Daz 4.15 to UE 4.26.2: Gen8 Male + Gen8 Female, Animation Mixup

csaa

Hello. I'm not sure if anyone else encountered this problem. I searched for this issue in the "Newcomers" guide and also in the forum subjects but couldn't find a solution.

Basically exporting in sucession a Daz scene with one Gen8 male and one Gen8 female -- each having distinct poses -- to UE4 results in a mixup of their animations. More specifically, the mesh used in by the Gen8 male animation is taken over by the Gen8 female mesh. See mgen8_fgen8_swapmerged-1600px.JPEG.

I reproduced this a couple of times following these steps.

 

(1) UE4. Star with a clean slate project. Enable Daz plugin.

(2) Daz. Create new scene with two figures: mgen8 and fgen8. No hair. Simple clothes. Different poses.

(3) Daz. Export fgen8 to UE4 using default options.

(4) UE4. Accept and confirm fgen8 transfer.

(5) Daz. Export mgen8 to UE4 using default options.

(6) UE4. Accept mgen8. Confirm that fgen8 is OK but mgen8 has mixed-animation-mesh issue. See mgen8_fgen8_contentsmixed.JPEG.

 

I tried this the other way around, exporting mgen8 first followed by fgen8. I also see the same mixed up result after the second figure is transferred.

If anyone can reproduce this and/or has a solution, I'd love to hear it.

Cheers!

 

Ellessarr

dmcvocation said:

Hello. I'm not sure if anyone else encountered this problem. I searched for this issue in the "Newcomers" guide and also in the forum subjects but couldn't find a solution.

Basically exporting in sucession a Daz scene with one Gen8 male and one Gen8 female -- each having distinct poses -- to UE4 results in a mixup of their animations. More specifically, the mesh used in by the Gen8 male animation is taken over by the Gen8 female mesh. See mgen8_fgen8_swapmerged-1600px.JPEG.

I reproduced this a couple of times following these steps.

 

(1) UE4. Star with a clean slate project. Enable Daz plugin.

(2) Daz. Create new scene with two figures: mgen8 and fgen8. No hair. Simple clothes. Different poses.

(3) Daz. Export fgen8 to UE4 using default options.

(4) UE4. Accept and confirm fgen8 transfer.

(5) Daz. Export mgen8 to UE4 using default options.

(6) UE4. Accept mgen8. Confirm that fgen8 is OK but mgen8 has mixed-animation-mesh issue. See mgen8_fgen8_contentsmixed.JPEG.

 

I tried this the other way around, exporting mgen8 first followed by fgen8. I also see the same mixed up result after the second figure is transferred.

If anyone can reproduce this and/or has a solution, I'd love to hear it.

Cheers!

 

when 2 or more characters share the same skeleton unreal engine aways will use the "first one" as th default preview for the animation/pose, you just have to to say to it to use another mesh.

hmmm don't worry. about  it, the thing is which don't matter if its a "male or female" what is matter is the "skeleton", since both characters are using the "same skeleton" then any animation will be shared between then, you don't need to worry about it, you are not obligated to use the male animations on female and the other way, if you are only using the animations in your scene you can change the model being used in the animation just open the animation panel then in the mesh panel where it's say mesh preview mesh (animationn) change the mesh to the one you want to appear then save, do it on each animation/pose you want then you can now drag the pose/animaton to the scene it gonna have the proper character.

 

Another way to do it is enable the unreal import window to appear then in the skeletal mesh you leave as none it will create a "new skeletal mesh with the name of the mesh, however it will make you have to manually configure the rig since you are not using the bridge skeleton, it wil be some extra steps but it will make each character have unique animations as you want.

 

to make things more clear and easy to understand characters in animations, imagine which the "character or mesh you see and love is not really a character and it's actually a "skin" or outfit and the "real" character is the skeletong inside the character he is the one making this "skin" gains life or controlling it, then daz use the same "skeleton for both male and female making then just a "skin" for this real character, then when you export any of then(male or female) you are exporting exactly the same skeleton(as long they use exactly the same skeleton) then when you export to unreal it normally would have the import window asking if you want to import using the same skeleton or create a new skeleton for each one, then since the bridge already do it in auto, then it ending making them have the same skeleton which means share the same animations, in many cases it can be very helpfull because it means which all the characters will have a shared animation library which can be or not used, and it don't means which you must for exemple use a female only animation in a male or a male only in female or in even crazy cases a monster animation in a regular character, you can still keep using female animation only to female or monster only to monsters, but in any case you want for exemple a gay male which a feminine walk then you have it or a more tomboy female then you can use male animations for her or have a human have some monsters behavious then you can have and make more stuffs like that, now if you really want to each one have they own animations you just export using different skeletons, making sure you generate unique skeletons for each character.

csaa

@Ellessarr,

Yes, I updated the mesh preview and things look good. Thanks.

Cheers!

Ellessarr said:

hmmm don't worry. about  it, the thing is which don't matter if its a "male or female" what is matter is the "skeleton", since both characters are using the "same skeleton" then any animation will be shared between then, you don't need to worry about it, you are not obligated to use the male animations on female and the other way, if you are only using the animations in your scene you can change the model being used in the animation just open the animation panel then in the mesh panel where it's say mesh preview mesh (animationn) change the mesh to the one you want to appear then save, do it on each animation/pose you want then you can now drag the pose/animaton to the scene it gonna have the proper character.

csaa

@Ellessar,

Thanks for the follow up and the explanation. The added info helps someone like me, not that much experience with Unreal,  who's taking things a step at a time and blundering into obstacles. This kind of explanation helps me think out of the box and find ways to workaround dead ends.

Cheers!

Ellessarr said:

 

to make things more clear and easy to understand characters in animations, imagine which the "character or mesh you see and love is not really a character and it's actually a "skin" or outfit and the "real" character is the skeletong inside the character he is the one making this "skin" gains life or controlling it, then daz use the same "skeleton for both male and female making then just a "skin" for this real character, then when you export any of then(male or female) you are exporting exactly the same skeleton(as long they use exactly the same skeleton) then when you export to unreal it normally would have the import window asking if you want to import using the same skeleton or create a new skeleton for each one, then since the bridge already do it in auto, then it ending making them have the same skeleton which means share the same animations, in many cases it can be very helpfull because it means which all the characters will have a shared animation library which can be or not used, and it don't means which you must for exemple use a female only animation in a male or a male only in female or in even crazy cases a monster animation in a regular character, you can still keep using female animation only to female or monster only to monsters, but in any case you want for exemple a gay male which a feminine walk then you have it or a more tomboy female then you can use male animations for her or have a human have some monsters behavious then you can have and make more stuffs like that, now if you really want to each one have they own animations you just export using different skeletons, making sure you generate unique skeletons for each character.

Ellessarr

dmcvocation said:

@Ellessar,

Thanks for the follow up and the explanation. The added info helps someone like me, not that much experience with Unreal,  who's taking things a step at a time and blundering into obstacles. This kind of explanation helps me think out of the box and find ways to workaround dead ends.

Cheers!

Ellessarr said:

 

to make things more clear and easy to understand characters in animations, imagine which the "character or mesh you see and love is not really a character and it's actually a "skin" or outfit and the "real" character is the skeletong inside the character he is the one making this "skin" gains life or controlling it, then daz use the same "skeleton for both male and female making then just a "skin" for this real character, then when you export any of then(male or female) you are exporting exactly the same skeleton(as long they use exactly the same skeleton) then when you export to unreal it normally would have the import window asking if you want to import using the same skeleton or create a new skeleton for each one, then since the bridge already do it in auto, then it ending making them have the same skeleton which means share the same animations, in many cases it can be very helpfull because it means which all the characters will have a shared animation library which can be or not used, and it don't means which you must for exemple use a female only animation in a male or a male only in female or in even crazy cases a monster animation in a regular character, you can still keep using female animation only to female or monster only to monsters, but in any case you want for exemple a gay male which a feminine walk then you have it or a more tomboy female then you can use male animations for her or have a human have some monsters behavious then you can have and make more stuffs like that, now if you really want to each one have they own animations you just export using different skeletons, making sure you generate unique skeletons for each character.

well the idea is that give some info to help you also can go out of the box with the basic knowledge.

no proble i love to help on those stuffs because i'm aways learning something new with others peoples mistakes aswell, and keep me from forget something, as long i do know how it help i will do but when i don't really know then srry, i will not give any answer, i'm also still a lot "new to unreal compared with many others i'm still strugling a lot in some projects of mine, because of that but just do as me and keep looking for help and tutorials, use youtube, you can use too they reddit they forum or even they Q&A 

here the links

https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/

https://forums.unrealengine.com/

https://answers.unrealengine.com/index.html

 

to be fair from those 3 sources the one i would recomend most is the reddit, in forum and even the answer are places more hard to get some help, in reddit you can find more often good souls wanting to help(not all the times but the chances to get someone are better than tha the others 2, which honestly speaking are almost "dead" when comes to help.

 

One last thing about the skeleton when i means create a new i means instead of let the unreal use the same skeleton for both, when export the second and having the option to choose enabled you gonna choose none when asking to "use a already existing skeleton in the skeletal mesh in the import window in unreal, whenever you choose a skeleton you are saying to unreal which you want this new mesh "use the already existing x skeleton, if you leave as none then it will act like the skeleton from the mesh you are import is a "new one" and use this new one the down side is you have more chore to due to adjust all the bones for retargeting and pose animation and some bla bla bla and is only important when you want then to have they own skeletal mesh, which also in case you want to share some animations you can still do that you just have to go to the retarget animation process between then instead of use the mannequin.

 

anyway have fun and be safe.