Learn how to import animations from Mixamo to our Unreal projects using Autodesk MotionBuilder.
1. Preparation
- Follow steps 1 and 2 from CMU Animation Data. You can skip the 3rd point in step 1 about downloading CMU data. As a result, you should have a
.fbx
file containing the skeletal mesh in T-Pose already characterized.
2. Import the Animation
-
Find an Animation from Mixamo and download it. The Format should be FBX Binary, FPS as high as possible, and select without skin.
-
Open the
.fbx
file with your skeletal mesh from step 1. -
Go to
File --> Motion File Import
and select the.fbx
file downloaded from Mixamo and click onimport
(with option create, not merge). -
In the Navigator under Scene you should now see 2 entries. Right-click on the skeleton corresponding to the animation (will probably be named Hips) and select
Select Branches
, then right-click again and selectZero --> Rotation
-
In the Viewer, you should now see that the skeleton from the animation is now in T-Pose.
-
Use the tools to the right of the Viewer window to adjust the animation skeleton to match with our Unreal character. Usually, it suffices to check if the foot is aligned to the floor. Notice how the foot bone of our Unreal character does not match the ground because of the shoe mesh. Therefore, the foot bone of the animation skeleton is lower than the bone from the Unreal character.

-
In the
Character Controls
window selectDefine --> Skeleton
. This will create a new Character. -
In the
Navigator
select theCharacter Definition
Tab and drag and drop the animation skeleton from Scene toBase
in theCharacter Definition
Tab (Make sure the whole skeleton is selected). It should automatically match all bones. -
In the Character Controls now select the Unreal character as
Character
and the animation character we just created assource
and follow step 4 from CMU Animation Data.
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