Multiple objects (meshes) rigged all to one single armature in Blender import to Unreal 4

Development Character & Animation
1

Hi everyone,

If I create multiple objects in Blender (meshes) and rig that to one single armature can I import that into Unreal 4 as
Skel mesh?
Anyone tried to do this?
The issue is I want to UV unwrap / map each object separately in Blender so I would prefer to keep them separate objects.
Thank you.

2

i’m not quite sure what your question is, but I have a modular clothing setup for my chars… this was not really ment to be a tutorial, just showing off, but it is how I did it…

everything is made and weight painted then I deleted the other meshes and brought them in one at a time

3

O.k. great thanks. I have a plane in Blender, 309 individual objects all parented to one single armature.
It works so far.
I am weight painting each object at the moment.
it works inside Blender and apparently I can just export the whole things as a skel mesh and import into Unreal.
I haven’t tried importing into Unreal yet but it should work.
Here is the plane: http://worldofclouds.com/efmsmedia.html

4

very cool… I think there is a checkbox on the import screen to import meshes separately… import as fbx :slight_smile:

5

Thanks for the tip yeah I might have to do the meshes separately if I bring it in as static mesh.
Otherwise I will UVies overlapping issues. :slight_smile:

6

Please can you repost the answer video? I have the same problem, when importing in UE4 I see only one object skinned and the entire armature, I’d would love to have all the objects imported together skinned to the armature.
(If I join objects inside blender I loose the skinning of objects)

7

Hi,

I will try and help.
I imported my plane successfully as SKEL mesh and I could even animate it using its bones.
In Blender I did NOT join all objects.
I treated each one separately and weight painted each object to the same armature.
I made sure though that transformation for each object was applied in Blender and that the point of origin is exactly the same for each object.
Then when you are done weight painting (skinning or rigging), you select all and export as .fbx.
All those object go out in one .fbx (don’t join then).
When you import into U4 make sure you create a folder first so all your objects come into it and it will be easy to select them.
Then if you selected the right skeleton, just select all the objects in your folder in your outliner and drag them onto the map.
They should all fall into place, just as you had them in Blender. :slight_smile:

8

Here are the specs for my plane model I successfully imported into U4 with all objects separate and rigged to one single armature and root bone:
Works great. :slight_smile:

The plane is here: http://worldofclouds.com/mcatpby.html

  1. Verts: 841 348
  2. Faces: 786 753
  3. Objects: 316
  4. Mem: 785.10M
  5. All external images packed inside Blender scripts.
  6. This model was built in Blender version 2.78c.
  7. The model was built with scene settings as it should be set up
    for the Unreal 4 game engine import. Metric, scale at 0.01, Z
    facing up, X forward, etc.
  8. The model consists of roughly 316 objects that are not joined but
    they are all parented to the same armature.
  9. Its one simple bone structure with one root bone and no constraints or IK.
  10. A non triangulated and triangulated version included.
  11. Textures, bump maps and specular maps included.
  12. UV unwrapped layouts included.
  13. No animations included.
  14. All objects of the plane pivot point set at 0,0,0.
  15. Wing flaps work, tail fin works, wing tip floaters retract,
    wheels retract, propellers spin, rear gun station doors slide open and close.
  16. Decals can be removed or changed.
  17. WARNING: Model takes about 30 minutes to import into Unreal on my machine.
    Please be PATIENT :slight_smile:
9

I’m having the same issue working in Maya. They are all individual objects, and it’s a lot.