"Mesh contains Root bone as root but animation doesn't contain the root track"

I downloaded Mocap animations (all FBX) and took them into Maya to clean them up but when I tried to import them into UE4 I get this error message “Mesh contains Root bone as root but animation doesn’t contain the root track”…I don’t have Motion Builder…so does anyone know a solution?

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Does anyone have any ideas?

I imported the Hero TPP into Maya and am trying to see if there is a way to just apply the Mocap animation to the Hero TPP while in Maya so I can export it with the animations applied back into UE4. Does this sound like viable solution?

Did I post this in the wrong place maybe?

I don’t know if you’ve got this fixed yet or maybe haven’t seen this other thread (I have the same problem FWIW). Either way, thought I’d post this to yours just in case. Hope it helps both of us.:slight_smile:

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The answer I have seen is, retarget all animations in motionbuilder.

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Thanks Huggybare and Sanvean.

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Is there anyway to do this without Motion Builder? My animation won’t even load into UE4 in order to be retargeted to another skeleton because the “Mesh contains Root bone as root but animation doesn’t contain the root track”…The only skeleton I am given the option to attach the animation to is the Hero TTP and this animation wasn’t created using it.
The animation has no Mesh…only a mocap skeleton.

You need to go through the painful process of making the external skeleton compatible with yours. The process involves matching the bone names in the external skeleton with the bone names in the skeleton you want to retarget the animation to. This got me through the process, eventually: https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Animation/RetargetingDifferentSkeletons/index.html

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When you export to FBX you are given a few options as to what you wish to be exported so this error usually occurs when you export the mesh but forget export the animation track at the same time. Check the FBX dialogue and make sure that export animation is checked.

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Make sure the skeleton name in Maya is exactly the same name as the skeleton in UE4.

I had the same issue with importing from Blender but was able to resolve it by making all the names in Blender and UE4 the same. This includes the names of the bones as well as the object’s overall name in Blender.

Up, I imported Paragon skeletons from Epic Games (so pre-made packs) I then looked for animations on Mixamo. The 2 are not compatible because of this problem.

If someone still has issues with it, here is a tutorial that worked perfectly for me:

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If anyone is trying to get this done with MetaHuman I really recommend this video you have provided @ROG_Cybrex + Quick & Easy Mannequin to Metahuman Retargeting - YouTube

In short: These movies allow for converting Mixamo animations into MetaHuman skeletons :slight_smile:

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I had this error with exporting Maya animations to unreal as fbx, this video helped. Metahuman Face and Body Animation Export from Maya to Unreal - YouTube

I had this error and what fixed it for me was removing the ‘mixamorig:’ prefix from the animated skeleton.

Frustrating because the skeletal mesh was created from the same skeleton. I guess it removes the prefixes upon creating the skeletal mesh, but doesn’t check to remove them upon importing an animation.

Renaming the Armature to the Root Name helped for me

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This video is super fast and showed me how to easily export my Manny’s skeletal mesh as a .fbx and upload it to Mixamo to be used in the animations.

Works like a charm! THANKS!