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Playable MetaHumans in Unreal Engine 5.7: Understand the Why
Rating: 4.4 out of 5(26 ratings)
154 students

Playable MetaHumans in Unreal Engine 5.7: Understand the Why

Discover how the Unreal inheritance system makes MetaHumans playable, taught by an Unreal Authorized Instructor (Gold).
Created byNikhil Kamkolkar
Last updated 5/2026
English

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.

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

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