Playable MetaHumans in Unreal Engine 5.7: Understand the Why

Name: Playable MetaHumans in Unreal Engine 5.7: Understand the Why
Rating: 4.4 (29 reviews)

Discover how the Unreal inheritance system makes MetaHumans playable, taught by an Unreal Authorized Instructor (Gold).

Created byNikhil Kamkolkar

Last updated 5/2026

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Make a MetaHuman fully playable in Unreal Engine 5.7+
Understand Unreal Engine's character architecture
Customize animation retargeting in real-time
Debug, refine, and optimize character setups

Course content

9 sections • 31 lectures • 3h 27m total length

Introduction3:58
Welcome to Making a Metahuman Playable in Unreal Engine (Using the Third Person Template)
If you've ever tried to make your Metahuman character playable by building on Unreal's Third Person Template, you've likely followed the basic five-step tutorials that are out there successfully and got it working.
So why take this course?
I'll walk you through why Unreal Engine's character architecture relies on inheritance and composition, and how that allows us to bring a Metahuman into the gameplay framework by building on existing foundations, while learning about blueprints, character movement, animation processes, and retargeting.
Whether you're a filmmaker, indie dev, or technical artist working with Metahumans, you'll come out of this with a solid grasp of:
Inheritance vs. composition
What makes a character playable
How to retarget existing animations to Metahuman skeletons (live!)
And how to debug issues
By the end of this course, you'll have a better understand of Unreal Engine systems and functionality while using the goal of making a Metahuman playable with the Third Person Template as your learning project.
Let’s get started.

Third Person Template Project4:31
Bringing in a MetaHuman17:25
Metahuman Parametric Body and New Clothing Architecture
Free Metahuman Outfits for Ada from Fab.com
Adding a MetaHuman Outfit for Ada from Fab.com9:40
Learn to add a free metahuman outfit from fab to Ada, ensuring compatibility with the parametric body, applying it before rigging, importing assets, and assembling the blueprint for the level.
Where do you Spawn? Understanding Player Start2:43
Unreal uses the player start actor to determine where Quinn spawns and which way she faces. Ensure the player start has room and avoids collisions; otherwise spawn may be shifted.
Who Spawns? Understanding Game Mode and Default Pawn Class3:53
Unreal uses the game mode as a rulebook that defines the default pawn class and how characters spawn, guiding how Quinn becomes a playable metahuman in the third person template.

Inheritance and Composition - Concepts3:27
Discover how inheritance and composition drive Unreal Engine characters, define objects, classes, and instances, and learn why metahumans become playable in the third-person character blueprint.
The Car Analogy - Part 12:56
Explore how inheritance builds a hierarchy from a base object to car frame, car, and sedan, illustrating is-a relationships and component-driven specialization in Unreal Engine.
Blueprint Visual Scripting Logic vs Blueprint Class2:59
Explore Unreal Engine's blueprint two meanings: the visual scripting system with nodes and wires, and blueprint classes created in the editor based on a parent class like actor.
The Car Analogy - Part 2 (and ACharacter Class)7:02

Changing the Parent Class10:00
Using Your Unreal 5.7 MetaHuman Character
Adding the Camera Component2:20
Player Controller & MetaHuman Design4:57
Explore how the player controller bridges human input to a metahuman, detailing possession, default pawn setup, and steps to make cinematics-focused metahumans playable via a third-person blueprint.
Inheriting from BP_ThirdPersonCharacter Blueprint Class2:06
Change BP Ada's parent class to BP_ThirdPersonCharacter and save. Spawn at the current camera location to see both the metahuman and Quinn, with Quinn animating and Ada static.
The Illusion of Animation in Unreal Engine2:53

Options to Animate our MetaHuman1:27
Enhanced Input System & MetaHuman Design2:06
[OLDER 5.5 Unreal Version] Animation Blueprint + State Machine4:44
Explore how an animation blueprint and state machine drive Quinn’s motion in Unreal Engine 5, using velocity, in‑air status, and a blend space to animate idle, walk, run, and jump.
Unreal 5.7 Animation Blueprints - What Changed and Why?3:41
Explore how Unreal Engine 5.7 updates animation blueprints by introducing the ABP_underscore_unarmed and combat variants built on the base template, enabling armed and unarmed states and a health management system.

Why Retargeting, and Which Approach?11:19
Explore why retargeting lets you reuse animation data between different skeletons in Unreal Engine, and compare offline retargeting with live retargeting to build efficient metahuman animations.
Retargeting Challenges10:47
Explains retargeting animation data between skeletons, detailing bone hierarchies and transforms, and shows how proportion and pose mismatches alter motion when mapped onto different skeletons, with forward and inverse kinematics.
Forward Kinematics (FK)5:39
Apply forward kinematics to animate a character by rotating a parent bone and cascading motion to its child joints, using Unreal's transform bone node to craft a wave.
Inverse Kinematics (IK)9:01
Learn how forward and inverse kinematics work, contrast FK with IK, and apply full-body IK for retargeting in Unreal Engine 5 with end effector goals and pole vectors.
Retargeting Pipeline Fundamentals5:09
Learn the three-phase retargeting pipeline in Unreal Engine 5.7—retarget root with the pelvis, apply FK to match body shapes, then use IK to align end effectors.
Retargeting Pipeline Demo (IK Rig, IK Retargeter, Ops Stack)22:08
Demonstrates building a three-phase retargeting pipeline with IK rigs, the IK retargeter, and the ops stack to connect Manny to Ada, highlighting pelvis motion, FK pass, and IK pass.
Setting Up Live Retargeting for a MetaHuman10:59
Set up a live retargeting workflow by configuring the MetaHuman blueprint, aligning Ada to Quinn, and applying a retarget pose from mesh with an IK retargeter.
[OLDER 5.5 Unreal Version] Setting up Live Retargeting for a MetaHuman12:00
Duplicate the metahuman blueprint and set its parent to bp_third_person_character. Assign the ABP metahuman female medium normal retargeting and enable always tick pose and refresh bones for live retargeting.

Watch the Trailer for LOVE LOVE: Fractures1:48
Watch the trailer for love love: fractures and explore forgiveness, betrayal, and cross cultural identities. Apply these dynamics to playable meta humans in unreal engine 5.7.
Watch the Trailer for my Course LIGHT LIKE A CINEMATOGRAPHER IN UNREAL ENGINE 52:53
Learn to light in Unreal Engine 5.7 like a cinematographer to serve story with emotion and atmosphere, using lumen, path tracing, and post-processing in a rough-to-polish workflow that directs attention.

Requirements

Familiarity with Unreal Engine interface and Blueprints
Completion of Epic's "Your First Hour with Unreal Engine" recommended
Basic understanding of classes and components in Unreal (Actor, Pawn, Character)

Description

Course Note: Updated April 2026 to Unreal Engine 5.7 with new Metahumans, new Third Person Template, and the Retargeting Ops Stack

Most tutorials on making a Metahuman playable using the Third Person template teach you how to do it by following a list of steps. This course teaches you what those steps actually do, and why that matters.

As a Gold-tier Unreal Authorized Instructor, an Unreal Animation Fellow, and a generalist focused on all things Unreal Engine, including Virtual Production, Game Design, and Cinematics, I understand just how fast Unreal Engine is developing and changing. Understanding how the engine ticks (pun intended!) is key to your ability to thrive using Unreal Engine and problem solve when things don't work as expected.

In this focused, 3+ hour course, you’ll gain an architectural understanding of how Unreal Engine spawns and controls characters, including Metahumans, and deep dive into the third person template. Instead of overwhelming you with features, we go deep into core principles like:

Inheritance and Composition
Game Mode and Default Pawn Class
Blueprint Class Hierarchies
Live Animation Retargeting
Character Movement Components

You’ll learn to bring in a Metahuman and make them playable using the Third Person template — not by blindly replacing meshes, but by understanding the underlying systems used by the Third Person template. You are encouraged to break things and find your way back again, asking WHY -- that is the way.

Whether you're working in indie games, virtual production, or animation, these are the kind of Unreal Engine fundamentals that will unlock both your curiosity and your capability.

By the end, you’ll be confident not just in using Metahumans — but in using the Third Person template for your own projects.

Who this course is for:

Intermediate Unreal Engine users looking to make Metahumans playable
Creators interested in Unreal Engine's character animation systems
Anyone curious about how Unreal handles player input, animation, and character control under the hood

Playable MetaHumans in Unreal Engine 5.7: Understand the Why

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 4min

MODULE 1: Where and Who — Understanding Character Spawn in Unreal Engine5 lectures • 38min

MODULE 2: Inheritance and Composition in Unreal Engine4 lectures • 16min

MODULE 3: Parent Class & Player Controller5 lectures • 22min

MODULE 4: Animation Blueprints and State Machines4 lectures • 12min

MODULE 5: Understanding and Setting Up Retargeting8 lectures • 1hr 27min

MODULE 6: Retargeting Quality and Advanced Techniques1 lecture • 10min

MODULE 7: Character Movement Component & Conclusion1 lecture • 4min

BONUS SECTION2 lectures • 5min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: