Fully Rigged Characters

[MagnumAI]

I have several fully rigged characters that I would like to export and use in UDK.

I have started to read the documentation but wanted to ask if anyone has successfully taken a fully rigged character and simply exported to UDK with success - understanding of course I need to do more in the UDK side. I just don't want to have the mode reskinned as that is not really my best area.

[Denny]

It isn't exactly rocket science to get characters into UDK. It all depends on what 3d application you're using.

[MagnumAI]

It isn't exactly rocket science to get characters into UDK. It all depends on what 3d application you're using.

I have been following several of your posts. In the future you need not respond to my posts, I find them non-productive and more sarcastic than helpful.

[Denny]

Edit*

I'm sorry if I'm coming off rude. To be honest though I was actually expecting an answer on what application you're using, which is fundamental information to give you a proper answer to the question. Not only that but you're not even clear on what you really want help with. Yes, several of us have got characters into UDK, but what is it that you need help with?

[syntaxerror22]

Hiya magnum, I'm fairly new to UE3 but I have worked with ActorX before. I can assure you that a fully rigged character WILL work with the UDK. You should not need to reskin unless you used something ActorX does not recognize (VERY unlikely). There are some great video tutorials on the UDN here:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Video....html#Skeletal Mesh Pipeline - Using UDK
Once I get my 3d studio max back up and running I will run thru these myself. Just let me know what 3d program you have your models in and i can point you in the right direction.

-Sylvia

[MagnumAI]

Hiya magnum, I'm fairly new to UE3 but I have worked with ActorX before. I can assure you that a fully rigged character WILL work with the UDK. You should not need to reskin unless you used something ActorX does not recognize (VERY unlikely). There are some great video tutorials on the UDN here:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Video....html#Skeletal Mesh Pipeline - Using UDK
Once I get my 3d studio max back up and running I will run thru these myself. Just let me know what 3d program you have your models in and i can point you in the right direction.

-Sylvia

Thanks that is the info I was looking for. I prefer XSI, but have found recently that plugins are not coming as fast as they used to, as evident by no 7.5 plugin yet. So probably will be rigging in Max. Not a large fan of Maya.
The models are in Max and exported to Collada. Using Max I can avoid having to rig again.

@Denny,

No problem.. just having a bad day Not related to UDK though.

Most of the videos are good. But I am really looking for lessons learned from others and major things I should avoid - the no-nos.

You can read my reply above as well. I will probably go with Max but I really prefer to rig in XSI - not that I am that great at that (programmer and 3D combination background).

So no real issues, which I apologize if my post was not well written, was more or less looking for major issues to avoid.

For example, the scale is not the same between the game engines so my model is very, very tiny in UDK compared to existing content. So I can see scales can be an issue.

[Denny]

Although it's convenient to do things at the right scale I don't think it should be that much of a problem to just make the skeletal mesh bigger in Unreal. What are you going to use the characters for? For example, is this like an FPS where the characters will go ragdolls and such?

If you don't have any animations done for the characters I recommend you try to rescale the rig back and forth until you find the right scale relation between Unreal and XSI/Max. It's usually a one time setup and it's worth the time, you usually only need one joint and rescale the mesh until it's fine, then you fix the real rig to be the new scale.

[MagnumAI]

Although it's convenient to do things at the right scale I don't think it should be that much of a problem to just make the skeletal mesh bigger in Unreal. What are you going to use the characters for? For example, is this like an FPS where the characters will go ragdolls and such?

If you don't have any animations done for the characters I recommend you try to rescale the rig back and forth until you find the right scale relation between Unreal and XSI/Max. It's usually a one time setup and it's worth the time, you usually only need one joint and rescale the mesh until it's fine, then you fix the real rig to be the new scale.

Thanks, I think that is what I will do I have the OBJ files fro the high/low res so I can use that to get the scale. I think there is a way to transfer my rig as well once the model is scaled up.

Yes, this is actually a COOP FPS game so will need to animated the arms/hands as well. But not sure there is really an impact on just using the whole player with the new systems - would be worth trying both ways.

[Denny]

Good luck with getting it working.

[Deranged]

Yea a lot of people are intimidated by making a new anim set and the minor scripting involved but, once you get passed that and get the work flow down you will be unstoppable.

[MagnumAI]

I don't think I would say it's any more intimidating than other engines, it's the fact of trying to develop assets for two different engines at the same time for evaluation. I don't want to redo a lot of stuff just for UDK if I find later that the lack of source code is a limiting factor.

For now already have the model imported to UDK and animated, just need to setup in a level and see how that goes