Real-World Animation & Rigging Challenges in Production | Unreal Fest Chicago 2026

Over the past few years, working closely with studios and more recently as a Solution Architect at Epic Games, Stéphane Biava has gained first-hand insight into the real challenges teams face when bringing Unreal Engine animation and rigging workflows into production.

This talk recorded at Unreal Fest Chicago 2026 distills those experiences into a practical narrative, highlighting common pain points, unexpected bottlenecks, and the gap between established workflows and real-time environments.

Unreal Engine already provides the tools needed to build robust animation pipelines, but the real challenge lies in how those tools are approached. Success comes from rethinking processes to align with Unreal Engine’s paradigm.

Through concrete examples and real production use cases, this video shares what works, what breaks, and how shifting perspective—rather than replicating familiar workflows—can unlock more efficient and scalable solutions.

Find out more about using Unreal Engine for animation here: unrealengine.com/uses/animation

#Animation, #Rigging, #UnrealEngine, #UnrealFestChicago2026