# UE -\> Blender -\> UE / Skeletal animations **URL:** \ **Category:** Character & Animation\ **Tags:** Blender, unreal-engine, FBX, bug-report, skeletalmesh, UE4, question\ **Created:** [April 8, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367 "2015-04-08T21:51:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/1 "2015-04-08T21:51:35Z")
I’m experiencing a strange issue in skeletal meshes exported from blender. If I export from UE 4.7.4 (Mac version) a character (in particular the default third person character), import the fbx in blender (2.74) and export again (following these instructions: [Importing an exported FBX back into UE4 - Pipeline & Plugins - Epic Developer Community Forums](https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/177931/importing-an-exported-fbx-back-into-ue4.html?sort=oldest)) everything work correctly, except that the right foot looks twisted during any animation: ![38072-screen+shot+2015-04-08+at+23.37.36.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/d/c/0/dc0362eeaf60fa55f8fd0c690f60260c511a7ec2.jpeg) When no animation is applied, the bones appear to be correctly setup (e.g. rotating the bone manually correctly moves the foot): ![38075-screen+shot+2015-04-08+at+23.38.02.png](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/6/8/5/685e8cb7d8d88e9410e803573bdc54fd34275484.png) The fbx appears to be correct if re-imported in blender. What’s going on in here? Any workaround? The issue seems quite similar to this one: > **[Blender to UE 4.3: skeletal anims](https://forums.unrealengine.com/questions/77057/undefined.html)** > > After updating to 4.3 to investigate the option to ignore “Convert Scene” to supposedly make Blender importing work better, I find that there are still issues. Some of my animations have their bones messed up: ... ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 10:14am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/2 "2015-04-09T10:14:09Z")
This seems to be linked to this Blender/UE4 issue: > **[FBX exporter applying incorrect rotation to some bones](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender-addons/issues/41254)** > > Blender 2.71 / Linux > > FBX exporter is applying incorrect rotations to some bones in the armature. > > The error can be reproduced by selecting the armature in Blender and exporting using the fbx exporter. The export options are: Selected Objects, -Z... ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 8:54am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/3 "2015-04-14T08:54:13Z")
Why my comment has been marked as accepted? The issue linked is not a solution to the problem reported, and blender exporter works with Unity, so as far as I understand it’s not clear if the issue is on the blender side or on the UE side. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_b9532c9a)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/4 "2015-04-14T15:37:39Z")
Hi devel.bmad, The response was marked as accepted because it was posted as an answer to your own question. Answerhub registers that as an auto-accept. However, this question is directly related to: > **[FBX import - wrong application of animations to bones?](https://forums.unrealengine.com/questions/98704/fbx-import-wrong-application-of-animations-to-bone.html)** > > So, I’m trying to fix some issues regarding Blender’s FBX export towards UE4, and investigating that bug report, I found out UE4 (v4.4.2) seems to apply bones’ animations without taking ‘rest pose’ (i.e. binding pose, as defined in Clusters... It was determined that the error is due to the exporter from blender (7.4 FBX exporter). Try using the branch that Mont29 posted in his answer (thread above) to see if it works for you. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/5 "2015-04-14T16:03:59Z")
Hi , the build you mention is linked also in the thread I posted in my comment, but in my case it doesn’t fix the issue unfortunately. May this be a different aspect of the problem? ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_b9532c9a)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/6 "2015-04-14T19:00:11Z")
Are you using the Blue Mannequin model from the editor for this? There is an odd known issue where the right foot twists as you’ve described and we haven’t quite found out what is going on with that. The Mannequin from the ART tools in Maya seems to work significantly better. I’ve attached a copy of that for you to use: link text Please let me know if you see the same behavior in this model. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/7 "2015-04-14T20:37:27Z")
Thank you, I will give it a try. I’m using one of the prototype characters from the store, the problem is not the mannequin itself but probably its skeleton (the se character from the store share the same skeleton). If possible, I’d like to find a way to use the default epic skeleton in order to avoid retargeting all the animations, using a different skeleton may be a temporary solution but I would really like to find a workaround for the default one. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/8 "2015-04-15T23:21:08Z")
Tested the mannequin from the ART tools in Maya, the foot looks ok but there are similar issues to the arms when retargeting the animations (plus, assigning the skeleton from this model to other models doesn’t seem to work in my case - though I’m probably doing something wrong…) ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_b9532c9a)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/9 "2015-04-16T19:28:04Z")
are you zeroing out the reference pose before exporting? ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/10 "2015-04-16T19:41:21Z")
No, how do I do that? before exporting the ART model from blender or before exporting the characters from UE? ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_b9532c9a)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/11 "2015-04-16T20:18:53Z")
If it would help at all it would be when exporting the ART model, however I just realized that this is typically for exporting from blender, not the issue within blender. I’m going to look a bit more and see what I come up with. I’ll let you know if I find what is happening and/or how to fix it. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/12 "2015-04-16T20:35:45Z")
The issue is in UE4, not in blender. In blender the skeleton of the TPP character is a bit messed up, but I can live with it. My issue is that I need to export an UE character, do a very easy modification in blender, and reimport it in UE4 with the same skeleton it has originally. Thanks for your help in any case!! ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_b9532c9a)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/13 "2015-04-20T18:35:00Z")
Can you show me what export/import settings you are using in both blender and UE4? ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/14 "2015-04-20T22:51:03Z")
Hi , here are all the steps, the files and the configs to reproduce the problem: 1. Create a new TPP project, no starter content [UE 4.7.5] 2. Export as FBX the ThirdPersonSkelMesh ([https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7SpUfi4PH7adkJmaW96ZFFjcWs&authuser=0](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7SpUfi4PH7adkJmaW96ZFFjcWs&authuser=0)) 3. Import it in Blender [2.74] 4. Reparent ik\_foot\_root and ik\_hand\_root to pelvis (otherwise UE4 will complain that cannot import object with multiple bone roots later on). The result is this blend file: [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7SpUfi4PH7acGFDYlk1eFo5QTA&authuser=0](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7SpUfi4PH7acGFDYlk1eFo5QTA&authuser=0) 5. Select all, export in FBX format with the following settings: ![39479-screen+shot+2015-04-21+at+00.22.33.png](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/6/8/e/68e99ecabdcd4bc99d21b58282f00caa903f529d.png) The resulting file is the following: [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7SpUfi4PH7aU0dfRUpGYmFMc0k&authuser=0](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7SpUfi4PH7aU0dfRUpGYmFMc0k&authuser=0) 1. Import again in the same project in UE4 applying again the ThirdPersonSkeleton with the following settings: ![39480-screen+shot+2015-04-21+at+00.23.39.png](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/3/6/0/3600374e612636d64472858cfe81c7c6c2b940ec.png) 1. In UE4 open ThirdPersonAnimBlueprint and select the newly imported mesh. When animated, the mesh show several artifacts as in the following screenshot: ![39491-screen+shot+2015-04-21+at+00.26.49.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/e/f/2ef622df4aa4a733f53815a93fbf6ca35eb067eb.jpeg) Please note that in this case the right foot get twisted as in my original post (even though the character was a slightly different one in that case), but in this case also the right arm was messed up. I tried using the ART model linked above with the same workflow, but also in that case I had several artefacts that were messing up the animations. Please let me know if do you need further details, thanks for your help! ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_b9532c9a)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/15 "2015-04-28T14:44:42Z")
Hi devel.bmad, I just wanted to update and let you know that I am still looking into this. I believe the error is coming from the fact that the meshes exported to blender are importing to blender with multiple root bones, then, if the root bones are changed an error is occurring. I am not overly familiar with setting up skeletal meshes, especially outside of the editor, so this is taking me a bit of time to test. Thank you for your continued patience while we work this out. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/16 "2015-04-28T22:16:12Z")
Hi , thank you, for your help. The two root bones reparented should not impact these animations (I think they are linked e.g. to a socket for adding a weapon in the hand of the character). Do you think this could be solved changing how fbx are exported from UE4? Did you have a chance to check this blender issue? > **[FBX exporter applying incorrect rotation to some bones](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender-addons/issues/41254)** > > Blender 2.71 / Linux > > FBX exporter is applying incorrect rotations to some bones in the armature. > > The error can be reproduced by selecting the armature in Blender and exporting using the fbx exporter. The export options are: Selected Objects, -Z... There’s an interesting discussion about that. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_b9532c9a)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/17 "2015-05-05T15:28:21Z")
Hi devel.bmad, I just wanted to let you know we are still looking into this. It looks like it is still an error with the way blender interprets axis values as opposed to UE4, which follows a format closer to Max or Maya. We are looking into possible solutions, however I don’t have a timeframe of when this will be finished. I’m going to leave this thread open for now while we try to work out what is going on. Thank you for your continued patience. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/18 "2015-05-05T20:09:37Z")
Thank you , I do appreciate your effort! Solving this issue would improve hugely my blender workflow, please keep me posted. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_b9532c9a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_b9532c9a)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/19 "2015-05-05T20:47:05Z")
As a Blender user myself I completely understand! We’ll let you know when we have more info! ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_389e656c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_389e656c)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367/20 "2015-05-18T22:38:24Z")
Hi , any update on this issue? Is there any possible workaround I can rely upon while a proper solution is being investigated? [Next page](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue-blender-ue-skeletal-animations/314367.md?page=2)