Does anyone know, or have links to some tutorial resource, on how to make a metahuman body mesh use the new UE5 skeleton used by the Manny & Quinn mannequins?
My impression is that both mostly share the “main” bones, only with MH having a lot of small, extra bones.
Our game doesn’t require so many of those extra MH bones and could use the simplified skeleton to help when it comes to rig our own assets.
Will we need to weight-paint the MH mesh from scratch to use the mannequin skeleton or is there some other way to at least save the weight of the main bones (e.g spine01-05, upperarms, etc)? Can such a conversion even be done in Unreal?
We use primarily Blender but we also have Maya to use the MH source files.
Go to your metahumans skeleton & delete it.
When asked if you want to replace the asset simply select the manny skeleton & hit replace.
It’s that easy.
Unfortunately that procedure merges the extra MH bones, adding them to the Manny skeleton, rather than transfering the weights to the closest common parent between the skeletons. Our aim was to remove those extras finger bones.
I suppose that’s really something that needs to be done in a dedicated 3D modelling tool. Was just hoping that maybe Unreal had something like a “transfer weights to closest common bone, then merge” option hidden somewhere
(I mean, I tried to use “assign skeleton” to make a MH mesh use Manny’s skeleton, but telling it to ignore the missing bones (rather than add) just made it throw an error and say it can’t do it. So not sure why that option to ignore exists? Only for non-deformation bones I guess?)
In the 3D apps, It would simplify things if the MH meshes (and armors using it, because we have cut the MH mesh to be modular) used the mannequin skeleton, since there wouldn’t be additional bones to get in the way, and would likely reduce import/export times (I tried to import a metahuman head with all the bones and it took a long, long time), and we plan to have multiple clothing options for the different body parts.
In-engine, I may be wrong, but I can’t imagine having those extra bones being a good thing for performance? even if not weighted to any vertex, there would still be some overhead for them just being there, and we plan have multiple characters in a scene. And I believe it would be even worse given the fact that we need to have multiple SK meshes using that skeleton, to provide modularity.
Oh I tried, the Assign Skeleton thing I mentioned was slightly off topic.
Just to be sure I tried it a second time now, but still it forces the extra MH bones to the UE5 Mannequin (it says so in the Output log, and I checked the skeleton and indeed they are listed in the outliner.
Original UE5 mannequin:
Will keep that in mind in the future! The higher ups decided to go with another body mesh for the project though, so I’ll have to test that some other day.
Import skeletal mesh using Quinn skeleton (GameRig Tools Unreal Version for Blender works well for creating UE skeleton and exporting it to UE 5+)
Create character class and make Blueprint of, or use ThirdPerson Blueprint (duplicate).
Change out the skeletal mesh (or part if component, like jacket etc.). Easiest way is select the skeleton or part of in content browser, then in Blueprint click the little arrow by Skeletal Mesh Asset in Display panel.
If the skeleton is modular, clothes, legs, etc., keep going back to the content browser and selecting the next component skeletal mesh to add. Then back in Blueprint select the Mesh component in the left side panel, go Add, and select the Skeletal Mesh which will already be selected.
Open your Metahuman Blueprint. In the left panel go to Face. In the Details panel click the folder to browse to the Face asset. This just selects that skeletal mesh.
Back in the class/Thirdperson Blueprint, select Mesh component (left panel) and Add your Metahuman Face skeletal mesh (already selected). You will need to align the Face with the skeleton in the Preview window.
Back in Metahuman Blueprint select and copy Eyelashes to Beard (Groom Components).
Back in class/Thirdperson Blueprint paste these under Mesh. Then drag them under Face.
I also copy and paste the LODSync.
Animations retargeted for Quinn can be accessed by your new Blueprint. And they seem to work as they should with the Quinn skeleton. The Face skeleton can still be mapped to faceAnimBP_C. But I have not used it yet, so am only assuming it works proper.
The remaining issue is clipping of Face mesh, especially during animations. I guess that is fudged by opacity masking.
THEY WOULD, AND THEY ARE THE GREATEST ISSUE, BECAUSE METAHUMAN SKELETON IS LAGGY AF. HAVE YOU TRIED HAVING 10 METAHUMANS IN YOUR SCENE? EVEN RTX 4090 AND RYZEN 9 5900X WON’T BE ABLE TO PERFORM WITH 60 FPS, IT WILL LAG LIKE IT IS RUNNING ON PENTIUM
