Hello i’m new to Unreal engine 4 and i want to know if it’s possible to change the visual representation of a character like only the ‘mesh’ visual and dont change the bones and skeleton so the animations still compatible ?! Thanks
Yes!
If the meshes share the same skeleton one can retarget the animations, swap out, etc. Depending on exactly what you want to do it could require some work, but there is a path:
ref - Working with Modular Characters | Unreal Engine Documentation
ref - Animation Retargeting | Unreal Engine Documentation
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Hello and thanks for your help ! what i want to do is for example download a 3D .FBX character and assign it to the default UE4 Skeleton bones ! i only want to change the visual representation of the UE4 Mannequin not the animation or bones !
You have to change the bone structure if the joints are in different places.
Otherwise all animations will be completely off/wrong.
In the rare cases where the joints are in the correct position, then swapping out the mesh onto the same skeleton is possible.
You do this from any DCC.
Export the mannequin. Delete the meshes. Assign your own onto the skeleton. Make sure the weight paint names are correct for the new bone structure.
This leads to character creation.
Unless you are an advance user or are willing to put 2 months into learning how to do it, the options you were already given are faster.
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Can give me a link of a tutorial/video that explains your approach step by step ? thanks