"Curve Container" has wrong morph targets with Control Rig

Development Character & Animation
,
1

Hi all,

Does anyone know how to stop the “Curve Container” (inside the Control Rig editor) having the wrong morph targets?

Let me explain: I have a custom character that has the UE5 Manny skeleton, and also has facial Blendshapes (aka Morph Targets). When I import it into Unreal, it works great - it has all the correct Blendshapes / Morph Targets showing in the Editor window’s “Morph Target Preview” tab.

SKM_fine
SKM_fine2019×1065 264 KB

But when I right-click on the Skeletal Mesh, and choose Create Control Rig, then open that up, in the “Curve Container” tab are the WRONG morph targets. They are a list of entirely different ones that I’m not familiar with.

CR_WrongMorphTargets
CR_WrongMorphTargets2019×1065 189 KB

That’s an issue because I then can’t use “Set Curve Value” properly - because the dropdown lists the curves that are inside the Curve Container (the wrong ones).

setcurvevalue_wrong
setcurvevalue_wrong754×631 58.1 KB

If anyone wants to check out the character I’m using, here’s the FBX (it’s free, CC0 license):

https://www.virtualfilmer.com/downloads/20241213_VFP_David_V1_0_2.zip

NOTE: This character is just a CC0-licensed character made with MPFB2, rigged using Game Rig Tools and Face It add-ons for Blender. It’s purely a test. If you import it into Unreal you will notice an error with some materials - I haven’t problem solved them yet because I’m just working on the basic workflow.

2

I’ve found a workaround. I don’t know WHY this works, but through trial and error I tried exporting from Blender (to FBX) in various ways and found a way that makes the face blendshapes appear in the “Curve Container” tab.

(My theory now is that there is a difference between Morph Targets and ‘Curves’, and the way I was exporting from Blender somehow included the Morph Targets but not animation curves, which Unreal needs? Or Something?? I dunno lol)

My workaround:

  1. Select the root and all the body meshes (skin, eyes, etc) – this step might not be important, not sure
  2. Go FILE > EXPORT > FBX as usual
  3. Change the FBX settings: change path mode to COPY, turn on CUSTOM PROPERTIES, turn on ADD LEAF BONES, enable ANIMATION

fbx_export_options
fbx_export_options266×750 38.2 KB

I’m not sure which of these actually made the difference but this is what I’m doing for now, and it works. Just fyi :slight_smile:

3

Hey, I have these problems too after rigging with auto rig pro ands I can’t seem to solve them with your method. Can you expand your settings to show what you have under Geometry and Animations when exporting from blender?

Can you also show your import settings for unreal?

4

I found the solution and answered it here.