UE5.4: Game-Changing Rigging Update (You Won't Believe How Easy This Is)

In this video, we're diving into Unreal Engine 5.4's powerful automatic rigging updates! Auto-Retargeting, Auto IK Rigs and Modular Control Rigs.
0:00 Intro
0:55 Import Mixamo Character
3:33 Automatic Retargeting
6:00 Auto IKRig
7:40 New IK Retargeter
13:00 Modular ControlRig
17:44 Experimenting with a Daz Character
21:15 Outro
Kiaran Ritchie has a post on X regarding this:
x.com/kiaran_ritchie/status/1...
#unrealengine #mixamo #retargeting
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[@GorkaGames]

Man this is awesome news!! Now retargeting will be wayy easier and faster 🔥

[@YoriPlayzz_Official]

Really It's the best update. Want to know the release date

[@Braydon.W]

I follow your channel and love seeing your comments on other videos I watch! All credit to OP but I gotta show love for Gorka!

[@yujack5910]

Brother, your video has been moved everywhere in our country. As soon as I heard your voice, I knew it was you😇

[@outtoplay]

Oh man... this is so much better. Props and thanks for the thrill! 🍻

[@muvifx]

This comment will be about all your tutorials and shares. So clear, easy to understand, useful and helpfull. Trying not to miss any. Thanks

[@3djimmy]

Thanks for blazing the trail, very happy about the future. Keep up the great videos.

[@thegamedevcave]

that is actually insane, this will save so much tedious headache inducing time. I'm sure in real production you wouldn't just throw everything into the auto retargeted but surely you'd be able to get away with a significant amount of assets done this way!

[@TheAF01]

Awesome, thank you for the preview!

[@nothing6yen]

Oh, my goodness. They finally improved it!! Retargeting is pain in the ass. Thx for the develop team and Jobutsu.

[@GoodguyGastly]

🎉🎉🎉 this is so life changing. I have spent so much time and frustration with retargeting.

[@activemotionpictures]

7:05 - I just jumped out of the chair. Thank you!! Such amazing video explaining the features. Instant sub.

[@carljthatsme94]

The one thing that slows me down during dev. Incredible. UE5 is the best

[@HakaiKaien]

This is incredible! Can't wait for this

[@IsaacCode95]

This is awesome!, i know how much i've struggled and wasted time to learn retargeting since 4.27 lol

[@StyleMarshall]

This is awesome , thx 4 making this video , so great 👍

[@ErichToven]

Omg... I need this now. So freaking happy about this.

[@RomeoVarga]

JUST when I learned to do things the old way...! Great news, thank you for sharing this.

[@Darkstar623]

this is exactly how I feel 😭im glad that the modular control rig exists now but of course it's just as I finally got the hang of the original UE5 control rig setup lmao

[@v1duk4]

really awesome without extra plugins or software ! i love it

[@TheDigiVault]

Great news!! Finally be able to get my head around retargeting.

[@Jobutsu]

It will speed things up and free up time for creativity for sure.

[@user-jd1io4zj1e]

WOW, awesome. Thanks!

[@ukmonk]

excited about the IK rigs!! thank you for this! UE5 is getting better and better, looks like they want to compete with other DCC now as well as game engines!

[@unknownuser3000]

Now that 5.4 is out im trying to follow this despite you saying its not a tutorial, its the best resource we have. Props again awesome video, make more!

[@zablade]

This is amazing news! My jaw dropped when I saw the Modular Control Rig. This is approaching workflow heaven!

[@dreadtrain2846]

Thank the Gods I've been putting off retargeting and animations!

[@JonathanWinbush]

Awesome update! 🤙🏿🤙🏿

[@Jobutsu]

Agreed they did an amazing job !

[@baziztsahy3927]

That is game changer. Bye bye long hours of frustration

[@_azterisk]

This is great!

[@crazyAlexander23]

I'm exited now for 5.4

[@unrealdevop]

This is great. NOTE: I think most people automatically default to adjusting the pose of the Target but I think that this may actually be a bad idea because it prevents you from using those animations on the target unless you set that target to use that pose or you setup the animations as being Additives with that post as the Base Pose. What I would suggest, is that you match the Source's Pose in the Retargeter to the Targets Pose. That way when you retarget those animations they will be based on that characters Base Pose, allowing you to use the animations you already have for it alongside the animations that were retargeted for it.

[@Jobutsu]

Great info !

[@unrealdevop]

@@Jobutsu Yeah I came to that realization at some point after doing the same thing only to realize I had to possibly swap out the base pose and if I did that, any native animations would naturally get screwed up because they were using a different base-pose. I haven't tried it but I'm pretty sure setting them up as an additive....or only playing them as a Dynamic Additive with that pose being the base...would fix it...but then your adding a bunch of extra runtime stuff that could be avoided.

[@arjaywheeler]

Amazing, i have had so many issues and wasted so much time this is a godsend

[@MrToroburn]

mid blown. such a ballache before. great vid!

[@unknownuser3000]

Counting the days until ue 5.4 now after watching this and you mention daz and i almost fainted cant wait to see genesis 9 usjng any animations

[@michaelhallamdigiart-cgi9152]

I’m glad you got your Mojo back

[@Hello-cq6re]

OMG, I swear to god that today I suffered from this retargeting sh**, and now thank god they will release an update to solve this painful sh** Thanks a lot

[@urkogaldona]

Thanks!

[@curioussoul5151]

This will save a lot of my time and mental health

[@TronikXR]

Wow. Just wow

[@user-kb2qz3gj6k]

Thank you bro

[@DigitalStaff]

This is so much better than the Mixamo to UE Retargeter plugin I bought on the marketplace! Looking forward to doing more animations in UE5.4

[@smokingheadstudiogerman5299]

to be truth: what you really need in Unreal, are 3 Things: 1. - some generic Avatars, like Unitys Humanoid. It do not matter, if you now can "auto generate" Bones searching for. The problem is, to double every animation in the project, for every other called bone. What do you want with 1000x sit Animation ? it s pointless. 2. - the point, that Unreal raytargeting, can understand Blender rotatet bones. (This includes Part 3) and: 3. - the point, unreal understand Blender rotatet bones of reworked Daz 3d Charakters. so long this not work, this is stoneage. also the behavior to work with "Animation Puzzle Parts" in "Montages" is just a time & work amount, what is so much far away from every "good usage" ... shortly: The Unreal animation system, was stoneage, is stoneage, and so long it can not handle the easyest basic things, it will stay stoneage. Do not matter if it can find "some bones" stoneage, is stoneage.

[@shotakhakhishvili8640]

This is phenomenal! So much game dev time will be saved now... UE is the best!

[@M-gf9gu]

Damn, this is huge!

[@holdthetruthhostage]

With Daz characters you have to snap it to the floor in daz before you export, & A Pose

[@davidedemurodominijanni9889]

DAZ incredible... _it works!!!!_

[@amigoface]

love it !!!!!

[@baturalpk.456]

Great news 🎉

[@RictorScale]

Wow this is such a game changer

[@PatrickTheDM]

Very cool.

[@fernandodesa952]

holy fuck this is awesome, retargetting is a pain that needed this

[@outtoplay]

I recently purchased 'Easy Pose' which does pose matching in the retargeter. The dev mentioned that often certain bone need to be left 'unmatched' like spine bones as they are unique to each rigged character. I guess you'd have to go back into the the match and not align certain bones if the default match made the target move oddly. Still damn cool.

[@kenalpha3]

I have that, havent used yet. Is it working for A to T pose conversions?

[@samuelenslin1850]

Ah, thanks man. Was about to dive into retargeting, but now I´m probably just gonna wait until this is out officially...:)

[@Jobutsu]

Still learn retargeting if you have the time to do so.

[@smokingheadstudiogerman5299]

@@Jobutsu to be truth: what you really need in Unreal, are 3 Things: 1. - some generic Avatars, like Unitys Humanoid. It do not matter, if you now can "auto generate" Bones searching for. The problem is, to double every animation in the project, for every other called bone. What do you want with 1000x sit Animation ? it s pointless. 2. - the point, that Unreal raytargeting, can understand Blender rotatet bones. (This includes Part 3) and: 3. - the point, unreal understand Blender rotatet bones of reworked Daz 3d Charakters. so long this not work, this is stoneage. also the behavior to work with "Animation Puzzle Parts" in "Montages" is just a time & work amount, what is so much far away from every "good usage" ... shortly: The Unreal animation system, was stoneage, is stoneage, and so long it can not handle the easyest basic things, it will stay stoneage. Do not matter if it can find "some bones" stoneage, is stoneage. in short: Time Amount and workfow Quality: Unity vs. unreal. unity win, Fatality.

[@hotsauce7124]

Thank you

[@TorQueMoD]

DAMN! 5.4 is gonna be amazing! I can't wait to see how good 5.20 is :)

[@davidedemurodominijanni9889]

Coffee will taste so Unreal...

[@mind0242]

Finally!! so much problems will be solved in this version!

[@erfanrostami1814]

Awesome! Can you please make a tutorial for biped as well?

[@roja]

That is nuts

[@Jobutsu]

I agree, it is great work from them.

[@cgxlv]

This is a big help to me. When I decided to learn Unreal and other 3D stuff a few months ago I thought it would go better tbh. The reality for me has been like leaving a nice comfort zone and going directly to hell. 🤣

[@PolyRidge]

HOLY CRAP!!!! THEY FINALLY DID IT!!!! THEY FINALLY FIXED RETARGETING!!! I am actually so excited for this, i am going to go install 5.4 as soon as i get back to my work station!!!! I am so excited about this!!!!

[@Jobutsu]

5.4 has not been released yet, you will have to compile it.

[@PolyRidge]

​@@Jobutsu NOOOO dang... that sucks... but this is actually so amazing... Could you do a video more in depth about the control rig, and animation retargeting? My process in blender is Retarget to a control rig, then using layered animations, cleaning up/tweaking/blending animations... And I'm 1000% sure this same workflow can be done in Unreal, especially thanks to this video... But I'm not sure how to get the control rig to work as a controller on top of the retargeted animation... I hope this makes sense... But thank you so much for sharing this... i am so excited!!!!

[@ErichToven]

@@Jobutsu Im building my copy right as we speak. Hit build and don't make big plans involving your pc for at least 4 hours. lol

[@jaypurrington6573]

@@ErichToven where do you find that? I only see up to 5.32 on epics github

[@kenalpha3]

@@ErichToven can you link a tut on how to build/compile UE engine versions? What are the exact search terms?

[@VirtualRealityHub]

wow. just wow.

[@unknownuser3000]

Animation, retargetting, rigging was one ofmthe biggest pain points for me in game development trying to use daz and unity assets together, this seems if it works with genesis 8 and 9 is the solution for daz not working without having to spend hours fixing the rigs. Ill definitely give unreal 5.4 a try now to see this in action. Wish youd make a tutorial video as you said this isnt a tutorial but many myseld included are followinf your steps as if it were one.

[@Jobutsu]

Yesterday, I ran some quick tests with G8/G9 and with less hassle than before, they seemed to work. Any tutorials will come after release because they always lock down features before release and some don't make it through.

[@theone8625]

🎯

[@brocscogmyre5592]

This is all fine and dandy but no one's making tutorials on animation blending, at least none that work. I just hope that UE5.4 lives up to what they say it will do regarding animation

[@nourhassoun7099]

Spent the last month building control rigs and now that work seems useless hahahaha. Amazing tutorial!

[@Jobutsu]

Maybe doing it your way, is better. I wish I had your knowledge !

[@leandroalmendras]

yesterday was the 3rd time I gave up. bought "auto rig pro" today and now not sure if i should still try or just wait for this version. lol

[@s.patterson5698]

Knowledge is power, and it provides you the tools to fix something when the latest gizmos have hiccups. Your knowledge will never be obsolete.

[@kenalpha3]

@@leandroalmendras Ive used "auto rig pro" for 2 years. It's helpful but also annoying because of bugs/changes. Ive had to redo my Blend file too many times, just to fix things that the new version gives. (Then I had to re-import all my meshs, anims in to UE. Lost too much time.) But I think it's the only way for me to [use it] to make my model UE compliant (root) and rename to UE bone names (which I hope allow me to use paid UE anims). Another problem with ARP is the proportions dont seem to work with retargeting. (Ive downloaded 20 Mixamo character differences (different proportions), then down an anim using that character (to get that skel proportion). But still, there is an auto scale button [in ARP] that never works for me, and makes my anims worst. So after retargeting anims in ARP (Blender), I have to manually fix keyframes > angles of arms or legs. Hopefully the UE5.4 tech will finally fix/allow proportional retargeting.

[@vincestevenson9430]

@s.patterson5698 Not true, but it will likely remain useful here and there for awhile. Plenty of skills become useless over time.

[@kakarotsan3030]

Finally!

[@tactical-bucket]

Wow, imagine spending a decade or more learning and developing maya python rigging scripts and then unreal turns all your expertise into an auto button.

[@DavidSalamanca]

Bro if you can create rigging scripts in python you are an absulte god programmer, I am pretty sure those skills are transferable to another fields in game development, AI and animation

[@tactical-bucket]

@@DavidSalamanca why do you think the mel and python script dialog exists? Its the only way to build sophisticated bug free rigs in maya

[@ukmonk]

be great if they implement a hand slider to open close hands, that would be amazing! time saver!

[@frgmnt7313]

Would love to see how this is done with animals/monsters similar to the long Chinese dragon that you can see at the beginning of this video's intro. I've been playing around with 5.4 trying to make it work with a snakelike creature and I'm clueless if I set up my skeletal mesh correctly and which control rig modules I should be setting it up with it.

[@KikoBarahona]

Thanks for the vid. What distro are you running UE on?

[@Jobutsu]

I can't be that specific for reasons beyond my control. I hope you understand.

[@davidedemurodominijanni9889]

@@Jobutsu 😏

[@LionUnchained]

6:50 they told us they had to make it easier for the UE users. They just started giving us documentation this year XD Very glad i get to jump in and learn it like this though, truly. Seemed super tedious before.

[@ForeverNils]

great

Thank you very much for the impeccable content as always!!! Could you analyze 5.4 about Mass AI? If it left the experimental version in the version it has? :)

[@Jobutsu]

It is on my list but my guess is 5.4 will be released before I can make a video.

[@ErichToven]

I just got the goose pimples!!

[@piyushpandey6576]

I spent last year tweaking the hands on the retargeter😢 and now they released this automatic one😂😂😂😂. Better late than never!!!!

[@LoganPinney]

Automatically COOOOOOL ! Auto IK rig, Auto Re target, Auto Pose 😎 AUTOBOTS ASSEMBLE! Ive been here since the start - only those who were retargetting in 5.0 EA know the pain LOL --- I learnt a lot of my initial re-target from you buddy, thanks for putting out quality EDUCATIONAL tuts. next up HDAs from Houdini + MH vertex animations>?! hehe Cheers Jobutsu!

[@Jobutsu]

Niagara Metahuman goodies are next.

[@busesart]

@loganPinney exactly what I am into! VAMPs and HDAs!! Mechdawn has an amazing plug in for vertex anim

[@synastershred2269]

@@Jobutsu can you do this with Synty Characters as well? I assume you can!

[@davidedemurodominijanni9889]

Next step needs to be the IK Foot adaption to slopes and irregular surfaces active *by default* ... that's what I'm looking forward to! I've been using UE5 since EA myself and I know the pain... I've been looking for the way to make it work since day 1!!!! I honestly do not understand why is not by default as already part of the Control Rig setup. Real life is not only steps...

[@busesart]

@@davidedemurodominijanni9889 do you mean motion matching with Motorica?

[@IAmBael]

Oh damn. Literally two button clicks? I've been putting off making an IK rig for ages, this is huge.

[@greystorm_digital]

So many steps no longer needed. It was such a pain before.

[@pstwr]

watching and liking for your hair!

[@vivektyagi6848]

Is it possible to create facial rig too? Would you please try rigging both body and face with Character Creator’s Character. Many Thanks

[@unw3ee]

I've been waiting for this since UE5.0 appeared. Dreams come true. This new features only works for models with a human skeleton, right?

[@Jobutsu]

For now, but on X the Devs said that it may evolve beyond that in the future.

[@Ninjagato465]

DUDE... this saves so much time. Wonder how it works with quadrupeds

[@Jobutsu]

I am testing that today.

[@Ninjagato465]

@@Jobutsu will that be a video? I'll be eagerly awaiting your results

[@jbach]

Thanks for sharing! Can I ask, why Linux? Is the feature support of Unreal at parity with the equivalent 5.4 Windows build? And does the auto Retarget Animations feature work with Metahumans?

[@Jobutsu]

1. Linux is for a personal Houdini/UE R&D. 2. I have not spent enough time with the linux build to answer that. 3. Opening bridge crashes UE on my linux setup, so had no chance to test Metahumans. However, retargeting should work for Metahumans as they are compatible with mannequins.

[@holdthetruthhostage]

Been Praying for this as a Unity User where its just drag & drop. Unreal Approach was just to frustrating to the point I had to buy an asset & even then its just a labor intense for nothing

[@FatalMatter-sz6gs]

Unreal Engine V is insane.

[@AKThem06]

that modular rigging system is making me feel things jokes aside, can you also cover the other features coming in 5.4? I'd test them out myself but the build takes too long and I get errors most of the time :

[@Jobutsu]

If I find anything interesting and have the time, before it is released, I will yes.

[@not_who_you_think]

fucking amazing

[@Kuuribro]

Does the modular rigging work with anything besides an epic skeleton? And does it come with full backwards solve support?? These look really powerful, but I'm more interested in the limitations after seeing showcases like this!

[@Jobutsu]

I struggled with non Epic Skeleton in the limited tests I did.

[@Kuuribro]

@@Jobutsu thank you for the response!

[@itscoldcoldwinter]

i have seen in uefn one creator using costum animation for character we play in game but him said it’s glitched a lot right now

[@omega1543]

Unity had this years ago glad to see its in unreal finaly.

[@Jobutsu]

I have never used Unity.

[@ErichToven]

I would summarize the difference like this. Unity while extremely powerful is a no free lunch ide. Its a developer environment that makes games its light and easy to jump into a project just be prepared for a never ending amount of tedium compared to ue. While on the flip while unity is a ide that makes games unreal is a game engine that has a ide the trade-off being there's to much handed on a Golden platter adding often unneeded completely and a feeling often like this is way more than I need or want for those in and out projects that you don't need to have compile for a entire day it can be less than ideal.

[@robertdouble559]

About F'n time! Never thought I'd say this but..."Thanks Fortnite!"

[@ryolinkinpark]

WHAT?!?! so many hours has been saved OMG!!!

[@hotsauce7124]

May I ask, does the modular foot have a reverse foot IK system where the user can use toe pivots and heel pivots? And does the arm have forearm twists? Do the legs and feet have IK/FK switches?

[@Jobutsu]

I have not been any further than what you see here.

[@hotsauce7124]

@@Jobutsu Thank you, I hope the foot modules have toe and heel pivots.

[@Hobnockers]

cool. But do you know how to change the default ThirdPerson Mannequin Character with your custom character? Like a Mixamo Character, Methuman or DAZ Character? So you can use your character as the ThirdPerson Player Character? Looks like this changed in 5.4 Preview. Thx a bunch and keep rocking!

[@Jobutsu]

Does this still work ? kzbin.info/www/bejne/npCmkJKCf91rmsk

[@Hobnockers]

@@Jobutsu I couldn’t make it work. Wouldn’t there be a new easier way with 5.4 because of the change of their retargeting system?

[@jonos138]

Excellent. I hope they do a metahuman update soon to make a better and easier attaching head to body work flow.

[@Bakahira]

I hope also and hopefully soon also mesh to metahuman compatible for mac os!

[@s.patterson5698]

...and maybe they will actually add soom good-looking MetaHumans while they are at it😂😂😂. We do need some prime boys and gals.....and some clothing variety with mix and match options.😊

[@s.patterson5698]

@@vincestevenson9430 Thanks for the heads-up!!

[@Broockle]

cool stuff, might be good to record your mouse cursor tho to follow 😀

[@Jobutsu]

It is a bug on my Linux box.

[@Broockle]

@@Jobutsu o.. Linux box. Interesting.

[@megitsune714]

do you think the in engine animation functions are getting anywhere close on the level of autodesk maya v2025? Im inexperienced with unreal engine but im making animations for a solo project atm.

[@Jobutsu]

It is difficult for me to say. I would not describe myself as an animator. Some of the procedural and layered control rig functionality that is either here, or on it's way looks interesting.

[@megitsune714]

@@Jobutsu thanks for the reply, i think i'll just stick with maya for now and import when 5.4 drops. After that i'll learn scripting for them to be accessible by the player inputs so i can check how the animation works when im fiddling with that.

[@_Clivey]

the auto-retarget is going to be such a time saver. I assume it only works on humanoid characters and not quadpeds like cats, dogs, etc?

[@Jobutsu]

From Greg Richardson at Epic: "For auto retargeting, not at this time. But custom skeletons is something we plan on adding/look into in the future."

[@holdthetruthhostage]

Unity still has a leg up as it just allows you to use the fbx animations no need to retarget them one by one

[@Jobutsu]

I never tried Unity. You can batch auto retarget all animations and related assets with this. It is as simple as selecting and right clicking the assets.

[@holdthetruthhostage]

@@Jobutsu oh multiple animations ok

[@Skilar123]

I was excited and then realized I can't even use the functions because it's not available. Bummer.

[@wywarren]

When changing the rig sockets in the modular control rig, does it pile more stuff into the RigVM execution stack? The problem I have with my modular procedural rig in 5.3 before was that it would be too complex to find the 65535 instructions cap in the 16bit address of the execution stack. I ended up turning it all into C++ to get it under 10,000 instructions now but it's still a cap as this evolves.

[@Jobutsu]

You need someone way smarter than me to answer that. Even trying to simply view the execution stack tab from within the Modular rig window, causes a crash for me.

[@wywarren]

@@Jobutsu yikes good to know. I'll try to pull down the main branch this weekend to see if there's a way to contribute.

[@Meowzors]

I'm glad it's just as easy as unity now

[@Jobutsu]

And I am glad that you are glad.

[@nu-beings]

Are you waiting for Reallusion to update their Auto Material setup plugin before retargeting their characters? I did it while following you...the textures look like blah...but the retarget and the control rig work!

[@Jobutsu]

Reallusion have great engineers. I am 100% certain they are busy doing something amazing. 100% ;)

[@nu-beings]

@@Jobutsu Love your tutorials. How would you control the facial animations after connecting a non-metahuman character (eg. CC4) to Modular Control RIg? Is there a tool for facial rigging in UE 5.4? Or is this just for body animations?

[@freedomofspeech2100]

"This is not a tutorial... let's call this project Tut1!"

[@Jobutsu]

Technology Update Tips 1

[@freedomofspeech2100]

hahahha nice! :)@@Jobutsu

[@user-zw1bb2qn4i]

Isnt this same as Unity Humanoid Retargeting. Did UE not have this basic function from the start?

[@Jobutsu]

Nobody cares. Use what you use and get the job done.

[@hotsauce7124]

Hello, may I ask, have you tried exporting a Blender 4 Rigify rig and using the modular rig set up in UE5.4?

[@Jobutsu]

I have had not had the time to try much yet.

[@hotsauce7124]

Does the modular foot have a reverse foot to do pivots on the toes and heel?