Hi,
I have a technical question about the rigging workflow. I´m not quite sure if this will work in the Engine:
See, I have a rigged Character Mesh.
Now there is one part of the mesh, which I cant bind to a bone in a way that it makes sense. So I want to animate that object separately, independent from the bones and skinning modifiers of everything else.
When I export the rigged Character to UE4, and then export one animation too, so I can use that animation on the imported Rigged Mesh in Engine, will the separated object behave, like I animated it in Max, even though it is not bound to a bone or anything?
Cheers
Chris
Hey Hermi1988
I am a little unclear about what you are exactly trying to do, but I am going to try to point you in two totally different directions. Currently animations in Unreal require an association with a Skeleton. However, assuming I understood what you are asking and if the animation you have on the one part of the mesh is based on a morph target, it should import (assuming you tell the engine to import them). Here is the documentation for the Morph Target](https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Content/FBX/MorphTargets/index.html#exportingmorphtargets). Also a really good tutorial](https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Resources/Showcases/MorphTargets/index.html#creatingmorphtargets) as well.
Now, you can also give the separate element a different skeleton and animation. When you import this way, the mesh will import into 2 skeleton meshes which you can use blueprint to attach on creation.
If I am misunderstanding you or you need some more clarification, post some screenshots of your max rig setup and how you are wanting it to animate and I will try to help you further.
Hi,
I have a Armored Character, and I simply want to move the shoulder plates with the arm together. But when I bind the plates to the shoulder or arm bone, it does not rotate around the pivot, I need it to be. So I wanna animate the plate rotation seperately, without binding it to a bone.
The question really is just, if this animation will show up in ue4
Hey Hermi1988 -
OK. To directly answer your question no the animation will not show up in UE4 as you have described it. This does sound like an interesting problem and something we may be able to help you out with, but I would need an FBX of you model/rig to look into it.
I rather not share the file at this moment, since it is a project, I don’t wanna announce yet.
I want to make a prototype before I do that.
However, I will think of something, to make it more clearer. It probably will be a screen capture of the specific parts of my problem or so.
Thanks for your help so far though 
It will take a few days, since I am pretty occupied with my regular job atm.