Animation nodes

Three AnimGraph nodes bring the face and gaze to life — non-destructively.

IAMX ships three purpose-built AnimGraph nodes that layer a live, conversational performance on top of whatever your character is already doing. Right-click in any AnimGraph, type "IAMX" in the node search, and you'll see them appear. Drop them into your pose chain and wire them up — no rebuild of your existing animation setup required.

The defining principle is that every one of these nodes is additive. They read the pose flowing into them and blend their contribution on top — mouth shapes, eye direction, head rotation — before passing the result along. Your idle loops, gesture montages, locomotion blendspaces, and hand-authored keyframes all keep running underneath. Nothing you built is overwritten, and if IAMX has nothing to say at a given frame, the pose passes through untouched.

How the nodes fit together

You'll typically use two Animation Blueprints on a character: a Face ABP that drives facial blend shapes, and a Body ABP that drives the skeleton. IAMX has nodes for both. In each graph the rule is the same — insert the IAMX node(s) between your existing pose and the Output Pose, so they get the last word on the parts they control.

Face Animation Blueprint

In your character's Face ABP, add two IAMX nodes just before the Output Pose. First the lip sync node applies the streamed facial performance; then the eye look-at node aims the gaze. Chaining them in this order means the eyes are placed on top of the fully-formed facial expression.

[ existing pose ] -> [ IAMX Lip Sync ] -> [ IAMX Eye Look At ] -> [ Output Pose ]

1. Open the Face ABP — the one that already drives your character's facial rig.
2. Find the Output Pose — locate the final pose pin at the end of the AnimGraph.
3. Insert IAMX Lip Sync — right-click, search "IAMX", and drop it in. Connect your existing pose into its input.
4. Insert IAMX Eye Look At — add it after the lip sync node, feeding its output into the Output Pose.
5. Compile & save — the moment a conversation begins, the mouth moves in sync and the eyes find the player.

Because both nodes are additive, your character can still blink, emote from a facial montage, or run a baked expression underneath — IAMX only writes the channels it owns.

Body Animation Blueprint

In the Body ABP you add a single node. The head look-at turns the head toward the player so the character feels present and attentive, while your locomotion, idles, and gesture layers keep driving the rest of the skeleton.

[ existing pose ] -> [ IAMX Head Look At ] -> [ Output Pose ]

1. Open the Body ABP and scroll to the end of the AnimGraph.
2. Insert IAMX Head Look At — right-click, search "IAMX", place it right before the Output Pose.
3. Re-route the final link — feed your existing pose into the node, and the node's output into the Output Pose.
4. Compile & save — the head now tracks the player during conversation, within natural limits.

The three nodes at a glance

Tuning

Each node exposes a small, focused set of controls so you can match the character's personality and the physical setup of your scene — a kiosk camera at eye height behaves differently from a seated desktop view. All tuning is non-destructive: it only shapes IAMX's additive contribution and never alters the animation underneath.

Lip sync

• Smoothing — controls how tightly the mouth follows the incoming performance. Lower values are crisp and punchy; higher values soften transitions between shapes for a calmer read.
• Fade — governs how quickly the mouth settles back to a neutral rest when speech stops, so the character closes its mouth gracefully instead of freezing on the last shape.

Eye & head look-at

• Natural limits — clamp how far the eyes and head are allowed to rotate toward the target, keeping the pose believable and preventing extreme, unnatural angles.
• Smoothing — eases the gaze onto the player so tracking feels like a living glance rather than a mechanical lock, and rides smoothly if the player moves.

Works with your rig

Next steps

Questions about a specific rig or blend shape setup? Ask on the forum, or read setup deep-dives on the blog. Source and issues live on GitHub.