Character shapekeys are not exported with "send to unreal" plugin.

Hi. Noob here.

I downloaded the plugin “send to unreal” and I noticed that it works very well for when you want to export objects, but in my situation its not working how I would like to, because I have a character that is using shapekeys to deform his body during actions.

I was told that unreal engine had no issues recognizing shapekeys (blender) if I assigned them to a bone and while moving the bone I was sliding the value of the shapekey. The plugin “send to unreal” seems to be able to transfer the shapekeys but it does not activates them during the animations.

I did a standard FBX export, and exported the character, checking in the import window of unreal engine 5.1 “import morph targets” and it worked. Only the plugin “send to unreal” gives me this issue.

I went on discord and asked to people that already did games with unreal engine 5, one of them told me that there is an option in the settings of the plugin “send to unreal” but he forgot which one it was.

I tried to look in the settings to find that option mentioned by this discord user, but I do not find it, and I find no mentioning of the shapekeys. Maybe you can tell me what should I do if I want to enable and disable shapekeys with the bones I already created.

Thanks. If you told me how to do it with this plugin you would help me alot, because exporting all the characters with FBX export sounds boring and I wanted to use this plugin for something since until now I havent used it not even once.

this is the character, as you can see it uses shapekeys. This works with standard FBX export, but I find no way to make the shapekeys activate with the “send to unreal” plugin.

ezgif-5-5dbb3491e5

i found the solution is to use drivers and custom properties

i tried and it works

If its just a matter of exporting custom curves then

But I have never had any issue exporting morph targets (shape keys) with stock blender export either.

Send to unreal is/has always been just a total mess.
I’d say that since you are a “noob” you probably shouldn’t bother with it.
Learn the right way :wink: