What is the correct way to Import SK Hair with minor child Skeleton changes?

Development Character & Animation
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1

Please assist with a modular character Import workflow - for mild child-bone (leaf bone?) changes.
[Using UE4.27, Blender 3.6, Auto Rig Pro and/or default Blender Exporter.]

  1. I want to import my Base SK body (bald) with the normal Frame bones (Root to Head bone) = “Rig” - which will drive my anims.

  2. Then I want to Import SK Hair meshes (with body hidden), and the same “Rig” selected (thus Root, Spine, arms, etc), but a few “Back hair” bones (children) are added to the last Head bone. (Thus the goal is that this SK hair can be added to the Main body CharBP, and share the same anims, since the frame bones are the same.)

  3. Then I want to Import a different SK Hair mesh, with “Front hair” bones (thus not the same Hair bones as the prior import).

  4. How do I Import these “child(?)” Skeleton variations so that they share the same Rig in UE4? (I’ve seen it done on an asset I bought, but dont know how.)

  5. The purpose is I need Hair bones to use Physics on them; and they need to be different per Hairstyle, so that I can switch modular hairparts - while using the same body Rig/anims.

  6. Also Im using AutoRig Pro for my final Export method. It only allows us to have 1 Rig in the Blender file. So I need to get the settings correct to know if my Base character should be bald (no Hair bones added)? Or if I can add v1 Hair bones to Base Rig, and Import in UE; but when I Import the alternate v2 SK hair bones (some may have the same Hair bone name - resized/moved) - does UE4 know to merge the Skeletons but show the new bone scale for the different hair bones - based on which SK hair mesh I open in the window?)

** Then I open the new mesh and it says it needs to refresh the preview and save. Then open the original SK, and it needs to refresh and save. And it is scary because when I do this for my final character (and have 200 animations imported), I dont want the Skeleton/anims to get messed up when I need to Import a new SK hair mesh.

Please tell me what this is called (child Skeleton?), and direct me to any tutorials or steps, and any Export/Import settings/FBX versions to consider. Thank you.

2

Also what are the correct Export settings for Blender, to keep bones that are ‘not apart of the select mesh’ - for UE to Import correctly?
People discussed this with no answer since 2021.

  • (I believe that Leaf bones may not be the answer. Dont want to add extra tip bones to my Skeleton, unless it’s confirmed that UE removes tip bones on Import? (I forgot which program removes Leaf bones if not checked at Import; I think Blender related, not UE.))