LogInThe animations are driven by Unreal Engine's Control Rig.
Have a look at this impressive backpack rig that can adapt to the shoulder movements of a digital character in a lifelike manner, set up by Gameplay Animator at Remedy Entertainment, Jacky Coh, for a WIP personal project.
According to the creator, the setup is powered by Unreal Engine 5's Control Rig, a suite of built-in animation tools for you to rig and animate models directly inside the engine, used primarily for 3D characters. By using points constrained to the shoulders, the artist is able to a spline to smoothly move multiple bones for the straps, and thanks to Spring Interpolation, it's possible to add follow-through and overlapping action on the bag.
"The only issue is the visible stretching on the straps which I will improve later on," comments Jacky. "Regardless, this setup removes the need to handkey the backpack (unless you want to do any specific animation like taking it off) and can be applied to any skeletal characters."
Going forward, the author plans to refine the setup even further, so we highly encourage you to follow Jacky on LinkedIn so as not to miss any future updates.
And if you'd like to learn more about Unreal Engine's Control Rig, here are some insightful tutorials to help you get started:
You might also want to check out our 2023 interview with Roy Livne, who showed us how the procedural turret animation was created using Control Rig in Unreal Engine 5 and shared some tips for beginner artists:
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