Thank you for the reply, i did saved my file right before generating the UE skeleton, i have it to that point where i have the rig. ok. i will give it a try i haven’t moved it because i didn’t know and i was waiting for an answer. thank you Rusted_Games. 
Hey ar @Rusted_Games,
didn’t work brother. the animation skel doesn’t match my skel. i can still import and see animation play with with assets that were created on import but when i import and try to assign my skel or manny they both look distorted. it plays animation but mesh is all distorted. I am guessing because bones are not a match. i would have to do a retargeting. but i am trying to bypass all that so animations can be crisp. how did you got it work. i Think my best option is to animate my character with the UE 5 control rig inside Unreal. it matches my mesh.
If you convert a rig to UE Rolls then getting back the original blender version is not a big deal.
- Select the metarig and run “Generate Rig”
- Attach mesh to generated rig
- Run “Build Skeleton”
Everything else will already be in place so the above steps will delete the existing rigify rig, create a new one and make it compatible. At this point the rig is restored and you can create animations/export again.
Most of the questions you ask are already answered in the video I linked along with the other tutorials.
You just want to import some animations and get on with developing your game without spending too much time on this retargeting nonsense … am I right?
Unfortunately that might have worked somewhat in UE4 but in UE5 rigging and animation are just as important as gameplay programming, audio or any other part of the development process. You can’t just import some stuff and skim over it without knowing what you are doing.
UE Rolls:
- Can export character mesh to Unreal
- Can NOT export animation to Unreal
- Can use existing / 3rd party blueprints for the original mannequin
- No need to manage retargeting
- Zero Setup required for Existing/store bought mannequin animations
Blender Rolls: (Default / Recommended)
- Can export character mesh to Unreal
- Can export animations to Unreal
- Must Create your own blueprints
- Must setup retargeting objects
- Must retarget existing/store bought mannequin animations
From your response it seems you rigged a character with UE Rolls then tried to import animations to it. You can’t do this directly. It will show up all twisted and deformed.
What you need to do is create a separate project then import a character with Blender Rolls and properly setup animation retargeting for it. Then you can import your blender created animations to this character.
You will not be able to use this character with pre-existing or 3rd party blueprints. But this is easy to resolve. Just retarget your custom imported animations to the original mannequin and use the Unreal Editor to move them to your main project that has the character with the UE rolls.
Now the blender created animations will work the original mannequin, your UE rolls character and any third party blueprints created the unreal mannequin.
In all of my videos I always point out that using UE rolls is not recommended. Blender doesn’t work well in those circumstances. If Blender is your main tool don’t use UE Roll character just stick with the default. You will be able to export your character and directly import your custom animations to it from Blender without any problems. Going the other route works but is complicated. You are likely to run into other issues and you’ll have to resolve them yourself.
@Waves I have a question regaring the exporting of Animations. In the youtube tutorial it is shown how to export the rigged character from blender and importing it into unreal. I dont really understand why you have to export the whole skeleton and mesh again when i already have that in unreal engine.
So the question ist: Is it possible to JUST export the animations i have done with the Rig? and if so, how?
I have watched the tutorial for retargeting an IK rig stuff, but i would like to just import the animations from blender to unreal.
New Release Uefy v2.6.0
- Adds compatibility for Blender 4.0
- Updates bone chain rename tool
Lots of API breaking changes from Blender recently. This release updates the addon to work with Blender 4.0 and above.
Blender 4.0 is now the minimum required version for Uefy v2.6.0 onward.
Also updated the bone chain rename tool to make it a little easier to use. Just select the first and last bone. Then select the chain you want in the dropdown and rename.
This is a free update. Use your existing emailed download link to get the latest file. If your download link is not working just send a reply to that email and I’ll sort it out.
When I go to select Fix Metarig (Under Metarig Operators:), with 4 spine 1 neck 1 head UE4 selected, I get the following error and the Metarig fails to match the character rig:
Python: Traceback (most recent call last):
File “C:\Users*\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.6\scripts\addons\uefy\pose.py”, line 1072, in execute
self.do_add_twist()
File “C:\Users*\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.6\scripts\addons\uefy\pose.py”, line 962, in do_add_twist
self.add_twist_bone(‘twist_01.upper_arm.L’, ‘upper_arm.L’, TweakArmLeftColName)
File “C:\Users*\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.6\scripts\addons\uefy\pose.py”, line 898, in add_twist_bone
col = target.data.collections.get(colname)
AttributeError: ‘Armature’ object has no attribute ‘collections’
How can I fix this error? I am using Blender 4.0 (same error in Blender 3.6) and UEFY 2.6.0.
Also, is there a discord for UEFY? This forum is very hard to navigate.
I replied on email to this already but in case anyone else is getting the same issue.
This can happen if you started a project in Blender 3.6 and then continued it in Blender 4 and above. There are significant changes in the Blender API. The old metarigs in Rigify don’t have the new layer system.
You can delete the old metarig and bring in a new one. The new metarigs have all been updated they won’t have any problems. Or you can manually assign all the rig sample bones to their new corresponding rig layers in the old metarig and that should also fix the problem.
Hello, I’m using Uefy (many thanks!) and I started an animation file in Blender 3.6 (with Uefy 2.5.1) and recently upgraded to 4.0 (and Uefy 2.6). I’m having this issue with the missing rig layers.
You can see here I have a lot of layers that I did not create. They seem to correspond to bones already. For instance, when I select Layer 8 and then click Select, it selects bones from what seems to be the previous Arm.L (IK) layer. I could just rename these collections and work that way, but your UI was very useful and I’d like to take advantage of it if I can.
You suggest a couple of solutions, but I’m new to Blender so I don’t know what they mean.
- What’s involved in deleting the old metarig and bringing in a new one? Do I have to completely re-rig my already animated character?
- I think I see how to assign bones to Bone Collections, but my bones are already assigned. How do I get from where I am back to your UI?
Thank you for your time!
Hey Waves, i wondering if UeFY can handle a given rig of a excavator with hydraulics? i my case it would be nice if it does not need to build the rig again. the whole thing comes with endless extra bones to UE5 and iam wondering if your tool woud be the perfect purchase. kind regards t
I just bought uefy-2_6_0 Pro and it doesn’t show up on the addons area of the viewscreen. I have tried 3 different computers (windows/Linux versions) Blender 4.1 and 4.0. Any suggestions or anywhere to check logs?
hi, @Waves I am interested in buying the addon. I use rigify a lot. Is the new Uefy 2.5 compatible with Blender 4.1?
If I buy the 2.5 Uefy, do I have to go back to Blender 4.0 for the Uefy scripts to work and export to Unreal 5.4?
Please let me know. Thanks!
Awesome development!
The addon is not designed to automatically convert pre-existing metarigs. It is meant to be used for characters and can also handle simple machines following the process shown in the videos.
But for complex machines you are better off using a custom rig.
check Blender → Preferences → Addons → Search → Uefy
It should be listed as “Uefy Script”. I’m not seeing any problem with installing it in Blender 4.1.1 (my currently used Blender version at this time).
I’ve already replied to this on email but in case anyone else is interested. I’m using the addon with Blender 4.1.1 at the time of this writing and don’t have any issues with it.
Prior experience shows major Blender API changes happen on the large version number so 2.x → 3.x → 4.x etc. The addon had held up well with minimal updates required in the same version number. The API can change in the same major version number but it is less likely and usually an easy fix.
I don’t know what you mean by “actually replied in another email” (about my Blender 4.1 question)@waves .
Also, you previously mentioned in this thread that Uefy is not meant to use a pre-existing (metarig) Rigify rig?
My main issue at the moment is the scaling of the bones in U5.
Whatever solution I choose from Blender, and send to U5: deforms my character’s body horribly.
Taller torsos, bent feet. It’s a disaster.
So, I’m wondering, if I have an already adjusted metarig: Would Uefy pick it up and generate U5 bones accordingly?
No you can not use a pre-existing metarig with Uefy.
Uefy provides it’s own metarigs for UE5 or you will need to construct a new metarig according the rules shown in the tutorial videos. Uefy only supports a subset of the rigify sample types (rig parts) and they need to named and arranged in a specific order. Pre-existing metarigs are not going to be compliant with these requirements.
Your character will also need to have an initial skeleton that is weight painted. Or you will need to weight paint one of the provided skeletons to your static mesh. Uefy will transfer this weight paint to the final exportable rigify rig.
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O̶n̶ m̶y̶ e̶n̶d̶ i̶t̶ d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶t̶ s̶e̶e̶m̶ t̶o̶ w̶o̶r̶k̶ f̶o̶r̶ 4̶.2̶ y̶e̶t̶. 4̶.1̶.1̶ w̶o̶r̶k̶s̶ f̶i̶n̶e̶.
Uefy 2.6 works with Blender 4.2 LTS.
On my end the metarig is correctly built for export to UE5. If you have a specific issue then email me or send me a DM with details.
After restarting Blender 4.2 it works. Apologies for the confusion.