Clothes animation, Modular Character, The Finals - HELP! (skeletal mesh-merge)

Development Character & Animation
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Hi I’m creating a FPS multiplayer battleroyale game

I have created a character in blender and it’s weightpainted and rigged in blender and it’s a modular character.

But I’m unsure how to do it properly, ex. like “The Finals”.

  1. I have a full body mesh, and a modular option (torso, legs, arms and face)
  2. If my character wear ex. a shirt or pants, should I replace the torso_mesh with the shirt_mesh, or should I add it on top of the characters torso?
  3. Should I animate the clothes and bake it for each anim(idle, reload etc.)inside blender, or just weightpaint and then re-taget the clothes_meshes to the animations inside UE?

and finally, after creating the modular character in my game menu, would it be possible to add a skeletal-mesh merger that runs afterwards, so in-game the character is one single mesh instead of multiple meshes (I noticed that The Finals have like 20 meshes for its modular character), I’m only gonna need like 5-8 meshes.

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  1. There are a few ways of implementing modular characters and mesh parts, most of which are outlined here: (Working with Modular Characters in Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.5 Documentation | Epic Developer Community) Personally, I’d recommend “Copy Pose From Mesh” but you should make your own judgments on what method is best for you.

  2. Replacing the body part mesh with its corresponding clothing mesh (torso_mesh would be replaced with shirt_mesh ect) is wise as it completely avoids the problem of meshes clipping and their wasted draw calls. Adding it on top of the existing body part creates far more problems than it solves and isn’t useful in a majority of cases.

  3. the clothing meshes should be parented to and weight painted to the same armature/rig as the body parts, using copy pose from mesh you can make them play the exact same animation as the main body part (which should be the torso).

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Thank you! :slight_smile: That’s my current procedure as well, I just needed to be sure :slight_smile:

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