Animation

02

Overview

From first pitch to final pixels

Animation project by Vista Sur Films rendered in Unreal Engine

Courtesy of Vista Sur Films 'Dalia y el Libro Rojo'

Faster, better creative storytelling

When you can render frames in fractions of seconds, the ability to produce content much, much faster is not the only benefit; if you can change your mind without hours or days of rerendering, you can make creative decisions on the fly, and iterate to find the best version of your story.

Animation project rendered in Unreal Engine by Half M.T studios llc

Courtesy of Half M.T Studios

Any look you want

With Unreal Engine's flexible node-based Material Editor, you can push the limits of your imagination and create any visual style from photoreal to classic CG, cel-shaded to anime, hand-drawn illustrative to hyperstylized, and more.

Animation project by Sinking Ship Entertainment rendered in Unreal Engine

Courtesy of Sinking Ship Entertainment

Complete toolset, out of the box

Unreal Engine comes fully loaded with everything you need to bring your characters and worlds to life, with built-in animation tools; a Landscape system for environments; particles and physics; a multi-track nonlinear editor; support for strand-based hair and fur; connections for performance capture tools; and much, much more.

Animation project by CDW Animation rendered in Unreal Engine

Courtesy of Sally Coleman & Big Sand, produced by CDW Animation

Do more with your IP

Why restrict your content to a single medium when you can get more value from your assets? With Unreal Engine, you can create a transmedia pipeline that enables your IP to cross the boundaries from linear animated content to games, mobile, VR, and beyond.

The Animation Field Guide

Animation teams around the world are discovering the creative freedom of using Unreal Engine to produce episodic series and feature films, taking advantage of real⁠–⁠time rendering to actually see the project as it develops.

The Animation Field Guide explores the foundations of real-time animation pipelines with Unreal Engine, and features interviews with many creatives who are already producing with this workflow.

03

Key Features

Everything you need, included

Slide 1 of 5

Courtesy of ©Airborn Studios GmbH
Control the narrative
Built for collaboration, Sequencer is Unreal Engine's fully nonlinear, real-time cinematic editing and animation tool that enables you to define and modify lighting, camera blocking, characters, and set dressing on a per-shot basis. You can even create new animation by blending animation clips together. With Sequencer, teams of artists can work on entire sequences simultaneously to develop and refine your story throughout the production process.
Courtesy of Adam Valdez
Craft the look
From the flexible node-based Material Editor that enables you to layer materials and fine-tune values at the pixel level, to sophisticated lighting that includes an atmospheric Sun and Sky system Unreal Engine gives you the freedom to craft any look you want—then iterate to your heart's content. What's more, with support for strand-based hair and fur, your cast of characters can include everything from adorable animals to bearded baddiesーwithout waiting an eternity for renders!
Courtesy of Cory Strassburger
Perfect your performances
Whether you choose to animate your characters with keyframes or drive their performances with mocap data, Unreal Engine has the tools you need. Control Rig is a scriptable node-based rigging system designed to provide artists with tools to create flexible, dynamic, and procedural rigs with animator-friendly interfaces. And with Live Link, you can stream data from a variety of sources—even your iPhone—directly onto your characters in real time.
Courtesy of Vista Sur Films 'Dalia y el Libro Rojo'
Finish with polish
Whatever look you're aiming for, from photorealism to highly stylized, Unreal Engine offers everything you need to produce stunning frames that will set your project apart, in a fraction of the time of offline rendering. There's a wide range of post-process effects; advanced particles, physics, and destruction; and even real-time ray tracing. And with Movie Render Queue, you can switch on settings incompatible with real-time performance for uncompromised quality. Final pixels—fast.
Courtesy of DNEG Animation and Howdybot Productions
Slot it in, or make it your own
With support for the most widely-used formats and protocols in animation production like FBX, Alembic, USD, C4D, OpenEXR, and OpenColorIO, Unreal Engine is a comfortable fit for industry-standard pipelines. But for anyone who wants to automate processes or extend capabilities, there's Python and Blueprint visual scripting, a robust API, and complete C++ source code access, so you can create the custom hooks, tools, and interfaces that will set you apart from the crowd.

Unreal Engine comes complete with all the tools you need to create gorgeous animated content. Craft the look you want with the flexible Material Editor; use the powerful Control Rig to drive animation; edit your story in Sequencer; and take your project to the next level with physics, effects, and strand-based hair and fur. It's all in the box.

Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN)

Don’t just tell your story—build your world. UEFN empowers you to create playable experiences based on the world of your story using Unreal Editor tools, then publish them to Fortnite for your audience to explore.

04

case studies

Unreal Engine is powering animated content across the globe

Image courtesy of DNEG and Howdybot Productions

Case study

Award-winning short film The Voice in the Hollow takes real-time animation to dark places

Blending real-time 3D, 2D elements, and motion capture, The Voice in the Hollow reimagines the Cain and Abel story as a fantastical African-inspired movie short created by a small team of professionals.

Sony Pictures Imageworks creates a real-time thriller for Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots

Love, Death + Robots | Courtesy of Netflix

Case Study

Sony Pictures Imageworks creates a real-time thriller for Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots

From The Lion King to fairyland: inside the beautiful world of Brave Creatures

Courtesy of Adam Valdez

Case Study

From The Lion King to fairyland: inside the beautiful world of Brave Creatures

Courtesy of Adam Valdez

Case Study

From The Lion King to fairyland: inside the beautiful world of Brave Creatures

Case Study

Sony Pictures Imageworks creates a real-time thriller for Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots

UE5 animated film Kibwe puts Mozambique on the map

Courtesy of FX Animation Studio

Case Study

UE5 animated film Kibwe puts Mozambique on the map

Taking Big City Greens from 2D to 3D animation in Unreal Engine

Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company

Case Study

Taking Big City Greens from 2D to 3D animation in Unreal Engine

Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company

Case Study

Taking Big City Greens from 2D to 3D animation in Unreal Engine

Courtesy of FX Animation Studio

Case Study

UE5 animated film Kibwe puts Mozambique on the map

06

Resources

Learn how to use Unreal Engine

Whether you’re just getting started and need some basic guidance, or you’re a seasoned pro who’s pushing Unreal Engine to its limits, there’s a range of options to help you succeed.

Documentation

Artists' quick start

Learn how to get started as a content creator with Unreal Engine.

Online learning

Getting started

Your First Hour in Unreal Engine 5.2

This course will introduce you to the high-level basics of Unreal Engine 5 and the editor used to work within it. We’ll look at how to add assets, create lighting, make Blueprints, and even share your project.

Course

Build a Third-Person Character from Scratch

In this course, you'll use the Stack O Bot project to build a third-person character that includes movement, cameras, animations, physics, and even a jetpack! You'll also learn to add movement mechanics and animations to an existing character.

Real-Time Explainers

Courtesy of Aaron Sims Creative

9-minute read

Animation in film and cinema

Find out about the different types of animation in film and cinema in this explainer, and see how it has evolved since its inception.

17-minute read

How to do keyframe animation in Unreal Engine

Learn how to do keyframe animation in Unreal Engine. This simple keyframe animation tutorial will get you started with everything you need to know.

Sample projects

Courtesy of Mold3D Studio

Slay

Slay is a sample project available to the community as a free download, created by Mold3D Studio and rendered entirely in Unreal Engine. You can also download just the piece's hero character, Windwalker Echo. Go behind the scenes and get the samples from our Spotlight.

ML Deformer

Explore how Unreal Engine machine learning technology can be used to create a high-fidelity real-time character with deformations driven by full muscle, flesh, and cloth simulation, including muscles bulging and sliding under the skin, and folds forming on clothing.

Get started

Free download—includes every feature!

Get Unreal Engine

Free for creating linear content!

Unreal Engine comes fully loaded and production-ready out of the box, with every feature and full source code access included. It's free to use for creating linear content like films, TV series, and commercials.

Talk To Us

Other license options

Looking for premium support, private training, custom terms, or a direct relationship with Epic Games? Talk to us about an Unreal Enterprise Program license or custom solution.

UEFN: The power of UE for Fortnite

Just imagine

What if you could slash the time it takes to create high-quality animated content, and at the same time, gain the creative freedom to find the perfect way to tell your story? With Unreal Engine, you can.

Hot & Happening

How to get started with Unreal Engine for filmmakers

Virtual Production Visualization Guide—Chapter 2 now available!

MetaHuman Animator is now available!

The latest Unreal Engine animation projects

Overview

From first pitch to final pixels

Faster, better creative storytelling

Any look you want

Complete toolset, out of the box

Do more with your IP

The Animation Field Guide

Key Features

Everything you need, included

Control the narrative

Craft the look

Perfect your performances

Finish with polish

Slot it in, or make it your own

Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN)

case studies

Unreal Engine is powering animated content across the globe

Case study

Award-winning short film The Voice in the Hollow takes real-time animation to dark places

Case Study

Sony Pictures Imageworks creates a real-time thriller for Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots

Case Study

From The Lion King to fairyland: inside the beautiful world of Brave Creatures

Case Study

From The Lion King to fairyland: inside the beautiful world of Brave Creatures

Case Study

Sony Pictures Imageworks creates a real-time thriller for Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots

Case Study

UE5 animated film Kibwe puts Mozambique on the map

Case Study

Taking Big City Greens from 2D to 3D animation in Unreal Engine

Case Study

Taking Big City Greens from 2D to 3D animation in Unreal Engine

Case Study

UE5 animated film Kibwe puts Mozambique on the map

Resources

Learn how to use Unreal Engine

Documentation

Artists' quick start

Online learning

Your First Hour in Unreal Engine 5.2

Build a Third-Person Character from Scratch

Real-Time Explainers

Animation in film and cinema

How to do keyframe animation in Unreal Engine

Sample projects

Slay

ML Deformer

Need a helping hand?

Authorized Service Partners

Unreal Connectors

Epic Developer Community

Get started

Free download—includes every feature!

Get Unreal Engine

Free for creating linear content!

Talk To Us

Other license options

Stay Connected

Get updates on industry innovations and the latest free assets for your industry

Get updates on industry innovations and the latest free assets for
your industry