Training Livestream - Blender to UE4 - May 30 - Live from Epic HQ

DyotoOrion · May 29, 2017, 11:15pm

Really looking forward to this live stream - will defo be tuning in. Cheers!

adriano.ol · May 30, 2017, 10:03am

This is great.

My questions are:

FBX animation precision. For some reason, there is some inconsistencies in animation imported in UE4 that is not present in Blender. I find it offen when a character need to hold an object.
For cinematics, Alembic is the perfect solution, but UE4 importer has problems while Blender exporter is getting better each day (latest builds). For character animation, there is too big problems: (1) Sequencer don’t support Alembic as cache; (2) Alembic mesh imported inverts mesh normals in a bizarre way that affects normal maps and other shaders (it seams related to the need to mirror mesh on import (3ds preset for Blender).

ayretek · May 30, 2017, 4:33pm

Wow! Thanks for this Epic! Been waiting so long for some more Unreal Blender Luv!

Importing Skeletal as well as static meshes into UE4 has gotten easier & mostly can come import straight into the engine now, although sometimes a painful process.

Unreal has included base animations in the engine that I actually like & have used via retargeting, although thru some out of the way methods.

[Questions]:
-(If not covered in stream)-

1)- Is there a method of Importing FBX from Blender to UE4 that allows retargeting to the Base Skeleton in Unreal Engine directly?

2)- Will there ever be an import option for .Blend files?

3)- I know the ART Tool was created for Maya & not directly by Epic but will there ever be something similar made for Blender or something similar included inside the actual Engine?

Thanks & Thank You for this Stream !!!

** Before Replying to Thread ! ->These Questions are for the stream & I am aware of most information and work-a-rounds found on the Internet & on these Forums. **

rozgo · May 30, 2017, 5:16pm

I have Manage with my team to develop an animated Add animated in Blender and rendered in Unreal. the result was pretty cool, but there are 2 things we couldn’t fix or integrate consistently:

What is the right Importing Camera method?
Is there a way to subdivide the mesh geometry using Catmull-Clark or similar algorithm inside UE4? so we can export a Character animated using ShapeKeys in Blender, then import it in UE4 and add the Subdivision to Smooth surface correctly?
The thing with this last point is that you can’t add a Subdiv modifier to a mesh that already has Shapekeys. So you have 2 ways: 1. Subdivide the mesh before making ShapeKeys and then animate it (which slow the Computer process) or just don’t make SkhapeKeys and export it smoot.

Hasn’t anyone has this same problem?

cyaoeu · May 30, 2017, 5:40pm

You can use this addon: https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?396688-Addon-ShapeKey-Helpers
It applies modifiers to meshes with shapekeys by setting the shapekey, removing all other shapekeys, then joining the shapekeys of the objects. You can make an export script where you run the operator for the addon (bpy.ops.object.shape_key_preserver()), select that new mesh and export that one instead of your mesh. You can even do this with other modifiers like mirror modifiers.

You can also try tessellation in UE4 but I think it’s better to solve it before importing the mesh.

Alex4444 · May 30, 2017, 6:00pm

How to globally make the whole scene in centimeters?

Prosen7 · May 30, 2017, 7:03pm

Hi, I’m trying to make a large scale RTS game with 100’s -> 1000’s of characters . Using low poly models which I can easily create using blender and instanced static meshes I can render more than enough for what I need and it looks amazing but I would SO love to have them animated via blender and exported to unreal to run using vertex animation, the vertex animation tool in the docs is only for Max Or is there another way of doing this that I don’t know about, using standard skeletal mesh I can only get a few hundred before frame rate starts to crawl.

Curiosichi · May 30, 2017, 7:29pm

During the stream a plugin called Rigify to Unreal (Unrig) was used. Is that plugin going to be posted here for future reference?

Tactical_Beard · May 30, 2017, 7:53pm

The blender add-on was referring to in the stream as the “un-rigify” add-on by Chichige-bobo

github.com

chichige-bobo/BlenderPython/blob/master/RigifyToUnreal/RigifyToUnreal.py

#########################################################################
# Script is published under GPL
# feel free to modify and republish.
# I'm just start to learn UE4. I hope this concept is not much off base.
#
# (Mannequin model is probably not GPL though. It's not mine.)
# (Sintel model is Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
#  You can download at BlendSwap.com. Google with 'Sintel Lite BlendSwap')
#########################################################################
# RigifyToUnreal : ver 1.61
# Environment : Blender 2.75a, UnrealEditor 4.9.1
# Author : ChichigeBobo
#########################################################################
# What this script does -------
#   *Determine whether the rig is standard rigify or PitchiPoy by counting bones.
#   *Copy rigify rig then strip all bones except deform bones.
#   *Add constraints to overlap the rigify's bones.
#   *re-construct hierarchy for PhysicsAsset in UE4
#   *Add an empty as most parent to avoid 'too small bone' warning at importing
#   *Bake animation to new rig. Then name the Action with prefix 'Unrigify_'.

This file has been truncated. show original

anonymous_user_5dd1bd15 · May 30, 2017, 9:16pm

Hey guys! I got about half way through the stuff I wanted to get through. Let me know if you have any questions about what you saw.

mzprox · May 31, 2017, 4:34am

Thanks for showing the rigify to unreal workflow. Could you make the rigified mannequin blend file available for? Thanks.

anonymous_user_6fad5da7 · May 31, 2017, 6:16am

Please help me,
I’ve been trying to import a large fbx scene into ue4 (1.2 GB).
The loading import thing bar has frozen on 100% for 16 hours!!!
I’ve already tried to import the scene in fbx 2017/2015/2014 and nothing works.
Please help if you know how can I import it, it’s very important to me (the final project for my schooling this year is based on that scene).
P.S:
Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes, It’s just that English isn’t my mother language…

Tactical_Beard · May 31, 2017, 6:44am

Break your scene down, try one object at a time/object groups at a time.

PO_art · May 31, 2017, 11:33am

Hello all - there is a lot of confusion and misinformation going on regarding FBX export to UE4 from Blender.

I can confirm that it is very possible to make it work without any special exporter, and it was already possible before 4.16. It just requires to pay attention to the naming of bones. The resulting skeletal meshes are 100% compatible with the default Epic skeleton and animations without the need for retargeting. The Blender FBX exporter is not broken.

(of course it is great that 4.16 is adding more options to make things easier. My point is that making characters that are fully UE4 and Marketplace compatible has always been possible with Blender). I hope this makes sense.

cyaoeu · May 31, 2017, 12:14pm

If that’s the case you should show a skeletal mesh rigged in Blender using a mannequin animation without retargeting. I don’t think it’s possible.

Without removing the extra root bone it’s a pain to animate root motion too, you would need to animate in object mode for the root motion only. Now you can do that in pose mode instead like you would expect/want.

anonymous_user_5dd1bd15 · May 31, 2017, 12:20pm

Absolutely! I handed it over to to get it out to you guys so it should be available very soon.

EDIT* It is now liked in the original post!

Denmengel · May 31, 2017, 1:40pm

Unfortunately, I had to work. When is this going to be available on YouTube?

PO_art · May 31, 2017, 1:53pm

Hello Cyaoeu. The following character assets were made 100% in Blender, and are directly compatible with the Epic male skeleton without retargeting.

Skeleton :

Direct linking to the Epic male skeleton without the need to retarget animations :https://youtube.com/watch?v=QAbqGGmmYCU
So yeah it is definitely possible. The issue is that users stumble over the (admittedly tricky) skeleton naming issue and then declare that the workflow is impossible or that the Blender FBX exporter, whereas it actually works very well. It’s really a bit of a shame because it spreads misinformation …

PO_art · May 31, 2017, 1:59pm

Typo : “declare …] that the Blender FBX exporter is broken”.
How does one edit messages in this forum ?

kreivi_krapula · May 31, 2017, 2:35pm

Great stream again. Love Blender and this stream gave great information on the pipeline bringing stuff from Blender to UE. I’d love to see more stuff about using Blender.