I’m using Unreal Engine 5.5 and I have a Sequence Player setup with an Animation Control Rig. I’m trying to animate/drive Control Rig controls at runtime so I can see live pose changes while the game is running for example, dialing an upper-body pose offset (spine/chest/arms) and immediately seeing the impact on the character. I saw a keynote, I think it was during the lego showcase that the dev was showing that being a possibility. Right now, when I run in PIE, all my controllers (and the control rig itself is disappearing.
What I want:
While PIE / in-game, adjust a few Control Rig controls (or a “pose” variable) and have the character update live.
The goal is “artist-friendly live tuning,” similar to tweaking a pose slider and seeing it instantly on the character.
Questions:
What is the recommended way to set Control Rig control values at runtime when the Control Rig is running inside an Animation Blueprint?
Are there engine limitations (threading, animation worker threads, evaluation order) that prevent reliably driving Control Rig controls during runtime?
If direct control access isn’t supported, what’s the best supported alternative to achieve live pose tuning?
Context: Character uses standard ABP pipeline (state machine + layered blend per bone for upper body).
So there are a couple of tools you’ll need to be able to do the workflow. The first one is Linked Animation Sequences. Here’s how you set them up.
Set up your level sequence with your control rig character/actor. (This is effectively your source file)
Right-click on the Character/Actor track on the left side of the sequence window.
Choose “Create Linked Animation Sequence”, and choose the output place and name of your animation sequence for you character. You will run into issues if you try to replace an existing file; you’ll most likely need to create new files.
Now, whenever you save your sequence, the referenced animation sequence will be updated.
Looping editor playback:
As you are animating, you can place another character that is playing your animation on loop or whatever you like in the world. The main thing you need to check on is the Skeletal Mesh Component; ensure that “Update Animation in Editor” is on. This will allow you to loop the animation sequence or run the anim blueprint, and you can see updates as well.
Runtime in Pie Playback:
The first thing you need to do is, in the top-left corner of the sequencer window, there is a small drop-down with a globe icon. Turn off “Auto Bind in Pie”. Then run your game in a New Editor (PIE) window. This should allow you to still access your control rig in your main editor window with sequencer open, and then make edits to your animation. Once you save, it should automatically update in-game.