Ask Epic Anything: Animation & Cinematics | June 21st, 2023 at 10AM EST

[PixelandPoly]

I would love to be able to move about my map especially in a cinematic viewport and have all my auto-playing sequences play. This would be especially useful for creating fly-throughs for map submissions, but also to just get a good sense of the map while in UEFN.

Is this currently possible? Thx!

[Mineblo]

What tips do you have for any person who doesn’t have any background in animating or doing cinematics? What would you recommend to start with

[Stephan_Rub]

When will Animation Blueprints or a similar system come to UEFN? I’m asking primarily because I want to be able to change the player character model or create my own skins.

[Stephan_Rub]

Cinematic Sequences do not seem to work the same way as they do in the Unreal Engine. There is no way to keep the animated objects in their final position after the sequence is finished. Is there a fix for that?

[wxyz]

I was wondering if you could run over some of the more useful control rig nodes and how you put them to use, as in beyond the SpringInterp node?

[TomSarkanen]

@Wertandrew

Any plans to expose Morph targets and additive animation curves +keys?

We have recently fixed a bug where morph targets were failing validation. This fix should be ready in 25.20. Additive animations are planned to be exposed in the future.

[chasecooper]

@Wertandrew

Can you explain how a control rig is used after it is made?

Control Rig can be used to create animation on a digital skeleton inside UEFN. Once a Control Rig is created, it can be dragged into the level to launch Sequencer and start creating animation directly in UEFN. Animations can then be converted into Animation Sequences and used for gameplay animation.

[TomSarkanen]

@Wertandrew

Is there any trick in simulating root motion on our own (since its not exposed) so that the character is perfectly moving without sliding their feet?

Root motion is currently disabled but we plan to expose the feature in the future once it is ready for UEFN

[TomSarkanen]

@le-8g7e

Are you planning to add a way to create custom animation code in Verse which can run locally at the games framerate, or will this eventually be done with Blueprint nodes?

We do plan on Verse being able to control animation logic in the future, but we don’t have anything to announce at this time

[TomSarkanen]

@BluDrive

Since Morph Targets fail validation in UEFN, do you have any best practices for capturing facial animations that are applied to/drive a facial bone rig instead?

For context, my initial pipeline was to use Live Link with UE5, then bake the performance to an animation asset which could be migrated and played back on the same SK mesh in UEFN

Morph targets no longer fail validation as of 25.20, so your morph-based workflow should work after that update.

[GregoryRich19 (Greg Richardson)]

@Wertandrew

• A sequencer does not keep state if an animation is set to play on a character, any idea why (keep state is on)?

While the Cinematic Sequence Device has a checkbox to restore store, this isn't an override as each track have their own keep/restore state property. This can be found by right mouse clicking on the track/section in the timeline and changing the "When Finished" property

[TomSarkanen]

@Stephan_Rub

When will Animation Blueprints or a similar system come to UEFN? I’m asking primarily because I want to be able to change the player character model or create my own skins.

We are aware of the demand for these features and are actively working on solutions.

[GregoryRich19 (Greg Richardson)]

@Wertandrew

Whats the best way to animate UI?

UI Animation in UEFN is not within this team’s expertise, however this will be addressed in the future

[GregoryRich19 (Greg Richardson)]

@Wertandrew

Can you explain cases where additive and relative tracks are useful? I am only using additive from base, rest I cannot figure out.

One of the main usecases is being able to have another section that is additive for only a certain amount of time. So for example after using Bake to Control Rig, if you wanted to make an additive for a specific range in time to do some edits, you can make an additive section for the specific frame ranges and just have that additive section evaluate then. This doesn’t just apply to Control Rig tracks, but all blendable tracks (Transforms)

[GregoryRich19 (Greg Richardson)]

@Wertandrew

How can I track a state of a transform between two level sequences (I have one that sets an object in place, and another that rotates it, but I cant track the object in the second one correctly and it adds offsets, keep state is on).

Could you clarify or give an example by what you mean for tracking a state of a transform? Are you trying to query the raw values before the second sequence gets played?

[GregoryRich19 (Greg Richardson)]

@Wertandrew

Why are level sequences skipping keys on wireless connections (even on high connection speeds)? Fade tracks make players stay with a black screen and custom camera may never switch back to player camera.

We’re aware of this issue and currently looking into it. Any updates made will be covered in our patch notes.

[GregoryRich19 (Greg Richardson)]

@Wertandrew

Any plans on exposing state machines in UEFN or IK Retargeting?

We are looking into IK retargeting and will update future patch notes if there are any updates!

[alche_studio1]

When will morph target animations be available and why aren’t they currently available?

[TomSarkanen]

Morph targets currently fail validation because of a bug that is fixed for version 25.20, so should work after that update.

[GregoryRich19 (Greg Richardson)]

@kalishane_eg

How can control rig and material parameter collections be used with sequencer to manipulate values with Verse?

Could you clarify or give an example your usecase?