One of the most complex aspects of an animation scene is undoubtedly the animation of character movements. We have seen how rigging software like Cascadeur is incredible in supporting the work of the animator.
If, instead, you want to animate your characters directly within Unreal Engine with MetaHuman, in addition to using motion capture or face capture movements, you can use this new free tool released by Reallusion: CC-UE Control Rig, which offers full-body control, making it easier to manage character animations from Animate CC within Unreal Engine with realistic precision.
Character Creator UE Control Rig (CC UE Control Rig) Free Tool
Reallusion has released the Character Creator UE Control Rig (CC UE Control Rig), a new free plugin that allows users to pose and animate characters created with its Character Creator software within Unreal Engine using the standard MetaHuman interface.
Download Engine Plugin:
New free characters: Kevin and Nia
Additionally, Reallusion has released two free characters, Kevin and Nia, to use in your scenes in Unreal Engine, demonstrating the capabilities of the new plugin.
FREE Samples:
An intuitive method for rigging 3D characters in Unreal Engine
The Character Creator UE Control Rig is a custom Blueprint for Unreal Engine that allows users to rig and animate characters in the Character Creator (CC) format within Unreal Engine, using the standard Control Rig for MetaHuman characters.
Reallusion presents the export of rigged characters from Character Creator to Unreal Engine as a more intuitive character rigging workflow compared to using UE’s native tools, such as the new Modular Control Rig introduced in Unreal Engine 5.4.
Free Auto Setup plugin for Unreal Engine
The plugin is free, Auto Setup for Unreal Engine, it converts the skeletons and shaders of CC characters into their Unreal Engine equivalents during export.
The same workflow can be used for characters created in other DCC apps, auto-rigged with Character Creator’s AccuRig toolset, or with the free standalone edition.
Alternatively, the control rig can be used to refine animations created in iClone, Reallusion’s animation software, and then exported to Unreal Engine for rendering.
Full-body and facial control
The Character Creator UE Control Rig supports both full-body IK/FK posing and facial expressions based on morphs.
To simplify the setup of interactions with props, it features a Reach Target system similar to that of iClone.
Other key features include the ability to select multiple facial and body controls and save them as reusable preset poses, as demonstrated in this video.
Prices and system requirements
The Character Creator UE Control Rig is compatible with Unreal Engine 5.3+. It is free. Character Creator is compatible with Windows 7+. The cost is $299. Unreal Engine is free for offline use if you earn less than $1 million/year.