model moves with you but they don't work in their ability to accurately track your body movements properly. This sort of thing requires some pretty advanced deep learning AI algorithms and it's only available for iPhone (For Facial MoCap that is) because it's the only camera with infra-red lenses and Apple already has the SDK for facial tracking setup for it.

[@5641616341485]

@@unrealdevop ah ok. Ty

[@swinny_]

Disagree - for people that already have the base knowledge required ( for anyone reading this ill help you out - learn about 3d rigs, ik solvers, and an intermediate knowledge of blueprint) - its extremely helpful. This is kind of a recipe book - it doesnt teach you how to turn on an oven

[@momchilo4388]

@@5641616341485 If you want to animate inside Unreal you first need to make a control rig! Type in "Control rig unreal engine" in search to find it, and you can follow tutorials like this kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJW3ZnadobNnpbs

[@Megasteakman]

Ooh nice, this is very exciting!

[@unrealdevop]

I have to agree with the rest of these guys, at first I thought this would be a thorough video but there is no link to the website. I already know the website thankfully but a link to more information would have been nice. Also I'm not even sure if there is a way to follow along with you here, without being able to properly follow along it makes it far more difficult to absorb the information without forgetting it by the end of the day. An example project at least with some assets we could use would have been pretty nice. Also as other's have noted it would be nice if Unreal would get their act together and provide more in-depth videos like this for animation on their website. I visit the website every couple of months and it would be nice if they had more advanced courses on important topics like Animations and A.I on there.

[@catermencer1236]

Wonderful！That 's what I need ! Thank you so much!

[@monkeylicker638]

That's a very cute dragon

[@momchilo4388]

I had trouble finding the Get World Transform inside the component, turns out the leg is a scene component! Thanks for the tutorial, helped alot!

[@DJVipFlash]

Damn that's great

[@CosmicComputer]

YES!!!!!! Thank you!!

[@heidenburg5445]

You are my favorite german 3d tutorial guy. Have you dealt with the control rig component yet? I can get physics working fine but not when mapping skeletons to the contorl rig component :(

[@WhiteNorthStar1]

phenomenal :)

[@Rubberglass]

Love this!

[@TheErizo0o]

Wow, thats sooo cool

[@igorcosta6097]

Incrível, parabéns!

[@SkywarriorGP]

ok, it helps, but why do they never load the project to learn more directly? They can even see it as a business, because the more you hesitate, the longer it takes to create new games and therefore the unreal ones do not make money.

[@kaosspectrum9805]

Just so you can copy and paste, not learn? You can see what was being done here, and you can follow the steps...

[@embereve-chan]

There are plenty of free character assets on the marketplace to test this with. It's pretty much the same process but you have to adjust as needed for different characters.

[@Luxalpa]

@@kaosspectrum9805 No, in order to play around with it to fully understand how it works!

[@uzimako25]

This is full tutorial and deep dive on the full body IK animations, you can follow it directly to this content and follow along with it. Unreal Engine though not the only best game engine nowadays but still it has major features that it doesn't have in any other game engine.

[@harrywyependragon4242]

It's adorable 🥰

[@1l2Hawk]

Are there any techniques to prevent the feet controls from collapsing to the root and the tail physics (etc) freaking out in the first couple frames upon playing? I've tried blending alphas in on timers from initial pose anims to stabilize things but it seems to happen on the rig activation so this did not work for me. It's hard to set up a shot when you need a few seconds for it to settle in, while it's also procedurally walking out of frame - and I can imagine spawning this in a game would also be highly noticeable to a player.

[@AndiDev]

I solved it by a boolean I set to true after 1-2 seconds and in the anim graph checking for that bool to start evaluation.

[@Qubot]

Thank you very mutch

[@mr.invisible5528]

Looks amazing. But for now there are too many open questions to use this plugin. The documentation is not enough to get going. Even though I understand the concept and did already IK solving in other games. For now its fancy but there is room for improvement. Keep up the good work.

[@jackryan8588]

Hey, I’m going to point out an issue with the current model that’s not shown here. At high speeds, the model will lag behind and fail to function. What you’ll want to do here is swap the Plant Start Position with a Foot Position at 10:05, and make a speed ratio between you step speed and your velocity.

[@davidtadic4716]

Awesome

[@Switchpoppy]

I'm wondering why, when you have gravity enabled in the Tail, that the tail doesn't just fall to the ground?

[@Liquidamp]

Chomp....Chomp....Chomp..... I'm eating this up.....Yum..... More please..... :) great job!!

[@jackthewhite12]

man this video covers so much so quick I would love to be able to just have the control rig to looks at I am trying to figure out the full body ik all the searches comes back to this video but stull is still missing for me

[@prototypega8257]

Is it possible to mount a horse that way?

[@S.Krezel]

Control Rig doesn't work in Standalone or Packaged mode in UE 5.0, is it a known issue? Thanks!

[@sergeibargamotov8931]

vary cool, you mentioned on beginning to check your website, where can I find your website?

[@sunny99179]

That is amazing. I want to know how can i make these physics collider like that and randomly blink as well...😮

[@swinny_]

crucially underrated. the ideas and implementations here are the stuff of next gen games. i should know because itll be in mine ( bookmark this )

[@whitesnakefr]

what happened to the game

[@swinny_]

as much as i love this - can we all agree its not a dragon - its a trex with wings

[@CortVermin]

like the tv-cooks "i already prepared something here..." it is super impressive. but i still have no clue on hoow to use these powerful procedural animations. first few seconds: what is it that he already prepared? i don't get it :/

[@AndiDev]

I basically only made the controls where the end bones are. Here is the first video about control rig I made: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r2O6q4Gsf7-eZqc There it is explained a bit more in detail. It's always a challenge to get the right level for all audiences in those videos. On my own youtube channel you can find some slower videos about first steps. Tho it is for 4.25 and I didn't had time to update yet. But it is still applicable.

[@CortVermin]

@@AndiDev you are THE man :) thanks a lot!

[@embereve-chan]

Enable plugins, right click on skeleton, click "create control rig". It seems you aren't familiar with the UI and recognizing certain actions, I would suggest learning more first. Plenty of online courses and KZbin videos for beginners.

[@davidjericho4815]

How performant is this? Like, could I have 20 AI on screen using a similar setup?

[@ATomCzech]

It is sad that such great epics tutorials doesn't have demo project attached to it, it would help a lot in learning.

[@svenrawandreloaded]

for real lmao

[@HienNguyen-cd3oy]

Great tutorial ! But you guy can add an additive animation on top of the procedural walking for mor realistic feeling !

[@AndiDev]

Thanks. That's true. I wanted to see how far I can get without any linear animation.

[@UnchartedWorlds]

Hi Unreal can you provide the project files so we can follow along this tutorial?

[@Jsfilmz]

nope

[@UnchartedWorlds]

@@Jsfilmz what you doing here? :D Get back to making Metal Gear fan remake! Kojima sends regards btw!

[@jusstannum4942]

Epic Games purchased PowerIK is this the one based on PowerIk which is no longer supported for newer versions?

[@xaby996]

bingo

[@Vanderer11]

So it is basically good old powerIK from UE4 but with better implementation? Im in anyway.

[@ypd9159]

Where can I download this demo ？

[@cerealgudforu5624]

Mine just disappears when I set the first bone in the fbik

[@Gorongirl]

Of all the questions I need to ask, I want to know specifically why Blue Dragons love Red Apples 😂

[@CosmicComputer]

Are the project files for this available anywhere yet?

[@chomnansaedan4788]

This is really cool but its really hard to glean anything from this if you are not a control rig expert already.

[@user-mo8kc6vn9y]

Glory to Tim Sweeney!

[@brianpk7206]

Can someone tell me how to interact with the bodies in the physics asset like he's doing? I remember there are certain keys you hold while dragging but I forgot which ones

[@AndiDev]

In this case I only used the details panel to rotate the constraints offset from their rest pose. I think you are looking for holding ALT to rotate the constraint. That does the same.

[@brianpk7206]

@@AndiDev I'm talking about that thing where he interacts with the bodies during simulation. The thing where the red line shows up as you drag

[@AndiDev]

@@brianpk7206 Seems my answers get deleted. Not sure if it is allowed here to post links. So this time without. You can poke them in simulation with CTRL and mouse. Search for "Unreal Physic Asset Testing" that leads you to a documentation with a bit more detail.

[@brianpk7206]

@@AndiDev thx dudeee

[@Ale4D]

There is the downloadable project?

[@ariiteajuventin3408]

Is it possible to do the same with the control rig in UE4 ??

[@AndiDev]

You can come very close. The Full Body IK solver in UE4 is a different one. But the physics setup itself is similar, post process animBP exist and the control rig itself might be possible to re-create as well.

[@ariiteajuventin3408]

@@AndiDev thank you for the quick answer, i might learn more about phisics before doing the control rig stuff

[@buco4316]

I wish these videos were more beginner friendly. By the 2min mark you skipped over tons of stuff that I have no clue how to setup. "I've already created" is not helping anybody learn something new. At least mention that this video is not for beginners...

[@AndiDev]

In my first video I go a bit slower about control rig itself: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r2O6q4Gsf7-eZqc And on my own channel is a beginner friendly one but unfortunately for 4.25 and I didn’t had the time yet to update it. Hope that helps a bit. It’s always a challenge with those videos to find a balance that works for most people.

[@UnchartedWorlds]

@@AndiDev Andreas can you provide us with project files so we can follow along as we are going through the tutorial? It would be most helpful.

[@remon563]

this is awesome. Could I potentially animate a cape with these tools ?

[@AndiDev]

It’s defiantly worth a try. But there are also clothing tools you can use.

[@embereve-chan]

Just use regular physics for cloth tbh.

[@remon563]

@@embereve-chan the cloth tools are very outdated and are difficult to have manual control over. For more realistic games it is alright but for stylized ones it looks really out of place. We were trying a manual approach but this procedural technique looks super interesting.

[@getrekt8365]

Can we combine rigs made in DCC and use Unreals full body ik only when needed? For IK foot placements, etc?

[@AlexeyKun]

Thanks for the tutorial. Could U add a link to the previous video?

[@AndiDev]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/r2O6q4Gsf7-eZqc

[@Punisher1992]

in 5.3 my rigid body nodes wont work.

[@user-vn3zf7ex3t]

Where are the project files？

[@etin97]

Where's the project?

[@OriginRow]

Does procedural animations can be replicated? 🤔 Especially for AI's

[@manmohan_manoj]

How much of this is UE5 and how much of these features are there in 4.27 as well??

[@AndiDev]

Post Process AnimBp, the physics setup and most of the control rig stuff is doable in 4.27. There is also a full body IK solver in 4.27 but that is a different one than the one in 5.0 early access I used.

[@manmohan_manoj]

@@AndiDev okay okay, thank you, I'll try and build one in 4.27

[@shaughny5820]

@@AndiDev Hi Andi，I‘ve installed the 5.0 early access 2 but there's no solver called full body, could you tell me where can I install it and what's the name in 4.27. thankyou very much

[@kenalpha3]

@@AndiDev Have you or anyone done a tutorial on this for UE4.27. If no, can you please? I got into UE4 at .27, and it's the worst time because many devs abandoned X plugin that worked in .26 -- to skip to UE5. Plus search gives results for UE5 when I search for UE4. Or the UE4 results are either outdated (worked for 4.26 and under plugins), or it no longer works in UE4.27, and the solution is not fixed until UE5. So frustrating when someone does a tutorial video and they link the plugin on the Market (helpful), only to read that the [plugin] devs refuse to update it to 4.27. And they tell us download and "compile" it using the 4.26 version. Epic will not even let me download a free asset for UE4.26 because I never had it installed - I cant.

[@user-cy3mz2rz9s]

жаль, что английский не учил в школе... И теперь чтобы добраться до мечты, приходиться переводить всё.... :(((( учите английский...

[@HartTales]

❤️

[@LordParcyval]

do i hear german in his voice?

[@theonlyone3532]

Why do these guys always have the super sharp mics that makes their S and SH sounds SUPER annoying

[@_theCreat0r]

Sometimes I wonder why is the world so hard... Always forcing me to give up

[@Gyropilot42]

How am I watching this and still don't even know how to get a pose out of it

[@wagnerdavi90]

setup pc?

[@svenrawandreloaded]

bass pose

[@Navhkrin]

Everytime I look at something built using blueprints I can't help but think that a coding based scripting system would be eons better.

[@7ruthVVizard]

thanks for the info captain obvious

[@lorenfulghum2393]

what you are describing is called high level programming. it's included in coding.

[@Navhkrin]

@@lorenfulghum2393 Blueprints are also "high level programming". What I mean is text-based scripting instead of visaul scripting.

[@Luxalpa]

@@Navhkrin I think best is something like in Houdini where you can have nodes with text-based script inside.

[@Scoare]

pog

[@user-je8dl1bz5k]

06:24

[@leeow3n]

these control rig tutorials always seem to make huge jumps that lose me

[@arkadiusz3212]

What the heck is an evangelist? What kind of job is it?

[@thatjdog3945]

Please tell me your pelvis is your skeleton root bone

[@iratemusic4575]

I should watch Tutorials rather than buying real Assets on Store. . I'm okay with Cyberpunk 2077, GTA, etc. All the video game takes 4-6 years to complete. When you buy assets on store. it might not fit in your game if want to add more visual scripting. I've tried it. It makes me start all the way beginning. I have to buy a brand new SSD hard drive. Never buy anything from asset store to take shortcut. Make sure you get jigsaw puzzle correct. You can't win over Hard drive.

[@llYuki0okami]

How GetLegReference funcion looks like, you did not show this here nor in second video nor in dev epicgames site, dear unreal engine crew, why you like so much tormenting your users? how all of this even suppouse to work, i need to somehow glue this BP_Leg_left/Right to a leg bone or what? Somehoew one leg works but second one end somewhere in the void under the map.

[@guillermodermeguerditchian901]

any luck with that??

[@llYuki0okami]

@@guillermodermeguerditchian901 this dragon can be downloaded somewhere in schoolng materials i do not remember where

[@guillermodermeguerditchian901]

@@llYuki0okami I mean the legreference

[@patlecat]

Zis is ze nice tutorial

[@Pedozzi]

bruh

[@Ty.0_]

Impossible to follow..

[@ethanarn1677]

Can you please make a tutorial on how to intergrate easy anti cheat?

[@13Septem13]

Without project files to mess around this is useless. Waste of your and viewers time.

[@wacky.racoon]

And the blue prints are so hard to follow.. "here i just do a line trace" you have to go frame by frame to see some info, and then it doesnt even show but 30% of the blueprint. Some times it feels like a bad joke with these "tutorials". Its not really a tutorial, but more like a showreel.

[@phantasywavestudios]

This person is speaking muffled cant catch some of the words he says plus mic seems like its right next to hes mouth... Good tutorial but it was a quick one i wouldnt call this in depth explanation of FBIK. But yeah might give a shot see whats this about.

[@Bas3008]

I don't agree, I'm not hearing anything muffled and I could catch pretty much every word.

[@phantasywavestudios]

@@Bas3008 Good for you...

[@embereve-chan]

@@Bas3008 I agree with this statement.

[@Sam-Fisher]

First

[@Jsfilmz]

First!

[@kaan2899]

❤