Frustrated, But Still Trying!

Thanks for all the help, Neutronux! I just wish I were achieving some results. Having virtually no game development skills, just managing to import a character I made in iClone into Unreal, set up a scene, and have her respond to the w,a,s,d keys was actually a small victory. Though it currently seems like an insurmountable hurdle, I am determined to have her at least idling and walking in Unreal! After that, I would be content just to make different settings for the character. I know I can do that fine, though actually setting these up as levels would probably be very challenging. Also, I need to get back to my iCloning, where spending my two days off on the computer gets me one or more awesome animations, as opposed to just a bunch of errors in Unreal. LOL Speaking of which, I actually have no errors right now, though plenty of “Result was visible but ignored.” And, of course, the character still doesn’t idle or walk. I made three separate blend spaces for the idle, walk, and run animations. I had to use the respective mesh for each, as that was the only way to avoid a compilation error. I don’t really understand that, as I imported 3 identical characters; each just came in with a different animation. That was the only way to import 3 animations from iClone. I would have thought the animations would be interchangeable among the characters. Attaching the latest screenshots as usual!

                                                                                         Thanks,

There are still some issues:
You’ve fixed your bools in the anim-BP and connected some executing wire to it (good) but you still don’t change the variable in the character blueprint.

“Walk pressed” would always be “false”:

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“Run pressed” would always be “false” as well:

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I’m not sure why you use those “Walp pressed” bools anyway. Because you already get Speed from your character BP in your anim BP and try to use Blendspaces anyway. You could drive your blendspace with (only) that Speed value.

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There is not enough info in your next screenshot. Please select your skeleton mesh. I could still not see if you choosed an anim BP for it:

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Usually nobody assigns a key for “Idle”. If you don’t add any forward movement (by realeasing your walk key) your Speed gets 0 and your Blendspace player should blend back to the idle pose:

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I’m not sure why you > use 100 as value for your transition rule. This could work (somehow) if you would switch from “walk” to “run”. But you are using it from idle to walk. And I’m not sure why you do this because you already have a Blendspace anyway.

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You did not drag and drop a animation in your blend spaces. You don’t need 3 blendspaces for “idle” “walk” and "run. One blendspace is enough. But (important) a blendspace only makes sense if you would blend between (at least) two or more animations. Drag and drop the idle animation at the bottom. Drag and drop a further animation at the top (it seems you only have one anim for your mesh yet - as there is only one green icon). If you would just blend between idle (at 0 speed) and walk (at speed 100) drag and drop idle at the bottom and (currently not available) walk animation at the top. If you would blend between idle, walk and run then drag and drop idle at the bottom (speed 0), walk somewhere in the mid (speed 100) and run at the top (speed 600) - in the same - blendspace. Set your min-max values for Speed in the blendspace before you start drag and drop.

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I’m not sure why you create a 1D blendspace (which is totally ok) for your first mesh and a 2D blendspace for your second mesh. If you create a 2D blendspace than you would need at least 3 animations (to drag and drop anims at all axis). For a 2D idle-walk blendspace you would usually add 9 animations (idle, walk_forward, walk_backwards, walk_left, walk_right, walk_45_left, walk_135_left, walk_45_right, walk_135_right)… or at least 5 if you don’t have those 45 and 135° anims. It does not look like you have those anims so I would recommend to stay with a 1D blendspace at first.

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If your meshes are using the same skeleton then you could just share the same anim-blueprint afterwards (just don’t import the skeleton if you import your second mesh but choose the already imported skeleton from the first mesh at import). If they differ then you could create one anim-BP and when it’s done retarget it to your second skeleton mesh via UE4 retargetting. But just try to get one working at first. Most important next step for you would be to add a further animation. So you have idle and walk for the same skeleton mesh.

Thanks again, Neutronux! I didn’t realize you posted all this. Haven’t looked at the forums in a while. Just happened to connect to them at work today, and saw everything. I’m off Thursday and Friday, and will go through all of this. Sorry, I’m not comprehending the “Walk pressed would always be false” and “Run pressed would always be false”. How, specifically, do I fix this? In the interim, I have been trying to fill in the state machine and blend space stuff, but unfortunately encountered a skeletal mesh compatibility problem. As you know, I can slide and pan my character around, but have yet to get her to idle, walk, or run on command. When I tried to add the idle animation node to the state machine, it wouldn’t let me do it, and said “skeletal mesh incompatible”. It did let me throw in the walk animation node instead, so I did that, and also switched to the walk animation at the character blueprint, to see what would happen. She now idles by doing a little walk, which keeps "respawning’ indefinitely. Unfortunately, even after I fix the issues you found, I am still going to have this iClone issue, but I’ll attempt to rectify that later. As you may know, in Reallusion 3DXchange, I load all three animations on the character, but when I export as fbx to my documents, it arrives as 3 separate characters, each with one animation. As if that weren’t complicated enough, I have additional issues, because I was having trouble getting export rights for the free hairstyle I used on my android lady. Kai, at Reallusion support, was kind enough to circumvent the difficulties for me, and send me back my character converted to fbx. However, this version came to me as a “nonstandard” character. Because of this, I think, the three separate characters come through with their materials all over the place, and with all three different in where their materials are placed! I can change the materials in Unreal, but is this causing the “incompatibility” issue?

Just set that small white box of your “Set Walk Pressed ]” to “Set Walk Pressed ”. However I’m not really sure if you would need this. If you use inplace anim (push around the capsule including the mesh with it’s anims) then this extra variable would not be that usefull as you already know the speed in the anim BP. If you use root motion instead I’m not sure about that speed variable…

They have to share the same skeleton if you would use them in one anim BP or blendspace. If all your meshes are built with the same skeleton then don’t import the skeleton for your second mesh but choose the already imported from the first mesh instead. If they have some similar skeleton and pose you could do some retargetting if you still would use the animations of the second mesh for your first.

Sounds like root motion. There are some tutorials on youtube to use rootmotion but I think it’s a bit more difficult. If you have some inplace anim then she should not “respawn” indefinitely but walk inplace (0,0,0) instead.

Materials does not matter for your animations. It’s all about the skeleton in that case.

Hello, again! I think my last question didn’t post. I decided to reimport my meshes/animations, and realized, at that point, that I hadn’t selected a skeletal mesh when I imported the last time. So I selected a mesh that is already in Unreal, which brought the characters in already properly textured. I guess the default skeletal mesh must be what is on the character in 3DXchange? Hopefully the animations imported correctly, and I now have an idling, walking in place, and running in place animation. I actually don’t know how to put multiple animations on a single skeletal mesh in Unreal. Anyway, I am going to do all the Unreal tutorials again, hopefully, this time, with the proper meshes and animations, and incorporating all of your tips. I realize now that there are multiple ways to accomplish any given task in Unreal, and that I seem to have some redundancies.
You wouldn’t have any interest in collaborating on this game, would you? I know I’m a crappy game developer, but I am actually a pretty good artist and animator, and I have a great concept, just no funding or collaborators. I’ve even already done the box art!
/

Dannnnnngggg I need to get you helping on my questions lol