I will rig and animate your 3D game characters for Unity Mecanim and Unreal

I will rig and animate your 3D game characters for Unity Mecanim and Unreal

About this gig

I rig and animate 3D game characters that drop straight into Unity Mecanim and Unreal Engine, with clean skinning, retarget-ready skeletons, and game-ready animation sets.

What you get

If your character mesh is sitting in your project but won't move, deform cleanly, or play nice with your animation system, that's exactly what I fix. I take a static 3D model and turn it into a fully functional, engine-ready asset.

  • A complete deformation skeleton built to your engine's conventions: humanoid joint hierarchy for Unity Mecanim Avatar mapping, or an Epic-skeleton-compatible bone layout for Unreal so your character can share Marketplace and Mixamo animation libraries.
  • Clean, weight-painted skinning with smooth deformation at the shoulders, hips, elbows, knees, neck, and wrists, tested through extreme poses so you don't get candy-wrapper twists or volume collapse.
  • A production rig with IK/FK on arms and legs, foot roll, a working reverse-foot setup, spine and neck controls, finger controls, and a global/root control for in-place vs. root-motion workflows.
  • Facial setup on request: blendshape/morph-target driven expressions and visemes, or a joint-based face rig if you prefer driving the face from bones.
  • Game-ready animation clips authored on the rig and baked to the skeleton: idle, walk, run, jump (start/loop/land), turn-in-place, and combat or interaction actions as your tier and brief require.
  • Correctly configured root motion or in-place locomotion, with the root/pelvis handled so your character controller and animation blending behave predictably.
  • Exported FBX files with baked joint animation, named tracks, and a sensible scale/axis so the import is a non-event.
  • A short import note covering Avatar configuration in Unity (or the IK Rig / retarget setup in Unreal UE5) so your team can wire it up in minutes.

Everything is delivered tested inside the target engine, not just rendered in a DCC viewport. A rig that looks fine in Blender or Maya but breaks on import helps nobody, so I close the loop in Unity or Unreal before I call it done.

Plans

FeatureBasicStandardPremium
Engine-ready skeleton (Mecanim humanoid or Epic-compatible)YesYesYes
Skin weighting + deformation passBodyBody + handsBody + hands + face
Control rig (IK/FK, foot roll, root control)BasicFullFull + facial
Facial blendshapes / morph targetsOptional add-onIncluded
Authored animation clipsLocomotion core (idle/walk/run)Locomotion + jump + turnsFull set + actions/combat
Root motion setupYesYes
In-engine import testYesYesYes
RevisionsStandardGenerousPriority
Source rig file deliveredOn requestYes

If your needs sit between tiers, tell me what the character has to do in-game and I'll quote a setup that matches, rather than pushing you into a package that's too big or too small.

How it works

  1. You send me the character mesh (FBX, OBJ, or your DCC scene), reference images or a turntable, and the target engine and version (Unity Mecanim, Unreal UE4, or UE5).
  2. We confirm scope: which animations you need, in-place vs. root motion, whether the face needs to move, and which existing animation libraries you want the skeleton to be compatible with.
  3. I clean and check the mesh topology where rigging is affected, then build the skeleton to the chosen engine's bone convention.
  4. I skin and weight-paint the mesh, then stress-test deformation through full ranges of motion and fix problem areas before any animation starts.
  5. I build the control rig and author the agreed animation clips, keeping timing and weight readable at game speed.
  6. I bake to the skeleton, export FBX, and import into a clean Unity or Unreal test project to verify the Avatar/retarget, deformation, and playback.
  7. You review against the brief, request revisions, and I deliver final files plus the import note.

Why choose this

Rigging is the step where game characters quietly go wrong. Bone names that don't map to Mecanim's Humanoid Avatar, a skeleton that can't retarget Epic animations, weights that look fine in a T-pose but explode in a crouch, a root that fights your character controller. I build with those exact failure points in mind, because the goal isn't a pretty rig screenshot, it's a character that animates correctly in your actual project.

I also keep the rig honest about scope. A mobile NPC doesn't need a film-grade facial system, and a hero character shouldn't ship with five-bone hands. I match the setup to how the character is used so you're not paying for complexity you'll never touch, or discovering a missing control halfway through production.

Who it's for / use cases

  • Indie and small-studio devs who have great-looking models but no rigging pipeline in-house.
  • Teams standardizing on the Mecanim Humanoid system who want characters that share one animator controller and reuse the same clip library.
  • Unreal projects that want characters compatible with the Epic skeleton so they can retarget Marketplace and Mixamo animations.
  • Asset creators preparing rigged, animated characters for sale or for client handoff.
  • Prototypes and game jams that need a controllable character moving in-engine quickly, plus full productions that need a robust, revision-friendly rig.
  • Replacing or repairing an existing rig that deforms badly, won't retarget, or breaks on import.

FAQ

Q: Will the character work with Unity's Mecanim Humanoid system? Yes. For Mecanim I build a humanoid-compatible joint hierarchy so the Avatar maps cleanly, which lets you reuse humanoid animations and retarget across characters. I confirm the Avatar configures without errors during the in-engine test.

Q: Can it use Epic skeleton and Mixamo/Marketplace animations in Unreal? Yes. I can build to an Epic-skeleton-compatible layout so you can retarget Marketplace, Mixamo, and other humanoid libraries via Unreal's IK Rig / retargeter. Tell me your UE version so I set up the right workflow.

Q: Do you provide root motion or in-place animation? Both. I configure the root/pelvis depending on whether your character controller drives movement (in-place) or the animation drives it (root motion). If you're unsure which you need, describe your movement code and I'll recommend one.

Q: Can you rig non-humanoid characters like creatures or quadrupeds? Yes, though non-humanoid rigs fall outside the standard humanoid retarget flow and are scoped per project. Send reference and a description of how it moves and I'll outline the skeleton and controls it needs.

Q: What files do I need to send you? The character mesh as FBX, OBJ, or a native DCC file, plus reference images or a turntable, the target engine and version, and a list of the animations and behaviors you need. UV-mapped and reasonably clean topology helps the skinning go smoothly.

Q: Do you fix existing rigs, or only build from scratch? Both. I regularly repair skinning, remap bone hierarchies for Mecanim or Epic compatibility, and re-bake animation. Send the current file and describe what's breaking and I'll tell you whether a repair or a rebuild is the better path.

Q: How do revisions work? After delivery you review against the agreed brief and flag deformation issues, control changes, or animation timing notes. Revision rounds scale with your tier; clearly described feedback gets turned around fastest.

Q: Will the rig deform cleanly in extreme poses? That's the whole point of the deformation pass. I stress-test shoulders, hips, knees, elbows, and the spine through full ranges and fix pinching or volume loss before animation begins, so combat and acrobatic moves hold up.

Reviews5(2)

  • @ninamedia
    ★★★★★5

    Sent over three low-poly creatures for our mobile RPG and the Mecanim setup was flawless. The humanoid rig retargeted onto our existing animation set with zero tweaks, and the walk/run/attack cycles he added imported clean into Unity. Turnaround was four days even with a revision.

  • @norastudio
    ★★★★★5

    Solid work on rigging our boss character for an Unreal project. The IK foot setup worked perfectly with the control rig and he was quick to answer questions on Discord throughout.