Complete game animators pipeline from Blender to engine from Udemy

What's inside

Learning objectives

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.
Compatible with all blender 3.0 and 4.0 versions

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.
Compatible with all blender 3.0 and 4.0 versions

Syllabus

Importance of scale

Download the resources used in this course. Credit to "BlendTek" for the use of the character mesh

Setting up the animation rig

Setting up the foot control bones and leg IK

Download the course content to follow along with.

Introduction

Download and install Blender

Set up a professional animation rig ready for a game engine.

Setting up the hip, spine and head control bones

Updated lecture for setting up custom bone shapes and colours using Blender 4.0 and higher

Setting up Custom Bone shapes (For 3.0 versions of Blender)

Creating finger drivers using animation actions

Assign the armature with all the bones to the character mesh.

Quick basics of weight painting

Part 1: Adding the character mesh to the Armature

Part 2: Adding the character mesh to the Armature

Part 3: Adding the character mesh to the Armature

Part 4: Adding the character mesh to the Armature

Creating the main idle animations

Animating the main stand idle animation

Animating the main crouched idle animation

Learn how to create compeling walk cycles using layers and create a full set of walk animations that can be blended together to create motion in any direction.

Animating with motion extraction in mind

Creating the forward walk cycle part 1

Creating the forward walk cycle part 2

Creating the left walk forward cycle

Creating the right walk forward cycle

Creating the backwards walk cycles

Creating the 45 degree walk cycles Part 1

Creating the 45 degree walk cycles part 2

Learn how to correctly export the character rig and animations as .fbx files

Setting up the idles ready for export

Exporting the main skeleton

Exporting all our animations so far

Animating the Run cycles

Section introduction

Creating the forward run cycle part 1

Creating the forward run cycle part 2

Creating the left forward run cycle

Creating the right forward run cycle

Creating the 45 degree forward right run cycle

Creating the 45 degree forward left run cycle

Creating the run back cycle

Creating the run back left cycle

Creating the run back right cycle

Creating the run back right 45 cycle

Student challange. In this lecture put into practice some of the techniques learned so far and create the run back left 45 animation cycle by reversing the run forwards right 45 animation and doing some basic fix up of the feet and torso by using animation action layers.

Student challenge: Exporting the run animation cycles

Student challenge: Exporting the run animations

Animating the crouched walk cycles

Creating the forward crouched walk cycle

Creating the left forward crouched walk cycle

Creating the right forward crouched walk cycle

Creating the crouch left forward 45 cycle

Creating the crouch right forward 45 cycle

Creating the backwards crouched walk cycle

Creating the crouch right back cycle

Creating the crouch left back cycle

Creating the left and right back 45 crouched walk cycles

Student challenge: Export the crouch animations

Creating pose assets

Creating pose assets and using the Blender asset browser (Blender versions 3.0)

Creating the idle transition animations

Creating the transition animation from stand to crouched

Creating the transition animation from crouched to stand

Creating the soft stop from Run transitions

Creating the run fwd to stand soft stop

Creating the run left fwd to stand soft stop

Creating the run right fwd to stand soft stop

Creating the run fwd 45's to stand soft stop

Creating the run back to stand soft stop

Creating the run back 45's to stand soft stop

Creating the soft stop from crouch transitions

Creating the crouch fwd to crouch soft stop

Creating the crouch back to crouch soft stop

Creating the crouch left fwd to crouch soft stop

Creating the crouch right fwd to crouch soft stop

Creating the crouch fwd 45's to crouch soft stop

Creating the crouch back 45's to crouch soft stop

Creating the soft stop from walk transitions

Creating the walk fwd to stand transition

Creating the walk left and right fwd to stand transition

Creating the walk back to stand transition

Creating the walk back 45s to stand transition

Creating the walk fwd 45s to stand transition

They will have exported all the transition animations for the main character

Student challenge: Export all the transition animations for the main character

Creating the turn on spot animations

Creating the stand turn left 90 animation

Creating the stand turn right 90 animation

Creating the Crouch turn left 90 animation

Creating the crouch turn right 90 animation

Creating the look around blends

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Complete game animators pipeline from Blender to engine with these activities:

Review Blender's Animation Tools

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Familiarize yourself with Blender's animation tools to better understand the rigging and animation processes covered in the course.

Browse courses on Blender

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Explore the Dope Sheet and Graph Editor.
Practice creating simple keyframe animations.
Experiment with different interpolation modes.

Read 'The Animator's Survival Kit'

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Study animation principles to improve the quality of your animations.

View Adventures in Animation: How I Learned Who I... on Amazon

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Read chapters on timing and spacing.
Study examples of good and bad animation.
Apply the principles to your Blender animations.

Practice Walk Cycles

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Refine your walk cycle animation skills to create more realistic and engaging character movement.

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Create a basic walk cycle in Blender.
Focus on proper weight shifting and timing.
Experiment with different walk cycle variations.

Four other activities

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Animate a Short Scene

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Apply your animation skills to create a short scene with character interaction to reinforce your understanding of the animation pipeline.

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Plan a short scene with a character interaction.
Animate the characters using Blender.
Export the animation to Unreal Engine.
Set up the scene in Unreal Engine.

Explore Advanced Rigging Techniques

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Learn advanced rigging techniques to create more flexible and controllable character rigs.

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Find tutorials on advanced rigging techniques.
Follow the tutorials to create a custom rig.
Experiment with different rigging setups.

Read 'Unreal Engine 5 Character Creation, Animation, and Cinematics'

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Study Unreal Engine character animation techniques to enhance your game development skills.

View Putting Knowledge to Work on Amazon

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Read chapters on animation blueprints.
Study examples of character implementation.
Apply the techniques to your Unreal Engine projects.

Contribute to a Blender Add-on

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Contribute to an open-source Blender add-on to gain experience with collaborative development and improve your Blender skills.

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Find an open-source Blender add-on project.
Identify a bug or feature to work on.
Contribute your code to the project.

Career center

Learners who complete Complete game animators pipeline from Blender to engine will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Game Animator

A game animator breathes life into characters and objects within a game, creating realistic and engaging movement. This role involves designing and implementing animations for characters, creatures, and environmental elements, ensuring they align with the game's style and mechanics. A game animator should understand how to create a professional custom animation rig, animate by hand, and set up animation graphs. This course teaches students how to create professional complete game-ready animation sets, which helps build a portfolio that highlights your skills in character animation. The course also demonstrates how to export animations correctly and bring them into a game engine, creating a playable character that can move around a game world.

See salaries and explore the career path for Game Animator

Technical Animator

A technical animator bridges the gap between artists and programmers, focusing on the technical aspects of animation implementation in a game engine. This position requires proficiency in rigging, skinning, and scripting to ensure animations function correctly within the game. If you want to become a technical animator, this course teaches you how to create a custom animation rig and set up animation graphs in Unreal Engine 5, which helps you be proficient in rigging and animation implementation. This course shows the correct way to set up a character rig and the correct export and import settings, which helps create a functional animation.

See salaries and explore the career path for Technical Animator

Animator

An animator creates the illusion of movement by designing and drawing individual frames or poses that, when played in sequence, produce the effect of motion. The role can span from traditional hand-drawn animation to cutting edge computer generated imagery. Animators may find value in this course through its demonstration of the creation of a professional custom animation rig, animating by hand, exporting, and importing correctly. The lessons will help students create compelling movement. A modern animator should also be aware of how to set up animation graphs, blend states and more in Unreal Engine 5, a skill this course provides instruction in.

See salaries and explore the career path for Animator

Character Rigger

A character rigger designs and implements the skeletal structure and control systems for 3D characters, enabling animators to pose and animate them effectively. This specialized role blends artistic skill with technical knowledge to create rigs that are both intuitive and robust. If you want to become a character rigger, this course helps you master the process of creating a professional custom animation rig from scratch. The course content includes detailed instruction on setting up foot control bones, leg inverse kinematics, hip, spine, and head control bones, and finger drivers using animation actions. The course demonstrates the correct way to set up a character rig, including setting up custom bone shapes and colors using Blender 4.0 and higher.

See salaries and explore the career path for Character Rigger

Indie Game Developer

An indie game developer works independently or as part of a small team to create and publish their own video games. This role requires a diverse skill set, including programming, art, and design. If you want to become an indie game developer, this course may be useful because it teaches you how to create a professional custom animation rig and animate by hand, a skill that is important to smaller teams and solo developers. You will learn how to export correctly and bring animations into Unreal Engine, the most popular game engine. This course may assist you in developing a fully playable character that can move around the game world.

See salaries and explore the career path for Indie Game Developer

Augmented Reality Developer

An augmented reality developer builds interactive experiences that overlay digital content onto the real world, using platforms like ARKit and ARCore. This role involves skills in computer vision, 3D modeling, and mobile development. This course may benefit an augmented reality developer by teaching how to implement animations into a game engine. The course goes over setting up an animation graph and character blueprint as well as creating a character animation set. By the end of the course, you will have a fully playable character that can move around a digital world.

See salaries and explore the career path for Augmented Reality Developer

Virtual Reality Developer

A virtual reality developer creates immersive experiences for virtual reality platforms, designing interactive environments and user interfaces. This role requires knowledge of 3D modeling, animation, and VR development tools. This course may be useful to a virtual reality develop because it teaches how to implement animations into a game engine. You will learn how to set up an animation graph and character blueprint along with creating a character animation set. By the end of the course, you will have a fully playable character that can move around a game world.

See salaries and explore the career path for Virtual Reality Developer

Motion Capture Artist

A motion capture artist works with motion capture technology to record the movements of actors, which are then translated into digital animation. This role requires a strong understanding of anatomy, movement, and animation principles. This course may assist a motion capture artist by helping to prepare you for the post-capture phase. You will learn about creating and refining animations. The course covers creating compelling movement, setting up animation layers, and more. Additionally, the course covers exporting animations correctly and importing them into the game engine.

See salaries and explore the career path for Motion Capture Artist

Game Designer

A game designer is responsible for creating the vision, rules, and mechanics of a video game. This role involves designing gameplay systems, defining the player experience, and collaborating with artists and programmers to bring the game to life. This course may be useful to a game designer because you need to understand how characters move and interact with the game world. The course materials cover setting up an animation graph and character blueprint, creating a custom character controller, and more. By the end of this course, you will have a fully playable character that can move around the game world.

See salaries and explore the career path for Game Designer

Animation Director

An animation director oversees the animation team, guiding the creative vision and ensuring the quality of the animation work. This role requires strong leadership skills, artistic expertise, and a deep understanding of animation principles. If you want to become an animation director, this course may be useful to you. The course demonstrates how to create compelling walk cycles, use animation layers, and build up movement. The course explains the animation pipeline from Blender to Unreal. Given the broad nature of the role, the knowledge gained here may be useful.

See salaries and explore the career path for Animation Director

3D Modeler

A 3D modeler creates three-dimensional models of objects and characters for use in video games, films, and other media. The role typically uses specialized software to build these models, paying close attention to detail and anatomy. This course may be useful to a 3D modeler because you will learn how to assign a character mesh to an armature. This involves weight painting, which is an important step in bringing a 3D model to life. The course also uses Blender, which is a prevalent, industry standard 3D modeling software.

See salaries and explore the career path for 3D Modeler

Motion Graphics Designer

A motion graphics designer creates animated graphics and visual effects for a variety of media, including television, film, and web. The role requires a strong understanding of design principles, animation techniques, and visual storytelling. This course may be helpful to a motion graphics designer because you will learn how to animate in Blender, create rigs, and export animations. This course also shows you how to develop compelling movement. Motion graphics often need character animation.

See salaries and explore the career path for Motion Graphics Designer

Gameplay Programmer

A gameplay programmer implements the rules, mechanics, and interactions that define the gameplay experience. This role requires strong coding skills and a deep understanding of game design principles. While a gameplay programmer will need to learn to code, this course may still be useful to a gameplay programmer because it teaches how to set up an animation graph and character blueprint using nodes in Unreal's blueprint system. By the end of the course, you will have a fully playable character that can move around the game world.

See salaries and explore the career path for Gameplay Programmer

Artificial Intelligence Programmer

An artificial intelligence programmer develops the algorithms and systems that control the behavior of non-player characters and other AI elements within a game. This role requires expertise in AI techniques, such as pathfinding, decision trees, and machine learning. This course may still be useful to an artificial intelligence programmer because the course touches on character animation. The course also teaches how to set up movement for an in game character, which can be used to implement AI.

See salaries and explore the career path for Artificial Intelligence Programmer

Software Engineer

A software engineer designs, develops, and tests software applications. This role requires a strong understanding of computer science principles, programming languages, and software development methodologies. This course may still be useful to a software engineer who wants to work on a game due to its focus on the animation pipeline. This knowledge can be useful for any engineer who works on any part of the game engine, tools, or even the game itself.

See salaries and explore the career path for Software Engineer

Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Complete game animators pipeline from Blender to engine.

ADVENTURES IN ANIMATION

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Comprehensive guide to traditional animation principles that are directly applicable to 3D animation. It covers key concepts like timing, spacing, weight, and anticipation. Understanding these principles will significantly improve the quality and believability of your character animations in Blender and Unreal Engine. This book is considered a must-read for animators of all levels.

Adventures in Animation: How I Learned Who I...

Hardcover

Putting Knowledge to Work

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Provides a comprehensive guide to creating, animating, and implementing characters in Unreal Engine 5. It covers topics such as character rigging, animation blueprints, and cinematic sequences. Reading this book will help you deepen your understanding of the Unreal Engine side of the animation pipeline. It valuable resource for both beginners and experienced Unreal Engine users.

Putting Knowledge to Work

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Putting Knowledge to Work

Kindle Edition

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Complete game animators pipeline from Blender to engine

What's inside

Learning objectives

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Activities

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