UE5 - Control Rig - Full Body Rig

Sharing my initial thoughts and ideas on how to create a Full Body Rig using Unreal 5 Control Rig.
[00:00] Creating a Control Rig from Mixamo Character
[01:47] FK Leg
[05:30] IK Leg and Compute Pole Vector
[12:05] Switch IK FK
[17:45] Hide Controls automatically
[20:42] FK & IK Arm
[30:09] Spine - FK & SplineIK
[36:00] Neck and Head FK
[39:35] Colorize Controls automatically
[41:21] Backwards Solver
[44:02] Bake Animation to Control Rig
Make sure you watch Gabrielle's videos for more details / inspiration about this topic:
• Learn_Control_Rig

[@m1sterv1sual]

I’m saying this without exaggeration, this is most friendly ControlRig walkthrough online. You don’t rush, everything is commented and in slow pace. Looking forward to more videos like this! Stay safe, senorita

[@kamilabianchi]

thank you!!! :)

[@SologhostTFT]

NOTE:i just spent 8 hours trying to figure out why it wasnt working and i did the same thing as you . If you have fast spinning on your body part when you connect twobone with the parent thing note YOU HAVE TO DELETE THE CONTROL AND REMAKE IT. My forearm ctrl somehow attached to the shoulder and i did make them automatically with selecting all and so on.This was a living hell to figure out still glad for your tutorial you are amazing

[@pingu9656]

This is much more approachable than official's "just go look at our samples" tutorial. Thank you.

[@xtruder3D]

Fantastic video! And thank you for the plug!

[@larenkumar8592]

Thanks for this,really help me a lot.

[@Rambho009]

Thanks a ton!! also special thanks for keeping it all crisp and concise, well within a single video - greatly appreciated!

[@alexsandr047]

Thank you. Very helpful information.

[@deepelements]

WOW thank you for sharing your knowledge with the community. Such a good tutorial.

[@borovikmotion]

amazing tutorial! ❤

[@nicolajesteban9211]

legend, exactly what I was looking for!

[@momchilo4388]

Amazing!! Thank you!

[@teacg7874]

Such a great video 👏👏👏

[@Udaykumar-xq8gb]

very very helpful thanks

[@ismaelnavales5492]

Congrats Kamila!! Great and very instructive Tutorial on Rigging in UE5. Clear explanations on a difficult subject!!

[@user-mu5fq3hh6v]

Thanks again!Now I can rig by myself and play with other functions.This is extremely friendly to those who are new to Unreal rigging.

[@MrAcarlo]

this video is beautiful. First, the serene tone of voice helps me keep my cool even after several crashes of an increasingly unpredictable Unreal Engine. Second, instead of passively applying a few lessons, I understand that you have been thinking about how to arrive at your own method. Third, this shows a passion for these topics that I share, despite my many tribulations. You are really good and I wish you the best!

[@mcmarkmarkson7115]

Much easier to understand than the ones with lots of clicks...Thanks for making them and please more!

[@kamilabianchi]

Thank you!

[@lorryburger8165]

Thank you for this

[@3sgamestudio]

GREAT material! thank you! Posted on my discord group :)

[@thomasveierd9696]

A great tutorial! I would love even more coverage of the control rig! Thank you very much for sharing! Constructive criticism for next time: Audio was a bit uneven and mostly a bit low, though. Stay lucky!

[@naza0777]

really impressed about how good you are explaning things in a simple way , i hope we can see more from you such a content, i hope you can show how you do control rig for a quaderpad if you have time.

[@kamilabianchi]

Thank you! I haven't tried quadrúpedes yet, but will definitely do at some point. There is a different IK node they created for that. I think it's called IK 3 points or something like that..

[@jeremydulary1261]

Thanks a lot

[@nicolasgalipeau3632]

You deserve way more subscribers!

[@kamilabianchi]

Thank you 🙂

[@pohsianghsu9302]

Thank you!! You are awesome!!! Release More Tuts Plz!!

[@mrhmakes]

wow super informative and very clear... have been looking for a video covering this topic and you've done it and more! Couple of questions tho: 1) will this work for any 3rd party skeleton (I use CC3/4) 2) is there an easy way to copy the rig to another CC3/4 character? Keep up the good work - looking forward to the next video!

[@kamilabianchi]

Thanks!! 1. Yes, the only thing it will change is the name of the joints and possibly the orientation/axis on the IK chain 2. There are some clever ways of creating functions using this. Then you would just copy the functions. Check Gabrielle's videos I linked to see that.

[@mrhmakes]

@@kamilabianchi ok thanks!

[@YuuJer]

awesome vid! now I get how those IK FK switches work, they both solve essentially. do you know if there's new pose driver(RBF) stuff in control rig? or would that still go to animBP?

[@kamilabianchi]

Yeah, in maya the IK FK switch always felt so complicated to me. I am not sure if the way I've done is too heavy to run, to be honest, but it works..😅 I haven't seem anything new about the pose driver, at least not in the oficial release list of UE5.

[@YuuJer]

@@kamilabianchi well I would still bake out the animation at the end, so as long as it works when animating, it should be good! i just want better knowledge of what's been made, and what's coming down the pipe for unreal rigging

[@unrealdevop]

Say, I believe there is something you're supposed to do at 9:00 like right clicking the ctrl and setting something from the menu that will bind it or something....It's been a while but I watched a video in French and that's what he did. I can't remember the exact process though. I could be miss-remembering however.

[@kamilabianchi]

Oh.. let me know if you find this out

[@JuanJC3D]

This is very good and detailed, thanks! And sorry for the noob question: do we have to do this entire process every time we want to use control rig on a new character, or can it be automated in any way? :)

[@kamilabianchi]

You can encapsulate some of these, so you just need to pass the name of the joints, for example and it should work (check Gabrielle's videos I put in the description) There is also an option to writing it in python now, but I haven't tried that yet myself. docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/control-rig-python-scripting-in-unreal-engine/

[@JuanJC3D]

@@kamilabianchi awesome, thanks!!

[@RDD87z]

nice guide. ty for sharing. do you animate your characters inside ue5? if yes... is it possible to move a controller of the rig, while recording? so it records the movement at once without keyframing it?

[@kamilabianchi]

Hey! I haven't tried that, but you might be interested on looking at the Take Recorder: docs.unrealengine.com/4.26/en-US/AnimatingObjects/Sequencer/Workflow/TakeRecorder/UsingTR/ I am not sure if it would work with the 'live' movement of the controller, but it's worth trying.

[@Ecceptor]

Thanks. really help me a lot. How do you create the other side? Is it copy paste the node?

[@kamilabianchi]

Yes. And replace all the joints / control names for the left side. There are "smarter" ways of using mirror node, or replace node (to replace L_ and R_) for example. But just copy and paste would work as well

[@lucasvalente6619]

Total UE newbie here. Question: could you make something like death stranding animations using this full body ik principle? Like procedural animations and such. Thank you for this class!

[@kamilabianchi]

Hey, First of all, what I show here is different from "full body ik". What I am doing is a rig to create animations, that has the options to switch between IK and FK. And yes, you can blend an animation before hitting the 100% ragdoll mode. But I think you are mixing different topics in here

[@lurtz7966]

Great tutorial, I have a little problem with the fk controls following ik, when I connect the parent constraints and set the switch to true the polevector control starts rotating around the leg uncontrollably, any idea of what is causing that ? thank you :)

[@kamilabianchi]

Hey, it's hard to tell, but here are some suggestions: 1. make sure the parent constraints parenting the joint to the control, not the opposite. 2. how is the pole vector position being calculated? the pole vector has no parent constraint to it, it's calculated in the setup event. 3. if you remove the pole vector from the IK solver, and turn the switch on and off, does it work? so you can isolate the problem is coming from the pole vector control itself and not something else.

[@lurtz7966]

@@kamilabianchi Thank you for replying, I already figured out, was because I didn't move the polevector control out of the foot control

[@CHITUS]

😀👍

[@AntrygJones]

Instead of having 4 hide control nodes, just use two with the active bool connected to your switch and put a NOT node on one of them.

[@kamilabianchi]

Yeah, I realised that after I finished this video 😅

[@MarySumner-gk5ze]

Hi, I have a question about your course on character rigging with the Buzz Lightyear rig from Agora. I can't seem to successfully bring it into Ue5 the way you describe in the video. How might I go about doing that? All it imports are the wings and nothing else? Thanks!

[@kamilabianchi]

Hello, the Agora rig is a maya rig, not created by me. Please check the .txt file from the course, which contains the link rig for the BuzzLightyear in Unreal.

[@peter486]

hey Kamilla is that a 100% working rig? .) im gona try it.. realy need a control rig to twek all my animations. i think its very strong to steak it all sinside the engine itself instead of doing it in maya for example. and importing it, because if you need to change anything you can just do it inside the project.

[@kamilabianchi]

Yes, that's the idea. Is fully functional yes. I show the basic rig with IK /FK switch. You can do more complex things in Unreal as well, but the basic should give you a good starting point.

[@johnnyz7365]

You know how to add Morph Target(blendshapes) to create controls for facial expressions ?

[@kamilabianchi]

Hey! Yes, it's pretty simple actually. I can make a video about that. But this is how the facial control for Metahuman is made, if you want to have a look.

[@GerardoAguirre80]

Hi, I'm testing your ik/fl swich in 5.2 but somehow it doesn't work in secuencer, if I set a keyframe in sequencer it shows proper controls but pose is reseted, it even happens with metahuman rig so maybe is a bug.

[@kamilabianchi]

Hey! If it is happening even with the metahuman rig it's probably a bug. Have you tried restarting the project? Does it give the same error? Sometimes the viewport looks like it's not working, but when you render it comes out correctly as well...

[@prashanthc.m7147]

i cant find setup event node in rig graph can anyone help me how to get setup event , instead i am getting construction event can i use that node instead of setup event. i am using 5.2

[@kamilabianchi]

Hey, yes, that's called Construction Event now. They changed the name but functionality is the same as 'Setup Event'

[@mists_of_time]

Hey there! Total UE5 noob here. In C4D I can draw a spline and make a character do his walkcycle along it. There's an IK system for the foot that automatically detect the ground. I can't replicate something like this in UE5's sequencer. When I use the 3rd person view pre-set's character in the sequencer the IK foot system stop working. It's hours I'm looking for tutorials. Do you have any advice for me?

[@kamilabianchi]

Ok, so, these are two different things. The IK system works for a playable character. Think that the sequencer is like an animation done in maya, pure keyframe based. You can have a look at constraints, and see if you can add them to the character in sequencer, to fake that detection with the ground. docs.unrealengine.com/5.1/en-US/animation-constraint-tools-in-unreal-engine/ And also have a look at 'take recorder', where you can record the animation of a character while playing, and then use that in the sequencer.

[@mists_of_time]

@@kamilabianchi thank you for your answer!

[@derekchan4403]

for the life of me i can't get the pole vector for the left elbow to move :/ any tips beyond mashing buttons and hoping that it'll stick haha

[@kamilabianchi]

haha sorry about that. Honestly, just delete your left control and mirror the control from the right side to the left (I mean, right click on the control and mirror to the other side). That will give your correct position to start from. And hopefully it will work from then. Someone else commented this once, not sure how helpful it is: "I believe there is something you're supposed to do at 9:00 like right clicking the ctrl and setting something from the menu that will bind it or something...."

[@derekchan4403]

@@kamilabianchi hey thank you so much! idk if i'm just doing something wrong or control rig is buggy...haha! I noticed that if i manually typed in the offset it tends to kinda work! I'm also getting a weird thing that when I add a parent constraint to the IKtwobone it starts swinging around the leg crazily have you seen that happen before?

[@kamilabianchi]

@@derekchan4403 Hey, you mean in the IKFK Switch part of the video? If so, make sure the parent constrain is happening after the IK is calculated. If not, I recommend using Branch to 'split' the tasks, so you can easily turn them on and off and track what is the issue. Also inverting the order as they happen might fix it as well, and Branch can help with that.

[@iv_kjs]

i still dont understand the spine part ,when i move the body downward it just move through the surface

[@kamilabianchi]

Sorry, I don't really get your question / what the problem is

[@watchandproduce]

I'm still missing a tutorial that puts this all in context. A good introduction video to rigging in UE5 is really hard to find.

[@kamilabianchi]

Hello, I have a course at flippednormals that is currently free. Check it out, it might help

[@mathajar9563]

what is full body control rig use for?

[@kamilabianchi]

To rig a full body? 🤣

[@mathajar9563]

hhe can you make animation workflow like short video hhw

[@kamilabianchi]

@@mathajar9563 yes. There are official tutorials and pages from Epic showing how to use it to create and edit animations.

[@timboslice5351]

Help? There is no Setup Event for me?

[@kamilabianchi]

Setup Event changed to Construction Event after 5.1

[@timboslice5351]

@@kamilabianchi thank you for the quick answer! Continuing with your tutorial now ;-)

[@bombomb_001]

!