Editing weights during/from a custom animation in Sequencer

Development Character & Animation
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1

Hi

So I’ve set up a custom pose using the default idle animation as a base, from the mannequin/metahuman, in Sequencer. Is it possible to edit the weights whilst using this pose in Sequencer? I know I can edit the weights of the skeleton and during the default idle animation, but my custom pose deforms the mesh more, so it shows a few problem areas that need fixing, compared to the default animation. Is this possible to do?

Or would I need to get the pose right with no more tweaking, save out a new animation sequence, and then edit the weights?

Thanks

2

Hello there @DustyShinigami!

Checking with my peers, we think that second path of yours would be the best. Skin weights belong to the Skeletal Mesh asset itself, so they can’t be painted directly in Sequencer. But you don’t need to finalize your pose just yet, you can bake it, paint the weights while previewing it, and re-bake anytime you tweak the pose. Here’s how it would go:

  • First, in Sequencer, right-click your character’s Skeletal Mesh track, select “Bake Animation Sequence”, and save it as something like “CustomPose”

  • Then, open your character’s Skeletal Mesh, and in the Preview Scene Settings panel, set “Preview Controller” to “Use Specific Animation”, then pick “CustomPose”. Now the mesh shows your custom pose, with the same deformation you see in Sequencer

  • From there, use the Skeletal Mesh editor’s weight painting tool to adjust any areas you need, checking the result against your custom pose as you go

If you adjust the pose in Sequencer afterwards, you can bake it again over the same animation, and the preview in the Skeletal Mesh editor should update as well. I would also suggest working on a copy, before editing the weights, so you can go back to the original if something goes wrong.

For further details on the process of painting weights, please check the related UE doc:

3

Awesome. Thanks for your suggestion and help. :smiley: Okay, that sounds like a good way of approaching it. There’s just one more thing. As my character is primarily an outfit for the metahuman, and only partial of the metahuman’s head is used/seen, the skeletal mesh only consists of the outfit. The head is separate. There’s some weight tweaks I need to apply to the mask as the head clips through it a bit, but I need to be able to see the head as I’m weight painting. Is there a way of attaching the head/a static mesh to the skeletal mesh?

I did try the socket approach, but the head becomes rotated the wrong way round and the pivot point is positioned far away from it. And I’m not seeing an option to set the pivot manually to rotate and position it manually.

Or would I need to set up the skeletal mesh again but with the head included?

Thanks