How to Locate Reference Folder for Art With Maya

In this How-to, we utilise the Live Link Plugin to connect Unreal Engine four (UE4) to Maya, which enables united states of america to control our Skeletal Mesh and animations within Maya while live previewing them on a rendered Skeletal Mesh in UE4 in existent-fourth dimension.

Using the Live Link Plugin tin can speed upwardly your animation workflow as you no longer need to export your content and import information technology into UE4 to encounter how it looks. You tin at present work directly inside Maya, and through Live Link, preview what it will look similar within the Engine in real-fourth dimension.  In this How-to, nosotros go through the procedure of getting Alive Link gear up for Maya, and control a Skeletal Mesh animation in Maya while previewing it in UE4.

For this guide we are using the Blueprint Third Person Template Project and Maya 2017.

Alive Link works with other versions of Maya and other DDC tools. For more information, delight refer to the Live Link Plugin documentation pages.

one - Enabling the Live Link Plugin

1. Inside your project, from the Menu Bar nether Edit, select Plugins.

   

2. Under the Animation section, click Enabled for Live Link, and Yes on the confirmation window, then restart the Editor.

   

   This will enable the Alive Link plugin, which can be used to connect to external DDC tools. In order for your DDC tool to connect to UE4, yous will demand to enable the respective plugin. For this How-to, we are focusing on Maya, and need to enable the plugin inside Maya.

3. Download the MayaLiveLink Code Plugin files from the Unreal Engine Market place.

   

   Unless y'all've tweaked your install locations, these files will likely exist installed to: C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.25\Engine\Plugins\Marketplace\MayaLiveLink.

4. Copy the binder for your version of Maya, then navigation to your Maya installation folder, and paste information technology in the plug-ins folder.

   

   There are pre-built binaries for Maya versions 2016-2019, for this guide we are using Maya 2017.

In the next stride, nosotros will enable the Alive Link plugin inside of Maya, and open up the Maya Live Link UI window. This enables you lot to see the connection status to a running version of the UE4 Editor.

2 - Enabling Maya Live Link

1. Open Maya, then under Windows and Settings/Preferences, select Plug-in Manager.

   

2. Click the Browse button, and and then navigate to the copied MayaLiveLink folder, so add the .mll file.

   

3. Echo the previous step and add the .py file from the Plug-in Director.

   

   One time added, you will see the plugins within the Plug-in Manager as Loaded.

4. In the MEL panel in the lower-left of Maya, enter MayaLiveLinkUI then press Enter.

   

   The MEL panel control is case-sensitive, then y'all will need to enter information technology equally specified in the step above.

   This will open up the Maya Live Link UI Connection Condition window.

   

   In the upper-right of the window, the connexion status is displayed to indicate if you are connected to a running version of the UE4 Editor. You tin employ the lower window to proper name and add/remove Subjects that you wish to stream to UE4, which we will practise later in this guide.

For now, we are not continued, notwithstanding in the side by side step we will establish a connection to UE4. We volition too export an animation asset and Skeletal Mesh that we tin can apply to work with in Maya, and so add it every bit a Subject field to stream back to UE4 for live previewing.

3 - Establishing a Connection to UE4

1. In Maya, select an object (i.east. a cube, sphere, etc.) and select "Add Selection in Maya Live Link UI." This volition assist UE recognize the newly enabled plug in.

2. Inside the UE4 Editor, from the Menu Bar nether Window, select Alive Link.

   

3. In the Live Link window, click the Source button, and then under Message Charabanc Source, select your Maya Live Link source and click Ok.

   

   If you render to Maya, the Maya Alive Link Connectedness Condition window will update to reflect the new connection status.

   

   Now that nosotros are connected, we need a Subject to preview and test the connectedness.

4. Inside UE4, in the Content/Mannequin/Animations folder, open the ThirdPersonRun asset.

5. From the Toolbar, click Export Asset and select Preview Mesh.

   

6. Select Yes to consign the Skeletal Mesh, enable Export Preview Mesh, choose an export location, and then select Export at the FBX Consign Options window.

   

7. Inside Maya, nether File select Import, and import the FBX asset from the previous step.

   

8. Switch to Animation mode, and then select the Root bone for the character.

   

9. In the Maya Live Link UI window, click the Add together Selecton button.

   

   This will add the selection (or selections) every bit the Discipline to stream to UE4.

   

   The plugin knows that this is a joint hierarchy and labels the Subject field every bit a Character. The name Root is the proper noun of the Subject which you tin modify in the text entry box. This name will be the Bailiwick proper noun reflected inside UE4. By default, the Stream Type will be set based on the blazon data being streamed. Y'all can alter this to stream over the information you want inside the Stream Blazon setting.

If you have more than 1 Network Adapater in your machine and want to specify which ane to recieve data from, y'all volition need to specify the Unicast Endpoint in your Project Settings.

Maya is now set up to stream our Bailiwick to the UE4 Editor. In the adjacent step, we will set upwards UE4 to receive the streamed Subject so that nosotros can start to alive preview the content from Maya inside UE4.

iv - Alive Link Preview Controller

1. Within UE4, under the Content/Mannequin/Grapheme/Mesh folder, open the SK_Mannequin asset.

2. Click the Preview Scene Settings tab, and then nether Preview Controller, select Live Link Preview Controller.

   

3. Under Alive Link Subject Name, click the driblet-downward carte, and select root.

   

   The viewport volition update and the character will enter the pose that the grapheme is using inside Maya.

4. Enable the Enable Photographic camera Sync option.

   

   This will sync UE4'southward camera to the last viewport camera used within Maya. Someday you move the camera in Maya, UE4'south camera volition update to match.

5. Go to your Editor Preferences, and nether Performance, disable the Use Less CPU when in Background selection.

   

   This option throttles groundwork functioning on the Editor and stops the Editor from rendering while Maya has focus, which will prevent u.s. from seeing the updates in real time.

   If you want the Editor to continue evaluating while you are idle, you lot tin also conform the Valid Engine Time in the Live Link Connection window to give you more than time before the Editor stops evaluating.

6. Return to Maya and scrub the animation, or move the camera in the viewport.

For this example, we are using the Live Link Preview Controller, however y'all can also stream information through the Alive Link Component attached to an Thespian.

5 - End Effect

As y'all scrub the blitheness in Maya or motility the camera, the character and camera movement in UE4 volition update to match what you lot see in Maya. A typical workflow would exist to author your content in Maya, export the Skeletal Mesh and import information technology into UE4, follow the connectedness setup steps outlined in this guide to plant a connection, then preview animations authored in Maya on the Live Link Subject in UE4.

Yous can also make changes to your animations and those will be reflected in existent-time inside UE4 on the Live Link Bailiwick.

Above, nosotros re-key the position of the head then the graphic symbol is looking around while running, and see what information technology would look like inside UE4. While this is a simplistic example of how to use the Alive Link Plugin, there are many more advantages to this feature which yous tin find on the Live Link Plugin documentation page.

If yous are using the Maya Live Link Plugin prior to iv.23, when driving a camera through Blueprint, it may not take the correct transform. You tin fix this by adding an Add together Relative Rotation node set to 0, 180, 90 as indicated below.

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Source: https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.26/en-US/AnimatingObjects/SkeletalMeshAnimation/LiveLinkPlugin/ConnectingUnrealEngine4toMayawithLiveLink

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