3D Character Creation for the Unreal Game Engine Using Adobe Fuse

Transcription

1 3D Character Creation for the Unreal Game Engine Using Adobe Fuse Developed by: Gaming Research Integration for Learning Laboratory (GRILL ) DISTRIBUTION A: Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. Approval given by 88 ABW/PA, 88ABW , 14 Nov 2016

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents... 2 Introduction... 3 Character Creation... 3 Importing to Unreal Engine Creating a Copy of an Animation For Another Character Character Creation 2

3 INTRODUCTION The following guide outlines the processes required to create a fully customized character model using Adobe s Fuse App and how to add rigging and animations to the character model using Mixamo. Importing this character model with rigging and animation into Unreal Engine 4 will also be covered as well as how to share animations between character models using the same rigging skeletons. CHARACTER CREATION 1. Open Adobe Fuse by either clicking the app directly, or opening the Adobe Creative Cloud app, selecting Apps, and opening the Fuse App. This app is available online for free through the Adobe website ( Make an account and download the Adobe Creative Cloud, then download the Fuse app. (Fuse is a large file and may take a long time to download.) Make an account for the Mixamo website (mixamo.com) as well and download the Unreal Engine ( 2. Begin in the Assemble tab, select the head of the character being created. Click the tabs on the right to see different parts of the body. They have names that will help to Character Creation 3

4 complete them with their other parts, or the parts can be mixed and matched. To add clothing or be able to export the character, the character requires all 4 body parts. 3. Using the mouse, left click allows the character to be moved around in all directions to view it from different angles. A right mouse click while moving the mouse up and down or while scrolling will zoom in and out of the character. Clicking the scroll wheel down and moving the mouse changes the location from which the character is viewed. 4. Once the parts are assembled, move the cursor over the different body parts, click, and drag to adjust the size and placement. For more precise changes, select the Customize tab. On the right side, it shows different tabs that can be opened to show more specific areas of customization as well as a sliding bar and a numeric field that can be used to more precisely make changes to the character. Clicking on different places on the character will automatically open the location of that feature with its slide bar and numeric field. In each section, there is an option to randomize all features, as well as an option to randomize all tabs at the bottom of the list. Character Creation 4

5 5. Once the character is customized to the desired specifications, clothing can be added to the character under the Clothing tab. Included under this tab are menus for Tops, Bottoms, Shoes, and more. Only one item is allowed to be selected from each menu. Hair, including facial hair, is found under the Clothing tab as well. If the character s body clips through the clothing, it s likely the program doesn t notice the dimensions of the actual body. To fix this, hover the cursor over where the clipping occurs, click, and drag the dimensions around. When the click is released, the garment will shift to account for the change in dimensions. Another, more precise, way to correct for clipping is to go under the Customize tab and change the dimensions of the character s specific parts with the slider bar or numerical field to fit within the clothing. (For example, if the collarbone is too high, it will clip through the collar of the shirt.) The program recognizes large discrepancies in the way the clothes cover the character, but smaller ones get missed sometimes, leading to clipping. Character Creation 5

6 6. Under the Texture tab is where all customization to the clothing and hair that was previously applied to the character as well as the character s actual skin occurs. Selecting the body of the character allows for changing the skin tone and age, applying makeup and sun effects, and changing the teeth, eyes, facial hair, detail, roughness, and metallness. Under the Facial Hair tab, the Buzzed Hair and the stubble that appears on some male character s faces that comes with the character head can be removed, as it doesn t automatically disappear when a new hairstyle from the Clothing tab is selected. 7. Any article of clothing under the Clothing tab can have its properties changed, each with varying amounts of customizable properties. All items have the option to change its wear, allowing for a more ragged look as well as an option to make them dirty. In addition, all of the clothing items allow for the color and material it s made of to be altered, offering more customizability despite limited clothing choices. Character Creation 6

7 8. Once the character creation is completed, click the Save to Mixamo button in the top right to name the character. After saving and naming, it will automatically export to Mixamo for auto-rigging, where bones will be automatically be fitted to the character model so that it can be animated. Manually rigging the character model is possible, but Mixamo auto-rigging is much less time-intensive and creates a well-rigged character model. The Mixamo site will automatically open and within a minute or so, the character will populate in the viewport with an idle animation, showing that the skeleton was created successfully. Character Creation 7

8 The visual fidelity of the hair may seem poor but this is only due to Mixamo and will be corrected later. Also note that some things, like hair color, look different from one application to the next. Going back to Fuse, tweaking the color of something, and exporting it again may be required to get the desired results. If the export/import has failed, some materials may import with no color or appear very shiny or reflective. The viewport might also populate with a message that the import failed. In all of these cases, refreshing the page could work, however when this does not solve the problem, the export process can be redone in Fuse. (The Mixamo site has also proven to be quite slow and unresponsive later in the process. If something isn t working right or taking a long time to process, simply refresh the page.) There is an option to enable Facial Blendshapes (if facial animation is desired) and Skeleton LOD (Level of Detail) (i.e. details in hands and fingers). Once the appropriate options are selected, click Finish. To animate the skeleton immediately, on the next page click Animate ; to keep it in the standard T-Pose, click View in My Assets. The character can be animated at any time as long as it remains available on the Mixamo account that was used to log in. When animating, a webpage with 52 pages of animations to choose from will pop up. Character Creation 8

9 There are poses, idle animations, and action animations to select from. Some animations require multiple parts to appear smooth in the engine. For example to make a character appear to run, an idle, idle to run, run, and run to idle animations would be needed. The smoother the animation, the more parts are needed. (Some animations can be split up to give more control over how they look or how the character acts. For example: some jump animations are split into three separate animations [Begin Jump, Hover, End Jump] so that the character looks normal jumping short and long distances.) Each animation has options for customization on the right of the viewport. 9. When a desired animation is achieved, simply click + Add To Pack. This will create a pack, default named In-Progress. (It can be renamed to better suit the animation.) Character Creation 9

10 Select another animation to add and click + Add To Pack. Continue adding them until all the animations are added. Directly above the pack is an orange button that says Add To My Assets ; click this when finished adding animations to the pack. Under the My Assets tab, all of the characters, animations, and downloads that were saved can be accessed. Click on an asset to export, and click Queue Download. Download the created character as well as the animations that were chosen for them separately. The character is under the My Characters tab and the animation pack will be under My Animations. Format should be compatible with whatever engine you re using. For Unreal Engine, there is a specific FBX for Unreal Engine 4 (.Fbx) option. FBX and FBX For Unity are separate file types not to be confused with each other. Leave the pose as T-Pose. Click Queue Download to be brought to the downloads page. Character Creation 10

11 Once ready, click Download in the Status tab. Mixamo will ask what to do with the file (save, save as, etc.), so proceed appropriately. The file will finish downloading and then prompt to open the compressed folder that it is in. Extract the contents to the appropriate location. This can be done by either clicking Extract at the top of the window that pops up and then Extract all, or the files can be manually highlighted and copied to the desired location. Character Creation 11

12 Take note of where the files are extracted to because they ll need to be found when importing them into the game engine. Exit the file explorer, Mixamo site, and Fuse app. Character Creation 12

13 IMPORTING TO UNREAL ENGINE 1. Open Epic Games Launcher and launch Unreal Engine. If not already done, a project will need to be created for the characters to exist in. There are many pre-made projects, or one can be started from a blank default. 2. In the content browser (at the bottom), click Import to bring the creation into the engine. If importing multiple characters, use folders to keep them separate. This makes it easier to navigate the content, but will also keep the characters from using materials from other characters (skin, clothes, etc.). Example of file structure: Content > Characters (file) > Character1 (file) > (import.fbx here) 3. Upon clicking Import, find the.fbx file for the character and any animations to import with it and open it. A pop-up will appear giving options for the import(s). With the actual character, if a skeletal mesh exists that has already been animated and works with the character, find the skeleton in the drop down menu. If planning on manually animating the character, leave the field blank so the engine will create a new skeletal mesh for the character. More advanced options exist to be adjusted and changed but the defaults will most likely be fine for the purpose of this process. Click import to finish the process. Character Creation 13

14 If importing animations as well, another pop up will appear with the name of the animation file. Under the Mesh tab, unselect Import Mesh to import it as animation only. Then in the Skeleton drop-down menu, select the skeleton of the character to be used with the animation. Character Creation 14

15 Another pop-up might appear saying that some bones are missing from the bind pose; close the message log and ignore it. Importing the character and the animations together is not required, so Mixamo can be used at any time to download new animations for the character and import them. 4. Imported characters usually have their materials switched to translucent instead of opaque, causing strange appearances. Find the character in the content browser (it will be named the same name and have a thumbnail of the character) and double click it. Character Creation 15

16 Wait for the shaders to compile (there will be a small window in the bottom right of the screen that says, Compiling Shaders ). If they aren t already compiled, strange appearances in the character model are common. To fix this, double-click on the Bodymat thumbnail on the left of the viewport. This will open the material tab. Character Creation 16

17 On the left, under the viewport are tabs to change the material properties. Under the actual Material tab, there is a Blend Mode option, likely set to Translucent. By either clicking the little yellow arrow next to it or by selecting it in the drop-down menu, change the mode to Opaque. At the top of the window, click Apply and then Save. Sometimes clicking save before applying will cause the engine to freeze. If the eyelashes on the character are too harsh, it s likely the opposite problem. Double-click the Bodymat_eyelashes thumbnail and change the Blend Mode option from Opaque to Translucent. Don t forget to Apply and Save. Character Creation 17

18 If the character isn t casting a shadow in certain places (i.e. where the clothes are), it s because the blend mode for the clothing is set to Translucent. The eyewear ( Eyewearmat ) might also not be visible. Open the material tabs ( Eyewearmat, Hatmat, Topmat, Bottommat, etc.) and switch the blend mode from Translucent to Opaque. Once finished with the materials, click Save and close the window, returning to the main screen. 5. Click and drag the character into the project. It will still be in T-Pose and won t do anything until animated. Character Creation 18

19 To help those without prior experience with animating and game engines, Unreal provides a YouTube channel with a number of tutorials. Below is a link to the YouTube channel: Search for one of the tutorials and watch it from start to finish to learn how the coding works and how all the different files work together to animate the characters. Character Creation 19

20 CREATING A COPY OF AN ANIMATION FOR ANOTHER CHARACTER Animations can be shared between characters without going back to Mixamo and creating new assets for a character. As long as the characters have the same skeleton, the animation can be retargeted to another character. Double-click on the animation. A window will pop up. Find the tab called Asset Browser in the bottom right. Locate the animation to be used with the other character, right click it, and click (at the bottom) Create a copy for another Skeleton. A window called Select Skeleton will appear. Options for skeletons won t appear until Show Only Compatible Skeletons is deselected under Retarget Options under the [Source] viewport. If there are options for retargeting, they will appear under the Select Skeleton tab on the left of the window. Click whichever option is ideal and then click the Retarget button directly below. It will immediately create another asset of the animation on the second character s mesh and open a window to view the asset. Character Creation 20

21 Character Creation 21