Hi there, I’m fairly new to Unreal Engine, but have been having some success in creating an animation using a combination of motion capture files and the control rig. I’m trying to have my character(a Metahuman) bring his hand to the side of his head and touch the earpiece he is wearing to communicate over radio, which in itself is simple enough, but is there a way to lock his hand/finger in place relative to his head, so that his finger stays omn the earpiece for the duration of his conversation despite other idle animations in the character? I can do this manually with tons of keyframes, but I suspect there is a way to lock the hand in relation to the head or temporarily stick them together so that it automatically adjusts the arm and hand joints to keep the hand in place. Am I correct on this, or is there no other option than hand animating and possibly having to live with the sense of the hand floating rather than pressing against the earpiece. Any advice will be welcome and appreciated!
Yes, this could be done via some dynamic IK.
I remember Epic talking about changing the root of bones in control rigs for this sort of of thing in UE5, but I cannot recall where.
The UE4 method requires modifying your animation blueprint to add the ability to change the bone used for the hands IK to whatever you need it to be.
Then when the animation starts, you can set the hand IK bone to the head bone, and blend into it using an animation curve.
We use this method so that when a character reloads, their hand moves to their pelvis when putting away the old mag and getting a new one.