Unreal Engine 5.5+ Animation and Sequencer updates (Speculative)

The forward looking portion of the Unreal Engine Roadmap has been updated recently (within the last three months) to include some interesting features AND a sneak peak at some visuals. I'll be breaking these down below and explaining why I think these are going to be very useful. Since I am not within Epic Games/Unreal Engine, I am not privy to their release timetables and while it will certainly be an early Christmas present to get these features for 5.5. The likelihood of that is quite low.

However, onto the fun bits!

Sequencer upgrades

First off is a powerful new "sequence outliner" panel.

No longer needing to click through a breadcrumb style system when dealing with Master/Nested sequencers. Neat and compact with quick visual identifiers for frame in and frame out. This looks like a much needed addition which will allow solo and teams the ability to work on cinematics in a much more fluid way.

If the subsystem for Sequence Navigation is exposed this could provide a much much greater way to access sequence information via Python/BP giving pipelines more ability to build tools around this.

Second on the list is customizable property columns.

Not a lot of information to go by except it's description ("Customizable Columns to view properties and toggle actions on shots & subsequences"). Could this be an easy extension to the custom property track feature? Sounds like we will be able to expose properties to this column possibly in the same way as exposing variables to cinematics in BP works. Triggerable in sequences based on keyframe toggles.

Bookmarking time ranges within sequences will soon be available.

Couple this with the new outliner inside sequencer and it could prove to be lightning fast to jump back and forth inside sequences and edit faster.

Searching and filtering similar to the world outliner can filter actors will now be possible.

Along with what appears to be quite a smart way of filtering based on cvar type commands. More functionality added into the filtering system such as:

• Isolate or Hide Selected Bindings, Tracks, or Channels
• Hotkey Support for Hide, Isolate, and Show All
• Overlay Window for Properties of Bindings, Tracks, Sections, Channels, and Keys
• Toggle to Filter Viewport Selection of Sequence Contents

A new animation window for sequencer is being released.

This will utilize the traditional "sections" workflow inside sequences but allowing for a much more consolidated and cleaner UI to control each animation from. Great for being able to flick between multiple animations, change weights and blend modes without the hassle of dealing with tens of tracks to scroll through, unlock and edit.

Core actions to include:

• Create Layer from Selected
• Multi Object Layers
• Merge Selected Layers
• Additive and Override
• Mute, Lock, Select
• Animatable Weights
• Rename, Duplicate, Delete

Finally for sequencer, a more Dynamic and flexible system appears to be coming out. Features include:

• New Default Binding Type - Replaceable that can be dynamically bound at runtime to a different object
• Creating Custom Binding Types - More control over how an Object is bound in Sequencer
• Conditionally control a track row's or section's active state
• Time Warp a Sequence, Subsequence, or Skeletal Animations with a authorable Curve
• Override and animate the Transform Origin of a Subsequence or Shot

This could provide super useful for more proxy based authoring of cinematics before runtime rendering of higher definition assets. Time warping a sequence is something that has been long awaited! Now cinematics can be created linearly but adjusted on a per sequence basis to suit a particular shot. Integrating this within a Master/Child sequence workflow will be an amazing enhancement for sure.

Animation Enhancements

First glimpse at the new Skeletal mesh weight editing UI.

We can see on the left a very similar UX to the modelling tools panel and the custom scriptable tools workflow. Activated by clicking "Editing tools" in the top panel (just cut off from this image). Will be great to finally paint weights in, then set up control rigs for much more dynamic purposes.

Animation deformers are no more easily accessible.

Built in sequence control for animation deformers and setup. Core features to include:

• Animate deformers within Sequencer
• Author animation deformers inside Control Rig
• Prebuilt library (plugin) containing a collection of new control rigs with built-in deformers, usable for production or as examples for building your own rig driven deformers.

Library of deformers sounds very useful! (As well as extending said library plugin to include custom and more dynamic deformers).

Dynamic Control rigs have arrived.

FINALLY. Functionality to swap rigs out non destructively. Give that new concept car a sporty suspension or a more family comfort one. Swap your humanoids rig out when they change their appendages. The list is endless. This will be a great addition and hopefully is very easy to sequence/BP control.

Finally, Physics based control rigs are on the horizon.

Node based physical properties will now be able to be applied to control rigs. Now enabling much more realistic and dynamic animations to happen live. Also Physics based modules will be available so that modular control rigs can take advantage. Sequencer will now have tools built in to animate control rigs based on physics which will be super great for action cinematics and more.

That's all for now. Again these features could come in 5.5 or they could come much later. However, it's much better to jump on the awareness train early and get prepared.

All of these updates above will have a big impact on my own personal and professional workflow and pipeline. Over Automotive, Aerospace, Advertisement and more. Very excited to get hands on with these.

Thanks for reading!

Cover photo by Brecht Corbeel on Unsplash