Make and take a professional game ready character rig, and a full set of hand keyed movement animations into engine.
What you'll learn
The complete game character animation pipeline from Blender to Unreal
How to make professional complete game ready animation sets for an in game character.
Create a professional game ready animation rig from scratch.
Tips and tricks on creating better walk cycles, and using animation layers to build up compeling movment.
How to set up animation graphs, blend states and more in Unreal engine 5
Create a game ready character that can walk, run, jump, strafe and more!
Learn the correct way to set up a character rig, and correct export and import settings from Blender to Unreal engine.
Requirements
No experience needed. Follow along and create the animations from scratch, or use the included animation files, and learn the theory of creating a full set of game ready animations and how to set them up in an animation graph in Unreal Engine 5.
All software needed for the course (Blender and Unreal engine 5) can be downloaded for free, and the included character mesh and animation files means everything is included to complete the course. If you have never done animation before, the course will guide you through each step, in easy to follow sections.
Description
This course was created to help students or anybody learn the full game animators pipeline from Blender to Unreal. You will learn how to create a professional custom animation rig, and animate by hand, a full set of idle, transition and movement animations, and how to export correctly, and bring them all into the Unreal engine. From there you will learn how to set up an animation graph and character blueprint, and create a custom character controller that will allow you to walk, run, crouch, jump and more. No experience required, the full process is walked through in easy to follow steps broken down into logical sections, each building on the last, with lots of tips and tricks to make your animations work correctly as a complete set as used in a modern AAA game.No coding knowledge is required as everything will be created in Unreal's blueprint system using nodes, just simply follow along and build up the character controller bit by bit, and by the end of the course, you will have a fully playable character that can move around the game world, with the satisfaction and knowledge that you created the whole thing from scratch. So lets get started!
Overview
Section 1: Introduction
Lecture 1 Introduction
Section 2: Download and install Blender
Lecture 2 Download and install Blender
Section 3: Setting up the animation rig
Lecture 3 Importance of scale
Lecture 4 Download the course resources
Lecture 5 Setting up the animation rig
Lecture 6 Setting up the foot control bones and leg IK
Lecture 7 Setting up the hip, spine and head control bones
Lecture 8 Setting up Custom Bone shapes
Lecture 9 Creating finger drivers using animation actions
Section 4: Adding the character mesh to the armature rig
Lecture 10 Quick basics of weight painting
Lecture 11 Part 1: Adding the character mesh to the Armature
Lecture 12 Part 2: Adding the character mesh to the Armature
Lecture 13 Part 3: Adding the character mesh to the Armature
Lecture 14 Part 4: Adding the character mesh to the Armature
Section 5: Creating the main idle animations
Lecture 15 Section introduction
Lecture 16 Animating the main stand idle animation
Lecture 17 Animating the main crouched idle animation
Section 6: Animating the walk cycles
Lecture 18 Section introduction
Lecture 19 Animating with motion extraction in mind
Lecture 20 Creating the forward walk cycle part 1
Lecture 21 Creating the forward walk cycle part 2
Lecture 22 Creating the left walk forward cycle
Lecture 23 Creating the right walk forward cycle
Lecture 24 Creating the backwards walk cycles
Lecture 25 Creating the 45 degree walk cycles Part 1
Lecture 26 Creating the 45 degree walk cycles part 2
Section 7: Exporting The Armature and animations
Lecture 27 Setting up the idles ready for export
Lecture 28 Exporting the main skeleton
Lecture 29 Exporting all our animations so far
Section 8: Animating the Run cycles
Lecture 30 Section introduction
Lecture 31 Creating the forward run cycle part 1
Lecture 32 Creating the forward run cycle part 2
Lecture 33 Creating the left forward run cycle
Lecture 34 Creating the right forward run cycle
Lecture 35 Creating the 45 degree forward right run cycle
Lecture 36 Creating the 45 degree forward left run cycle
Lecture 37 Creating the run back cycle
Lecture 38 Creating the run back left cycle
Lecture 39 Creating the run back right cycle
Lecture 40 Creating the run back right 45 cycle
Lecture 41 Student challenge: Creating the run back left 45 cycle
Section 9: Student challenge: Exporting the run animation cycles
Lecture 42 Student challenge: Exporting the run animations
Section 10: Animating the crouched walk cycles
Lecture 43 Section introduction
Lecture 44 Creating the forward crouched walk cycle
Lecture 45 Creating the left forward crouched walk cycle
Lecture 46 Creating the right forward crouched walk cycle
Lecture 47 Creating the crouch left forward 45 cycle
Lecture 48 Creating the crouch right forward 45 cycle
Lecture 49 Creating the backwards crouched walk cycle
Lecture 50 Creating the crouch right back cycle
Lecture 51 Creating the crouch left back cycle
Lecture 52 Creating the left and right back 45 crouched walk cycles
Section 11: Student challenge: Export the crouch animations
Lecture 53 Student challenge: Export the crouch animations
Section 12: Creating pose assets
Lecture 54 Creating pose assets and using the Blender asset browser
Section 13: Creating the idle transition animations
Lecture 55 Creating the transition animation from stand to crouched
Lecture 56 Creating the transition animation from crouched to stand
Section 14: Creating the soft stop from Run transitions
Lecture 57 Creating the run fwd to stand soft stop
Lecture 58 Creating the run left fwd to stand soft stop
Lecture 59 Creating the run right fwd to stand soft stop
Lecture 60 Creating the run fwd 45's to stand soft stop
Lecture 61 Creating the run back to stand soft stop
Lecture 62 Creating the run back 45's to stand soft stop
Section 15: Creating the soft stop from crouch transitions
Lecture 63 Creating the crouch fwd to crouch soft stop
Lecture 64 Creating the crouch back to crouch soft stop
Lecture 65 Creating the crouch left fwd to crouch soft stop
Lecture 66 Creating the crouch right fwd to crouch soft stop
Lecture 67 Creating the crouch fwd 45's to crouch soft stop
Lecture 68 Creating the crouch back 45's to crouch soft stop
Section 16: Creating the soft stop from walk transitions
Lecture 69 Creating the walk fwd to stand transition
Lecture 70 Creating the walk left and right fwd to stand transition
Lecture 71 Creating the walk back to stand transition
Lecture 72 Creating the walk back 45s to stand transition
Lecture 73 Creating the walk fwd 45s to stand transition
Section 17: Student challange: Export All the transition animations
Lecture 74 Student challenge: Export all the transition animations for the main character
Section 18: Creating the turn on spot animations
Lecture 75 Section introduction
Lecture 76 Creating the stand turn left 90 animation
Lecture 77 Creating the stand turn right 90 animation
Lecture 78 Creating the Crouch turn left 90 animation
Lecture 79 Creating the crouch turn right 90 animation
Section 19: Creating the look around blends
Lecture 80 Section introduction
Lecture 81 Creating the stand look around blends
Lecture 82 Creating the crouch look around blends
Section 20: Creating the jumping and landing animations
Lecture 83 Section introduction
Lecture 84 Creating the jump and land animations
Section 21: Creating our playable character in Unreal
Lecture 85 Section introduction and resources
Lecture 86 Download and install Unreal engine 5
Lecture 87 Import the character rig
Lecture 88 Import the animation sets
Lecture 89 Create the movement blend spaces
Lecture 90 Create the soft stop animation blends
Lecture 91 Create the look around blends
Lecture 92 Create the animation blueprint
Lecture 93 Create the character blueprint
Lecture 94 Create the variables for the character blueprint
Lecture 95 Create the variables for the animation blueprint
Lecture 96 Set up the control input mappings
Lecture 97 Set up the character BP : Part 1
Lecture 98 Set up the character BP : Part 2
Lecture 99 Set up the animation BP : Part 1
Lecture 100 Set up the animation BP : Part 2
Lecture 101 Set up the animation BP : Part 3
Lecture 102 Adding the animations to the animation graph: part 1
Lecture 103 Adding the animations to the animation graph: part 2
Lecture 104 Adding the animations to the animation graph: part 3
Lecture 105 Wrapping up and final thoughts
Beginner game developers interested in learning how to create professional game ready character animations, and how to implement them into a game engine.,Students wanting to get a better understanding of the full pipeline required for a games animator.
