The process for setting up a ShotGrid project to work with Unreal Engine 4 is similar to the process for other applications in your content pipeline, such as Autodesk Maya or 3ds Max, or the Foundry's Nuke. You'll configure your ShotGrid project to use a toolkit engine: a collection of tools and scripts that are designed to make your ShotGrid project aware of Unreal Engine, and that integrate ShotGrid tools and workflows into the Unreal Editor interface.
The configuration outlined on this page only has to be done once for each ShotGrid project that you want to use with Unreal Engine. It is typically done by a ShotGrid administrator. If you've already set up ShotGrid projects and configured them to integrate with other content creation tools, this process should be familiar to you. If not, see the following resources:
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The Integrations User Guide gives a high-level overview of how to get started with ShotGrid integrations.
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The Integrations Admin Guide describes more about pipeline configurations.
Before you Start
We recommend using the project configuration set up for you in the tk-config-unreal repository on GitHub. This configuration extends the basic ShotGrid toolkit config with the elements that make up the Unreal integration.
- In order to use this configuration from GitHub, you'll need to have Git installed on your computer. If you don't already have Git installed, download it here.
1 - Adding the Unreal Engine Software to ShotGrid
In this step, you'll add the Unreal Engine integration as a new Software for your organization.
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Log in to your organization's ShotGrid URL in a Web browser. Then, from the user menu, select Software.
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On the Software page, click the + Software button.
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Set the Software Name to Unreal Engine, and set the Engine to tk-unreal.
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Click Create Software.
When you return to the Software page, you should see a new entry in the list for Unreal Engine.
End Result
ShotGrid is now aware of the Unreal Engine integration, and you'll be able to follow the steps in the next section to make any of your organization's ShotGrid projects work with the Unreal Editor.
2 - Setting up the ShotGrid Project
In this step, you'll get one of your existing ShotGrid projects set up to use the Unreal Engine integration.
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Open the ShotGrid Desktop application, and choose the project you want to use with Unreal Engine from the Projects page.
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Click your user picture, and select Advanced project setup... from the menu.
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Select the Git configuration option and click Continue.
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Paste in the URL of the Unreal config repository:
https://github.com/ue4plugins/tk-config-unreal.git
and click Continue. -
Follow the rest of the prompts in the ShotGrid Set Up Project Wizard to set up a shared storage location for your ShotGrid project and set a location for your pipeline configuration.
End Result
When the project setup is complete, ShotGrid Desktop should scan your computer for installations of Unreal Engine and list them on the Apps page for your project:
If you launch Unreal from one of these shortcuts, and open an Unreal Engine Project that has the ShotGrid plugin enabled, you'll be able to use the ShotGrid integration as described on the Using Unreal Engine with Autodesk ShotGrid page.
Next Steps
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For more about how you can extend the toolkit configuration for your project, see Beyond Your First Project.
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For more about how to manage project configurations in ShotGrid, see Configuration staging and rollout.
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To see how the Unreal project configuration is set up, see the tk-config-unreal repository.
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To explore the implementation of the Unreal toolkit engine, including the Python hooks it uses and exposes, see the tk-unreal repository.