[SUPPORT] Characters which use animation retargeting accepted in the marketplace?

[JonVD]

Hey everyone


I am a content creator and would like to make player characters in EU4. If possible i would like to use a workflow that can be used for creating assets that are suitable for the Marketplace.

I was wondering if Epic accepts skeletal meshes that are only compatible with the default UE4 Mannequin skeleton after animation retargeting. Because I work in Blender, it is far easier for me to set up a rig in Rigify, create animations which apply to that rig, and then use animation retargeting in the Editor. Alternatively, I have found a workaround in Blender which allows me to import the meshes directly to the UE4 Mannequin skeleton (by adding many extra bones and bone constraints in Blender). This method is however very complex and requires a lot of work if I want to make tweaks to the rig afterwards. Because Epic employees in their livestreams seem to encourage users to use things like Blender and the Unrigify addon, they might accept assets that are created in this way on the Marketplace, even more so because they seem to have the same functionality as assets that are actually rigged to fit directly onto the UE4 Mannequin skeleton.

So the question is: are humanoid skeletal meshes that use animation reatargeting to fit the UE4 Mannequin skeleton, accepted onto the Marketplace? Or should i use the (far more complex) workaroud which allows me to create fully compatible meshes in Blender? Also, feel free to tell me if you think I should not even bother to make these characters in Blender anyways.


Thanks in advance for the support!

[thadkinsjr]

We've come to accept the ue4 as standard humanoid asset. Most of us have retargeted skeletons saved to a file. So to have to go through and retarget to your skeleton is a not a great idea.
If it's humanoid formed skeleton, and not some special 4 legged centaur. I would be skepticle to purchase. As I dont want to retarget animations i would have to your character because I dont like the way it stands.
I could really care less about rigify, and mixamo. It's easy for me to rig a UE4 skeleton to all of my characters that are human, and just go with that. I dont want multiple human skeletons in a game. Just one is fine. I delete what I don't need.
I'm not sure I would buy anything human that wasnt rigged to Ue4. Just saying.

[JonVD]

We've come to accept the ue4 as standard humanoid asset. Most of us have retargeted skeletons saved to a file. So to have to go through and retarget to your skeleton is a not a great idea.
If it's humanoid formed skeleton, and not some special 4 legged centaur. I would be skepticle to purchase. As I dont want to retarget animations i would have to your character because I dont like the way it stands.
I could really care less about rigify, and mixamo. It's easy for me to rig a UE4 skeleton to all of my characters that are human, and just go with that. I dont want multiple human skeletons in a game. Just one is fine. I delete what I don't need.
I'm not sure I would buy anything human that wasnt rigged to Ue4. Just saying.

Thank you for your response, it's good that i know this in advance!

[rYuxq]

I wouldn't buy that kind of asset either (probably). In my opinion, its very important that marketplace assets are usable. They are supposed to save time, so just importing it into existing projects and making them compatible with other assets should take almost no time at all, if possible (I am not thinking about integrating it into project-specific code, of course).
Also, the people who buy assets on the marketplace tend to buy stuff to compensate for the skill (or time) their team is lacking. So you gotta assume that they will fail with any complex importing processes, especcially when the missing skill is required for the procedure

[JonVD]

I wouldn't buy that kind of asset either (probably). In my opinion, its very important that marketplace assets are usable. They are supposed to save time, so just importing it into existing projects and making them compatible with other assets should take almost no time at all, if possible (I am not thinking about integrating it into project-specific code, of course).
Also, the people who buy assets on the marketplace tend to buy stuff to compensate for the skill (or time) their team is lacking. So you gotta assume that they will fail with any complex importing processes, especcially when the missing skill is required for the procedure

That's very understandable, thanks for the feedback. I hope Epic finds a way to allow Blender users to make compatible animated models soon.