Windows 10 How to get Fuse characters working in Unreal engine 4.15

software needed:
an Adobe Account (free) to use Fuse CC
Unreal engine (free)... I'm showing V4.15

Assumed knowledge = the ability to use Fuse + install Unreal engine
Optional; Photoshop + CCapp for Texture editing




Fuse steps;

• right click on a head and select "add matching parts"

• Pick the options you like for hair and outfit then export textures as Photoshop compatable files

• send your creation to Mixamo for rigging

• settings I find work best in Unreal are shown... if the idea of boobs frightens you then select the modesty mode but be aware that will show up in Unreal if your character wears something like a bikini

Mixamo steps;

• Login to Mixamo using your Adobe user name and password... this tends to happen for you if you upload from Fuse... when the character is finished rigging it can be saved to your account and the default face | setting work fine in Unreal

• use this character or select whatever other character you want to use in Unreal engine then download it in a Tpose as an FBX file type (just normal fbx is assumed)

• If you want to use any of the Mixamo animations in Unreal then you can select them for your character and download them as seperate files but you MUST have the Tpose installed in Unreal BEFORE you can add any animations

Tip: Movement animations for a player character work best if you tick the 'in place' check box and all such downloads will have '_inplace' added as part of their download name

• download these animations as FBX (without skins) and default 30 frames, no key reductions

• collect all your poses and animations into one folder ready for use in Unreal... double check that all movement animations have '_inplace' as part of their name

 

[ussnorway]

Unreal steps;

• open the editor (I'm showing 4.15) and select a 'new project'... I'm assuming 3rd person and free extras (starter content) are wanted.

• I assume and recommend making subfolders to store your characters and animations because the number of files needed can get messy without them... right click the browser 'select new folder'... name it something that you understand then 'import' the Tpose FBX files into this folder and save

• find the Tpose file and open it (single click on my system but most people have a double click setup)... don't worry that the character skin looks messed up because we will fix that

• We have to fix the Mesh and the skeleton and I tend to do Mesh first but it doesn't matter

• a Fuse character has 5 meshs by default (skin, hair, top, bottom and shoes) + one for any extras like glasses, gloves and face hair
  
• double | single click each mesh file in turn to fix them... the skin needs to be changed from translucent to mask and pug the opacity into Opacity mask

• clothes, glasses etc should be changed (from translucent) to Opaque... if you like gloss files then always set them as roughness

• IMO hair looks best if stays translucent with a gloss roughness but you could have it Opaque (or I know people that use Mask as well) so it just depends on the look you are going for... If you select Opaque then there will not be much effect from a gloss file

• a normal FBX download from Mixamo will not have the Gloss files, thats one reason I export them from Fuse back at the start (you just import the Gloss file into Unreal in the same folder as your character... then remove the sRBG before plugging it in)

Tip: you only really need the Gloss file if your character has eyebrows so if you equip glasses instead then this step could be avoided

• I also like to add custom touches to the Defuse maps in Photoshop for things like t-shirt logos but I'll come back to that later

 

[ussnorway]

set aside for fixing the tpose skeleton rig;

• once you are happy with the look of your mesh files its time to rerigg the skeleton... select it from the menu

• you may need to goto your 'Windows' toolbar tab and select the bones option but look for the 'retarget manager' on the tool bar... set to the default 'human' rig and pull the interface down so you can see the bone options

• once you have all the basic bones in then you can select 'save pose' and your rig will work but I assume you do want fingers and they are all under the 'show advanced' option... use my chart which lists all the Mixamo bones to their Unreal settings.

note; if there is no bone listed then leave it as the default 'None'... also older versions of Unreal needed an extra advanced setting for 'Skeleton' vs 'Animations' but those days are gone.
Link to online copy of this file

 

[ussnorway]

set aside for adjust default Unreal blueprint to use Fuse skeleton;

• Once your Fuse Tpose is rigged the next step is to find and rigg your default "SK_Mannequin"... open the Tpose file in the Mesh folder and rigg the bones in the same way you did for your Fuse character

the good news; is that the automapping works on him because he is an Unreal default
default path = Content, Mannequin, Character and Mesh
the bad news; is that the Unreal default Pose is an Apose and we need him to be in a Tpose

Warning; some online tutorials will tell you that it is ok to fugez these poses and (for the most part) thats ok if you only want to bring a Mixamo animation into Unreal but when you want a Maxamo | Fuse character as your 'in Game' character these poses need to be correct... unless you want that week in the saddle look to your walking

the Tpose on the right is out by 5 degrees in the hip and shoulder




Tip; set your defaults to 5 before you start

• In my tests so far: the upperarm (left and right) needs to come up by 45c, the lowerarms should came back by 20c and the two Thighs come together by 5c each i.e, towards the middle... once this is done you can save the pose it will look like it goes back to A pose but press the 'show pose' button to see the new Tpose.

note: at this point you can import Mixamo animations onto your default Mannequin but we need to adjust the default Blueprint before we can have our Fuse character as the Peon

• navagate to the default animation folder, find and right click the "third person AnimBP"... then select 'retarget Anim Blueprint' and 'Duplicate' options

default path = Content, Mannequin and Animations

• if you set your bones and Tpose correct then you will have the option the add in a skeleton... if its not there then go back and redo the rerigg and Tpose steps.

you could rename or set a new location but the default paths work ok so just hit the 'retarget'

• this makes a copy of all your animations in the default folder.

Tip; I rename the default AnimBP in this folder to add a 2... this makes it much easier to find in the next step

• navagate to the default game blueprint and single | double click to open it

default path = Content, ThirdPersonBP and Blueprints

• select 'Mesh' from the left interface then look for Mesh on the right (set this to your Fuse character) then set the Anim class to the one you edited i.e, look for 2 in the list... press the 'compile' button.

... test and wrap up;

Stock vimeos used for PoC and screenshots... A work in progress!

 

[ussnorway]

put aside for Photoshop section

 

[kemical]

Nice work Graham, really nice. Hope you don't mind but it's now stickied!..

 

[Teriander]

Hi, This is amazing, but I've run into one issue. After completing the second to last process of running the "Duplicate Anim Blueprints and Retarget". My new character rotates 90 degrees. Everything else looks fine, but the 90% rotation is an issue. How can I solve this?

Never mind, I resolved this by changing the "root" for the ThirdPersonCharacter's skeleton to "none" after it auto generated. Then the "Duplicate Anim Blueprints and Retarget" worked correctly.

 

[ussnorway]

correct and well done for finding the answer yourself!

 

[M1ns]

This Tutorial is really really nice. My problem is, when I try to retarget my Anim_BP, select my fuse CC Character skeleton and click on retarget, then my Engine crashes. Can you help me?

 

[ussnorway]

I would assume the crash is ram (i.e, lack of) or antivirus and ram is the most likly
when you remap it can also copy exisiting assets and if this game has a lot then that is an extra load on the system as well

 

[GAMESRPIS]

Thanks man....

 

[JoaoPedroAS51]

Hi, awesome tutorial! Thank you so much! I'm just having trouble with the hand and fingers. They don't seem to be aligned. Can you help me with this?

 

[ussnorway]

unreal assumes 3 bones per finger as a default... your screengrab looks like a 4 finger hand or maybe the middle 3rd bone is set wrong
the hand i.e, wrist looks ok to me (this rendor is just a low polly preveiw) but you could try adjusting the T-pose, a 2-3 degrees down on the wrist would change the idle pose but I normally don't zoom in on the hand in my games

 

[RuskinF]

I think this resource would help.

Adobe ID

Adobe ID

community.adobe.com

Regards.

 

[pogiroheat]

I have an issue with importing animation on a mesh on unreal engine 4. First i imported a mesh created with Fuse CC and rigged with select the right skeleton, the character's corpse is completely bended. also I imported the mesh and the animaton on blender and it worked Product Version: UE 4.15.

 

[robertcrook]

set aside for adjust default Unreal blueprint to use Fuse skeleton;

• Once your Fuse Tpose is rigged the next step is to find and rigg your default "SK_Mannequin"... open the Tpose file in the Mesh folder and rigg the bones in the same way you did for your Fuse character

the good news; is that the automapping works on him because he is an Unreal default
default path = Content, Mannequin, Character and Mesh
the bad news; is that the Unreal default Pose is an Apose and we need him to be in a Tpose

Warning; some online tutorials will tell you that it is ok to fugez these poses and (for the most part) thats ok if you only want to bring a Mixamo animation into Unreal but when you want a Maxamo | Fuse character as your 'in Game' character these poses need to be correct... unless you want that week in the saddle look to your walking

View attachment 34587 View attachment 34588
the Tpose on the right is out by 5 degrees in the hip and shoulder




Tip; set your defaults to 5 before you start
View attachment 34589

• In my tests so far: the upperarm (left and right) needs to come up by 45c, the lowerarms should came back by 20c and the two Thighs come together by 5c each i.e, towards the middle... once this is done you can save the pose it will look like it goes back to A pose but press the 'show pose' button to see the new Tpose.

note: at this point you can import Mixamo animations onto your default Mannequin but we need to adjust the default Blueprint before we can have our Fuse character as the Peon

• navagate to the default animation folder, find and right click the "third person AnimBP"... then select 'retarget Anim Blueprint' and 'Duplicate' options

default path = Content, Mannequin and Animations
View attachment 34590

• if you set your bones and Tpose correct then you will have the option the add in a skeleton... if its not there then go back and redo the rerigg and Tpose steps.

you could rename or set a new location but the default paths work ok so just hit the 'retarget'
View attachment 34591

• this makes a copy of all your animations in the default folder.

Tip; I rename the default AnimBP in this folder to add a 2... this makes it much easier to find in the next step
View attachment 34592

• navagate to the default game blueprint and single | double click to open it

default path = Content, ThirdPersonBP and Blueprints

View attachment 34594

• select 'Mesh' from the left interface then look for Mesh on the right (set this to your Fuse character) then set the Anim class to the one you edited i.e, look for 2 in the list... press the 'compile' button.

View attachment 34593

... test and wrap up;

Stock vimeos used for PoC and screenshots... A work in progress!

Nice EdiLink Removeding.
Awesome...