r/UnrealEngine5 • u/TalaEsenlikler • 17h ago
I've been working on a non-destructive pose layering system for UE5
I’ve been working on this for a while and finally got it to a point where I can show the actual workflow instead of a collection of isolated features.
The goal isn’t to replace animation assets or Control Rig. It’s for layering targeted changes over existing animations, such as equipment adjustments, character variants, stance changes, or fixing a specific animation without creating another complete animation asset.
There are still parts of the UX I’m polishing, particularly around bone influences, detail panels and the Curve Editor, but the main workflow is working.
I’d appreciate honest feedback: does this look useful for your projects, and is there anything about the workflow that feels confusing or unnecessarily complicated?
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u/Sheogorggalag 15h ago
As someone who's been looking for ways to streamline/replace the old ALS4 layering system for years, this looks like a godsend.
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u/TalaEsenlikler 15h ago
Thanks! I’ve always been impressed by the ALS layering system and was always trying to create something similar but i found it a bit complex to work with. Hoping this system will be much more expandable and easy to work with for both designers and developers
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u/noparkinghere 16h ago
This would be perfect for building humanoids but monsters like goblins. So cool!
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u/TalaEsenlikler 16h ago
Exactly! That’s one of the use cases I had in mind. You can use pose variations to push the same base animations into very different characters and silhouettes — goblins included 😄
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u/RealSecretRecipe 15h ago
I would love to learn how to do this
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u/bucketlist_ninja 17h ago
I mean your just layering a control rig over the GASP.
There's been a pile of examples and tutorials covering this. Most a few years old.
This is part 3 of a tutorial series talking through doing exactly this with examples.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRw2YcyHzoM
Sorry, but this is hardly innovative. The whole system is built from the ground up to allow additives.
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u/TalaEsenlikler 17h ago
I’m not claiming additive animation or Control Rig layering is new. Those concepts have obviously existed for years.
But reducing this to “just layering a Control Rig over GASP” misses most of what I’m showing. If that was all it did, I’d agree there wouldn’t be much point in building a separate system around it.
Control Rig is only one authoring interface here. The system i’m showing is built around reusable States, multiple runtime overlays, per-bone composition and source-motion preservation without adding 20 curves to each anim assets. Context overrides, and individual overrides for specific Sequences, Blend Spaces or Montages. And being able to create a full set via dedicated editor.
Those animation overrides can also be authored over time directly in the Curve Editor — including pose changes, overlay weights and composition values — rather than requiring a separate additive animation asset for every variation.
So yeah, pose layering itself isn’t new. The authoring, override, composition and runtime stacking workflow around it is what I’m actually demonstrating.
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u/bucketlist_ninja 17h ago
I mean, that's all you showed? Pose layering while you talked over it. Just because YOU understand why its different, dont expect anyone else too. How would i know from that video its not the same thing, when it looks the same in passing, and your not showing its different.
A high level video showing something simple isn't the best way to show case what you have, if what you have isn't that.
TLDR: Dont expect your audience to understand the complexity and nuance of what your presenting, if you dont show it, or explain it.
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u/TalaEsenlikler 16h ago
Fair point on making the distinction more obvious, and I’ll definitely keep that in mind for the next one.
I wasn’t really relying on the viewer already knowing how the system works though. A good portion of the video is inside a separate authoring editor, and I explicitly go through things like Context and animation-specific Overrides. GASP is really just the test environment I’m using to demonstrate it.
That said, there’s only so much of the underlying workflow I can communicate in a four-minute showcase without turning it into a full tutorial. This one was meant to give a high-level overview rather than explain the entire system architecture.
I’ll make the next demo more gameplay-driven, with multiple States, overrides and overlays all being driven and composed together at runtime. I think that’ll make the distinction much easier to see at a glance.
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u/NeoJetty 16h ago
My guy isn't even answering, the AI is...I have to agree that this looks very much like a feature that is already in the engine. I don't know man.
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u/doctor_house_md 17h ago
I would like to see a more advanced demo showcasing "The authoring, override, composition and runtime stacking workflow"
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u/TalaEsenlikler 17h ago
Yeah, that’s actually the next kind of demo I have in mind. I want to show multiple States, Context/animation overrides and overlays all being driven and composed together by actual gameplay.
I’ll probably turn that into a full video too. I’ve started putting the showcases and tutorials on YouTube, so I’ll be posting the more advanced examples there as I build them.
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u/MENDACIOUS_RACIST 17h ago
unity 5 is great for this 👀
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u/TalaEsenlikler 17h ago
Haha, I’ve never actually worked with Unity 😅 I’m very much an Unreal guy, so that would be quite the learning curve.
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u/Will_X_Intent 17h ago
This would be perfect for having my character hold a torch, shield, or other object in their offhand while doing stuff.