Importing MetaHuman Animations

Import a MetaHuman animation you bought or captured yourself into Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) to create interactive games and storytelling.

Here are some important MetaHumans workflows:

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• Animating with LiveLink

• Exporting to Unreal Engine 5

There are no default animation files that come with the MetaHuman toolkit, but you can use the mannequin animation files from Unreal Engine with a MetaHuman. This is done by assigning the animation blueprint to the MetaHuman blueprint. This will give you a solid idea of what types of animations work best with MetaHumans.

To create your own custom performance capture (mocap) animation for a MetaHuman character, you have to use Unreal Engine 5.2 (UE) and have space to allocate resources to your MetaHuman project from the UE Project Settings.

Inside UE, search for Caching in the Project Settings search bar, then set the following:

After you’ve imported the animation sequence for the MetaHuman Animation into UE, you’ll playtest the animation in Sequencer to make sure the MetaHuman Animation is synced properly to the skeletal mesh.

When you’re satisfied with the animation, you can prepare the final animation for export by creating an FBX file from the MetaHuman skeletal mesh.

Adding Facial Tracks in Sequencer

MetaHuman animation data is contained in the animation sequence assets. When you import MetaHuman animations into UE, a folder is automatically created in your project that contains all the MetaHuman assets; skeletal mesh, control rig, Animation Blueprint (BP Anim), and any animations connected to the asset.

The Animation Blueprint is a graph in UE that drives all the MetaHuman assets. There are ways of playing animations using a character blueprint, but the Animation Blueprint is the standard and most versatile method. You’ll be using the Animation Blueprint in the UE export process.

In Sequencer, add your Animation Blueprint to the track and bake the animation to the Control Rig, then turn the animation into an FBX file you can export from UE and import into UEFN.

1. Click +Track and select Add actor to Track > your Blueprint (BP) from the Actor dropdown menu. The Blueprint animation contains the MetaHuman skeletal mesh, your animation, and all the capture data of the actor and their movements.

2. Click Track next to the BP and select the Face component. This adds the Face component to the track.

   

3. Right click the new Face component in the track and select Animation > your Animation Sequence created with the MetaHuman Rig. This adds the face animation to the sequence.

   

4. Play your animation in Sequencer to make sure the voice and mouth are synced.

5. Right-click on the Face track and select Bake to Control Rig > Face_ControlBoard_CtrlRig. This bakes the MetaHuman animation to the UE Control Rig.

   

   At any point in your animation you can back-solve to the Control Rig.

6. The Baking Options window opens. Deselect the following options:

   1. Export Transforms

   2. Export Morph

   3. Export Material Curves

   4. Evaluate All Skeletal Mesh Components

   

   These options are preselected when the window opens.

7. Click Create.

This process takes some time to complete. Once the animation finishes baking to the Control Rig, the Animation Outliner opens in Sequencer. Now your animation is ready to be exported.

Preparing for Export

You can migrate assets from UE into UEFN, but in this instance you need to import the animation as an FBX file because the BP animation is not compatible with UEFN. You can convert the BP animation into an FBX from inside Sequencer in UE.

When the file is ready to export from UE, you will use the FBX file to target and graft the MetaHuman animation onto the skeletal mesh of the NPC Spawner.

1. In the Sequencer toolbar, select the Export… option under the Action Menu wrench icon. This opens Windows Explorer.

   

2. Create and name a new folder for your animation, or select a folder you will export the FBX file to.

3. Click Save. The FBX Export Options window opens.

4. Select FBX (most recent year) from the FBX Export Compatibility dropdown menu.

5. Make sure the following options are selected:

   1. Mesh Vertex Color

   2. Level of Detail

   3. Map Skeletal Motion to Root

6. Deselect Export Local Time to export your animation by Master Time. This grabs your animation as one whole asset rather than breaking it up by comparing other shots.

   

7. Click Export.

Your animation file and the MetaHuman skeletal mesh asset have been converted to an FBX file and are now in the designated folder on your computer. Import the animation into UEFN and use with the NPC Spawner device and Character device.

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