[QUOTE=biggyninja;2908]Hi Guys, sorry to bother you, but It looks very strongly that we will be using the Unreal3 engine next project. Ive never used the unreal engine before, and I was just wondering if anyone has any tips or resources/sites on intergrating an animation pipeline into the unreal engine. We’re also going to be evaluating Natural Motion’s Morpheme (import fbx files straight into the game from motionbuilder…sweeeeet!) and was wondering if anyone knows how morpheme and unreal go together, if they do. Alternatively any suggestions on the shortest route for getting fbx files into the unreal engine (batching fbx files through maxscript is what im assuming).
Thanks agin guys, great help.[/QUOTE]
The answer to this question could be quite complex depending on the type of control you are looking for between Unreal 3.0/3.5 and your 3D package.
Are you using/thinking of using 3Ds Max? If not I would strongly suggest that you consider it as this is what Epic actually suggests you use as it works the best with the Actor X plug in. (they also support Maya and XSi I think but not to sure on XSi) I am assuming that your are using Max as you mentioned max script, so here is a very high overview of the import process from 3Ds Max to Unreal.
1: Get your animation files exported from Motion Builder and Natural Motion’s Morpheme in the .FBX file format so that 3Ds Max can read the file.
2: Import the file into 3Ds max for clean up and optimization.
3: Using the Actor X plug in from Epic export your skinned meshes as well as their animations in the .PSA(Animations) and .PSK(Skeletal Mesh) data types.
You can set up Actor X via max script to batch import,name, group, and export most of this for you but its going to take some work as functionally does not happen right out of the box.
You could also directly import .FBX data into Unreal but Epic does not fully support it yet and recommends that you use Actor X and the .PSA, .PSK data types. I have successfully imported .FBX data from Max into Unreal and while this will work for assets, the advantage of using the .PSA and .PSK data format is that, this format(.PSA) can contain all your animation in one file so you only have to import one file and you get all your animations. With the .FBX format I am not sure if this is possible but I don’t think that it would be as Epic does not full support it and will even tell you to use Actor X instead.
4: This is the part where you would import the .PSA and .PSK data into Unreal and then using the animation browser and Anim tree editor link your animations to the skeletal meshes that power them. But I am a little unsure of what your exact needs would be at this point.
Are you looking to replace the stock animation system with another one? Or where you just unsure on how to go about getting the data from Motion Builder to Max to Unreal?
