Softimage and UE4

Development Character & Animation
1

Hello,
Can anyone give some insight in does and how Softimage work with UE4?
Models, characters and ofc animated characters transfer from Softimage to UE4.
Any problems, tips…

Thanks

2

Hi Mirko_J,

There should not be that much difference from exporting from Blender, Max, or Maya. It handles the FBX export just like the others do. I use 3Ds Max for everything I’ve done.

I’m not an animator, so getting animations out of Max is still hard for me but I’ve not seen anyone have any issues that aren’t common with other 3D software with animations export.

Some other users may have some tips specific to Softimage, but as far as the FBX export goes I would suggest taking a look at our documentation and if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Thank you!

Tim

3

Hey, I work with Softimage and UE4. Although, I haven’t messed around with animation to UE4, I would garner a guess that it goes something like this:

  • Have a finished animation
  • Grab your controls, bones, deformers, and offsets (etc.)
  • Go to the Animation Menu, and click on Tools > Plot > All Transforms (while your controles, bones, deformers etc., are selected)
  • Once the animation has been plotted, keep your selection, and on the MCP click on Constraints > Remove All Constraints
  • Pick the relevant animations parts (at this point it will probably be your bones, or auxillary deformers), and the mesh
  • Click File > Export > FBX and in the menu that pops up, click selection only, uncheck lights and cameras.

Like I said, I’d imagine it goes something like that! I haven’t had the need to import any animations from Soft just yet, but when I do come across it; I’ll probably use this method or something similar to get me started.

4

Then it should be similar to Unity workflow as well.
I tried some character animation export before in EU3 but there were bunch of problems, will try out again and see how it goes.
Thanks

5

So i have exported animations from Maya to UE4 in the past but i would rather use Softimage since i use it primarily for modeling anyway.

But when i export animations to UE4 from Softimage i get an error telling me my animation has multiple roots even though i have all of them parented under the main root, what am i doing wrong?

6

Make sure you only export the mesh, not the mesh and the rig, it will import properly when your mesh is rigged.

7

I finally got it working but i had to export the FBX then re import it back into Softimage then export it again and then import it into UE4 for it to work properly.

8

I haven’t had any problems using Softimage, it is pretty much the same with Maya. Rigging wise, Softimage is very different than Other Apps anyway, just the proper usage of shadow rigs would do the trick for me.