Reallusion has released the CC UE Control Rig, a free plugin for Character Creator (CC) users. This plugin speeds up production by enabling users to animate custom characters directly within Unreal Engine. It uses the MetaHuman Control Rig, familiar to Unreal Engine users, to handle full-body movement and facial expressions.
Reallusion has stated that despite the recent introduction of UE Modular Control Rig in Unreal Engine 5.4 and advancements in MetaHuman animation, preparing fully customized or original IP characters for animation in Unreal Engine remains challenging.
Character Creator exists to address this obstacle, offering users extensive character customization options and enabling the creation of realistic humans, cartoon personas, or humanoids with CC topology and fully auto-rigged characters. Additionally, it features streamlined ZBrush pipeline integration and provides access to a diverse content ecosystem by Reallusion.
The new CC UE Control Rig aims to further enhance the workflow from Character Creator to Unreal Engine by providing features such as direct character transfer, automatic digital human shader assignment, simplified control rig setup, and more.
The plugin was created using Unreal's Blueprint system and can be seamlessly integrated with tools like CC Auto Setup and Unreal Live Link.
In addition to extensive support for CC characters, the plugin also supports custom models by automatically rigging biped models with AccuRIG. For large 3D crowds, users can adjust the movements and facial expressions of low-poly characters from Reallusion's ActorCore platform. These features, combined with CC's mesh decimation tools and the iClone Crowd Simulator, allow for easy integration of massive crowd simulations into any project, reducing production costs and time to market.
The CC UE Control Rig allows directors and animators to easily refine facial expressions and postures of CC characters within Unreal Engine for the final polish of a project. It helps integrate characters into their environments, ensures precise interactions with objects, and facilitates constraints such as hand or foot placement on moving vehicles. Additionally, it enables the creation of expressive talking animations and realistic wrinkle dynamics, along with refined body and gesture controls.
Reallusion has released two complimentary sample characters, Nia and Kevin, alongside the plugin. These sample characters allow users to experiment with fully-rigged CC characters in Unreal Engine. Like the plugin itself, they have also been made available for free.
The CC UE Control Rig is compatible with Unreal Engine versions 5.3 and 5.4, and it is now available for download on the UE Marketplace.
For additional information, make sure to visit the CC UE Control Rig page on Reallusion's website.
