Blender Next - custom Blender build for Unreal Engine FBX Epic Skeleton

What is fixed. Everything without addons. Only standart tools:

  1. FBX armature display for Unreal Engine 4 and 5 Epic Skeleton.
  2. FBX armature custom bone creation with any orientation. Use Extrude Disconnected in Edit Mode.
  3. FBX exporter (structure and compability with Autodesk applications)
  4. Symmetry for FBX armatures in Pose and Edit Mode and Symmetrize command for Epic Skeleton.
  5. Armature and 3D animation scaling.
  6. Mesh scaling.
  7. Animation retarget.
  8. Unit system. Now 1 unit = 1 cm.
  9. High precision skin weights start from bone head (Armature Deform > With Automatic Weights)
  10. Inverse Kinematics constraint and Auto IK for disconnected FBX bones.
  11. Control Rig can be generated automatically in Unreal Engine from Blender Next FBX Epic Skeleton. Just replace mesh in standart Control Rig folder in Unreal Engine.
  12. Sockets. Empty objects with SOCKET_ prefix will be exported as sockets for Unreal Engine Static Meshes. For skeletal meshes sockets can be exported too, but Unreal Engine doesn’t support importing them. It handle them like bones with empty weights.

How to use?

  1. Export FBX mesh file with Epic Skeleton from Unreal Engine 5 or 4
  2. Import it to Blender Next via FBX importer.
  3. In Object Data Properties Viewport Display tab enable In Front and Axes checkboxes.
  4. Start tweaking your skeleton in symmetry mode via standart tools to your character.
  5. Add extra bones to skeleton via Extrude Disconnected command.
  6. Parent your skeleton to character via Armature Deform > With Automatic Weights command
  7. Tweak weights. Select your mesh and skeleton and export it via FBX
  8. Import FBX file to Unreal Engine. Choose SK_Mannequin skeleton on import. Done.

Limitations:

  1. Rigify is not supported.
  2. Rigging addons not supported.
  3. Many addons for modelling not supported (during to wrong standart scale 1 unit = 1 m)
  4. Hair and Geometry Nodes not tested

Build in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTUFsjhkCew
For more information please check extra videos from my YouTube channel.

How you can get this build?
This build is available for download now for free only for Windows from my GitHub page releases section: https://github.com/LuffyTheFox/Blender-Next-for-Unreal-Engine/releases

3 Likes