This tutorial will show you how to retarget animations from the Unreal Engine 5 Mannequin (Quinn) to a MetaHuman using Animation Blueprints, then use that MetaHuman as a playable character inside your Level.
This method does not use IK Rig leg placement functionality. Your animated MetaHuman's legs will not conform dynamically to the terrain. If you want to use IK Rig functionality, refer to the Runtime Animation Retargeting page.
Required Knowledge and Setup
This page requires basic knowledge of Animation Blueprints in Unreal Engine.
Before you can follow the steps outlined on this page, you need to do the following:
Create a new Unreal Engine project based on the Third Person Template. If you need help completing this step, refer to the following pages in the Unreal Engine 5 documentation:
Download a MetaHuman and import them into your project. If you need help completing this step, refer to the following pages:
Workflow
This workflow consists of the following steps:
Retarget the Quinn Animation Blueprint to your MetaHuman’s Skeletal Mesh.
Create the controllable MetaHuman Blueprint.
Set your MetaHuman as the Default Pawn Class in the Game Mode Blueprint.
Fix the legs animation.
Retarget the Quinn Animation Blueprint
The first step is to retarget the Quinn Animation Blueprint, which controls Quinn’s animations, to your MetaHuman’s Skeletal Mesh.
Follow these steps:
In the Content Browser, find the
ABP_Quinn
Animation Blueprint. You can either use the Search Bar, or navigate to theContent/Characters/Mannequins/Animations
folder.Right-click the
ABP_Quinn
Animation Blueprint and, from the context menu, select Retarget Animation Assets > Duplicate and Retarget Animation Blueprint.In the IK Retargeter section, click the dropdown and select the RTG_Mannequin Asset.
This populates both the Source Skeletal Mesh and Target Skeletal Mesh previews with the Manny Skeletal Mesh.
Click the Target Skeletal Mesh dropdown underneath the preview and select the body mesh that corresponds to your MetaHuman.
As a reminder, all skeletal meshes follow the same naming convention:
gender-presentation_height_weight_mesh-purpose
. This tutorial uses the Bryan preset, whose attributes are as follows:gender-presentation: m
height: med
weight: nrw
Body meshes have the
\_body
suffix.For this tutorial, the mesh you’re looking for is named
m_medium_nrw_body
. Search for it in the dropdown and select it.(Optional) Configure additional options for the retargeted Assets:
Enter a Prefix and / or Suffix to be added to the filenames of the new Assets.
Click Change next to the Folder option, and browse to the path where you want the retargeted Assets to be created.
Click Retarget.
You will see a message in the lower-right corner: "
{Number}
assets were retargeted to new skeleton{mesh-name}
. See Output for details." This confirms that the retarget was successful.You will also be able to see the new retargeted Assets in the Content Browser.
In the Content Browser, click Save All to save the newly created Assets.
Make a note of the name and location of the new Animation Blueprint Asset that was created as part of this step. You’re going to need this later.
For the purpose of this tutorial, the files are saved in the Content
folder, and the filenames are unchanged.
Create the Controllable MetaHuman Blueprint
Next, create the controllable MetaHuman Blueprint. By the end of this tutorial, this Blueprint will be how you replace Quinn as the playable character in your Level with your MetaHuman.
The workflow below requires you to switch between two Blueprint Editors. Make sure you’re in the correct Blueprint Editor before following a step.
Follow these steps:
In the Content Browser, find the
BP_ThirdPersonCharacter
Blueprint Class. This Blueprint is located in theContent/ThirdPerson/Blueprints
folder.Right-click the
BP_ThirdPersonCharacter
Blueprint and, from the context menu, select Duplicate.Name the duplicated Blueprint
BP_MetaHumanCharacter
.Double-click the
BP_MetaHumanCharacter
Blueprint to open it in the Blueprint Editor, then switch to the Viewport tab.The newly created BP_MetaHuman Character Blueprint still uses the Quinn Skeletal Mesh for now. We’ll change that in the next steps.
Go back to the Content Browser and find your MetaHuman’s Blueprint. This Blueprint is located in the
Content/MetaHumans/(MetaHumanName)
folder, and is namedBP_(MetaHumanName)
.This tutorial uses the Bryan preset, whose Blueprint is located in
Content/MetaHumans/Bryan
and is namedBP_Bryan
. Double-click theBP_Bryan
Blueprint to open it in the Blueprint Editor, then switch to the Viewport tab.In the
BP_Bryan
Blueprint, click the Body Component (1). Then, in the Details panel, navigate to the Mesh section (2) and locate the Skeletal Mesh property. Click Browse to Asset (3).Clicking this button will browse to this MetaHuman’s body Skeletal Mesh in the Content Browser.
Switch to the
BP_MetaHumanCharacter
Blueprint. and click the Body Component (1). Then, in the Details panel, navigate to the Mesh section (2) and locate the Skeletal Mesh property. Click Use Selected Asset from Content Browser (3).Switch to the
BP_Bryan
Blueprint. In the Components tab, select the following Components:Feet
Legs
Torso
Face
Hair
Eyebrows
Fuzz
Eyelashes
Mustache
Beard
To select multiple Components, click the first Component you want to select. Then, holding down the Shift key, click the last Component you want to select.
Use the Ctrl + C keyboard shortcut to copy the Components you selected.
Switch to the
BP_MetaHumanCharacter
Blueprint. In the Components panel, click the Mesh (CharacterMesh0) Component, then use the Ctrl + V keyboard shortcut to paste the Components you copied in the previous step.Continuing from the previous step, in the Components panel, select and then click and drag the Components you copied earlier to parent them to the appropriate Mesh Components. Your finished hierarchy should look like the screenshot below.
The order of the Components in this window doesn’t matter, as long as all Components have the correct parent.
Select the Legs, Feet, Face, and Torso Components (1). Then, in the Details panel, navigate to the Transform section. Click the two Reset buttons (2) next to the Location and Rotation values to reset these values to zero.
To select multiple non-consecutive Components, hold down the Ctrl key and left-click each Component you want to select.
Select the Mesh Component. Then, in the Details panel, navigate to the Animation section and configure the following properties:
Animation Mode: Set this to Use Animation Blueprint.
Animation Class: Select the
ABP_Quinn
Animation Blueprint you created in the section above.
Switch to the Blueprint Editor for the
BP_Bryan
Blueprint. In the Functions panel, click the EnableMasterPose function, then use the Ctrl + C keyboard shortcut to copy it.Switch to the
BP_MetaHumanCharacter
Blueprint. Click inside the Functions panel, then use the Ctrl + V keyboard shortcut to paste the EnableMasterPose function you copied in the previous step.Continuing from the previous step, still in the
BP_MetaHumanCharacter
Blueprint, double-click the EnableMasterPose function to open it. Find the Set Master Component Node, which is located on the rightmost side of the Blueprint.If you try to compile your Blueprint now, you will receive an error: "The property associated with Body could not be found." We will fix that in the next step.
From the Components window, drag the Mesh (CharacterMesh) Component into the Blueprint. This will create a Mesh node. Click and drag from the output pin of the Mesh node, and connect it to the New Master Bone Component property on the Set Master Pose Component node. This will break the existing connection between the Body node and the Set Master Pose Component node.
The video below shows this process.
Switch to the
BP_Bryan
Blueprint. In the Functions panel, double-click the Construction Script to open it. Shift-click each of the following nodes (or left-click and drag to select all of them), then press Ctrl + C to copy them:Enable Master Pose (all three of them)
Feet
Legs
Torso
Switch to the
BP_MetaHumanCharacter
Blueprint. In the Functions panel, double-click the Construction Script to open it, then press Ctrl + V to paste the nodes you copied.Connect the output pin of the Construction Script node to the input node of the first Enable Master Pose node, as shown below.
Compile and Save the Blueprint.
Set your MetaHuman as the Default Pawn Class
Next, you need to assign the BP_MetaHumanCharacter
Blueprint as the current Game Mode’s Default Pawn Class. This tells your game to use your MetaHuman as the playable character when the game starts.
Follow these steps:
In the Content Browser, navigate to the
Content/ThirdPerson/Blueprints
folder.Double-click the
BP_ThirdPersonGameMode
Blueprint to open it.Set the Default Pawn Class property to
BP_MetaHuman Character
.Compile and Save the Blueprint.
Fix Legs Animation
At this point, if you play the game in the Unreal Editor, you’ll notice that the MetaHuman’s legs stick to the ground. To fix this, follow these steps:
Go back to the Animation Blueprint files you created in the Retarget the Quinn Animation Blueprint section above, and open the
ABP_Manny
Blueprint.The reason you will be working in the
ABP_Manny
Blueprint (and notABP_Quinn
) is because the former is the parent class of the latter, which will inherit from its parent class.In the My Blueprint panel, double-click the AnimGraph animation graph to open it.
In the AnimGraph view, find the Control Rig node. Holding down the Alt key, left-click the incoming and outgoing connection pins (shown in the screenshot below) to break the connections.
Connect the Slot ‘DefaultSlot’ node’s output pin to the Output Pose node’s input pin, as shown below.
Compile and Save the Blueprint.
Final Result
When you play your game, the player character is now your MetaHuman. The MetaHuman has idle, run, and jump animations.