Adding an extra skeletal mesh that uses its own own separate skeleton.

[urumizawa]

First, hello and thanks for stopping by.

I know about modular characters using the same skeleton. But what about different characters?
To put it in perspective, let’s say I have a tail asset downloaded online, if I have my human character, a cat, and a lizard mesh, each with their own skeleton obviously, but I want them all to have wings. Each pair of wings will have its own size and location, but they will all share the same animations.

Would it be realistically achievable to do such a thing without having to open a 3d software for each different skeleton and re-parent the wings, export it again, retarget animations (I guess?) rinse and repeat for every new creature?

If so, how would I go about it?

Thanks for reading.

[Nawrot]

All guns work this way. You can put another skeletal mesh and attach it to socket. However separate skeletal mesh requires separate animations.

[urumizawa]

Didn’t even occur to my stupid brain.

By “separate animations” I assume you mean for the extra mesh alone, not an extra animation for each character + extra mesh combo. In which case it would be better than the hassle of using the same skeleton for my purposes.

[Nawrot]

Extra mesh = different mesh than character, and since it is different skeleton it must have different animations. Because if you want same animations, you merge both skeletons and retarget.