Animation

Animate without limitation.

Create memorable, lifelike characters. Render frames in milliseconds. Extend your IP to games, mobile, VR, and beyond. And do it in any visual style you can dream of. With Unreal Engine, the only limitation is your imagination.

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The latest news for animation

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June 3, 2026

Join us at Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2026

We’re heading to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this June with a selection of sessions and workshops that will explore the latest developments in real-time animation. Find out what’s on and when.

Events

May 5, 2026

Crafting stylized digital humans on Daughter of the Inner Stars with MetaHuman and UE5

Discover how a small team used Unreal Engine, MetaHuman, and AI to blend stylized visuals, real-time production, and high-fidelity performance capture into a cohesive pipeline for a 50-minute original symphonic orchestral experience.

Spotlight

Features for animation

From photorealistic to super-stylized projects, Unreal Engine offers everything you need to produce gorgeous animated content in a fraction of the time of offline rendering. From flexible look dev and lighting, to powerful animation tools, to particle effects and physics simulation—every feature you need is included in your download.

See all features

Faster, better creative storytelling

With UE5’s real-time environment, you can make changes on the fly and see the results immediately: features like Lumen dynamic global illumination and real-time ray tracing mean amazing results you don’t have to wait for. And when you’re ready for final pixels, you can use Movie Render Queue for uncompromised quality in seconds per frame.

Lumen dynamic global illumination

Real-time ray tracing

Movie Render Pipeline

Any look you want

Whatever look you're aiming for, from photorealism to highly stylized, Unreal Engine has you covered. With a flexible node-based Material Editor; a wide range of post-process effects; advanced particles and physics; and support for strand-based hair and fur, you can craft any style you like, and then iterate on it to your heart’s contentーwithout waiting an eternity for renders.

Built-in editing, rigging, and animation tools

Define and modify blocking for cameras, objects, and characters in the Sequencer multitrack editor. Rig and animate directly in engine with the Skeletal Mesh animation system and Control Rig, or stream animation data from external sources like mocap or Maya with Live Link. Plus, with support for industry standards like Alembic, USD and FBX, UE5 slots into your existing pipeline.

Cinematics and Sequencer

Skeletal Mesh animation system

Control Rig

Live Link

Animation success stories

From 1980s cartoons to the metaverse: a voyage into Spice Frontier’s retro 2D look

Discover how Steamroller Animation achieved a 2D, 1980s-cartoon aesthetic in Unreal Engine for animated show Spice Frontier and expanded the universe of the story with a Fortnite island made in UEFN.

Inside the ‘Unreal Tournament’ episode of Secret Level

Find out how Blur Studio created a real-time animation pipeline from scratch for the ‘Unreal Tournament’ episode of the Amazon Prime series

Academy Award®-winning animated short War Is Over! makes Unreal Engine history

Discover how Wētā FX and ElectroLeague used Unreal Engine to produce the high-quality animation and stylized look of anti-war animated short film

While developing an ambitious sci-fi film about a megalopolis of robots, Second Tomorrow Studios realized that Unreal Engine was just the ticket. Find out how they worked with artists around the world to create the proof of concept for

Let’s get started.

Ready to make magic? Check out our recommended tutorials, samples, and documentation pages to help you get going.

Tutorials

Go to library

Your First Hour in Unreal Engine 5.2

Epic Online Learning · 3 years ago

We’ll look at the launcher, Editor, creating a basic level including lighting and level layout, and Blueprint.

Build a Third-Person Character from Scratch

Epic Online Learning · 4 years ago

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.

BeginPlay | Animation

Epic Online Learning · 3 years ago

In this video, we look at a high-level overview of Unreal Engine's Animation system from core features such as Animation Blueprints, Control Rig, and Sequencer to debugging and optimization workflows. BeginPlay is a series of videos designed for experienced developers who are transitioning from other engines like Unity to Unreal Engine 5. Each video gives a high-level overview of the various features of the engine and how they connect together.

Documentation

Know what you want to do, but not how? Dig into our wide range of documentation to find your footing!

Animation Workflow Guides

Cinematic Workflow Guides and Examples

Control Rig Quick Start

Animation Shortcuts and Tips

Go to Documentation

Sample projects

More samples

ICVFX Production Test

Slay is a sample project available to the community as a free download, created by Mold3D Studio.

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.

Animation Starter Pack

A fantastic resource for prototyping your next project or getting your next mod up and running.

Control Rig Samples Pack

This pack contains sample Control Rigs for animating in Unreal Engine.

Licensing

We’ve streamlined our license terms to make your choices clearer. Need something designed just for you? Work with us to create a custom license. Visit our FAQ or reach out to the community if you have any questions.

Under $1 million USD in revenue?

Free

Game developers (royalties apply after $1 million USD gross product revenue)
Individuals and small businesses (with less than $1 million USD in annual gross revenue)
For educators and schools (no revenue limits)

Access to the source code
All platforms & features
Forums and documentation on the Epic Developer Community

Download now View FAQ Licensing Terms

Over $1 million USD in revenue?

Royalty-based

If you're creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, you'll pay royalties and won't be required to purchase seats.

Seat-based

If you're using Unreal Engine for commercial purposes, have generated more than $1 million in the past 12 months, and are not creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, then a seat license fee is required.

Unreal Engine is just the beginning.

Discover our collection of creative tools, content, services, and resources designed to help you turn ideas into reality.

MetaHuman

Customize and animate highly realistic digital human characters for use in your Unreal Engine projects.

Take a look

Unreal Editor for Fortnite

Create playable experiences using UE5 tools, then publish them to Fortnite for millions to explore.

Find out more

RealityScan

Produce high-fidelity 3D models from laser scans and photos that you can use in your real-time scenes.

Find out more

Animation Field Guide

Dive into real-time animation using Unreal Engine with tips from over 30 artists, producers, and pipeline experts.

Check it out

The Fab marketplace

Access a huge library of free and purchasable digital assets—3D models, materials, sound, VFX, digital humans, and more.

Browse now

Quixel Megascans

Browse the world’s largest library of AAA, cinema-quality assets based on real-world scan data, ready for use in your projects.

Explore now

Looking to use the Unreal Engine logo in your project? Access our brand guidelines and logos here.

Need help?

Connect with creators across industries and around the globe. Share everything from shortcuts to snippets to secret shader tricks. When you use Unreal Engine, you’re never alone—our community of hundreds of thousands of developers is here to support you as you bring your idea to life.

Dev Community Forums

Ask and answer questions; show off your work and get inspiration from others.

Unreal Source

Come hang out with us and our developer community on Discord.