Blender and UDK skeletal mesh

[VolitionGames]

Hello Forum this is my first thread. I downloaded the blender skeleton UT3SimpleRig.blend file and attached my character to it (weight paints and all) and I finally was able to import my character into the UDK editor with no problems like distortion or anything wierd going on. The only problem is that in order to get my character to work I had to import in all the parts seperately. For example: torso, head, arms, boots, legs, ect. Now that I have them all imported in how do I "put" them together? Thanks in advance :)

[UnrealEverything]

lol... Could have posted here :p

So now for everyone:
I don't know if it is possible to merge them into a single mesh inside the UDK editor (don't think so). I always import characters as a single mesh without any problems.
You could script something like "character customization" similar to UT3's. I don't really know how they did that, so don't ask me . But if I needed a similar system, I would create a basic mesh, add a bunch of sockets in the editor and attach everything I need (via script) in addition to the basemesh.

[andrea_at]

Dear VolitionGames,

Im also working with a custom character made in Blender, im using the UT3SimpleRig.blend skeleton also, but i didnt know i could paste the weight paints into my character too, how did u do that? I really want to know how!!! Because im tired of trying to do it by myself, and when i animate the character in blender the movements are ok, but when i import the character into UDK i got distortions.

At first i made my character into 5 parts, as i didnt know how to put all the parts into UDK, i decided to merge all the parts in order to have one single mesh.

However, i searched for tutorials about how to put the parts into UDK, i can add the links in here, if u continue with the idea of importing the character into different parts:

http://code.google.com/p/steam-punk-pirates-mod/wiki/CustomCharacter

http://robertglosser.com/doc/Exporting%20Maya%20to%20UT3.pdf

Hope it could help u... And im waiting for your answer too... Bye!

Andrea

[Linfosoma]

You need to put the characters together before exporting.
If you are planning in adding the option to customize your characters, then I would import those parts as static meshes and attach them using sockets (the same way you would attach weapons to them basically).

Hope that helps.

@ Andrea: What kind of distortions are you getting? Would you mind posting a picture of it?

[UnrealEverything]

@Andrea: I am not sure which kind of distortion you mean but make sure every bone has the same size in blender. If you are using the unmodified UT3SimpleRig.blend file the Root bone is three times as big as the other ones so you have to scale that one down!
Lol already posted that in a thread started by yourself ;) Link (http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=717679)

[r3AdY!]

Hey guys,

finally the first time for me to post here =)

well i just downloaded the UT3SimpleRig.blend-file and exported it propably into the UDK. But when i checked all the animations with it I noticed a little rigging bug at the two thumbs of it.

maybee you can spot it too. I catched it with the "Taunt_UB_BulletToTheHead" animation.

any suggestions how to fix it?

I tried it by clearing the roll of the thumb bones in the Editing-Mode but it doesn't fix anything =/

[Musabi]

Where can I download that .blender file? I'm interested in importing custom character meshes as well.

[Naphier]

Hello everyone.
I'm working on a project where we need to use blender to create the models.
I've successfully imported a skeletal mesh using the bones from the Steam Punk tutorial (after creating a new, correctly sized b_Root).
The character is now in the game without any unwanted transformations.
Yay!
But.... now he seems to have no animation set.
I didn't have to do anything extra to set up the animation set on my other attempts where the mesh was getting transformed in unwanted ways.

Any ideas what might be up? I see some of you have experience with this.
Let me know what other info you need.
Essentially we've modified the scripts to use this skeletal mesh as the character, and I've imported the skeletal mesh into the content browser, plus I added the weapon and JB sockets. I did not add any material instance.

Any help is welcome.
Thanks!

[MVGS]

Have you imported the PSA in an AnimSet yet?

[Naphier]

Forgot I put this out there. I fixed the issue. Not sure what it was, but after detaching the b_Root and duplicating one of the other bones then setting it up as b_Root the whole rig works just fine.
@MVGS - thanks for the attempt at helping, but the rig uses UDK's default character animations, so no need to import anything.

Now I'm just trying to learn to do a better job making my own animations in Blender since I'll have to create completely new ones for our project anyway.
Off to work! (sure wish there was a good written tutorial on Blender character rigging - all these video tutorials take too long and it's a pain to take notes :p)