Leader posing lets a character equip and swap skeletal mesh parts while keeping all parts driven by the same pose. This is useful for modular characters where body, clothing, hair, hands, torso, legs, or other mesh parts need to change without creating separate animation logic for every part.

For shared setup guidance, see the Migration Guide and Integration Guide. Use the System Atlas to look up functions, variables, events, components, and ownership references. Use this page for Leader Posing-specific setup, runtime behavior, extension points, and integration notes.

The character is split into several skeletal meshes. Those parts can be changed on equip or unequip while still following the leader pose setup.

When using a custom character, implement the Leader Pose interface and set up the character parts inside the interface call on that character.

Related Videos

Version note: Some videos may have been recorded before V4. The same principles still apply, but asset names, component names, and folder locations may differ. Use this written documentation and the current V4 names as the source of truth.

MetaHuman

Note: MetaHumans can be performance-heavy, especially on LOD 0.

The leader-posed character can be used with a MetaHuman setup. Start by creating a MetaHuman master character.

1. Set up LodSync in the master character.
2. Create a child of that master character.
3. Select the skeletal meshes.
4. Copy and paste the hair under the head component.
5. Assign the body on the hands component.

Assign the remaining parts logically, for example Torso to Body and Legs to Pants.