Conversation bot - Basic animation questions

Development Character & Animation
1

I’m very novice in 3D and trying to animate a seated conversation bot within UE4. My experience with 3D engines is very close to none, but I’ve watched UE4 tutorials to get the basics of level design, materials, blueprints. Please excuse the very basic nature of my questions below, if anyone is kind enough to guide me it would be wonderful.

Concept:
For the model, I have chosen MeryProject, as it is already rigged. I would only need 2 “poses” for my project: 1) idle and 2) talking that I would trigger via Blueprint.

Questions:

  • Can I export the model from Maya in FBX format, and perform all animation (including face animation) within UE4? (as my Maya trial expires in 30days)
  • Any important options to check during FBX export for best compatibility? (besides FBX Best practices)

Again, the information is probably in the documentation and/or somewhere in the forums, but I’m lacking basic knowledge to understand the documentation without being overwhelmed.

2

  1. you are abel to animate stuff in the UE4 (in persona -> record button) but for complex animations I would use the 3d program. -> so you can export the mesh + anims to the ue4 to controle/play them, but you will need a 3d program to improve/re-create animations

  2. make sure that you use cm + that it exports the smoothing groups

Instead of Maya you could also use blender -> it’s free + as good as maya, 3ds , C4D,… :slight_smile: