Unreal Engine

We support animation import into Unreal Engine 4 and 5 - please see below for more details:

Prerequisites

1. Our current supported version is UE 4.26.2 and 5.0.3. If an older or newer version is used as part of your workflow, we will need to test before confirming compatibility.

Importing .fbx files into Unreal

You will need to import the static.fbx file of your rig before then importing the animation .fbx file. The animation is then applied to the static.fbx file which includes mesh data.





Drag and drop, or select Add/Import on your Content Browser within UE and import the static.fbx file of your rig.

Within the FBX Import Options window, select “Reset to Default” and then reset the skeleton to “None” in the “Mesh” section. Click “Import” 

Now the static.fbx file has been imported, you need to import your animation .fbx and link these together

As before, you'll need to drag and drop, or select Add/Import on your Content Browser within UE and import the animation .fbx file. 

Within the FBX Import Options window, in the “Mesh” > “Skeleton” section, select your static.fbx file. Then click “Reset to Default” followed by “Import”. This has now linked the animation data to the mesh of your rig. 

Importing Metahuman .fbx into Unreal

When importing a metahuman.fbx file into UE, you do not need a static.fbx file. Simply import the animation .fbx file into your existing UE project with a Metahuman in it.



Retargeting

If you want to retarget to a Metahuman within UE, follow the below steps to prevent any issues of distorted proportions. 

1. Select Metahuman in the scene
2. Go to “Details” > “Components” > “Body”
3. Find the mesh and below the skeleton mesh, double click and an new window opens
4. In the new window, go to “Skeleton”
5. On the left hand side of the panel, go to “Options” > “Show Retargeting Options”
6. Right click on “Root” > “Recursively Set Translation Retargeting Skeleton”. This ensures the skeleton proportions never change and will fix the proportions of your Metahuman. 
7. We also need to fix how the Metahuman translates through the scene as it will be fixed at this point. 
8. Click “Root” and change “Translation Retargeting” to receive retargeting via “Animation” and change “Pelvis” to receive retargeting via “Animation Scaled”.
9. The metahuman now moves correctly through the scene and keeps the original proportions.