Preparing Your Assets: Characters and Animations
Please be sure to follow all steps and guidelines outlined in the UE Animation Documentation for setting up your assets correctly.
**Content folder structure
**See General Asset Requirements for how to structure your folders.
**Demo Levels
**We require that you add a Demo Level to your submission that allows the user to experience the functionality of your submission the way you intend it to be used. This typically consists of a 3rd person map with the default character replaced.
**Overview Map
**All asset packs must contain an overview map that lays out the content included in the package.
Technical Specifications:
- Scaled to Epic skeleton (Yes/No)
- Rigged (Yes/No)
- Rigged to Epic skeleton (Yes/No)
- Animated (Yes/No)
- Number of characters
- Vertex counts of characters
- Texture Resolutions
- Number of Animations
- Animation types (Root Motion/In-place)
- Intended Platform
- Platforms Tested
- Documentation Included (Yes/No)
- Important/Additional Notes
Important note: Not every asset type will require all of these technical specifications, but please provide as much of this information as you can.
This not only helps us review your content, but it will help potential paying customers understand what they’re getting. It is a smart sales strategy to clearly communicate what you have to offer with as much information as possible.
will request additional information if we decide the technical specifications are not detailed enough.
We will always be reasonable, but we still reserve the right to reject submissions that are unwilling to offer enough information when requested.
**Package Delivery
**When you are finally ready to deliver your asset pack to us, please the Config, Content,and .Uproject files together and provide us with a download link.
Skeletal Mesh Requirements
**Demonstration Video
**All Animations submitted should include a video demonstrating how they are used. No Animation submissions will be accepted without a video.
**Animation Importing
**The Unreal Engine expects each animation to be imported from its own FBX file. For example, if you have a run, walk, and jump animation for your character you would have FBX files for each animation such as MyChar_walk.fbx, MyChar_Run.fbx, and MyChar_Jump.fbx.
**Rigging and the Epic Skeleton
**All humanoid characters in Unreal Engine are required to have configured rig using Rig’/Engine/EngineMeshes/Humanoid.Humanoid’ for Marketplace (Make sure you enable “Show Engine Content” option in the content browser), so that it can be converted any other humanoid characters.
This will allow animations to be converted to other skeleton using the same configuration Rig. Meshes that are not humanoid in nature can be rigged as you please to any skeleton provided they are unique enough to not interchangeable with other content.
Creating a character for the Unreal Engine Marketplace
In order to ensure maximum compatibility with the animations Epic provides, both in the content samples and in the Marketplace, we provide a skeleton template file you can use to model your character to. This approach is how we at Epic approach modeling characters that share animations in games, such as Fortnite.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: The Epic Skeleton template below has been updated for 4.8 with new proportions. All new Marketplace content submissions using the Epic skeleton need to use this new skeleton. All existing Marketplace content using previous skeletons will need to retarget their animations to be compatible with future versions of the engine.
The SK_Mannequin.fbx file can be loaded into any 3d package that can import FBX files. You will want to model your character to the proportions and pose of this skeleton.
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You may notice these joints in the hierarchy. These are the bones the engine uses as IK targets for the in-game IK. You’ll want to make sure that these joints stay in the skeleton hierarchy and that you also do not weight any part of your character to the IK joints.
We also provide two FBX animations for you to import onto your character to test the deformations. These are the same animations that ship with the Unreal Engine third person shooter template. If the animation changes your character in some unwanted way, it means that the skeleton has been modified and your character hasn’t been built to the template.
Here is a checklist of the major “Don’ts” for working with the skeleton:
- Make sure to not change the joint orientations. It is imperative they remain the same. This also means to not rotate the joints to get the skeleton into a different pose.
- Make sure to not skin weight your mesh to any of the IK joints.
- Do not scale the skeleton
If you absolutely must move a joint, make sure that the joint isn’t move very far, and make sure the joint orientation does not change. If you’re using a program like Maya, which has an option in the move tool to automatically orient joints, you’ll want to make sure and turn that off!
We cannot accept only root motion assets without in-place counterparts due to fact that this could limit compatibility with other content curated within the engine or purchased on the Marketplace. If you are submitting a root motion and in-place animation pack, you must split them into separate “InPlace” and “RootMotion” folders.
For more information on root motion, please see the documentation: Root Motion in Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.1 Documentation
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Testing your character with the included animation files or even better, in the engine with Epic animation assets, is the best way to ensure your model will be plug and play with the rest of the assets.
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Creating a character for the Unreal Engine Marketplace (After 4.5)**
In order to ensure maximum compatibility, both in the content samples and in the marketplace, we provide an asset - Rig’/Engine/EngineMeshes/Humanoid.Humanoid’ - and your skeleton should set up using the rig.
To configure the rig, go to “Skeleton” tab and open “Retarget Manager”
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In the middle section, you’ll be able to find “Set up Rig” section. You can select the rig provided above - Rig’/Engine/EngineMeshes/Humanoid.Humanoid’ – and configure each mapping bone. Make sure you enabled “Show Engine Content” in the view option of Content Browser.
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The left column is the node name in the rig, and the right column is the bone name from the current skeleton that is mapped to the node. To see more detail of this animation retargeting please gohere.
This data will be used when the buyer convert the animation for their skeleton. If you have missing nodes or if you don’t see the node you’re looking for, those won’t be converted, but it will make sure all other data is converted correctly.
One thing to note is that it is recommended to have neutral T-pose as reference pose. When retargeting animation, we assume their reference pose is same. We call this “Retarget Base Pose.” By default, it is from a reference pose. You can modify this at the bottom section in your “Retarget Manager” window. Retarget Base Pose is saved per Skeletal Mesh.
**Material Requirements
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**Physically-Based Rendering Materials
**Whether or not the goal of your materials is to be photorealistic, it is required that your submission effectively uses UE4’s PBR materials. All PBR materials must have some form of node attached to the Base Color, Roughness, and Metallic nodes. You may use a map or a numerical value (including zero) but it must have some form of input in order to be accepted for the Marketplace.