For my main character beluga, the asset only have skeleton mesh with simple animation. But I want to have more flexible control on my character.
So the first step I create the control rig for this skeleton mesh. Because of the straight body shape, It’s easier for sea animation to rig. So I create the controller one by one:
And I did an animation test by key framing the controller:
Then I realize I also need those preset animations like swim and idle pose which I already have in the asset to give it a sense of naturally floating in water. But I found out the control rig and animation are not fit well, if I want to apply preset animation I have to delay the control rig. So I wonder is there a way that I can use the control rig on top of my animation.
I watch a lot of online tutorial and found out there is a function called bake animation to control rig. Basically, it treats animation data like motion capture data and applies that on the control rig.
How to Modify an Animation Sequence in Unreal Engine: Bake to Control RIg – YouTube
But I found out I couldn’t find my rig inside bake animation button. I found result on Epic game community—because I only have forward solve direction when I was rigging, I also need to add a backward solve direction so that I can bake the animation back to the control rig.
And I manipulate again on my control rig:
I choose and apply the animation that I want for the character first, after that I bake the animation on my control rig and get a series of keys. By adding a additive track of control rig, I got another track to control the animation on top of the original one in a non-destructive way.