Animation Sequences

Overview

An Animation Sequence is an animation asset that contains animation data that can be played on a Skeletal Mesh to animate a character. An Animation Sequence contains keyframes that specify the position, rotation, and scale of the Skeletal Mesh's Skeleton at specific points in time. By blending between keyframes during sequential playback, the Skeleton's motion animates the Mesh.

Animation Sequences are tied to specific Skeletons, which enables animations to be shared across Skeletal Meshes that use the same Skeleton.

Creating Animations

Animation Sequences are most often created in external animation and modeling software and are contained within an FBX file. You can import Animation Sequences into Unreal Engine during the FBX import process for use in your project.

Importing Animations

To import an animation, select Import in the Content Browser.

Navigate in your computer's File Explorer window and select the FBX file containing an animation you want to import.

You will be prompted with the FBX Import Options window. Here you can fine-tune the import process for animations.

The FBX Import Options window contains the following configurable properties:

Using the Skeleton property in the Import Settings window, you can choose a Skeleton which drives your imported animations. Leaving this property blank will import any skeletal structure found in the FBX file as a new Skeleton.

In order to drive any imported animations using an existing Skeleton, the animation must be using a similar skeleton. Unreal Engine will automatically match bones from the animation to match the existing Skeleton's bones using the bone names and hierarchy in the Skeleton Tree.

Ensure the Import Animation option is enabled and select Import.

When importing multiple FBX files at once, you can use Import All to import all selected FBX files with the same FBX Import Options.

After the import process is complete, your animation will now appear as an Animation Sequence Asset in the Content Browser.

Animations with non-whole end frame values will not import into Unreal Engine correctly.

You can correct this issue by importing the animation Sequenece into an external DCC and editing the end frame to a whole frame value or by setting the Animation Length property in the FBX Import Options to Frame Range and manually setting the Frame Import Range property in the Advanced section.

For more information on importing animations into Unreal Engine, see FBX Animation Pipeline and Importing Animations Using FBX.

Sequencer

Using Sequencer, you can create animations in Unreal Engine with just a Skeletal Mesh. This can be useful if you want to save animations as a new Animation Sequence, when using the Animation Track, or when animating using Control Rig.

To create a new Animation Sequence from an animation created using Sequencer, right-click the Skeletal Mesh Actor track and select Bake Animation Sequence from the context menu.

You can also create unique variants and modified versions of Sequences by editing existing animations with FK Control Rig.

For more information on Control Rig and how you can use Control Rig to animate characters in Unreal Engine, see the Control Rig documentation.

Editing Animation Sequences

When working with Animation Sequences, you can make additive edits and adjustments to existing animations using the Animation Sequence Editor. Within the Animation Sequence Editor, you can preview playback, tweak animations with additive layers, and add notfies and curves.

The following are a few methods that you can use to edit and modify existing animations within your project.

Additive Animation Tracks

You can tweak the position of your Character's bones in an Animation Sequence with the Bone Manipulation tool. Select a bone in the Viewport or the Skeleton Tree panel and, using the movement tools, manipulate a bones position and rotation.

After manipulating a bone, add a key with Add Key in the Toolbar to save the movement data in an additive animation track that will appear in the sequence timeline.

The additive track will blend the bones' positions to match their manipulated positions at the added keyframes.

For more information about Bone Manipulation, see the Bone Manipulation section of the Skeleton Editor documentation.

Record Feature

When editing an Animation Sequence, you can record directed movement in real time and save the animation as a new Sequence using the Record Button.

The resulting animation will then be usable as a unique Animation Sequence asset.

You can also use the record feature to create Assets from blended animations.

Sharing Animations

If your project is using a combination of different Skeletons and Skeletal Meshes, you can share Animation Sequences across these different Assets. There are a few methods of sharing animations or retargeting Skeletons that you can choose from depending on your project's needs.

For Skeletal Meshes that do not share the same Skeleton but have identical skeletal structures, you can define their Skeletons as Compatible to share Animation Sequences. See the Compatible Skeletons section of the Skeleton documentation for more information.

To share Animation Sequences between Skeletal Meshes that share the same Skeleton but possess different mesh proportions, you can use Animation Retargeting. See the Animation Retargeting documentation for more information.

You can use Animation Sequences from one Skeletal Mesh to create new Animation Sequences for another Skeletal Mesh using a different Skeleton with IK Rig Retargeting. See the IK Rig Retargeting documentation for more information.

Animation Compression

Compression Settings are data Assets that you can define. They apply compression to animation Assets. Compression removes animation data, lowering your animation's memory cost to improve your project's performance. Animations with minimal movement are affected less by compression, while compression effects on animations with intricate movement will be far more noticeable.

To create a Compression Settings asset, click the Add (+) in the Content Browser; and, from the context menu, select Animation > Bone Compression Settings or Curve Compression Settings.

After creating a compression Asset, you can open its Details panel by double-clicking it in the Content Browser.

Bone Compression Settings

The Bone Compression Settings Asset is used to define and apply a compression method to an Animation Sequence's bone data. Bone compression removes unnecessary or arbitrary bone motion data based on the codec method you define in the Bone Compression Settings' properties.

The Bone Compression Settings Asset has the following configurable properties:

You can apply a Bone Compression Settings Asset in the Animation Sequence's Asset Details panel, under the Bone Compression Settings property.

Curve Compression Settings

When using curves to drive animation sequence properties, curve compression can provide a useful resource to maintain your project's performance.

The Curve Compression Settings Asset has the following configurable properties:

You can apply a Curve Compression Settings Asset in the Animation Sequence's Asset Details panel, under the Curve Compression Settings property.

Animation Sequence Features

Here, you can find related Animation Sequence features you can use when working with Animation Sequences in your project.