Unreal Engine by Epic Games is a real-time 3D engine widely used across film, television, and game production pipelines. The Control Rig system lets artists create and animate rigs directly in-engine without external DCC dependencies. With the A-COM Animation Sample, developed by Agora Studio, Epic demonstrates a full animation workflow entirely inside Unreal.
Free for All: Rigging in UE 5.6
Epic Games has released its “Rigging in Unreal Engine 5.6 Workshop” on the Epic Developer Community, opening up a previously invite-only, five-day training programme to all users for free. The workshop focuses on developing production-ready rigging skills using Unreal Engine’s Control Rig system. Originally designed for professional riggers and technical artists, the course now offers anyone the chance to follow Epic’s structured, studio-grade approach to animation rigging. Participants can access videos, slides, and assets directly through the community platform.
Hands-On Control Rig Training
The workshop guides users through constructing a complete biped rig, starting with simple props and progressing to complex facial controls. It emphasises practical rigging workflows that can integrate directly into real-time production pipelines. According to Epic, the content covers foundational and advanced rigging topics: Unreal Engine basics, animation tool setup, skeletal editing, FK/IK and spline configuration, deformers, blend shapes (morph target animation), and Control Rig physics.The training also includes sections on procedural controls, dynamic systems, and Python-based tools, designed to encourage experimentation while remaining rooted in practical production scenarios.
Built on the A-COM Animation Sample
The course uses the A-COM Animation Sample project, created by Agora Studio, as its base. The sample demonstrates a full animation pipeline inside Unreal Engine 5.6, including rigging, keyframe animation, lighting, VFX, and rendering. The project’s robotic characters and production assets provide real-world context for learning rigging techniques. Both the A-COM Animation Sample and the workshop materials are downloadable from the Epic Developer Community and Fab.
Production Relevance
Epic positions the workshop for mid to senior-level riggers who are migrating to Unreal Engine’s real-time Control Rig system from traditional DCC-based pipelines (such as Maya or Blender). The company emphasises immediate applicability of the techniques in professional environments, though users are encouraged to test and adapt workflows before deployment in actual productions.
And, just saying: with the holidays coming up, there are worse ways to spend a few days 🙂
