Introduction
This time I mainly study Unreal Engine. In fact, when I made my last model Maha, I already wanted to import the model into UE4, but I don’t know if there was a problem with rigging. I couldn’t export the complete model, so I had to give up. So this week I want to learn the basic UE4 operation, and try to import the Maha I remade before into UE4.
Process
Basic software learning needs to understand the software pages, basic functions and operations, shortcut keys and so on. Like other 3D software, these elements of UE4 are not innovative. I watched Chen’s tutorial video. He is a very patient teacher. He mentioned every possible mistake we might make in the video, which greatly improved my learning speed.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV164411Y732
For example, the first few videos mainly explain how to view and call assets. I have to say that Unreal Engine looks much more real than Unity (or my own illusion).
I thought the previous operations were relatively simple, until I realized blueprints. To be honest, this is indeed simpler than script, but as a beginner it seems to take time to understand. This is to keep practicing by yourself in order to remember every step. In addition to the official discovery, I also read another teacher’s tutorial. He only focuses on anim BP. I think I will have to refer to his operation after putting the model and animation into Unity.
Because he demonstrated how to associate animation with characters, including walk, run, and attack. This is the gameplay animation I want to do. More importantly, he also taught how to import sounds, special effects and camera movements, which I think can make my animations look cooler in UE4.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ly4y1q7UG?p=18&spm_id_from=pageDriver
In addition, I also downloaded some free assets, mainly to check the animation state machine, blueprints, blend space of each character. Although I still don’t quite understand why I want to do this, but this can be used as a reference.
After learning the basic operations of unreal engine4, I think I can try to import my model. After exporting the re-rigging model to an fbx file, it finally has a head, but there is no way for controllers to export it together. But there is no need for controllers in the engine, and I don’t have time to care about them.
But after the model was imported into UE4, the characters in the animation turned upside down. After I checked the information, everyone said it was because Maya’s up axis was Y, and UE4 was Z. So I changed Y to Z when exporting Maya, but the character was still lying down.
So I searched the official website:
https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/29968/flipped-character-animation-after-import.html
I found that someone did the same operation as me, and the advice given by the staff was:
Took a look at your .fbx. There are a couple things that you should probably step back and change before going any further with this character.
The .fbx that you import for you Skeletal Mesh should have the character in its default state (T-Pose) with no animation on it. Also, that fbx should just contain the character’s mesh and joints; not any of the nodes, groups, controls, etc. associated with the animation rig. More info on that: LINK.
An .fbx file for an animation only needs the animated joints. Again, you don’t want any of the extra stuff associated with your animation rig, just the joints. So, whenever you’re ready to export, select all of your joints and do an Export Selection. More info on that here: LINK
Currently the root bone of your skeletal hierarchy is the child of an animation control (animGlobal01). You will want to remove that parent/child relationship and just use a parent constraint instead. The root bone needs to be the top of the hierarchy for your animations to import correctly. I was able to get your Idle imported with the correct rotation just by making that change.
I know that it stinks to have to re-do your work, but depending on your familiarity with setting up a character for use in a game, I would honestly recommend just starting over and using the Animation Rigging Tool for Maya included with UE4. You can use your same mesh with it, and things like joint hierarchy, up-axis, etc will be correct out of the box. Documentation on that, here: LINK.
Good luck!
Yes! Good Luck! I made it! According to the staff, I don’t want to import mesh, bones and animation directly, but first import mesh and bones, and then only animation, so there is no need to change any up axis!
Conclusion
This week I learned to use Unreal Engine 4 basically, and can make game scenes (brush, skydome, fog etc.) by myself. The most important thing is that I can finally import my models and animations into UE4. Why should I do this step? , Because I hope that I have solved all the problems that I may encounter in the early stage, and the animation production in the later stage can be more smooth.
I hope I can make a controllable role game as smoothly as teachers when I actually use blueprints.