Does anybody know if this was ever finished or updated please
Sadly it stop short of getting the Char running about fully re-targeted and rigged
A full in depth complete version of this would be a great asset to the UE4 base tutorials
while yes I know most of the process’s are cover some place, and I say SOME place there is a lot of
people (I’m jus one) that don’t learn very easily from dis-joined tutorials scattered all over and have much more successes
taking a process from go to woh in a complete journey fitting each part of the process into it correct order.
Looking it over the info is out of date as the reason to flip the G3 model over to 3ds Max was due to a bug in UE4 that would not properly weight some of the vertices and the model would import with spikes. The problem was fixed in 4.15 and now imports with out errors when exported to FBX which you can now import directly into UE4.
Whats the problem you are having?
For the most part what you want to export is self explanatory and the only real tricky part is is exporting the morph target rules where you can select the targets you need from a possible 1000’s available.
Thank you for the reply Sir, and taking the time to read over that tutorial as I guess you must have
Not so much a problem rather trying to put together a method/workflow for correctly getting a char into UE4 and as I am a novice at this
What I’m after doing is get a base Male and Female char that I can use to get char into UE4. if I understand you correctly all I need to do is spend the time setting up the re-targeting for a Male and Female body save that project and migrate any new char from that. I’m guessing how ever the eyes would still need to be changed form the tree part that they are to say the realistic human eye mesh and re-skinned and also the versions for lod’s or are the lod’s now created auto magically by UE4 as well. I’m talking 4.15 or 4.16
Am I right in thinking that if I wish as I do to be able to change the armours and weapons on these player char, I need to fit the gear and export that WITH the same skeletion
Sure there are more than a few ways to go but if you fully dress a G3 rig in DS you can tell the exporter to export all of the parts bind pose to the G3 rig. You could also export the base mesh and included an injector morph, what DS uses to make unique characters, and make hundreds of characters all using the same frame work.
If anything I would say as a down side is there are to many options.
Stock UV mapping uses the same multi-submaterial type as used in 3ds Max as well as in UE4. The total model is broken into about 16 different material ID’s. It’s done this way as to allow for export of “visible” components of the model so you can excluded parts of the body that is not needed as part of a complete character export. Included as part of the Studio tool set is a Texture atlas that you can remap the UV layout to a single ID as well included any clothing elements to the new map
I was the one who put that tutorial together at the request of someone else who was asking about my workflow at the time. Specifically they were asking about interchangeable clothing on characters. Unfortunately I never got around to completing part 4 of the tutorial in the wiki though did continue to help them via PM.
As FrankieV has pointed out, it’s now possible to import a fbx directly into UE4 without needing to go via 3ds Max.
However I think there are still several valid reasons to taking the character through 3ds Max before bringing it into UE4. For example, fixing up the eye geometry so that it works well with the eye shader in UE4, creating LOD’s for your character, separating body parts such as the head whilst ensuring no visible seams, fixing up the skeleton to allow for foot IK (the twist bones in the skeleton can cause problems otherwise) etc. I’ve also had no luch with root motion on characters unless I made some changes to the skeleton first, however I using Motion Builder for animation retargeting so that might be why.
My own current workflow is still similar to what is outlined in the tutorial although a bit more advanced now and I’ve moved some of the initial setup work to Studio instead of doing it all in 3ds Max. For example I’ve imported new eye geometry that works with the UE4 eye shader, including the eye occlusion plane and eye blend geometry into Studio and rigged and weighted it to the G3M character. This way I can export facial morph targets directly out of and have the proper eye setup for the UE4 eye shader remain intact without needing to fix it up in 3ds Max. I still use 3d Max in my workflow for the reasons I’ve already mentioned above, LOD’s etc etc but creating morph targets for my characters head (which is a separate mesh to it’s body) is much easier now whereas it was quick tedious under the old workflow.
I think it all depends on what you’re wanting to achieve in the end as to which workflow is best for you.
Thank you Sir, and also THANK YOU for that tutorial was a little sad I didn’t get to game world but hey every wee bit helps, still on it
Just so your clear where I’m coming from. I’m a retired Kiwi 68 that want to get his mind active I have some assets that I brought and from Witcher 3 (CD-Project Red are ok with them being use for learning and non commercial projects, a lot have come from Skyrim mods if fact) I got 3D as a means to get a rigged character that I could use as a game char, my aim (and this is my own untrained logic which may well be way of track) was to get a character into Max rigged animated enough to be able to slide it to one of three pose’s. T pose, Witcher 3 poase and a Skyrim pose, I’d then have a tool to load and fit clothing armours etc to my char and to quote you “Specifically they were asking about interchangeable clothing” This is just what I wish to do try and build a Skyrim Witcher 3 ish style world to enjoy, and before you say this will likely get old quick, keep in mind my forgettery hell I almost meet new friends every day I for get so fast now days so it’ll most always be fresh lol, sorry got a terrible sense of humour. Anyway, You tutorial is just the type of syle I like and can learn from, how why, simple, because I can bookmark it and run through it any time I need and because I forget a lot so fast I’m not searching the web for untold dozen’s of broken fragmented tutorials trying to remember which was which and in what order they fit a tutorial like that from go to game world is the way I find it easy-est to learn having been brought up and educated in a time where you sat in glass shut up and listen while you where told whats what and in what order, that system tend to hard code your mind I bit I think, advanced stuff I need to see and have explained in a process order I find.
Anyway nough ole falla ramble,
The eyes did you use the transfer tool to import the eyes as a pair and some how make them the default to replace the Gen 3 eyes? (I’m thinking the eye is the same for both Male and Female) not sure bout skin, I’m thinking the same but would have finer spose was trying to find the Sparrow stuff, still looking lol.
If this tool was to work with a rigged char it would be just a case of load the char and click the rename button to have it rename the bones BUT life is never that easy right and I’d say this only works with his rig
I have I know jumped in the deep end, no snorkel either lol I’m learning all those while trying to learn Max and Maya from student copies, hopping for example to get to a point I maybe won’t need them in three or so years. Hell that scary, I maybe force to learn Blender and start the whole process over heaven forbid lol.
The short of it I guess is I’m trying to sort me out a process to create characters for a UE4 world I can change the clothing and weapons on I have brought some UE4 assets,
a first/third person controller, an RPG kit for loot able chest and menus, some animations for example, I know I bit off a lot BUT hey mans gotta give something a go right or are we at 60 pulse spose to just side waiting, I think NOT
Sorry if I’m wasting peoples time because this is not making money, seems that’s what it’s all about now days.
Shutting up now lol
Opps for got
Am I right in thinking that armour/cloths have a to be exported with a skinwrap done and a skeleton or be used as cloths in game? or they will fit but won’t move/fix to the char, which is what happened to me in Unity 5, not use if UE4 is the same YET
Darn it!! I just typed quite a lengthy reply and then went to submit the post only to be told that some token had expired and so lost it all
So here’s the short reply instead… blame the forum software for timing out so rapidly and me for being slow at typing.
More or less… I didn’t make them the default to replace G3M eyes, instead I just put it all together in a single save which I clone when starting a new character. You can’t delete the original eye geometry because it will break the morphs inside . Instead to have to hide all the old eye geometry. Select all of the old geometry and assign it to a new surface. Then you can simply hide by surface form that point on.
Then I used the transfer tool to bring in the new geometry and weight it to the skeleton. Required some manual weight painting because the transfer tool doesn’t handle the eye parts very well… probably because there’s a lot of verts close together.
You and me both I’m by no means an expert in any of this. Also just trying to figure things out as I go… but I enjoy the process and aren’t out to make anything in particular… just mucking about.
Generally speaking yes, clothing is typically brought in as skeletal meshes and bound to the same skeleton as the character…as far as I understand. Even if parts of the clothing use the cloth physics there is generally some parts which are skinned. One exception might be completely rigid amour parts such as metal shin guards or something. As they wouldn’t need to deform when the leg bends they could probably just be attached to sockets on the skeleton.
Sounds like your tying to make a decision based on bits and pieces and reasons why to take the chance of learning a completely new process of developing usable and quality characters as part of a productive development pipeline.
To clear the air Daz3d is a company that sells digital assets which owns an application called Studio and offers the Genesis 3 framework as just one of the many products that they offer. In hand both Studio and Genesis 3 are fee base products that you can download via Daz3d’s Install Manager (sound familiar?) and one can easily figure out how it fits into the DS>UE4 pipeline.
Overall it would be easier to say what it can’t do, like make coffee and fetch my dry cleaning, and our team has optioned, licensed, DS and G3 to make use of the ready made framework and one thing that DS does not do is excluded the use of other options like Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, zBrush or any other app that makes use of the FBX pipeline.
If you have a need for options and the ability to scale up a project Studio and Unreal 4 is a perfect fit as the up front costs is zero dollars and you only purchase what you need from either store front with out having to purchase a bunch of stuff you have no need for. For that matter with recent improvements I can see DS becoming a preferred UE4 application like Blender.
For that matter as the team animator I found it super easy to retarget animation packages onto the G3 rigging and with a bit of work could be an asset that can be repackaged and sold on the Daz3d marketplace as yet another option.
Sorry for rambling on but trying to explaine usability is like trying to explaine all of the different options you have with an engine like UE4.
Thank youi both for your replies @mrpdean I know that feeling been there done that with loosing posts, I got in the habit now of selecting all and copy so I can just paste it back if need be. You can bet your bottom dollar you can never rewrite a post the same the second time @FrankieV Don’t worrie bout the rambles mate you got a way to go to get better at rambles than me, I think I’m the one Arlo Guthrie was on about in Alice’s Restaurant when hes was speaking of a guy said “He talked for 45 min’s, never said a word” lol, sorry now I’m thinking you maybe be to young to know the dude
Oh BTW if you an animator did you see the links I posted up a bit, might be of interest to you
Yes I did and as an opinion I use Motion Builder for animations so anything else as is like tying to write a book using a spreadsheet. Sure you could but why?
is far from free for commercial use. Their “Indie Game Developer License for Personal or Business income of LESS than $100,000.00 annually” costs $500.
If you don’t buy the license and use their models in your game project “for free” they can sue you.
Sure and we bought a license. With a Platinum account it’s only 178.50 but that’s for the use of Original assets that requires runtime assets be packaged with the project at time of distribution. (On a few occasions the license has gone on sale for $100 and with a P account down to $75)
But
You do not need a license to use " Studio" no more than you need a license to use Blender as a productivity application but rather to make use of the Genesis 3 framework and only if you need to distribute the runtime. If you are looking for “FREE” there are options, like “Apollo Maximus”, as well as stuff available under Creative Commons.
On the flip side if you are making a 2d game, for Android for example,you can render out useful assets all you want with out having to pay any additional fees. EG
As a Produce Genesis 3 is not for everyone but trying to explain it all is like trying to explain how useful Blender is.
By the way the OP the question is, or should have been, From Studio to Unreal4 and Genesis 3 is just one product available from Daz3d that would be useful in Unreal 4 as it is the first game engine that oes not put limitations on that fidelity on the DCC art work and is the one application I get a lot of question on so I “tried” to do a primer so to speak.
So Frankie you got a lot of videos to go through, I for one don’t mind your rambles at all your a blessing to this ole bloke cause I can to a much better degree keep up.
The idea of that tool for Maya was to maybe, just maybe, be able to sort out Char’s without the heavy of Motion Builder, tho I got a student copy because I spotted (Can’t find it now) of a video from Truebones showing how to remove the Mixamo name space from the animations, it not I want to pirate them it more that when I look in the animation list on UE4 all I can see is a list of Mixamo in the column and not the name of the animation But Motion Builder look pretty daunting to get started in so was looking for simpler I guess. I know simple is not always the best choice and learning Motion Builder would stand me in a better place but it’s only good for three years
I was looking at using the Gwennili char for Gen 3 because of her Ciri from Witcher 3 look and the fact there’s a hair for her too
So I’m thinking if I add a root node, eg a null object as mrpdean says in his tutorlal to my Gwennili char, go through the re-target process to set the bone up correctly
I should be able to import her and replace that default char with her and have a good starting point to then get to making/editing clothing and armours that fit, exporting those skinwraped items with a skeleton and using an RPG tool to make menu’s etc to have change able gear for that char, for NPC typ char just skinwrap
Have not looked at Victoria 8 yet but the fact that it can be exported from Studio into Unreal 4 with little decay in fidelity only adds to the wish list of additional tools and features for Unreal 4.
Top of the list of course is Unreal 4 is crying out for a much more complex character creator as a system as part of a top down design pathway that decreases the workload that saves both time and money.
That said as far as Mixamo goes since they dropped support for Unreal 4 there is no hope for that design pathway to expand in scope as to ongoing character design needs beyond just making it work and having to settle for what is given to you off the shelf and out of the box so to speak.
Yes there are also other options said to “work” with Unreal 4, and being a good assets manager I’ve checked them out, but so far all of them have failed to meet our requirements in some area that would require additional work as well as costs that would be of any benefit from doing the work from scratch.
That out of the way it’s easier to explain why our group decided to go the Stutio+Genesis 3= Unreal 4 route as part of our preferred application pipeline than to explain why other options are bad choices, when they are not.
The three top questions than needs to first be answered before inclusion is.
How much time and effort is required to learn a given application necessary to determine if there is enough core features and tools available that would add value as a productivity tool?
A lot of products and/or solutions makes promises as in selling you a sports car when you really need a dump truck.
What are the upfront or hidden costs?
For all good things there is always a cost in some form or another. It’s just bad business to grab something off the shelf, putting it into your labor of love, with out looking into the small details no more would you drop your 4 year old off in the middle of town and drive off.
and in turn been using Studio since day one for other uses besides making characters for video games so already familiar with features and tool sets that I’m satisfied would be of use but even then it still took close to a year to convince others on the team as to the value of this “application” as part of our preferred application pipeline.
Yes to answer as in both Studio and the “base” Genesis 3 frame work are free downloads up front and then you purchase what you need as part of your on going development of your project. What thous are is difficult to say as there are many different options but in most cases asset purchase are far less than on the current Epic market place, with discounting at times, with out having to kit up with expensive products just to make something work.
Studio does support FBX which is reason one to even consider the use of any available application to take for a test drive.
That said these are the questions that needs to be answered as to consideration of including Studio in the first place but does not answer the purpose that inclusion needs to serve as part of the overall game design.
As I mentioned it took us as a group to figure out how to make a square peg fit into a round hole via discovery but top of the list is a design concept that it would be desirable to allow 3rd part inclusion of custom made, from scratch (mostly), player models as to our intentions of making game mods.
As a tool for 3rd party use it’s a no brainier and more than anything it’s the framework that we wanted and not an off the shelf, look like everyone elses game, solution.
And I ramble on again but this is just the tip of the iceberg of you wish to play on the AAA field but Unreal 4 is just a big empty until you put something into it and that can be something simple, off the shelf, or an entire system that’s plug-n-play.
If anything consider this a look behind the NDA curtain of how things could be done.
P.S. I’ve been considering buying this.
And converting the character models to G3 compatible.
I’m hoping to be able to replace this char with a more human of Elf type rather than the robot look AND be able to change the clothing and armour on that char, I’m thinking that for NPC types baked on armour is fine, they don’t change their gear like players do
Oh do you have any basic getting started Motion Builder tutorials along the lines of what would be needed for this type of task
Well here’s the thing I forgot to say. All Originals use the base Genesis framework starting at 1 to 3 and only included the base form along with the head and body injectors that makes the model a Victoria 8 version of the Genesis 3 female as in if you did not download and install the base to begin with it’s included as part of the bundle.
The way the Genesis system works is via use of head and body morphs usually referred to as injectors and use head and body morphs to complete the final shape as to design so if you want to turn Victoria 8 into an Elf you can. If you want to change the body armor not a problem. Dress here with what you want and use auto fit.
To maintain the fidelity of the design UE4 still needs a few feature improvements, like a morph loader as well convert Iray materials to Epic PBR (better still an FBX bridge).
I do plan on doing a character dev series in the future using DS as well as workflow including Motion Builder but Epic has just fix a few of the major deal breaks in 4.15 and I want to wait and see if they also improve/add some key features that does not require a work around at the moment.
At the moment I’m comfortable suggesting DS+Genesis 3 But still requires a fair amount of work arounds.
I would recommend though as a product the first thing to buy is a Platinum Membership. You get something like $400 worth of assets, discounts that I’ve seen up to 70% off as well as freebies and coupons.
Victoria 8 for example your cost is $134.95. My cost $66.13
Kia ora @FrankieV this might be of inyerest to you at some point
From a thread “Autofit crashing when applying generation 3 clothing to Vicky an Co”
Seems the main selling point of Gen 8 as I understand it is a bit of a fail. anyway I guess there no real need to go jump into the new Gen 8 for what I’m doing anyway
I’m by no means an expert in any of this. Also just trying to figure things out as I go… but I enjoy the process and aren’t out to make anything in particular… just mucking about.
