Applying Character Blueprint

If you have created a character in Unreal and you want to animate it quickly, then you can apply a character blueprint to it for receiving iClone motion data.

Export Character from Unreal

  1. Apply a character in Unreal.
  2. Find the skeletal mesh (highlighted in magenta) of the character in the Content Browser.
  3. Right click on the file, execute the Asset Actions >> Export ... command.
  4. Name the file and set the format as FBX.
  5. Choose the Fbx Export Compatibility in the Exporter section to the versions from 2012 to 2018 (2013, by default).
    ClosedNote:

    Deactivate the Level Of Detail and Collision because they are irrelevant to this topic.

  6. Click the Export button to export the character.

Convert to iAvatar with Character Creator (CC)

  1. Drag and drop the FBX file into CC
  2. Click the Character button.
  3. Choose the Humanoid option and click the Apply button.
  4. Choose "Unreal_BaseCharacter" from the Profile detected for auto-converstion drop-down list and click the OK button to start characterization.
  5.  The character will become a CC humanoid character.
    ClosedNote:

    The texture and material settings are irrelevant to this topic.

  6. Pressing the iC button in the toolbar.

Animate Unreal Character with iClone Motion Systems

  1. In iClone, the character is auto-imported.
  2. Go back to Unreal, select the character in the scene and click the iClone Live Link button in the toolbar. Choose the Apply Blueprint to Selected Character(s) from the drop-down menu.
  3. Set the custom character's Subject Name in the Live Link section of the Detail panel the same as the one in iClone.

    Keep in mind that the Subject Name must be identical to the one you find in the Live Link panel instead of the one in iClone because the name can be modified occasionally and listed in the Subject Name section.
  4. Connect iClone and Unreal with Live Link plug-in.
  5. Go to iClone and start to animate the character. As you see the character assigned with the same name in Unreal will be animated as well.