Animation Pipeline
Tripod Animation Workflow: Maya | Unreal
Animation for Virtual Production within Unreal Engine can be a rapid process defying conventional pipelines. In this example I have produced animations for a Martian Tripod by creating a basic skeletal rig in Maya and then transferring the skeletal mesh into Unreal Engine 4.26. From there I have been able to produce two different animation cycles. For the wide shot I have used a procedural animation plugin found here to create an AnimBP then turned into the player pawn's walk cycle which is recorded using Take Recorder. I have then used that Take inside a level sequence to animate four Tripods. In the second example I have built a (really) basic FK rig using Control Rig within Unreal Engine. I have then baked the FK rig into sequencer and keyed the Tripod using its control handles based on desired look for the frame.
Digital Humans: Metahuman Creator | Daz Studio | Unreal
This is the creation of three custom Victorian characters using the Genesis 8 skeleton (Daz) for period costumes, with Metahuman Creator for the head. You can retarget Epic or Mixamo animations to the body or use motion capture & operate facial animation to the head via Control Rig and/or ARKit. Thanks to David Williams for character set up guidance. To cleanly retarget animation or MOCAP to the Genesis 8 skeleton there is hard to find guidance here.
Basic Control Rig: Maya
This is the creation of a basic control rig in Maya ready for animation. It includes a skeletal rig with FK controls, IK to enable the cables to bend realistically with the movement of the wheels and a simple SDK control to easy animate the movement of the wheels up and down the track as a pre defined animation control.