You're reading from Unreal Engine 5 Character Creation, Animation, and Cinematics Create custom 3D assets and bring them to life in Unreal Engine 5 using MetaHuman, Lumen, and Nanite

Product type Paperback

Published in Jun 2022

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781801812443

Length 598 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

C++

Tools

Lumen

Concepts

Animation

Authors (2):

Wilhelm Ogterop

Henk Venter

View More author details

Table of Contents (27) Chapters

Preface

1. Part 1 Creating 3D Assets

2. Chapter 1: An Introduction to Blender's 3D Modeling and Sculpting Tools FREE CHAPTER

3. Chapter 2: Modeling a Robot Drone Character

4. Chapter 3: Let's Sculpt an Alien Plant!

5. Chapter 4: UV Maps and Texture Baking

6. Chapter 5: Texturing Your Models inside Quixel Mixer

7. Part 2 Building Your Virtual Movie Set in Unreal Engine 5

8. Chapter 6: Exploring Unreal Engine 5

9. Chapter 7: Setting Up Materials in UE 5

10. Chapter 8: Using MetaHuman to Create a Photorealistic Human for UE5

11. Chapter 9: Building a Virtual 3D Movie Set in UE5

12. Chapter 10: Adding Lighting and Atmospheric Visual Effects in UE5

13. Part 3 Character Rigging for Animation in UE5 with Control Rig

14. Chapter 11: Alien Plant Joint Setup in Blender

15. Chapter 12: Alien Plant Skinning in Blender

16. Chapter 13: Robot Joint Setup and Skinning in Blender

17. Chapter 14: Making a Custom Rig for Our Alien Plant with Control Rig

18. Chapter 15: Creating a Control Rig with Basic IK Controls for the Robot in UE5

19. Part 4 Animation in UE5 Using Control Rig and Sequencer

20. Chapter 16: Creating a Simple Swaying Animation Cycle in UE5 Sequencer

21. Chapter 17: Creating Three Simple Animations for the Robot in UE5 Sequencer

22. Chapter 18: Importing Motion Capture onto the MetaHuman Control Rig

23. Chapter 19: Motion Capture Editing and Cleanup Using Control Rig and Sequencer

24. Chapter 20: Using Sequencer to Construct Your Final Scene

25. Index

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26. Other Books You May Enjoy

What is IK?

A character Animation Rig is normally a combination of FK and IK setups. The spine, neck, and head, plus things such as tails, are normally set up as an FK. However, things such as arms and legs are normally set up as an IK within an Animation Rig. On more advanced Animation Rigs, it is possible to set arms and legs up in such a way that they can switch between the IK and FK, but that is beyond the scope of this book. Most of the time, you want a good IK setup for your arms and legs.

Understanding IK

Imagine we had an arm and a hand. We want to move the hand from A to B. With an FK setup, we will first need to rotate the upper arm joint and then the lower arm joint for the hand to reach B, as shown in Figure 15.1:

Figure 15.1 – FK A to B

In reality, we'll have to keep switching between rotating the upper and lower arm joints until we reach B exactly. This is a very time-consuming process. Very early on in the history of computer...