Hello I’m new to Unreal Engine 5, and looking for advice to solve a minor problem that I created for myself, as well as maybe some hints as to where to go next.
Some context I’ve been following an 11-hour tutorial on YouTube and was learning quite a bit until the “Teacher” starts introducing Characters and Actors that require mesh’s or skeletal mesh’s’. via importing or using models that they already had access to. I primarily want to make everything myself but wanted to follow along temporarily so I right clicked in and “add feature or content pack” to add the third person template. However, I’m unable to fully remove it as the “Character Folder” and subsequent folders within it will not allow me to delete them. It allows me to confirm deletion of the folder but nothing happens, thus the folder stays, and the Rigs keep coming back on startup after specifically deleting them.
Also if I wanted to make my own where should I begin? In the “Modeling” tools section of the engine?
Thanks for the response. What you’ve written seems to correlate to what I’ve found online since my initial post. Would you recommend any particular tool over the others? Blenders’ name is thrown around the most from what I’ve seen, probably because its free.
Do people just import others’ assets for characters? I’m planning on making a game with character creation with a friend, so it seems like it would be weird to use character assets from others for such a feature. Is it simply the norm?
Making models is an art in itself. It’s not something that can be picked up in an evening or two.
You need to learn about topology, rigging, weight painting, uv unwrapping, texturing.
As for which program to pick. The most user friendly is probably 3dsmax, but it can be buggy (haven’t used it in years but it always had a track record for liking to crash). It has the easiest skinning and rigging process but can be expensive.
Maya is a powerhouse when it comes to modelling and animation but it is on par with 3dsmax price wise and the learning curve is much higher. But if you know python you can even build your own tools to speed up the process.
(all the above Autodesk products are unfortunately now subscription based)
Blender is free. That’s its biggest strength. It has a good viewport renderer but is still going through some growing pains. It’s better with each new version. I’m guessing the updated animation framework that will start somewhere this year will be when it becomes more viable. Right now it’s a bit clunky in places, but still very usable if you have the time to learn.
For texturing I would suggest substance painter and for procedural textures substance designer
To get a quick start you could go the route of mixamo to get some quick characters up and running (has a library of animations and an auto-rigger).
Another option is iClone, but it can get rather pricey.
For static models you can also experiment with 3d Photogrammetry, converting many photos into a single model, but it does require some cleanup.
If I’ve been drawing my entire life, and worked with engineering programs like SolidWorks before will any of my art and engineering experience help me? Or will it simply be a struggle Modeling in such programs until it actually mentally clicks after several months or a year?
Solidworks and fusion 360 are a bit of a different beast in terms of modelling. They are nurbs based, where game modeling is based on polygons.
You can slightly get around this with using zbrush where you can sculpt without worry of polygons, but in the end you will have to do a retopoly pass where the final polygon mesh will have to be made.
Blender also has a sculpt mode though it’s not as optimized as zbrush (but it’s getting closer with each update).
But at least you probably have had experience with some of the ui concepts that will carry over to other software.
Blender and zbrush are a bit out an outsider in this regard as they have their own shortcuts.
Drawing will defiantly help with sculpting if you have a graphics tablet.