Since version 5.6, Epic has really been steadily improving animation and rigging tools, and Unreal Engine 5.8 continues that trend. There's now better support for doing sculpt-driven facial and shot sculpting work directly in the editor. The sculpting brush set has been improved, and you also get things like mirroring and flipping targets, weight locking, and other small but useful upgrades. Overall, it makes working with blendshapes a lot smoother.

A standout new feature is Direct Mesh Controls, currently experimental. It allows Control Rig controls to be represented directly on sections of a Skeletal Mesh. This system is inspired by workflows used in major feature animation studios and is especially useful for facial animation.

Also, in case you missed it, Control Rig Physics has moved into Beta. It works well for everything from full ragdoll-style motion, like a character falling down stairs, to subtle secondary motion such as soft tissue jiggle.

Physics rigs are now modular, so you can plug them into your own setups more easily. You can also layer physics over existing animation and keyframe its weight. Control Rig Dynamics is a new particle-based solver designed for runtime use and reportedly runs up to five times faster than the original solver.

To help you learn these new animation and rigging tools more quickly, Epic has released the Zebra Character Sample. It features a fully DMC-enabled facial rig and a body rig that uses the same rigging modules used to animate Fortnite characters. It also has a full physics rig with secondary motion support, and more.

This Unreal Fest Chicago also brought news about Unreal Engine 6 and the deprecation of Blueprints. For a closer look at Unreal Engine 5.8, read our articles on the upgrades to MetaHuman and Lore, an open-source version control system.

If you're looking to animate with Unreal Engine 5, we recommend checking out Stéphane Biava aka Proj Prod on YouTube. His channel offers high-quality tutorials:

We'll keep an eye out for more learning resources for Unreal Engine 5.8 and share them as they become available. Subscribe to our Newsletter, join our 80 Level Talent platform, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

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