Unreal Engine 5 Character Creation, Animation, and Cinematics: Create custom 3D assets and bring them to life in Unreal Engine 5 using MetaHuman, Lumen, and Nanite

Cover
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Part 1Creating 3D Assets
Chapter 1: Introduction to Blender\'s 3D Modeling and Sculpting Tools
	Technical requirements
	What is 3D modeling?
	Understanding 3D sculpting
	Introducing Blender
		The user interface
		Elements in the 3D Viewport
		Interacting with the 3D world in Blender
		Axes and transform orientations
		Manipulating objects or their components
	Exploring Blender\'s modeling tools
		Extrude region
		Bevel
		Loop Cut
		Inset Faces
		Merging faces, edges, and vertices
		Proportional Editing
	Using modifiers in Blender
		The Mirror modifier
		Subdivision Surface modifier
	Using Blender\'s sculpting tools
		Brush settings
		Remesh
		Blender\'s sculpting brushes
	Other sculpting tools
		Line Project tool
		Mesh Filter tool
	Summary
	Further reading
Chapter 2: Modeling a Robot Drone Character
	Technical requirements
	Preparing Blender\'s Units
	Modeling a Robot Drone character
		Modeling the shape of the body
		Creating eyes
		Adding a shoulder and a ball joint
		Attaching a KitBash mesh
		Modeling the arm
		Extruding the custom shape
	Summary
Chapter 3: Let\'s Sculpt an Alien Plant!
	Technical requirements
	Loading the file containing the reference image
	Blocking out your model
		Extruding and duplicating mesh parts
		Subdividing the mesh
	Sculpting the primary forms
	Fixing problem areas
		Flattening an area of the mesh
		How to fix surface artifacts
	Adding secondary and tertiary forms
		Using masking in 3D sculpting
		Adding the final polish to the sculpture
	Generating the low-resolution mesh
		Decimating the mesh in Blender
		Using instant meshes for auto-retopology
	Summary
Chapter 4: UV Maps and Texture Baking
	Technical requirements
	What are textures and materials?
		Textures
		Materials
	Understanding UV maps
	UV unwrapping the Alien Plant model
		Fixing shading issues
		Creating UV seams
		UV unwrapping the Alien Plant model
		Triangulating the Alien Plant model
		Exporting the Alien Plant mesh
	UV unwrapping the Robot Drone model
	Understanding texture baking
	Introduction to xNormal
	Preparing the Robot Drone model for xNormal
		Preparing the low-poly mesh
		Preparing the high-poly mesh
	Baking texture maps
	Summary
Chapter 5: Texturing Your Models inside Quixel Mixer
	Technical requirements
	Introducing the basics of Quixel Mixer
		Configuring your project and Mixer file
		Quixel Mixer\'s UI and shortcuts
	Texturing the Robot Drone in Mixer
		Loading the Robot Drone model into Quixel Mixer
		Adding texture maps
		Adding paneling details
		Texturing the Robot Drone
		Using material ID maps and masks
	Texturing the alien plant in Mixer
	Exporting your materials for use in UE
	Summary
	Further reading
Part 2Building Your Virtual Movie Set in Unreal Engine 5
Chapter 6: Exploring Unreal Engine 5
	Technical requirements
	Introducing UE5
		What can you do with UE?
		New features in UE5
		Free sample projects
		Examples of animation projects that were made in UE5
		UE terminologies
	Setting up your project
	Viewport navigation
	Most useful shortcuts
	UE\'s UI
		Docking the Content Browser panel
		The Viewport menu bar
	Summary
Chapter 7: Setting Up Materials in UE 5
	Technical requirements
	Importing your 3D assets
	Importing textures
		The Texture Editor
	Creating materials
		The Material Editor
		The Static Mesh Editor
	Previewing your models with lighting
	Summary
Chapter 8: Using MetaHuman to Create a Photorealistic Human for UE5
	Technical requirements
	What is MetaHuman Creator?
	Getting access to MetaHuman Creator
	Launching MetaHuman Creator
	MetaHuman\'s UI
	Creating a photorealistic female sci-fi character
		Customizing the shape of your character\'s face
		Previewing your character with animations
	Adding your MetaHuman to Unreal Engine 5
	Customizing your character\'s clothing
	Summary
Chapter 9: Building a Virtual 3D Movie Set in UE5
	Technical requirements
	Setting up the basic elements of your 3D movie set
		Adjusting the scene\'s exposure
		Adjusting the Viewport\'s Field of View
	Using Quixel Bridge to acquire free 3D assets
	Customizing your material instances
		The Material Instance Editor\'s UI
		Editing your Material Instances
		Using Albedo Tint for the rock assets
		Using Nanite on your rock assets
		Using asset filters in the Content Browser window
	Building the 3D movie set
	Summary
Chapter 10: Adding Lighting and Atmospheric Visual Effects in UE5
	Technical requirements
	The fundamentals of lighting in 3D graphics
		Realistic and stylized lighting
		The three traditional lighting techniques
		Types of light sources in UE5
		Using Lumen in your UE5 projects
	Preparing your project
	Adding a Sky Atmosphere system
	Lighting your 3D movie set
		Adjusting your Key light (Light Source)
		Adjusting your first Fill light (SkyLight)
		Adding a second Fill light (DirectionalLight)
	Adding atmospheric visual effects
		Adding Fog
		Light Shafts
		Lens Flare and Light Bloom
	Summary
	Further reading
Part 3Character Rigging for Animation in UE5 with Control Rig
Chapter 11: Alien Plant Joint Setup in Blender
	Technical requirements
	Preparing our 3D model for the skeleton
		Importing the Alien Plant into Blender
		Positioning and scaling the Alien Plant
	Parent/child hierarchies in 3D software
	Creating a skeleton for the Alien Plant
		Creating the skeleton
		Creating a parent/child relationship
		Making a long joint chain for the main stem
		Making the skeleton for the branches
	Summary
Chapter 12: Alien Plant Skinning in Blender
	Technical requirements
	Introduction to skinning in Blender
		Painting skin weights
	Skinning the alien plant mesh to the skeleton
		Skinning the alien plant
	Summary
Chapter 13: Robot Joint Setup and Skinning in Blender
	Technical requirements
	Creating a skeleton for the robot
		Opening, positioning, and scaling the robot
		Body and left arm bones
		Renaming and parenting the bones
		Using the Symmetrize tool
	Checking and editing the local joint orientations of the joints
		What is the local orientation of a bone?
		Editing local bone orientations
	Skinning the robot to the skeleton in a rigid way
		Preparing the model and collapsing modifiers
		Skinning the robot body parts
		Assigning exact skin weights to vertices
	Summary
Chapter 14: Making a Custom Rig for Our Alien Plant with Control Rig
	Technical requirements
	Introduction to the Control Rig Editor
		Loading the Control Rig tools in UE
		Getting the Alien Plant and its skeleton into UE
		Creating the Control Rig node on the Alien Plant
		Understanding the Control Rig Editor interface layout
	Creating basic Control Rig controllers
		Creating two simple control shapes
		Deciding on the controllers we need
		Creating all the controllers
		Organizing the controllers in a hierarchy
		Positioning the controllers on the joints
	Controlling the Alien Plant skeleton with the controllers
		Practical setup for three basic nodes
		Completing the animation rig
	Summary
Chapter 15: Creating a Control Rig with Basic IK Controls for the Robot in UE5
	Technical requirements
	What is IK?
		Understanding IK
	Creating the controllers for the robot character
		Exporting the robot and its skeleton from Blender
		Importing the robot into a UE project
		Creating the Control Rig controllers
	Ordering the control objects in the correct hierarchy and linking them to joints
		Controller hierarchy
		Positioning the controllers to line up with the bones
		Linking bones to controllers in Rig Graph
	Creating an IK controller and testing the whole rig
		Getting bone orientations of our arm bones
		Setting up an IK controller
		Testing the IK setup
	Summary
Part 4Animation in UE5 Using Control Rig and Sequencer
Chapter 16: Creating a Simple Swaying Animation Cycle in UE5 Sequencer
	Technical requirements
	Overview of the Sequencer interface
		Opening the Sequencer and adding the Alien Plant animation rig
		Sequencer interface overview
	Setting keyframes for animation
		What are keyframes and curves in computer animation?
		Setting keyframes for the Alien Plant Control Rig
	Editing keyframes and animation curves
	Summary
Chapter 17: Creating Three Simple Animations for the Robot in UE5 Sequencer
	Technical requirements
	Animation A: idle cycle
		Using the Poses tool in UE5
		Animating the idle cycle
	Animation B: movement cycle
	Animation C: action animation
	Summary
Chapter 18: Importing Motion Capture onto the MetaHuman Control Rig
	Technical requirements
	Getting MoCap animations from Mixamo
	Getting MoCap animations from the UE Marketplace
	Retargeting MoCap animations to a MetaHuman skeleton
		Importing Maximo MoCap into UE
		Setting up retargeting on the Mixamo skeleton
		Setting up retargeting on the MetaHuman skeleton
		Retargeting Mixamo MoCap animation to the MetaHuman
	Summary
Chapter 19: Motion Capture Editing and Cleanup Using Control Rig and Sequencer
	Technical requirements
	Planning Your MoCap edit
	Baking the Stand_Up MoCap to the control rig
	Overview of the MetaHuman control rig
	Editing and cleaning up the Stand_Up MoCap
		Changing the clipping plane in UE
		Lining up the MoCap with the ground plane and the root
		Fixing floaty feet
		Improving the standing pose
		Cleaning up Sitting Pose
		Fixing the hands with the Snapper tool
	Summary
Chapter 20: Using Sequencer to Construct Your Final Scene
	Technical requirements
	Importing all the scene assets and positioning them in the scene
		Migrating UE content between projects
		Attaching the body armor to the Metahuman Rig
		Preparing character and Level Assets
	Importing animations onto our characters
		Importing Mocap animations onto the Metahuman
		Importing Mocap animations onto the Robot Drone
		Importing animations onto the Alien Plant
	Creating cameras and animating them
		Using multiple cameras and cutting between them
	Rendering our final scene
	Summary
Index
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