Achieve professional, realistic vehicle animations in minutes using the free Cinematic Car Rig Lite for Unreal Engine 5. This tutorial breaks down the essential steps for preparing your custom car mesh, rigging it effectively, and setting up smooth cinematic paths using Level Sequence and the Camera Rig Rail.
Automotive visual effects (VFX) and Virtual Production demand efficiency, especially when dealing with complex elements like realistic vehicle movement. Rigging a car traditionally involves intricate physics and complex blueprint setups, which can be time-consuming for non-game projects. Fortunately, professional cinematic artist Brandon Lerry, known online as LUNCHBQX, shares his exact workflow—the same one he employs for high-profile clients like BMW—using a game-changing free asset.
In his detailed tutorial, Brandon Lerry walks beginners through using the Cinematic Car Rig Lite (CCR Lite), a simplified version of the professional tool developed by Mad Goat Studio. This rig handles the complicated suspension and wheel rotations automatically, letting you focus entirely on cinematography.
The Power of the Cinematic Car Rig Lite
CCR Lite is an essential tool for creators focusing on offline rendering and cinematic sequences. Unlike complex physics simulations, the rig streamlines the process, allowing artists to populate their scenes with hundreds of rigged cars without sacrificing precious frame rate. The rig includes crucial features like automatic wheel rotation, ground collision detection to handle uneven surfaces, and seamless integration with the Unreal Engine Sequencer.
To follow along with the tutorial, you will need the core asset, which is the Cinematic Car Rig Lite, and a vehicle model. Lerry suggests using this excellent Free Supra Car Model to practice the workflow. You can also check out the official developer’s work on the MadGoatStudio’s Channel.
Phase 1: Essential Mesh Preparation
The most critical step for a successful rig is preparing your custom FBX mesh. Lerry emphasizes that the rig requires three specific static meshes: the car body (excluding wheels), a single front right wheel, and the corresponding brake caliper.
Merging Components and Centering Pivots
Before you can utilize the CCR Lite, you must simplify your imported geometry. Use Unreal Engine’s built-in Modeling Tools to combine all individual meshes belonging to the body and the wheel into single static meshes using the Merge function. Crucially, after merging, you must center the pivot point for both the body and the wheel using the Edit Pivot > Center tool to ensure proper alignment with the rig’s expectation.
The caliper requires a special workflow: it needs to be nested inside the wheel mesh, its coordinates zeroed out, and its pivot zeroed manually to ensure it rotates correctly along the wheel’s axis.
Baking the Correct Transform
Custom models often import with incorrect rotation or scale. Lerry demonstrates how to compare your meshes against the demo car assets included with the rig. If the axes are misaligned, rotate all three prepared meshes (body, wheel, caliper) by 90 degrees and apply Bake Transform in Modeling Mode. This critical step locks in the correct scale and orientation, preventing catastrophic rigging failure.
Phase 2: Rigging Your Car Blueprint
With the meshes prepared, the actual rigging process is remarkably fast:
1. Create a Child Blueprint: Right-click the demo rig blueprint (BP_CarLight) and create a Child Blueprint Class. Name this new blueprint according to your car model (e.g., *Supra*).
2. Slot the Meshes: Open the new blueprint and slot your prepared static meshes—the merged body, the merged wheel (used for both front and rear slots), and the prepared caliper—into the corresponding blueprint variables.
3. Adjust Offsets: The wheels will likely disappear initially. Use the blueprint’s configurable parameters like Body Height, Front Side Offset, and Rear Side Offset to manually fine-tune the wheels’ position until they align perfectly with the car body.
Phase 3: Effortless Cinematic Animation
Once the car is rigged, animation shifts from tedious keyframing to defining a path. The quickest way to create smooth, professional motion is by using the Level Sequence tool combined with the Camera Rig Rail.
1. Set up the Path: Create a Camera Rig Rail in your scene and define its path. The rail is perfect for simulating smooth driving paths, including turns and elevation changes.
2. Parent the Car: Add the rigged car blueprint and the Camera Rig Rail to the sequence. Parent the car to the rail.
3. Animate Position: Keyframe the rail’s Current Position on Rail track to make the car move along the path. By enabling the Lock Orientation to Rail option on the rail asset, the car will automatically follow the path’s curvature, maintaining realism without manual rotation keyframes.
This setup leverages the CCR Lite’s core functionality, which handles realistic wheel rotation and ground adherence automatically, resulting in stunning, cinematic results with minimal effort.
If you found this workflow helpful, explore more advanced topics related to creating high-quality visualizations. Learning to fine-tune your light and post-process settings is crucial for the final polish—read our guides on Unreal Engine Lighting & Rendering. For integrating your vehicle into a larger project, look into advanced Unreal Engine VFX & Simulation techniques.
Source:
How to Rig a Car in Unreal Engine 5.6 — Free Beginner Tutorial
