Modular Control Rig Tutorial | Unreal Engine 5.4

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Hello guys and welcome back to another video. In this video we will be checking out the New Modular Control Rig inside of Unreal Engine 5.4. The new Modular Control Rig allows you to create an animation rig for your character in just a couple of clicks. It automates and streamlines the process of creating rigs for your character so that you can quickly start the animating process. Whether you are animating characters for games or short films, the Modular Control Rig in Unreal Engine 5.4 will speed up the process with just a few clicks.
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[@princeroben4853]

man, Unreal Engine really is becoming a good game engine for indie game devs. this makes rigging super quick and easy to do, this is really helpful if you're working solo. hope they add more, like how that Cascadeur animation looks, well if they can replicate that, that will immensely help indie game devs

[@HyperBassYT]

I just wish they used something like c# for the scripting language

[@princeroben4853]

​@@HyperBassYT @HyperBassYT ain't nothing wrong about visual scripting. And I have 2 years experience with Java, the closest thing to C#. I didn't complain about blueprints, it gets things done fast, especially if you're solo, tons of tutorials also, best tutorials I found is by the GOAT himself Smart Poly. I'm just making a horror game right now with simple gameplay mechanics, blueprint is more than enough for that. When I make multiplayer games in future, I wouldn't be able to avoid C++, which is not that bad also

[@RictorScale]

C++ in unreal is no big deal, if you can code there's nothing hard about it compared to c# which I use at work

[@boccobadz]

​@@HyperBassYTwhy? Tbh it's not the language used in the "real world" unless you're tied to Windows and/or Unity. Cpp is universal but you can get everything done with just blueprints.

[@yikunobarnaby5759]

That or buy the company.

[@Tryhardblackguy]

This is insane. Crazy how far the engine is coming. I tried to learn so many times. 5.3 is the most fun I have had learning the engine, can’t wait for the full release. Thanks for the video so fast

[@laurensdesmet70]

Solid work covering these new tools so quickly. Grade A KZbin channel.

[@TheDonutIsHere]

Wow! Great tutorial! There are so many more possibilities with the engine now! Exited to see what's coming in the future.

[@GroundbreakGames]

Appreciate you man. Really looking forward to this next engine version so it's nice to start brushing up before the change over. Highly appreciate the concise info!

[@bruceburnett5372]

Amazing! Finally a system that makes sense to me. Nice.

[@blahb]

amazing video i cant wait to hop in and try it out

[@coffeediction]

woooot, this is insane!!! I need to get back to animation xD this definitely allows for at least quick animations for some game idea testing etc. probably even viable for production.

[@Tenchinu]

this is amazing. The reveal was good, but seeing it in action is 100 times more insightful. Thank you very much for the explanation. if you accept requests, pls pls PLS do one for the new clothing system :)

[@SmartPoly]

Check out my Multiplayer Survival Game Course: smartpoly.teachable.com

[@goochigooglar1791]

looking forward to using it when full release comes out.

[@AdamWoolnough1981]

I do recommend his course, I've done it

[@virtualfilmer]

Wow!! You are going OFF with videos about 5.4 - thanks so much for doing them! The one thing I can’t figure out how to do is the new “kinematic collider” that they showed at gdc. It looks basically like we can finally get cloth simulation properly reacting to metahuman meshes! But yeah, I can’t see it anywhere. I built 5.4 from source to see if it was in that, but nope!

[@williamclarke2617]

this is crazy, working with it now. the new skeleton editor was already way more intuitive than Blender. if the rigging is as straightforward as it feels, I could turn a model into a animatable character in less than half an hour.

[@Maaguaa]

This is a god send!

[@deepelements]

I freaking Love Unreal

[@TUKMAK]

Hope you're feeling better man!

[@florentsolut1521]

You can easily fix the knees pole vectors being too far from your mesh by selecting the Leg modules and setting the PV Offset Factor to a lower value. Thanks for the tutorial !

[@cindyzxec]

This be cool, I been using FK to animate my char since I was too lazy to build a control rig since I think I could find a free compatible control rig somewhere. But now with this it be so easy! I can do better animations!

[@LukiGames0]

This thing is insane, i always had a hard time with rigging for unreal and animating since i did not had access to Maya or other professional tools.

[@postprocessed]

unfortunately you still need to rig your character on skeleton with Maya/Blender. Assign skinning and weights. Unreal just helps you with creating control rig, which I believe should follow the certain naming convention or hierarchy of base UE5 Manny Skeletal Mesh

[@k3rm173]

Im recent and have enjoyed your blueprint tutorials. PLEASE make a tutorial of full HUD. Since HUDs are a default in almost all games i would like to hear from you as to how to use custom images, images for progress bars, maps, cooldowns, revups (hold to power up), sidescreen directional inicators, compass directional indicators, crosshairs, markers or bubbles or health bars on targets and/or allies. I know there has to be a way to have 3D images on a HUD. I want to create a health bar like this old gamecube game called "Gotcha force"

[@alhusseinali]

That's huge!!

[@velikanskaglava2087]

I would like to see next: How to create assets within the game, the player, how to export it outside of the game, or whatever is as close to this process as possible

[@cj5787]

amazing!

[@sniperviper4214]

Hi poly, good video as always. I really want to get into game development but have tried a few times and I dont think my Pc can handle this type of thing. May I ask what is your system specifications and if you are willing to give recommendations for a good starter rig to atleast complete a full game with packing and the works. Thanks!

[@6footrandom556]

love to learn how make that pirate game u made an keep up great work bud

[@carlosrivadulla8903]

wow, can u continue the 5.4 feature showcase by applying to this ctrl_rig the new motion-matching animations library?

[@coolorphans]

Thanks buddy

[@frellinghazmot4443]

So does this need bones already added to a mesh or can we import static meshes? All I see are SK_meshes in my preview mesh

[@jackthewhite12]

pretty cool seems from the demo its more limited the normal control rig controls as I havent found a way to create ik controls for hands controls for looking for the face also if you have a custom chareacter not from the unreal engine store alot of the bones are not picked up so I have to manule put in whats what and I have no idea what is happening

[@jaimoso23]

looks awesome not like others XD

[@psychxx7146]

I don’t even know how we’d set up these modules normally, but that kind of system is exactly what I imagined it should feel like

[@beyondcinema]

does this only work for Sk Mannequin? I tried with a mixamo character and it wouldn't find the correct sockets.

[@heiabjornholt]

Quadruped ridding demo would be nice to see :)

[@alphashow5046]

Do I have to prepare the character model in anyway for it to automatically assign bones? Or any fbx from blender without bones will work?

[@user-uy9um7bc2o]

Hello! There will be lessons on the new system motion matching?

[@President_PunchLines]

awesomee

[@JWitty18]

So you do have to have the bone layout exactly like the UE5 Manny puppets for modular control to work?

[@jiiiiim_xyz]

Thanks for the video! Do you still have to place the actual bones within another 3d software?

[@Hellishcaos]

I second this question

[@hotsauce7124]

Hello, if we want to hand keyframe our animation in sequencer, how can we use the IK/FK switch for the arms? When I use the IK/FK switch, I can see the arm popping or rotating during the IK/FK blend. In Maya, there is a 'Match to Pose' button that aligned the FK skeleton to the IK skeleton and removes the popping during the IK/FK blend. Does UE5 has a similar "Match to Pose" button?

[@stevecoxiscool]

Do you have any examples where you are programmatically manipulating the control rig and run time ?

[@RwanLink]

What if you have your own naming for characters bones? Can you tel unreal wich modules to use for wich bone? Or I must have a specific name for this to work?

[@SmartPoly]

yeah you can manually map the bones

[@tgshotoftcr2256]

@@SmartPoly I've tried doing that, and I would like some advice. The controls (the red and blue circles that surround the character) don't appear next to the bone I would like to control. Is there a way I can fix that, or a common mistake that I'm making? :( The controls appear far away from the character and start clipping into each-other, any advice would be appreciated.

[@brettcameratraveler]

What is a common set of words we should use to filter our searches in the Epic Marketplace to ensure that the character we are about to buy is likely to already have cloth physics?

[@noahbrewer2476]

Thank Christ now I can animate my OCs in the engine without modifying stuff from mixamo

[@benjsarchive]

is there also a way of adding IK controllers for the arms/hands?

[@wywarren]

I'm still trying to find where to these are currently built in C++ with the custom modular forward and backward solve logic. There are a ton of bugs with this still on main branch and I thought this would have been an experimental thing for 5.4. Hopefully they get all the kinks sorted out for launch. I've seen glitches with scroll zooming, auto resolving chirailty, amongsts others.

[@DsDylan-fs8lo]

I have a small question. Does this automatically generate the hierarchy of bones and weights? Or was it included in the 3D model?

[@michaelb1099]

Maybe you can help i did all you laid out and the character moves and such but when in the animation sequence i set first key then advance and make a move and set next key but when i play back the character does not move but i see the rig controls move did i miss something?

[@spacekusa]

How do you add premade animations to it? from mannequin etc.

[@richardduska1558]

Sorry but I need to ask what are the requierments for this auto rig to recognize what the sockets are and what control rig is needed for which bone? Lets say that I made a character in Blender and imported it into U5. How can I make it sure that this new system will recognize the rig? EDIT: Ok so naming got it. But what about the starting socket? Will that be generated when you bring in the model?

[@warriorDRS]

Can you make a tutorial on motion matching

[@silentasagrenade3801]

I've gotten to the end but my knees wont bend when moving the hip controller up and down like you do, do you know where I might have messed up?

[@FilmClassicsIllustrations]

Hi there, I'm trying this Control rig which works great with the pirate, but If I import my own Character in FBX format something is not working. I am importing the FBX as skeletal Mesh but when I add it to the rig for some reasons the root spine is not in the correct position. It's between the feet instead of in the pelvis area. Any suggestions? I probably need to do something when I'm importing my FBX. I tried different things but nothing seemed to work. I really appreciate if you could give me some suggestions.Thanks

[@DaDarkDragon]

anyone know if there is a way to convert a modular one to a normal one for further specific edits?

[@acsomiT]

Hi Smart Poly, thank you for your video. This UE5.4 Modular Control Rig its a big question for now. I tested it on a Moriges character and the Neck module its not introduce any controls for the head. You cant move the head! I head no problem applying a ControRig on a Moriges Character on UE4.7 with all the body parts moving. Any idea how to solve this? Thank you.

[@coulterjb22]

I have a noob question filled with ignorance. I've started learning UE 5.x over the last two weeks. Why would rigging for human characters be needed if they can be added to your project after they've been added into the MetaHuman system (isn't the rigging added in automatically once in the Metahuman system?)?

[@MrOverDroid]

Quick question, i've not found the Foward Graph Solve in order to create a blueprint for Foot IK like we can do with the normal Control Rig & Animation Blueprint. Someone know if its not possible using this new Modular one ?

[@dhruvsinha5225]

Hello, can you make a Animation tutorial? Like the one you make tutorials on blueprint......

[@fredbyoutubing]

Is there an FK to IK switch for the limbs ?

[@dhr1249]

can you pls make a video on it using the mixamo characters when i tried it, it completely broke

[@XanderDKYT]

im thinking about buying your course but i dont know how it worked like what happens after i buy it how do i get the information and is the 60 dollars a discount or compared to other couses

[@itsdw2323]

Hopefully they add a face rig module. Even though we could use chains. But it’s a good update.

[@tariqal-sadi9585]

When Is the multiplayer shooter course coming out??

[@herogonentertainment]

I gotta ask, Smart Poly: can this work for skeletons that are NOT from the Unreal Engine 5 Mannequin? Because I prefer using my own skeleton armatures.

[@michaelb1099]

do you have a film making course?

[@ExtraCritty]

would be crazy if they start making it so you can sculpt characters, retopo & uv unwrap them next. talk about an all in one game engine

[@AlmazovS]

Can you retarget Mixamo animation to that rig?

[@IWillYeah]

What does this do that skinning/ rigging doesn't do already aside from IK?? Edit: Nvm it streamlines in egine animations

[@RAZORlukic]

I'm guessing that your character still needs to have the bones setup with proper naming? Also is just making the skeleton with proper naming enough to make this work? Or do you need some more setup in something like blender?

[@RAZORlukic]

Also what about weight painting the mesh?

[@magicmissile7533]

This feature looks really promising, but i'm getting this issue with it where the sockets are slightly out of place, anyone know a fix?

[@petertremblay3725]

Can this replace the pain of doing the rig in blender and the second pain of exporting which is so counter productive?

[@gaetanlancelle1173]

Nice video! I'm trying to find the new animation system they keep talking about? Motion switch or whatever the name was with 500+ animations and a sample project? Can anyone tell me where it is?

[@SmartPoly]

not out yet. when they release 5.4 the sample template will be released

[@Phoenix_VR]

Tutorial request please, New rigging tools in 5.4

[@jamshidm2218]

can you do one with mixamo skelaton

[@jorgiewtf]

Does this mean I can just make a character in Maya and then fully rig it in Unreal without importing it pre-rigged?

[@marcus_ohreallyus]

Will this rig accept mocap easily?

[@timbrazh8512]

Why forward is Y axis?

[@madeeasy7148]

What about for non human rigs? Like robots?

[@jaimoso23]

my body controls spawn in the center of the spine :( idk how change his pivot point to his feets

[@importon]

why would it make you drag the moduals on the the sockets if it already knows which modual the socket needs? why wouldn't it just automatically do it??

[@jadrienrodriguez8278]

I’m still new to ue5, is this control rig good for in game movement mechanics or is it Solely for animation in cutscenes and animated videos?

[@creatorsteven]

I'm no expert, and my understanding might be incomplete, but here's what I know: In 3D character creation, you typically model the character, create textures, and define a skeleton (bones). These processes are distinct but essential for bringing a character to life. The control rig, particularly in Unreal Engine, is then applied for animating these characters directly within the engine. This in-engine approach offers advantages, especially for procedural animations and responses to in-game events, as it's optimized for both performance and integration with Unreal's tools. External control rigs can also be used, but integrating them into Unreal can be less straightforward, potentially requiring additional scripting or plugins. In contrast, Unreal's in-engine control rigs are designed for seamless interaction with the game environment, providing real-time feedback, which is invaluable during development. These animation features aren't just for cutscenes; they're also crucial for in-game movements. The control rig allows animations to be triggered by various in-game events.

[@Glebv23]

You can create a singular animation like a walk cycle and export it from that graph and use it in an animation montage or whatever you want.

[@dfghgg6167]

Both, you can use control rig in an Anim Blueprint for runtime changes. You can use it for IK hands and feet at run time for example. Another example, you can use it for an FPS game to use spring mechanics on any procedural animation to make your hands overshoot the position and ease into place (so it looks realistic rather than perfectly moving your hands where it needs to be.)

[@ElectroOverlord]

Signed up for your survival UE5 course, having issues with the Discord invite and already have question but no one is answering the Gmail account I am supposed to be using for resolution.

[@samuelenslin1850]

Good introduction. But I find it very frustrating that only the basics are covered, the stuff you can basically figure out by using all the defaults. I have to use a custom skeleton that neither follows the default naming convention (which I couldn´t find anywhere or I might have considered changing it, even though it would have cost me numerous hours, as this skeleton is used in a shit ton of existing skeletal meshes), nor the default hierarchical setup (root bone isn´t at 0,0,0). So, if I drag and drop elements on my character, I neither get the automatic setup for the bones nore do I get the correct sockets displayed. Would be nice to cover at least a bit of custom stuff...

[@code-dragon]

Can we have a brand new tutorial on Motion Matching?

[@vaibhavjaiswal799]

Hey SmartPoly, I know its little big to ask but see I am a unity developer for past few years and cause I have very special intreast in more realistic big game I am thinking to switch to unreal because it already have lot of tools built inside it to support those type of games. but I am having a little hard time only because everytime I do something I always tends to compare things with unity or think of things to do like I use to do in unity. So my request is can you make some beginner tutorial on Unreal specially for unity developers It would be great help for me and other people as well

[@dollggwp7948]

I just bought your survival course, I wanted to know if I might have any problems starting on version 5.3.2?

[@michaellarsen7756]

It might be a good idea to wait, until the remaster part made for 5.4 will be availible. It is a really good course and you learn a lot. But there is a lot of work you might have to do again. If you wait you can make it all i the newest engine

[@dollggwp7948]

@@michaellarsen7756

[@MstrLAM]

This saves a bunch of time but, from what I can tell, it does mean you can't use the Rig Graph like with normal Control Rigs, which cuts down the use cases somewhat.

[@igrayu_v_roblox]

Is it possible to like this with only arms and legs for FPS?

[@SmartPoly]

yes, only add the modules you need

[@unrealdevop]

WARNING! There is a bug that is effecting the Backwards Solver on the Modular Control Rig. When you bake an animation with it to make modifications it's misplacing limbs.

[@TronikXR]

Really? Is this happening with all your characters that you use with it?

[@searbhreathach9762]

I'm guessing I have to rig up my character first in blender

[@user-ol6sn6mb4x]

This feature is still buggy🥲

[@proflooney]

be nice when they do the same with quadroped animals and vehicles

[@instancesofawol7968]

The reason I've not tried this yet is precisly because of how long it takes to do it from scratch in blueprints etc. - I'm a novice at the minute and still learning but this definitely encourages me to try this out in the future as I've already designed my level so I need to learn all this stuff so I can animate my manny in my third person map. - cheers!

[@Onechanzetolive]

Miximo characters break this auto rigger unfortunately BUT since it’s so easy to retarget animations now I’m going to use the Manny to create the animations and then retarget it to a Miximo character 🤘🏾

[@AKThem06]

can someone tell me how to add the booty controller?

[@bboyjmc]

I just wonder how you add clothes to your rigged character without importing them already attached?

[@johndoe35717]

please show us how to release games onto google playstore!!!

[@evanschlechter]

I would like to see how this works with animals

[@HumpaLumpaBiriBam]

hey SmartPoly, Sound clipping!!! please adjust your mic

[@josiahdavissonadvancedtech7003]

Seems silly that they have us manually dragging the modules into the sockets, I have to imagine that will be automated soon.