Please note: the video is to help with understanding the written instructions I put together, below. Please excuse the lack of narration.
Prerequisites:
These instructions assume you own and are familiar with at least the basic operation of Character Creator 3/4 (CC3/4), iClone 7/8, Marvelous Designer (MD), and Unreal Engine (UE) (version 4.27 used here)
In UE, you will need to enable the Geometry Cache from Alembic File (experimental) plugin
Prior to beginning the video, I launched MD and created a garment, launched iClone 8, CC4, and a blank UE project. I then sent a CC4 character to iClone
Written Instructions:
00:00 - select the CC3/4 character in iClone. Scrub the timeline to zero and go to Content, Template, click the Item tab, go to Animation, Pose, Calibration, choose the A-pose and double-click to load it onto the character. Move the timeline to 10 and add a Motion. Drag the transition from the end of the motion clip to blend it with the pose. Go to Edit, Project Settings, and under Time Unit in the popup, set the FPS to 30, and then type the number of the last frame in your animation in the End Frames box
01:40 - export the character as an .fbx (settings: Target Tool Preset: Maya, FPS: Project(30), Range from 0 to end of animation, check the boxes for Embed Textures and Max Texture Size, and set your preferred texture size). Click Export and save the file
02:30 - in MD, import the .fbx (settings: File, Import, FBX, tick the Animation and Automatically Add Arrangement Points boxes, and for scale, use cm (DAZ Studio). Create, or open and fit a garment to the character, texture it, and set up its uv coordinates (I did this prior to beginning the video instruction). Select the pattern pieces that will be animated and under Simulation Properties, set the particle distance to around 10 (smaller for tiny pattern pieces)
02:40 - click the triangle at the bottom of the screen to unhide the Animation Editor. In the quick menu to the right, set the start/stop times to the same as the animation length, and then set FPS to 30. In the main Animation Editor toolbar, set the Simulation Quality to Animation (Stable), and press the Record button (target button to the very left). Once simulated to your satisfaction, export the clothing from MD (settings: File, Export, Alembic (OGAWA), Weld, Thin, Unified UV Coordinates, Scale (DAZ Studio), Entire Region
00:00 - in UE, in the Content panel, create a folder and name it (Alembic). Open the folder, right-click on the background and choose Import Asset, navigate to the Alembic clothing file and double-click. In the Import Options box, under Alembic, Import Type, choose Geometry Cache (Experimental). Uncheck the Flatten Tracks box, and check the boxes for Create Materials and Find Materials. Conversion Preset should be Autodesk Maya. Click Import. Note: there won’t be materials; we’ll fix that in a later step
04:42 - in UE, in the Content panel, create and name a folder (FBX) and then right-click on the background, choose Import Asset, and navigate to the .fbx character file you exported from iClone. In the options box, click the Reset to Default button, and then check the box for Import Animations (note: in the dropdown, Exported Time should work, but for me it brings in a shortened animation. I recommend choosing Set Range and entering the length of your animation instead)
06:42 - from the Content panel, drag/drop the character’s skeletal mesh and the clothing Alembic Geometry Cache into the scene. To align them, select the character and then in the Details panel, hover over Location, right-click, and choose Copy. Select the clothing, right-click Location, right and Paste. Rotate with the gizmo set to 90-degree snap. Note: the character and clothing may not match up properly until the animation is added
07:26 - In the Content panel, in your clothing folder, right-click on the background, and import the materials that were exported. Select the diffuse file, right-click, choose Create Material, and name it. Double-click your new material and then drag the remaining materials next to the material node and plug them into the respective connectors. Save and close. In the World Outliner, select the clothing, and drag/drop the material into the slot in the Details panel
09:05 - Click on Cinematics and add or open a Sequence. In Sequencer, click the green +Track and find the character to add it to the timeline. Down-click the track to reveal the Animation and Transform tracks. Click on +Animation and find the character’s animation sequence. Click the green +Track again and add the clothing. Hover over this track, click the smaller, grey +Track, and choose Geometry Cache Component. Hover over the Geometry Cache Component track, click the small grey +Track again, and click on Geometry Cache to add the clothing animation
10:05 - Press Play!
16 июл 2024
