knee jerks a lot even on slightly uneven surface
#animation
odd sapphire
molten jewel
yeah that is one of the hardest things to program for me at least
look at that looks natural
odd sapphire
i mean theres natural
and theres zombie breaking neck weirdness
i would be happy with slightly artificial 😄
molten jewel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZoLauRxJgA I find you have to treat the neck as a fact, then kind of reorient forward, a slight imperfect offset looks natural
misty dagger
so some blendspaces just dont show up in the right click list in the anim bp, when I create a new one it shows up but when i then restart the editor it doesnt show up anymore
when i change a variable in one and then save it it shows up
fleet relic
Guys i'm trying to learn all about unreal engine 4 animations and how to use them properly via blueprints
whats the best way for me to learn? I can't seem to find many good tutorials online
wintry belfry
@misty dagger unfortunately none of that worked.
current status:
https://gyazo.com/9b2ea79769a6d6832701f43e948c1f14
if anyone can give me suggestion on what I should try to fix hand position
the result is the same with or without FABRIK IK to control hand position
basically looking up (and only up) is the issue, or when I move
misty dagger
seems the weapon is interpolating
make it align without interpolation towards the hand
wintry belfry
what do you mean
it is aligned
the weapon is locked into hand_r
weapon does not interpolate
misty dagger
thats ok, but u need make that socket rotate every frame
wintry belfry
this is viewable also without being in ADS
misty dagger
in direction of hand l
or u need with ik make the hand l be attached at weapon in the socket for it
wintry belfry
...rotate socket at runtime?
i've tried that too
the hand just comes in later on
there's a delay so anyways it does not seem attached
misty dagger
thats why i said the weapon seems be interpolating
misty dagger
the weapon attached will be rotating facing the hand-r direction so
the hand-l you need via ik replace it position in a socket of the weapon
or if the hand-l is animated
you can rotate the weapon to face everyframe in direction of hand-l
wintry belfry
the weapon is attached to the socket...
wintry belfry
Ok I think I'm getting somewhere. It's an Aim Offset interpolation issue indeed, though I do not know how to fix it.
Here is the weapon at 0 deg
here at 90 deg
notice hands positions: they're equal
here's the interpolated 45 deg
wintry belfry
look at how the hand_l is ok at 0 and 90 but incorrect at the interpolated 45 pose.
misty dagger
you can add more between frames
but has chances to still problematic
just IK or everyframe interpolating the weapon in direction of hand will keep it 100%
wintry belfry
but why does it do this
this is stripped down so indeed it's an interp issue on aim offsets
misty dagger
its calculating a linear value between 2 frames of animation
how much more distant the poses are
more distortion you get
young urchin
How to test ABPs? I.e. i have a plenty events that are triggering montages, is there a way to trigger them in ABP editor?
oak hound
Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this; it's my first time posting anything in unreal slackers. I recently set up a new project with the Advanced Locomotion System v4 from the marketplace (I have posted this issue in that discord as well). V4 uses the experimental Animation Blueprint Linking capability in 4.24. I am having some strangeness with attaching an item to the left hand virtual bones after I migrated the logic and mesh components from the player character child blueprint back into the parent character blueprint. The left hand attachment socket is the same as the original, the mesh component transforms are all zeroed out, everything seems to be the same between the new and vanilla blueprints. I'm using the same mesh and skeleton, and in the video below you can see that the attachment seems to be on the correct virtual bone, but seems to be attached to the wrong linked layer in the final animation. In the vanilla project when I do the same test as in the video, all the bones are in the same three simultaneous positions, but the object is attached to the correct bone that stays in place above the left arm. I tried re-running some of the curve generations for poses and got some less than desirable results, but I'm not entirely sure if that is where the issue is. I've also done tests with master pose and there is no difference (the original didn't use master pose either). I've read all the online docs for animation blueprint linking and sub anim instances but cannot quite figure out how the decision is made regarding socket attachment relative to the linked layers. I've also run 'showdebug animation' to see if I could figure out what is going on, but I'm not able to identify the linked layer specific data there either. Hoping someone can point me in the right direction regarding how the linked anim layers work in relation to attaching to bones/sockets, please. Thanks in advance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDJWcL6okUk
molten jewel
@misty dagger thats normal, it doesn't scan every single asset in the content browser
just ones that are in memory more or less
can't really rely on that side menu
@wintry belfry you should consider IK bones in the animations if your authoring them
i like to constrain ik_hand_root to head, ik_hand_gun to weapon, then ik_hand_r and ik_hand_l to hands
then the interpolation in the ik bones is more ideal
and if you parent the weapon to ik_hand_root instead, you get no wobble
so long as your two bone ik node'ing the hands
adding more frames to improve fk is kind of a bandaid fix
@oak hound i want to say your using ik_hand_l there?
i can't give you a definitive issue of the problem without knowing more but, would check if your carry barrel animation is constraining the ik bones to the fk bones on export.
if it is, then theres a misalignment from modification to fk bones making the ik bones mismatch the fk counterpart to the point where its like in the video
but hopefully its not that complicated and you just have to throw some constraints to bind ik to fk
jolly osprey
wondering if anyone's tried this and what your opinions were https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/dynamicnode-plugin
especially the ccdik hand
molten jewel
Yeah, not entirely sure what it is
it seems like some sort of communication layer between event graph and anim graph using custom nodes
problem with event graph is you only have the previous frames bones
jolly osprey
I was wondering if it was a custom ccdik solution that may be faster than ue4's
molten jewel
but tbh no idea what that does. ccdik is the robotic version of ik right?
jolly osprey
ccdik is supposed to be the more lightweight solution to fabrik
molten jewel
ah
jolly osprey
you set a start (root) and end bone and it does the ik for you
since 4.21 iirc
but it (supposedly) only works w/ relatively short joint chains
the example they like giving is shoulder to fingertip
molten jewel
Cyclic Coordinate Descent Inverse Kinematics 📓
jolly osprey
for pushing buttons e.g.
molten jewel
sounds cool but not sure
i'd kind of expect it to more or less pull its understanding from the existing ccdik node
but maybe not
jolly osprey
you mean the plugin
molten jewel
yeah
i imagine it likely lifts code from existing things. which isn't bad, just saying i wouldn't expect it to work much differently beyond all that extra event graph stuff
jolly osprey
afaik ccdik is just a bell curve style interpolation mechanism
right - it's just a plugin after all
molten jewel
Sometimes can luck out and find people on the discord
but can't find anything on the author
oak hound
@molten jewel thank you for the response. yes, it's using a virtual IK bone for the left hand. i don't have the source animation unfortunately, just the uasset files. i considered it might be constraint related, but nothing was changed in the animations or the mesh files, just the blueprint code moved from one character to another. most of the overlay layer animations are driven with curves, which is why I tried re-running the curve generation script, but when I did that the arm did a nice job attaching to the barrel and bending/dislocating all the way back with it instead of the barrel staying more forward with the arm. it somewhat supports a constraint issue, though again, nothing was touched in the meshes or skeleton or animation in the process. i started a new project to try and reproduce and this time when I migrated the content from one blueprint to another I did not encounter the issue. While it is nice to have it working this time, it would be nice to learn the underpinnings of the new linked layers and how it works with attaching meshes to sockets relative to the different layer states. If there's any documentation out there other than the unreal docs site, I'd love to take a look at it. in the meantime I will try looking into the ik to fk constraints you mentioned and see what i can learn. thank you again.
molten jewel
I've not yet looked into the linked layers stuff yet @oak hound i just notice the skeleton differences with what looks like the ik vs fk bones in that video you posted. I could be off, but just check that the animations your layering do animate these ik bones, its not standard that they do (but it probably should be)
@versed sluice are you intending to do root motion here?
it seems the animation is authored with a moving root. you could try this setting on the animation
(enable it)
versed sluice
molten jewel
it is okay. You know the animation for walking forward? You need to find that file in content browser and open its settings
oak hound
will do @molten jewel . thank you.
versed sluice
enable all root motıon
quiet void
enable all root motıon
@versed sluice but character walk in the air
young urchin
i've asked this but seems no one noticed
How to test ABPs? I.e. i have a plenty events that are triggering montages, is there a way to trigger them in ABP editor?
velvet imp
misty dagger
something from deep web
neat gust
So I'm creating my character and is trying to set up the physics assets instead of using the default one.
But I cant get my shapes to the size I want. I Cant get it any smaller then what you see on the picture and that is just way to big for my character, how can I change this so I can make it smaller?
http://prntscr.com/qsyeal
pastel chasm
Did anyone manage to run ARTv2 on maya 2020?
short plover
how to implement different blending speed for different bones? for example I want to make dodge animation. in this case I want feet to slide into position quickly, but get a smoother and longer blending for upperbody. Now I can see only one way - duplicating the same animation and blending upper and lower body separately
short plover
found it in the very end https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/Animation/NodeReference/Blend/index.html
novel berry
How can I make a smooth transition between two animated blueprints
mellow urchin
hey im trying to set up a transition rule for "jump start" but i cant quiet figure out how to do that.
im doing a tutorial series on the ue4 yt channel but he does something that doesnt make sense in my eyes.
he playes the "jump start"->"when falling"
so basically he the character ingame jumps, befor the animation is jumping.
so i need somewhat of a rule that allows me to play that animations befor the character is actually in air.
velvet vault
Hey all. So I followed Unreal's live stream tutorial for turning in place ("Getting the Animation You Want"). Works great. I followed step by step with Jay and used it for my TPS. Only goofy thing that happens is when I look up or down and turn at the same time. Anyone know a good work around for that? I think it has something to do with the aim offset needing to use the RootYawOffset float variable he uses, however if I dont use it then the aim offset wont turn his torso at all
swift blaze
Hi All
I've made an animation in 3ds max of my camera - a camera tour of a shop. When I import this using datasmith into Unreal I go to my imported folder in Content then animations and then Doubleclick the animation icon. Then it opens up in Sequencer and the camera is animated and plays perfectly in the pilotview. But when I hit the Play PIE button in the Editor it takes me outside what I think is the environment sphere, the same happends when I try to save the movie in the sequence window.
What do I do wrong here?
austere light
Does anyone know what would cause an Animation Blueprint's state machine to not run at all? It runs fine if the character is controlled by a player, but if I place the character in the world and either have no controller at all, or an AI controller, then they just t-pose and the state machine is completely inactive
This is in 4.24.1
It didn't happen in previous versions, I was able to place the character in the world and it would just stand idle with the state machine running
austere light
Ok never mind, I figured it out. I forgot that the Anim Graph is worked backwards from the final output pose back to the start of the chain (in this case my state machine). My character for some reason is lacking a reference needed which meant the chain was broken before it got back to the state machine
safe wagon
why is it that my downloaded animations only work for 1 mesh each
which is the standard character mesh that they came with
I'd like to apply animation 1 to character mesh 2
but it doesn't play the animation
safe wagon
send a ping if you know why
austere light
Quick question: if I check the box for a skeletal mesh component to "Render as Static" for optimisation purposes, why do LODs stop working? If this box is checked then it is locked at LOD0 no matter how small it is on screen
Is there a setting to allow LODs to continue to function when a skeletal mesh component is set to "Render as Static"?
@safe wagon Are both character meshes using the same skeleton?
molten jewel
Are you referring to create static mesh button @austere light ?
safe wagon
@austere light is there a difference between character mesh and skeleton mesh? If I change the skeleton mesh the visuals change as well
nimble hatch
by random chance has anyone here used the free mocap basics pack from the marketplace and can tell me the proper walk speed on a character for the walk animation to not have feet sliding?
spiral cloak
Quick question on Pose Snapshots - Obviously I can save pose snapshots to use in my anim bp (I've just briefly looked through the Live Training video).
Is it possible for me to save a pose on 1 Skeletal mesh component on Actor A (With a "complex" anim graph) and then load it on another Skeletal mesh comp on Actor B (same skeleton and mesh asset, but with a "simple" anim graph purely for the purpose of that posing in that snapshot)
Seems those snapshots are saved internally, so perhaps I'll have to write a quick function to copy that data between Actor A and Actor B and manually apply it to the bones of Actor B's Skeletal mesh?
I did a similar thing about 4 or 5 years ago, but wondering whether there are new functions available that I've missed whilst looking about
austere light
@molten jewel
No. In the weapon blueprint I have a skeletal mesh component with the weapon parts rigged so they can move for reloading etc.
However I want a very high player count and found that bone transforms on the weapons were surprisingly high even when not being animated
So I found the checkbox for "Render as Static", with the idea that when I want to play an animation I just unset it and then set it back when the animation finishes
As an optimization
But for some reason, checking this box prevents the LOD system working, so the mesh in the characters hand is always LOD0 even when they're just a tiny speck on the horizon
@safe wagon
Nah the character mesh is the same thing as a skeletal mesh. Basically, animations are tied to a single skeleton, so if animation A uses skeleton A and Animation B uses skeleton B then you wont be able to play them interchangeably
If both skeletons are the same, then try reimporting Animation B but import it against Skeleton A in the import menu rather than letting it generate a new skeleton
Alternatively you can duplicate and retarget one animation to the other skeleton, so you end up with two copies of the animation: one for Skeleton A and one for Skeleton B
scenic dagger
Hi, anyone have any idea how the AnimBP calculates Curve values?
If I have a lot of animations running at the same time, how does it know to take the curve value from which animation? Is there any way to control which animation it takes from?
safe wagon
@austere light That's funny. Unity has a new type of animation called "Mecanim" that works for any character model.
scenic dagger
@safe wagon one thing i really missed about using unity was its mechanim system 😦 so much easier to get animations
mighty ore
hey, I'm looking at default ue4 mannequin movement setup. I decided to make the mannequin walk instead of running, unless I hold shift. However I noticed one thing I'm not sure how to fix
which is the amount of speed the movement component gets from input when you hold two directions at once
if I hold W, he walks slower than he does when I hold W+A, for example
I'm assuming this here is the problem:
and this is the blueprint, of couse
so I'd have to "normalize" the red vectors somehow
(I guess?)
molten jewel
mecanim is ancient and i think they call it something else now
stiff raptor
Anyhow know how to create a sequence in one map local to 0,0,0 world space, and then in another map play that sequence at a different location but all actors in the sequence move relative?
I tried setting the transform on the sequence player but that did't do it, even with actors having relative transform tracks and a key at the start.
Do I need to attach all the actors to a single one and then in level script move that parent actor, or is there a more elegant solution?
foggy wharf
Hey, I'm sorry if this has been asked.
How do I make a character (or object) with simple accessories? What I mean is, lets say I have a guy with a keychain or something similar hanging from his clothes
I want it to be animated to a degree. Is it something I do in blender or unreal?
I tried a lot with soft body physics, lattices etc, and it's just not working for me.
molten jewel
gusty sun
Hey got a question shouldn't this pole vector be lined up going toward the knee ctrl? When i hit pole vector it keeps going upward at an angle. It works just fine with the animation and such but i am just trying to make sure it's not going to be a problem later on.
foggy wharf
@molten jewel thanks I will check it out
molten jewel
I got the link from @restive yew assume it has everything you'll need in it. The keychain movement though, this may need to be a separate skeletal mesh if it can't be clothed.
the water bottle here is all cloth somehow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E8CGuWlTw4 I don't understand it. But you can use cloth to do rigid stuff some how.
velvet vault
Gonna try again lol
So I followed Unreal's live stream tutorial for turning in place ("Getting the Animation You Want"). Works great. I followed step by step with Jay and used it for my TPS. Only goofy thing that happens is when I look up at the same time the character bends forward. If I look down and turn he leans back. Anyone know a good work around for that? I think it has something to do with the aim offsets horizontal angle needing to use the RootYawOffset float variable he uses, however if I dont use it then the aim offset wont turn his torso at all
molten jewel
anim graph would help moussetticus
molten jewel
well
that *-1 is breaking fast path for you
so thats the first thing you should fix cause its really important
but i think the aim issue is just a matter of blending problems
if you move the rotate root node to be after the aim node is there any difference?
velvet vault
foggy wharf
@molten jewel it looks very complex. I don't know if I'm advanced enough yet 😛 but I will read it through
velvet vault
Here's what happens when I disconnect the *-1
molten jewel
hmm interesting moussetticus
in the first one, is the problem resolved with the rolling?
i can see that it studders
but does it not do the weird hunch over thing?
velvet vault
it seems like it, yes
molten jewel
yeah that is gone?
velvet vault
correct. but the stuttering and repeated turning is the new hurdle lol
molten jewel
what is the purpose of that cached pose
velvet vault
nothing really I guess lol. I think I made it when I was testing something and it just got left over
molten jewel
likely not hurting anything but just wondering if your using it somewhere else. don't think thats possible
velvet vault
naw naw, what you see is whats there
I went ahead and deleted the cached pose nodes
molten jewel
these too are breaking fast path. you need to move the logic to a new variable and set with a sequence node at the front
but not causing the issue
just will make your game run bad
have a feeling though
well,
one sec gonna look at event graph
is this intentional?
velvet vault
irrelevant. was gonna see if offsetting the pitch like I did with yaw might fix. did nothing
pretend that junk istn there
molten jewel
hm yeah, I dunno enough about aim offset which is why i didn't say something the first time. But from that test of saving the root offset for last its possible that it uses componetn space some how
so you might have to rework that offset code for turning with whatever range its at now
velvet vault
yea...I just dont know enough about working with anim blueprints to really know what I'm doing confidently :/
May just have to scrap turning in place altogether
molten jewel
would really recommend moving those get curve values to run in post animation update instead as well. though i don't really think its ideal how they are used in general
well
fast path is something you should keep an eye on as you go. Its not related to the issue your having but if you just move all at boolean logic to a sequence then 1 at the start you will have animation multi threaded.
I can't really see the part where the root orientation is used for the setting of turn importance
hm actually
this part
that subtraction is likely whats giving you crud
velvet vault
do you think a delta would be better? I think thats basically what its being used as?
inner ibex
anyone know how to use time stretch curves? I added a curve named "MontageTimeStretchCurve", and it edits the marker values but doesn't change the anim
velvet vault
@molten jewel kind of the same thing as before happened. It doesnt seem to mind when I turn either left or right for the first time, but when I go the opposite direction for the first time it freaks out and repeats the animation - constantly resetting RootYawOffset to -180 and adjusting down
velvet vault
it just donned on me - and idk how much this impacts anything. but in the ThirdPersonCharacter blueprint I have it so that when you press RMB, it sets Use Controller Rotation yaw to T and Orient Rotation to Movement (Character Movement component) to F. And then when you release RMB it sets them to the opposite
but wanted to let you know that was going on as well
molten jewel
velvet vault
Last Yaw being the same as Yaw Last Tick and New Yaw is the same as Yaw?
molten jewel
yeah didn't save the old bp
velvet vault
kk just wanted to make sure lol - didnt wanna assume on that one
molten jewel
may need to flip them if it seems reverse
reef agate
Hey all, what's the easiest way to record an anim graph output pose to a simple animation asset in your content browser?
molten jewel
the recorder
reef agate
i'm looking into the take recorder, but it doesn't specifically mention i can save those takes as animation assets (I haven't activated the plugin yet). Is that what it does?
molten jewel
its part of what it does
reef agate
ok cool! i was worried you could only use those recordings in sequencer
molten jewel
like it'll make animations out of the anim graph
reef agate
i can load those animations back into an anim graph if i want ya?
molten jewel
I've not tried to use them outside of sequencer, but they appear to be just normal animation files
reef agate
ya that's my worry...
molten jewel
would have to try I suppose
I'm not sure about the world space of them or not
if i had to guess it probably records in component space
velvet vault
@molten jewel
reef agate
which space do i want ideally? component or world for putting back into anim graph?
molten jewel
what are those values moussetticus, printing to the screen
velvet vault
RootYawOffset
velvet vault
Just curious
It seems like we can have it one way but not the other: AimOffset bends over, but character turns in place. Or characters turn in place breaks, but AimOffset works properly. What if we had basically 2 versions of the RootYawOffset variable but one meant for the AimOffset's yaw rotation and the other for everything else? You can tell me if thats a bad idea lol
molten jewel
it sounds like it could work
velvet vault
hmmm...then again I guess I already tried that by plugging the regular AxisTurn value into the AimOffset's yaw...though it didnt have any other math going on behind it to correct for anything
molten jewel
I'm a bit tired and loopy heh but i couldn't see any huge numbers pop up in that print out
velvet vault
fair enough man. thank you SO much for spending this amount of time with me though. Really appreciate it
molten jewel
yeah, just keep an eye on what variables are doing as you turn. set the character to the preview actor
you'll figure it out im' sure now that the aim stuff seems okay
velvet vault
IF (God willing) this can get solved, I'll be sure to share the knowledge with everyone.
@molten jewel Oh my god...wtf
I think I got it (cross your fingers)
So you know how earlier I posted the event graph? Well before I shared it I deleted superfluous nodes that werent doing anything and only cluttered up being able to read it.
I must have accidentally deleted the rerout node going from the false statement on the Branch just before to the reset on the DoOnce
molten jewel
they crossed
velvet vault
molten jewel
it works though?
velvet vault
It seems the only thing that needed re-ordered was what you mentioned earlier: put the Rotate Root Bone node after the AimOffset
everything else is still the same! @____@
Still...
velvet vault
now to tackle 180 turns when looking right behind you and going into aim mode
molten jewel
for the players sake, do fix those fast path / lighting bolts hah
velvet vault
lol of course of course. gonna tackle those right now
solar pasture
Hey guys, I'm wondering how do you animate basic transformation/rotation/scale whatever on a basic object within UE4?
I cannot find this anywhere and there's only blueprint tutorial for this.
And I don't believe such simple task need to be done in very complex way involving nodes and such.
While in unity for comparison, I can select an object, then open up the animation window, add the parameter and start animating within the viewport immediately.
solar pasture
I found "animation editor" on the manual but can't find it anywhere within 4.24.1
I just don't believe doing simple task like say, moving a cube back and forth requires blueprint for it. My second guess is sequencer but still its intended for cinematics not for simple animation like this
mellow urchin
is there a reason why transition rules sometimes dont appear?
in the animation blueprints
solar pasture
After looking around, I conclude that the only way to animate such simple animation is to animate it through sequencer and load it via blueprint to attach it to the object. I haven't found anything else.
The manual mention if I want to load a mesh animation I should load it via animation sequencer. Is there any other sequence editor other than level and master sequencer?
Pardon for all the question, I'm struggling to grasp how UE4 handles animation. Which is soo simple in unity but seems like ridiculous amount of tools and steps are required in UE4 for animating say box moving left.
I kinda understand why epic do this though, it's so that there's no duplicate tools which can be harder to maintain. Thus they are removing overlapping tools such as the now defunct matinee.
yet the silly thing is, animating skeletal animations in UE4 is much simple and have shit tons of tutorials out there, but none explain how to move a simple mesh
scarlet spade
any1 know how to set up a transition for when a player suddenly stops? Like if the player is sprinting and lets go of all movement
shut kraken
What's the approach for a shared skeleton with some bones not being used? say I wanted to have one skeleton for all characters, but some characters have animated hair, would the best approach just be to have all animations have the hair movement in it, and just only parent things to those bones for the characters that care about it?
grizzled basin
how can I open two blendspaces at once? Like if I want to compare them. When ever you open an animation asset it just replaces the one that's already open
simple star
Does anyone know why my blend has only one input
? the enumerator has two options :/
please @ me if you know
I found this:
but this is all I get under details :/
fuck it, this works:
small arch
Can anyone explain what's the Blend Depth parameter for?
simple star
I'm assuming it's how many bones would blend from the named one ? @small arch
small arch
It doesn't seems so, the layered blend works correctly when Blend Depth is set to 0 and to 1, if I set it a higher value than 1 then the animation gradually get's more stiff @simple star
It's interesting because the default value is 0 while the documentation says to set it to 1
And on top of that you can set it to any number, it's a signed integer
simple star
the ways of the engine are full of mysteries
hoary juniper
Hey wanted to ask how to fix mixamo character root bone that i could use root motion?
Now with root motion getting these weird poses
dawn salmon
has anyone gotten the femmequin to work?
molten jewel
whats a femmequin?
@simple star nah don't do that comparison
idk why that enum blend isn't working though tbh
you'd be better off using a switch on byte, or int (is this a thing?)
or any enum that does work
@shut kraken so skeleton files have all the bones possible between meshes in them.
meshes using the skeleton file may only supply a subset of those in the skeleton file
that is completely an okay thing to do
however
you can't skip a parent in the mesh of the hierarchy
if hand_r exists in the mesh, the arm, clav, spine, pelvis must all be there as well
also
non-deform bones must exist on a per mesh basis as well
so if you use ik bones, yes they must be exported with the mesh for them to work. the skeleton file is more or less just a directory of hierarchy.
skeleton file also has no pose information at-all
mesh holds ref pose
dawn salmon
@molten jewel someone made a female version of the MANnequin, and it got endorsed officially by Epic (or at least tweeted officially), but it's only blender files and not a UE4 package
if you want to grab it
shut kraken
@molten jewel Intredasting... So modeling in Blender I'd use a different skeleton for each distinct layout, but point all meshes at the same UE4 skeleton? And assuming I did my homework and common bones are the same, it should just work?
molten jewel
ye skeleton files are just names and hierarchy
so long as you get it right on each mesh they will remain compatibe
you have to set bones that shouldn't translate to skeleton retargeting mode in skeleton then they'll mostly work
shut kraken
Is there a recommended Blender rig floating around? I'm messing with Rigify and I've got it to work but I wonder if there's a better setup. I'm doing all custom animations so I don't necessarily need comparability with the mannequin. I just don't want to repeat the same mistake that I did the last time I was messing with skeletal animation, that is, I did about 40 hours of animation just to find out that I had two spine chains lul.
molten jewel
@shut kraken as you may have found maya does not enforce y forward bones like blender
theres no right or wrong way to go with skeleton
but if sharing animations, they all need similar bone orientation
hoary juniper
So noone can help me with Mixamo model root bone problem?
molten jewel
ReDobis
I know the issue your speaking of
it treats the root bone like the pelvis
short answer is, you need to clean them up
long answer is, if you rename your bones to match mixamo's official names, add leaf bones for finger tips with mixamo names
you'll get better results
but you'll still need cleanup, and will have to constraint back to your original naming convention
I don't know enough about animation modifiers in ue4 to say with certainty @hoary juniper but it may be possible to fix with those.
you would have to multiply the pelvis transform keys by the root transform keys, then clear the root transform keys
and that would break root motion iirc
hoary juniper
not much understood, but sounds like it takes some time
molten jewel
yea, no real quick fix that i am aware of.
hoary juniper
is there any free character model making and using free animations?
I know Fuse is free but thats is mixamo so same problem with root bone
pulsar torrent
so i was wondering is there anyway to check if a character is jumping in animation blueprints?
i am currently using get velocity and then velocity flat to check if my player is walking
ive tried using break vector and then only checking if the z velocity is above 1 and as far as i can tell that works kinda but if you move to fast it will think your jumping
well actually ive found just testing the z velocity works pretty well as it shows the animation when you fall too
grizzled basin
What's the best way to share animation blueprints between 2 meshes that share a skeleton, but have different proportions? Is there some way to make adjustments to an animation based on the skeleton?
shut kraken
@pulsar torrent there should be a variable on the character or character movement component representing if you're falling or not.
shut kraken
@pulsar torrent Look at how the 3rd person template does it.
pulsar torrent
ok i will look into that thank you 😄
shut kraken
What would be the approach for really simple mesh transforms driven by game data? Like this engine for instance, if I wanted to link the throttle plates to the throttle variable, how would you guys do it? I plan on having a ton of little things like that, with almost none of them being the same between parts. Would you make 2 bone armatures for everything?
molten lodge
guys - perhaps this sounds dumb. But how should I approach the creation of an animation Blueprint?
would I start by scoping what I want it to support (e.g. movement and attacks) , or? Any tips? Kinda new to this 🙂
misty dagger
@molten lodge I would probably start looking at the free assets, such as the animation blueprints in Action RPG template, and/or Paragon characters, there are plenty of examples there to give you an idea 🙂
small arch
@molten lodge Take a look at some already made assets like the ThirdPersonCharacter, that's a good starting point to understand how to structure your AnimBP, also open UE4's documentation on the animation graph, it's very well made and you're gonna be using it a lot to understand what differed nodes do.
Start with a state machine and don't be afraid to make mistakes and redo the whole thing as you understand how things work
molten lodge
Thanks guys
Reckon I've made a little progress so far 🙂 the mid-air animation can differentiate between an intentional jump or a free-fall
now to add more features as I go
the thing that worries me the most right now is stuff like attacks etc....
I guess I can make a state for attacking - but say I wanted different weapons (bare fists vs a bat) - I'm not quite sure how I'd pick which anim to play
molten lodge
yeah that's something like what I had in mind
though "dual weapon" could be the same type but with different attacks
e.g. one slash at a time vs both at once
small arch
@misty dagger do you use the layered blend per bone node for the attacks?
misty dagger
misty dagger
@small arch Animation is not really my thing, I was just giving it as an example , currently obsolete, of handling different weapons 🙂
misty dagger
@small arch In my project I'm still doing it the old way, I just pointed out LinkedAnimBP the new modern way, I don't have an answer for your question 🙂
small arch
I see, thanks
simple star
Does anyone know why my ragdoll is acting in this way after applying some bone corrections? NSFW link !!! : (https: //i.imgur.com/4W4zHlE.mp4) NSFW link !!!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/443070368458997761/672038384159424527/unknown.png this are the corrections
each value is set to 000 in but gets calculated at begin play.
if I remove the corrections everything works fine but the characters lose their diversity
please @ me if you know anything
if I avoid the adjustments it works NSFW link !!! (https: //i.imgur.com/9xl5Mna.mp4) NSFW link !!!
it appears that the ragdoll is reading the initial values and not the updated ones
I've manually changed them before begin play and I get better results but the mesh ragdolls always at the same values no matter the character height etc
this is a sample of the updates I apply, the values are set to 000 but then updated at begin play
everything works but ragdolling revert to the initial 000 values
please @ me if you know anything that could help
simple star
I don't think that would help... Maybe I don't understand the node .... does it apply a rotation to the bone ?
misty dagger
whats up with the control rig plugin? The documentation is completely worthless and it works completely different than in the videos and documentation.
it crashes half the time and doesnt show the expected nodes to work with the other half
anyone constructively been using it in 4.23/24 ?
small arch
@simple star basically it allows you to only rotate a parent bone without affecting it's children if you set the multiplier to -1
might help
swift blaze
My playrate in sequencer does not affect my render movie output, any solution to this?
noble lichen
Is it possible to save a pose asset of a character at any given time via Blueprints while simulating or playing in editor?
molten lodge
another stupid Q from yours truly
what exactly is Blend Depth?
when using Layered Blend Per Bone node
simple star
how do you stop an animation blueprint from updating ?
molten jewel
thats a good question, perhaps if you deactivate the skeletal mesh component? I'm not real sure
molten lodge
wouldn't that force the model into a t pose
molten jewel
i really don't know tbh
grave drift
Hey. I'm not an animator, so I bought a horse mounting animation from the marketplace. I've asked the creator for help, but he's uncertain of what's the issue. So:
I'm working on a horse riding system. The player mounts the horse, but since the animation is rigged off the origin off the horse itself, the player has to be teleported to the origin of the horse (inside it) prior to running the mounting animation, which looks bad and hacky. I've tried enabling Root motion, but it's not a RM animation. Any suggestions on what I can do? Currently as it is, the animations aren't game-ready...
shut kraken
@molten lodge I've had good luck by having my ability and weapon animations and locomotion animations be separate. The ability or the weapon tells the character which animation montage to play. The animation montages are in slots so I have a slot for the top half of the body and a slot for the bottom half of the body.
molten lodge
Oh boy - this is getting confusing fast
wicked wind
whats up gang
got some real ass rigging issues that google isn't being helpful with
got a relatively complicated rig in maya with a lot of locators that when I import to unreal just does not work
the skeleton structure and locators import, but when i move the bones in the skeleton viewer, the geo does not follow, despite being skinned just fine in maya
maybe im just missing a tickbox somewhere but i'm super confused. if anyone's well versed in this stuff i'd mega appreciate it
mellow urchin
okey im confuseld a lil bit here.
iv exported my skeleton exactly like a ue4 skeleton. ik seem to be fine and what not. but in persona, when moving the ik´s for the mannequin it moves the whole leg (like it should)
but for my skeleton the ik´s dont move the bones it should move. do i need to set this up in ue4 or something?
ooooooooooooh
do i need to setup the ik´s in the blueprints?
molten lodge
I think so, yes
pulsar torrent
Ok so is there a way I could use the same animation blueprint for different characters?
misty dagger
im trying to get it to where if i reload, my player will stop shooting.
but when ever i reload...my character only plays the animation once and the animation is always set to the end.
is there a way to call my animation to reset themselves as soon as it ends?
pulsar torrent
my gosh this discords useless sometimes lol
urban gate
@pulsar torrent You can use an animation blueprint for any number of characters (as long as they share a skeleton and any variables that the animbp depends on)
pulsar torrent
So they all have to be the same exact model?
I tried retargeting but that didn’t find my other model
urban gate
@pulsar torrent not the same model but the skeletal mesh has to share a skeleton
pulsar torrent
Well I’ve gotten all my models from mixamo so I’d assume they’re all the same
dry gust
hello is there a good way how to multiply additive animation values? so I dont have to add it 3 times? seems like it might ruin performance doing this way
sudden sedge
@dry gust what are you trying to do with 3 additives?
dry gust
I animated additive animation but I need it to be more extreme
at first I thought I will animate it at average strength so later I will boost alpha to 3
but its clampled at 1
sudden sedge
Could you edit the animation itself to make it more extreme?
dry gust
thats what I did at the end
molten jewel
@dry gust use a cache pose node
All the options are hacky but at least with one additive connected to a cache pose, using that cache pose 3 times should be way less going on
(And always identical timing)
reef agate
Does anyone know/use Modify Curve in the anim graph? I'm wondering if Remap Curve mode is just a map range clamped/unclamped or what?
molten jewel
I’ve only used it to set, I’m not sure about remap
reef agate
@molten jewel where would i find the c++ for that modify curve node to try and find out?
reef agate
happen to have a file path you could share?
C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.24\Engine\Source\Runtime\AnimGraphRuntime\Private\AnimNodes
think i got it
frigid drum
Hey, i have two sections on an Animation Montage that has a pop between them, before i fix it in blender im wondering if i could blend the two sections, searching on google apparently its not possible without some workaround.
Anyone knows if its possible?
strange echo
I'm still getting the "Imported bone transform is different from original" error. Happened for my last three skeletal meshes. Otherwise, there is no error
I'm unsure of the cause because the documentation that the error links to doesn't include the error itself
simple trout
Ello, how can i make transparent bones like this?
-Blender 2.81
reef agate
Does anyone know ModifyCurve AnimBP nodes remap curve mode? I'm trying understand if it's the same as MapRangeClamped or if it's doing something else?
molten jewel
@simple trout bone groups i think is the way you color bones. getting box shaped bones like that is something you do with shapes. you define shapes in pose mode on the bone settings (you first make a mesh in the scene, hide it to a widget layer, then select it for the shape).
Its not really a ue4 question though, and some of my terminology may be off.
@reef agate since your looking at the node, you could recreate it on your own to do what you need. It requires that you have an editor module for the graph type to go though
every anim node has its struct and its graph node type
struct goes to a runtime module and graph type to an editor module. you just stick the struct in the graph type as a member named Node and everything just works
reef agate
Is there a doc i could check out to better understand what you mean by editor module?
reef agate
my tentative goal is basically to do what that RemapCurve function is doing except in the "Event Graph" instead of in an AnimBP
doing this in a c++ version and a BP version
I'm not understanding if there is any benefit to my using ModifyCurve in the Anim Graph rather than outside of it
Maybe ModifyCurve runs on the animation thread instead of the main thread or?
So if ReMap Curve is simply a MapRangeClamped(), then i can just do that outside of the AnimGraph
but if it's more than that I need to know : )
molten jewel
thing people struggle with is the event graph does not know anything about the pose being made
so its not just that anim nodes run on a seperate thread
but they deal with the actual connecting poses
so if you wanted to modify the curve that generates from an animation further down the line of the connections in animgraph
reef agate
The variable whose value i'm modifying will still ultimately go into a ModifyCurve node set to blend 1.0f to connect to the Output pose so I'm all good there
molten jewel
you can't do that in event graph without a frame of latency
reef agate
but now i have three modifycurve anim nodes, one for the raw data, another for WMA and another for remap curve
so it's just kinda ugly. If I could move WMA and Remap curve to event graph then i could reduce the anim graph to just one modify curve
second and third ModifyCurve is Weighted Moving Average and Remap Curve
molten jewel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6QECOE0G-U
if you see this massive facial expression node i have it more or less is a custom version of the modify curve node
reef agate
my idea to summarize is just to move the WMA algorithm and Remap Curve outside the anim graph so that I'm applying WMA and the RemapCurve (MapRangeClamped) to the raw data before it hits the single Anim Graph ModifyCurve node and connects to the output pose
molten jewel
considering to make a custom node is really what you should be doing imo. The event graph isn't even an option for this stuff unless your literally setting curve values in and not modifying them
reef agate
Does that make sense?
molten jewel
just keep in mind the event graph is slow in that it runs on the game thread
but its not the reason you use anim graph
(you have to use anim graph to deal with the actual poses)
reef agate
Ya I'd love to make a custom node
I don't see how i'd be a frame behind with my idea though
I'm just applying some math to each incoming float: WMA and MapRangeClamped, then feeding that into the anim graph through a modify curve node
molten jewel
if its entirely independant of the pose or curves on animations then your fine
if it relys on curves set in the last frames animation, the calculations will be a frame late
but yeah if its completely unrelated to the previous frame then no issues at all
reef agate
ya I think it's totally unrelated. I basically take a snapshot at the current frame of the curves current value using GetCurveValue() and I would feed that as a static value into Map Range Clamped. So It doesn't rely on the curves set in the last frames animation at all (I think)
molten jewel
yeah that would be a frame late then
restive yew
I thought all animations are a frame late?
reef agate
How so? I feed that snapshot into the InRangeA
molten jewel
[entire event graph update] [entire anim graph update] [entire event graph post update]
if your deal with stuff in event graph update, your dealing with stuff the anim graph churned out the prior frame
to update hte upcoming one
when your in a node
reef agate
Oh well if the snapshot is one frame earlier than the current value that's totally fine
molten jewel
you are dealing with the actual current frame values
reef agate
it's just a snapshot of a set of values for calibration purposes
molten jewel
yeah, i mean good enough is what it is, but would still recommend considering to make an anim node to do it because it would alleviate event graph work and also be the only way to use currently evaluated curves before they are modified by you
reef agate
So let's say my jaw closed (facial animation) reads from my hardware sensor to be 0.1f. I need it to be 0.0f so I take a snapshot of the 0.1f then i put it into a MapRangeClamped() InRangeA so that I get a proper 0.0f
molten jewel
and its true High Tide that theres always latency with the calculation
but framewise, i mean the one being output
it sounds like you just want to evaluate a curve asset?
reef agate
I don't think so? I have a sensor on my phone reading my facial movements and sending corresponding floats between 0.0f to 1.0f into UE4
So no "assets" here to speak of
I'm feeding those floats into morph target curves through the anim bp
right now I calibrate and smooth the data in the anim graph using ModifyCurve. I'm just seriously considering moving the smoothing and calibration to c++ and/or event graph in bp
molten jewel
if you have a float curve asset for example that has a value of zero at 0.1
when you evaluate the curve at 0.1 it will return 0.0
if its that your modifying to a min and max read hardware level and remapping this way
yeah that wont be a frame late
reef agate
oh i've been wondering about that. Ya i'd like to know more about this... How could I dynamically change where that value of zero is though on the curve timeline?
molten jewel
I just meant if your using fbx animations to generate curves that your modifying your curves your shooting to the anim
you wouldn't use curves for dynamic changing of things afaik
reef agate
"if its that your modifying to a min and max read hardware level and remapping this way
yeah that wont be a frame late" ya so with modifycurve node for WMA and Calibration of course i'm not a frame late, but sorry to repeat here, but i'm thinking if i do the same math outside of the anim graph i also don't think i'll be a frame late as long as I'm not sampling the curve in real-time every update
which i'm not. I'm just trying to get clear on all this myself
molten jewel
struct FAdaptiveRange{
float MinRead{1980.f},MaxRead{1980.f};
float Remap(float Value) {
const bool bMatched = MinRead == MaxRead;
if(Value < MinRead){
MinRead = Value;
if(MaxRead == 1980.f && bMatched) { MaxRead = Value; return 0.f; }
}else if(MaxRead < Value){
MaxRead = Value;
if(MinRead == 1980.f && bMatched) { MinRead = Value; return 0.f; }
}else if(bMatched) { return 0.f; }
return (Value - MinRead) / (MaxRead-MinRead);
}
};```something like that
reef agate
Is that the code for the remap mode on ModifyCurve?
molten jewel
you just make that struct somewhere and call Remap on it
whatever inputs you throw at it will make a range
0.0 to 1.0
molten jewel
it'd be a c++ thing you could translate it to blueprints probably though
reef agate
that's fine this project is c++
i'm just making a bp version for people who want it, but all i care about is c++
molten jewel
I did not trest that code and wrote it in discord to be clear lol
warm atlas
I'm trying to import an fbx animation and I get this error:
warm atlas
rip
molten jewel
ue4 wants animation tracks for each bone
so
option would be
bring that into something like blender and re-export
but tbh i've never had that issue with mixamo before
what version are you using?
reef agate
If I copy your struct into header it says value is undefined
warm atlas
warm atlas
the latest verision of ue4
warm atlas
the animation in question is
reef agate
Ok that fixed. I'm in such a lack of understanding though about this cool thing you are suggesting. is FAdaptiveRange just a struct you made it up? Where is this Remap() function even coming from?
molten jewel
i wrote it right here yeah. it will return 0.f until it gets two unique values then it actively divides by the range it gets
warm atlas
also my download settings:
molten jewel
would you upload the fbx?
molten jewel
ideally the one giving you this error.
warm atlas
all
molten jewel
like the same one, you are trying to import
molten jewel
any of these, if you could drop them onto discord
restive yew
What
reef agate
the easiest thing for me to do p@t if you have an idea is to use MapRangeClamped() It does at least half of what I need which is exactly RemapCurve says it does. a ".5f in CurveValues makes 0.51 map to 0.02" isn't that exactly what MapRangedClamp() does?
My only concern is that that ReMap and MapRangedClamp() also reduce max value from my hardware sensor. So if the raw data is 0.1 to 0.9, after I Remap or MapRangeClamped() the mapped data output range would be like 0.0 to 0.8333 or something
i think i'm just wondering how to get that 0.0f on the min value but keep the max value where it originally was before mapping
god i hope that makes a lick of sense
molten jewel
very unfamiliar with remap curve
reef agate
cool. think i'll just have compare both ReMap to MapRangedClamp and see if they're identical : /
molten jewel
this fbx issue isn't a crash so thats good
molten jewel
you are using the mannequin on mixamo.com? @warm atlas
restive yew
You can't create a new skeletal with that asset. Which is why they can't import
molten jewel
Thats kind of what i think too. I just tested it on both 4.24.1 and 4.24.2
molten jewel
Yeah, @warm atlas you need to upload the mannequin or whatever character your using to mixamo. or if your using a mixamo character you have to import that to the project first
restive yew
found it
warm atlas
ok
restive yew
if needs a mesh parented to it for some reason
molten jewel
you got it to import?
restive yew
nvm a crash lol
molten jewel
🍿
restive yew
let me grab logs
molten jewel
maybe its that bug you already found the fix for?
restive yew
wait
molten jewel
ignore what i said for now haha, it sounds like high tide is getting it. i was mistaken i think
warm atlas
Gotcha
molten jewel
time to walk some stacks of calls
warm atlas
Is this unreal issue or is it just that these animations dont work with unreal?
molten jewel
editor shouldn't ever crash
warm atlas
Okay so its unreal issue
molten jewel
with exception of like, running out of memory
restive yew
Here you go if you want to join me in the stack walk
molten jewel
i'd love a stack walk
warm atlas
stack wall?
restive yew
Looks like mixamo
warm atlas
restive yew
it's old and unsupported so I'm not surprise
warm atlas
Alas, where else can I get free animations?
molten jewel
its looking similar
restive yew
there is material on the mesh
molten jewel
your right
this is different.
it does not crash on 4.24.2
it does on 4.24.1, so its probably some additional fix
untitled.fbx
restive yew
that's the issue then?
warm atlas
im on 4.24.2
molten jewel
it wasn't the same issue but they fixed whatever it was
restive yew
Nah I mean for the crash
molten jewel
yeah i opened it up in blender crypto and its definitely not using mannequin bone set
warm atlas
Which means
I have to do that?
Would it be easier to just make the animation myself?
restive yew
you need to parent a mesh to the rig, export it, then import it like so [see picture], keep skeletal mesh as none, then for any future import, you set the New skeletal mesh it created as the skeletal mesh when importing
warm atlas
Umm
molten jewel
Yeah you need some mesh with the same hierarchy in your game if you want to use that animation file
restive yew
you were getting the error because you were using a skeletal mesh that doesn't match
warm atlas
Im downloading blender
molten jewel
so options would be: Download the mixamo character fbx you are using with the animation generated or upload the character fbx to mixamo to regenerate them
you just right click on the mannequin mesh and Asset Actions -> Export to get the fbx that you put on mixamo (iirc)
restive yew
That option will be better for you Crypto. Otherwise, you'll have to manually create vertex weight to the mesh
molten jewel
yeah
molten jewel
sure, or downloading the character either of these
warm atlas
You said uploading was easier
restive yew
I wouldn't call this animation since 99% is done for you 😛
molten jewel
do you want the mixamo character or mannequin? I've asked a few times now haha
warm atlas
I'm sorry, I want the mannequin
restive yew
molten jewel
okay, then yeah you must export the fbx from the mannequin mesh (pink file)
not purple
warm atlas
Mostly because I have someone making me skins
molten jewel
and then you send that to mixamo, create character or whatever, upload stuff.
restive yew
skins doesn't mean texture by the way 😛
restive yew
visual assets
molten jewel
"I have someone making me pretty stuff" is ideal
warm atlas
LOL
restive yew
sparklemen
restive yew
going back to work, no more evil pings please 😛
restive yew
warm atlas
Thank you guys a lot, I appreciate every bit of help 🙂
obsidian current
Hello everyone. I wonder if someone can help me.
I have a problem regarding my stop moving state machine. My character is playing the stop animation only if i try to move (WSAD) while the stop animation would be playing. If i let go the keyboard she just snaps from walk/jog/run to idle, but if i try to move immediately after letting go the keyboard, them it plays the animation.
What is happening? Someone can lay me a hand with this?
warm atlas
Could someone assist me with some animation blueprints? I'm trying to learn the basics for it, just want to add a death animation when my character is supposed to die.
restive yew
Key word to search is Animation Montage
frank flame
Hey all! I'm running into a weird issue when applying physics to my clothing. Some of my capsules affect my cloth and others don't. Anyone know what causes this?
And here it is in action: https://gyazo.com/6c31b52fddb81df2d95ff54935c98658
warm atlas
Okay so I got the unreal engine animations pack
It contains some additional animations for the mannequin, I also started on the sidescroller game so it has some animations already. Apparently this death animation wont play because it has different meshes? Not sure how to fix it tho, the meshes appear to be identical.
heavy needle
you have to retarget them if you have multiple mannequins.
warm atlas
I've been trying that, most of the options are greyed out
Getting no where with this
heavy needle
there are tutorials on youtube that will teach you how to use this.
misty dagger
@warm atlas You need that set, before animation retargeting 🙂 it took me forever to figure that out, it's been a requirement in more recent versions of unreal engine
warm atlas
I'll give it a try
Thank you
2 things
That was needed
I also had to rig both of my skeletons
Then I could see them to retarget the animation
Which plays woooooo
warm atlas
Could anyone tell me how I can edit an animation in Unreal?
amber merlin
@warm atlas i found this recently when I was wondering the same thing it's super old, though, so I dunno how useful it'll be. but maybe it can at least give you a start? https://youtu.be/tS5ljpLBvSU?t=460
jolly osprey
I've recently made a new character and any animations I import are rotated -90 deg on X
setting import rotation to 90 on X fixes it but wondering why this pops up
the skeletal mesh itself is importing fine
warm atlas
Same issue here
torn tendon
Modifiers, export settings, etc. Things to check.
jolly osprey
skel mesh is fine - animation doesn't have extra export settings applied to it. using fbx 2013, tried 2018..2020. changing up axis from Y to Z makes no diff either.
(using maya)
jolly osprey
hmhm?
misty dagger
As far as I know, this is a Z versus Y Up, which is 3DS Max versus Maya. I don't think there is a solution except manually set the import rotation. I always accepted it as a fact of life, I didn't worry too much about it 😄
molten jewel
most characters face y in ref pose. including mannequin. it takes a 90 around z to get it to face forward
jolly osprey
in my youngen days I used to use humanIK as a rig and it's imported fine
molten jewel
X is weird though
warm atlas
I got some animations from mixamo, they work great other than the fact that they have motion. I did force root lock, which stops their motion, however the rotation is off and changing the rotation does nothing.
jolly osprey
welcome to the rot club
warm atlas
Yay
warm atlas
Okay so heres what I'm messing with
molten jewel
don't think there is a fix for this that doesn't involve using constraints in some 3d application
warm atlas
if I go to the hips (whole character) and rotate that
it changes it with force root lock
but that refuses to save
the transform rotation does nothing if root lock is on
molten jewel
hmm @dawn salmon may be able to help you on that one
warm atlas
I'm sure he is asleep at this point
molten jewel
There is a way to adjust animations in editor but I am not knowing of them
haha yeah
warm atlas
Mmm
Sucks because I had just figured out how to set animations and all
So I got my death animation working
then another wall
Well I suppose thats the game design world
molten jewel
you can rotate the root bone in the anim graph
warm atlas
root bone you say?
molten jewel
do you have an anim graph already?
warm atlas
Not sure what you mean
molten jewel
how are you playing the animations in game?
molten jewel
start looking at tutorials then use this node to rotate it until cranz can help you out
warm atlas
Will do
jolly osprey
hmmm
this is on the skel mesh not the anim - wonder why it's set like that
@warm atlas btw that's the rot on the root bone - try changing it
warm atlas
Sadly it does not stay saved
molten jewel
or whatever happened with the scale thing @jolly osprey
yeah was speaking to glass there but
you should probably get into learning anim graph and ignore that rotation for now
jolly osprey
topmost is root
warm atlas
so hips
jolly osprey
Hips in your case
warm atlas
I adjusted that
jolly osprey
that's a lot of bones btw
jolly osprey
wdym no save?
jolly osprey
the skel mesh won't save?
warm atlas
nope
Nothing in here saves, no rotations, nada
My zombie looks like he is running uphill lmao
It's just a normal run
jolly osprey
@molten jewel every single node in there has loc rot 0 and scale 1
I even wrote a MEL script (yuck) that makes sure joints are rotated 0 0 0 and scaled 1 1 1
warm atlas
I think I found it
jolly osprey
I'll move on, not life threatening
warm atlas
This is so jank
jolly osprey
what was it
warm atlas
I cannot edit this
in the Physics
I can edit all others
I'm thinking this is reseting the transform
aka its like a default
warm atlas
Hmm
jolly osprey
I haven't created a physx asset before but now that I did I can't change the rot either
warm atlas
Tbh I'm not sure
jolly osprey
warm atlas
ah i see it
sadly still does not work
It doesn't seem like a mesh issue
It's in the animation
So strange
jolly osprey
molten jewel
what direction do you intend they face?
molten jewel
they don't face upward without rotation?
warm atlas
My fault upward is poor choice of words
1 sec
Without force root
With force root
He is looking up way too much
His shoes aren't even touching the ground
So I need to adjust his rotation but it doesn't work via transform and doesn't save if I adjust the root bone.
molten jewel
i do think this problem is more complicated
you don't have a root bone
the hip is your root bone
molten jewel
so locking it is not good
warm atlas
Yeah.. I know
molten jewel
warm atlas
Hips are technically my root bone now
molten jewel
normally there is another bone above pelvis/hip
warm atlas
Which I see that in the animation
Also Ue4 root bone is normally at the bottom not the middle
molten jewel
were you not able to upload the mannequin to mixamo?
warm atlas
I can but it acts the same way
Also get an error
but this way I get no error
Maybe I should call this one a day and wait for @dawn salmon
@molten jewel Do you think High tide could help?
atomic narwhal
Critique please. Considering using this as a base for animation for a marketplace asset.
dawn salmon
@atomic narwhal #work-in-progress
restive yew
No. The animation is baked when you export it. That being said, there may be a bridge tool to make importing animation updates more streamline.
simple trout
hey guys, i accidently parented something wrong and i realized too late, when i remove the constrain child of the arm gone in wrong positions, is it possible to remove this constrain but animation not being affected
Blender 2.81
hallow elm
sorry for same question again
I use retargeting AnimStartarPack's Motion to MMD model
but she won't look front but diagonally...
how can I fix it?
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/225448446956404738/673155786188521472/dedf7e0194928ad4ca4d7e0eb5c8754e.png
in additon,I make her have weapons but also it's too tilt...
bleak flume
Did you make sure that both skeletal meshes have the same pose before re-targeting
For example (T-Pose and T-Pose)
hallow elm
Yes of course
https://gyazo.com/1166eff633a424c9644af1eddfba4bd5
https://gyazo.com/1ff2fa72f34b447e75759ce1b79b19f9
warm atlas
Still have an issue from last night, more or less importing an fbx from mixamo. When force root is on the animation looks like its off my 20 - 30 degrees. I've tried adjusting the transform but that does nothing and when I adjust the hips(root bone) it will not save. Also the skeleton looks fine, so does the mesh. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
@dawn salmon
Was told you might have an idea
grave forge
Hey guys, I'm trying to understand animation a bit more and got stuck on something strange while trying to apply a skeleton to a new mesh. Toggling animations seems to scale the character....anyone know why? It seems to scale the mesh to the skeleton, instead of the skeleton to the mesh.
heavy needle
you have to import all the animations with the same scale. on import options there is a set uniform scale. in this case you might have imported the mesh as 1 and the animation as 10 uniform scale.
grave forge
Can I still change that after the import @heavy needle ?
Or do I have to start from scratch? With a re-import
heavy needle
I actually dont know, but I dont think so. just delete and reimport it.
grave forge
Alright, thanks! 🙂
heavy needle
lol I think everyone made this mistake once.
@grave forge I think you can here. https://gyazo.com/3c43bae26eaf2e4a4231ecd06fcc8788
on the left side in the animation
but I think you have to hit reimport after making this change
grave forge
Hmm
Import uniform is on 1
Mesh is also on 1
So that's not the issue then?
I do know that they are physically different sizes
Like, when I exported this from blender that rig was originally bigger
(and thus the animations that were generated for that rig expect a bigger skeleton?)
I thought retargeting was supposed to fix this
jolly osprey
I've read somewhere that anim graph nodes get compiled down to something faster than blueprint nodes - are they compiled straight to c++, skipping any sort of bp vm altogether?
that is, if I have anim graph node X would it be 0% faster to refactor it into a native c++ anim proxy, or is there still some non-negligible overhead b/c of anim graph -> c++ impedance?
in other words, does the fast path icon (the lightning bolt) mean that a (blueprint) vm is being skipped altogether?
@grave forge if you're on 2.81 try these settings
hm are you even on blender? where did I get that from?... :D
oh yeah you've mentioned blender
so yeah, also make sure that you've applied transforms in blender prior to export
can mess things up if you didn't
@warm atlas if you're still at it and have blender you might want to look at this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYlonUyPong
it's for an older version of blender but iirc the instructions were sound
warm atlas
Ah yeah, might need to look at that
grave forge
@jolly osprey Wait, which settings panel is this? FBX Export?
(In Blender)
I'm actually using the unreal export plugin in Blender
jolly osprey
yes fbx export
grave forge
Hmm then maybe I have to do that somewhere else, apply the transforms.
I could just do this right?
On the mesh? Or the armature?
jolly osprey
yes
jolly osprey
yes
I'm reading up on anim instances and anim instance proxies and an example epic gives is using public, blueprintreadwrite variables on the anim proxy
but then they're saying In general, the UAnimInstance should not be accessed or mutated from within AnimGraph nodes (Update/Evaluate calls) as these can be run on other threads. There are locking wrappers (GetProxyOnAnyThread and GetProxyOnGameThread ) that prevent access to the FAnimInstanceProxy while tasks are in-flight. The idea is that in the worst case, tasks wait for completion before data is allowed to be read from or written to in the proxy.
and they're also exposing the anim instance proxy as a blueprintreadonly variable
so... what gives?
so basically the only way to get to the proxy is via the anim instance but according to Epic you shouldn't be doing that since stuff might be in-flight
young urchin
I've asked about that before. Is it possible to test ABP events in the editor w/o BP?
grave forge
I applied the transforms @jolly osprey, on the mesh that is
It's now exponentially larger
Like, so big it can't even fit on the screen
Weird stuff...
Hmm. It seems to still be dependent on the animation blueprint I attach to it
Without preview animation/With preview animation
It's an interesting little problem this one 😂
young urchin
open your animation properties, and set the import scale there. then just press reimport
@grave forge ^
grave forge
I tried that just now but couldn't get it to work, I git reset --hard'ed and am now trying again
young urchin
keep in mind, skeleton mesh has scale and animation has scale...those are different things
shut kraken
I've found it's easiest to just set up your shit in Blender such that you have to do no fancy scaling on export or import.
jolly osprey
what's the subtle difference between anim instance proxies' update and evaluate functions?
I get what evaluate is for - to update the anim graph
but why would I want to use update()?
is one or the other not multi-threaded?...
I'm pretty sure update() is, so...
I'm guessing update() is for doing arbitrary multi-threaded work on something other than the anim graph, i.e. doing work for the anim instance (which is never multi-threaded)
whereas evaluate() is the meat of an anim proxy i.e. the update of the anim graph itself
correct me if I'm wrong
grave forge
So I fucked up the rig, but it's indeed smaller with that reimport. Just gotta find the right scale then on the animation.
Weird though that I have to do this. Perhaps because I didn't apply transforms when I initially exported....
If I re-export all the animations, would that help too? So I don't have to set these things to different scales individually.
And thanks @young urchin, @jolly osprey, @heavy needle . You guys were right in the end 😄
naive otter
how can i change an animationspeed in the event graph? eg my character moves x=1.0 speed, moves y = 2.0 speed
x,y are movement speed
jolly osprey
@grave forge also, don't reimport animations too much - delete them and import from scratch since reimporting would sometimes mess the transform up e.g. rotation
grave forge
Yeah, lemme try that indeed.
misty dagger
what is better to animate in, maya or blender
jolly osprey
the fabled thinosaurus
grave forge
Any idea what is happening?
jolly osprey
clearly it's hungry
grave forge
This is an animation that I re-exported of that same skeleton, but after an apply transform
jolly osprey
any chance you have maya?
in case you do, you might want to try exporting everything to maya and just reexporting from there
might fix (some of) your issues
I had to do that for fracture animations b/c blender wouldn't export them right no matter what I did
grave forge
Nope, do not unfortunately
jolly osprey
did you make the mesh & animations in blender?
grave forge
Yeah
I think I'm gonna call it a day. I re-exported the skeletal mesh to fix the issue above, and now the animation doesn't even play anymore:
Every step of the way this is fighting me
That is, the animation that I also re-exported and (re-)imported does not play
jolly osprey
blender 2.81?
grave forge
Yes
grave forge
Another export/re-import
Ghost in the machine I tell you
Now it's scaled properly, animates, but not all the bones are working 😂
grave forge
Hahahha
I think the apply transforms screwed up the animations. It looks weird in blender too now.
Yeah
Applying transform scale to the armature causes the animations to break
That to be expected?
grave forge
Only the armature modifier itself
Seems like I'm screwed and I have to stick to just re-importing the animation at a scale that matches my mesh
jolly osprey
that's old blender
try the blender discord maybe they've fixed it in 2.81
and someone there might know
not sure about your node setup but in maya at least I always put all the joints under a root joint so that I can scale everything up and down
maya 2020 also has something called offset parent matrix that lets you move/rotate/scale individual joints even post-animation so you can create different sized rigs and/or limbs and don't have to redo everything
blender might have something similar who knows
grave forge
I'll make a note of that, thanks! For now I'm just going with the workaround I think, too much of a headache already 😛
Progress!
She's correctly scaled, and is moving again.
jolly osprey
stepped on a bubble gum!
grave forge
The only thing is that the retargeting seems to cause the feet to get all screwey
Yeah, I'm not sure what's causing that. It's fine in Blender
AnimationScaled
Here it works, but that's not the set-up that the retargeting guide gives me
I tried this set-up, which causes the tearing feet.
jolly osprey
why are you retargeting the anim though?
grave forge
jolly osprey
can't imagine it's to the epic skeleton
grave forge
I'm retargeting because I have a bigger and smaller dinosaur
vagrant sapphire
Hey guys. Can you help me? I have a problem with skeleton virtual bones. They cannot be found/disappeared when I test the build.
grave forge
I'm trying to make them re-use the same skeleton
jolly osprey
ah okay
buoyant narwhal
Does anyone know how to make two animations that end and start on the exact same pose not hitch? They shouldnt need blending, right? If i turn off all blending there is a hitch between them.