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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August 28, 2026

August’s Epic learning content: Networked physics, dynamic audio, and more

Explore free Epic learning content that covers everything from networked physics and features like Mesh Terrain to tips on key workflows, such as project optimization, material creation, and beyond.

Learning

August 12, 2026

Download the latest Game Animation Sample Project—now updated for UE 5.8!

The Game Animation Sample Project is back with a brand-new update for Unreal Engine 5.8. Showcasing the latest and greatest in-engine animation features, this release includes new physics, motion matching, pose searching, and look-at features—and more.

Tech Blog

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.

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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

Reimagining previs and layout for KPop Demon Hunters with UE5

Discover what happens when real-time technology meets a global pop phenomenon.

Sony Pictures Imageworks

Creating a stop-motion animation look on Max & the Midknights.

See how one studio is reinventing TV animation with feature-film scale and handcrafted charm.

Nickelodeon Animation Studio

Delivering speed and cost efficiency for the new wave of kids’ animation

Explore how UE5 is enabling fast iteration, rapid project turnaround, and a wide range of animation styles.

Various

The Wingfeather family in UE-powered animation ‘The Wingfeather Saga’.]

Unlocking faster iteration and instant reviews on The Wingfeather Saga.

Find out how moving an entire pipeline to UE5 slashed the time to go from good to great.

Shining Isle Productions

Let’s get started.

Ready to make some magic? We’ve got onboarding, tutorials, samples, documentation, and more to get you up to speed.

Tutorials

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Get Started with Unreal Engine

This five-part video series takes you on a whistlestop tour of the essentials, from installing UE5 and navigating the interface to packaging your project.

Animation Hub

Animation Hub is a series of short, focused video tutorials that cover everything from rigging and animation to rendering, simulation, and beyond.

Animation Workflows in UE 5.6

This course uses a full sample project featuring stylized characters developed by Agora Studio to guide you through industry animation workflows.

Documentation

Whether you're an artist, a TD, or a programmer, our comprehensive documentation has you covered.

Unreal Engine for New Users

Unreal Engine for Maya Users

Animating Characters and Objects

Creating Visual Effects

Cinematics and Sequencer

Movie Render Pipeline

See all documentation

Sample content

Samples are pre-built projects and other content designed to help you quickly learn and get working in Unreal Engine without needing to start from scratch. Download, play, deconstruct, and make them your own.

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A-COM Animation Sample

This sample provides a complete Unreal Engine project showcasing stylized biped and quadruped animation in a cinematic environment.

Zebra Sample

This project showcases a production-quality character built inside Unreal Engine on the full in-engine animation and rigging toolset, including DMC.

Niagara Examples Pack

This collection of over 50 VFX Niagara systems is designed to help you learn visually, then adapt or refine to suit your project’s specific needs.

MetaHuman Vampire Character Asset

This fully rigged asset demonstrates the potential of the MetaHuman Framework to deliver not just photoreal humans, but also boldly stylized characters.

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.

Check it out

RealityScan

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

See what's possible

Twinmotion

Come to your best decisions before a single frame is shot with this fast, easy, 3D visualization toolset.

Find out more

The Fab marketplace

Access a huge library of free and purchasable digital assets—models, materials, VFX, and much more.

Browse now

Quixel Megascans

Browse the world’s largest library of AAA, cinema-quality assets based on real-world scan data.

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.

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.