So I’m experimenting with ML Deformer right now as we are very (very) interested in the tool in my studio right now.
So I have a simple long cube rig.
I have 3 joints, generated 1000 poses with it (it doesn’t matter actually).
And I have a desynchronization on some frame on the FBX Animation because it is on step mode.
I read an old post somewhere here that it’s an issue with close key on step mode on animation.
Indeed, when I’m on step mode, my frame number 1 have a pose, but my frame number 2 have the same pose as number 1. It did change to frame 2 pose if I put frame number 2.001 by example.
So I’ve setted up my interpolation on linear. I did it in Maya first and I made sure it was in linear inside Unreal after export aswell.
Indeed now, I have a linear interpolation of my animation inside Unreal (can see it in Animation Sequence editing or in a sequencer).
The problem is that inside the ML Deformer Editing, the animation is ALWAYS in step mode and It seems that I can’t change it.
So every … 5/6 frames, I’m seeing a desynchronization between my animation fbx and my alembic.
I can of course train my model and it gives me results but i’m really concern about the correct result it gives.
I know ML Deformer is really new but it seems that I’m the only one having this problem so I don’t understand.
I also tried with a very basic rig of a dog and I have the exact same problem.
So am I doing something wrong ? Or is it a known issue concerning the ML Deformer editing right now ?
Thanks a lot.
EDIT : it’s not just a reading problem in ML Deformer editing. Indeed, UE change my interpolation settings to step mode in my animation Sequence object as soon as I open the ML Deformer object … And that’s kinda bad actually.
Did some new test recently. I’ve tried to scale up or down all my keys. I’ve tried a lot of stuff to “trick” this step mode but I still can’t make it to work.
@JohnVanDerBurg any ideas on how to properly setup all this ?
A little update to say that I redid all of my test under the 5.2 release and nothing have change.
Plus I now have a proof that because of that, it generate wrong deformation on my mesh.
I have zero idea how this is suppose to work since it can’t synchronize my FBX and my ABC. I really need help on this please.
There is actually a double condition to satisfy.
First one is that the FBX and the alembic files have to begin at frame 0.
By default when you ask the Maya Pose Generator to generate and export your fbx+abc for let say 1000 poses, it set up your timeline from 0 to 1000.
And when you put those 2 files in Unreal, it says in the MLDeformer asset that those file does not have the same length.
Weird thing but it seems that it always exports my abc on 1001 frame and my fbx on 1000 frame and MLDeformer yell at me that length of both files are not the same…
So first things first you ALWAYS have to export your fbx and abc by hand to ensure that you have the good animation length and starting frame 0.
Secondly, I found out that Unreal is unable to interpret Step Mode animation if the animation is not at 30 fps. And everything for my project was setted up at 25 (in Maya & Unreal) and ML Deformer use the step mode to train.
So you must generate your Maya poses and export everything at 30 fps and everything should work. (plus, you should force “custom sample rate” at 30 when importing the fbx in Unreal).
EDIT: And lastly, I also found that the option “resample all” have to be unchecked when you export the animation in FBX otherwise you will have some mismatch between your animation and your baked animation in your fbx.
2nd EDIT: When you export the alembic from Maya, both “UV Write” and “Write UV Sets” option have to be unchecked otherwise strange things happend in ML Deformer where your deltas changes every X frames. Dunno why exactly. But I finally have a ML Deformer working. it was a huge pain… took me one month.
