You are probably trying to import them to the unreal mannequin skeleton that comes with the editor. You can't import animations directly to it because of incompatibilities between Unreal and Blender. What you want to do is import your character into Unreal along with any animation with a new skeleton. Then retarget those animations to the original mannequin if required. The character you rig in Blender must not use the "UE mannequin rolls" option.

@@RakizFarooq hmm, I think i get it? so i did manage to get a test animation exported out and imported correctly now that it's using it's own new skeleton I named sk_custom. I got someone recently to make a skeleton mesh for me work directly with the sk_mannequin. So you're saying if i want any model using sk_mannequin to have new animations, sk_mannequin needs be able to use imported animations from the sk_custom skeleton, the one from Uefy?

Use the new skeleton to import animations into Unreal then retarget those animations to the original sk_mannequin. Alternatively in my workflow I dispense with the original sk_mannequin entirely. I import a character from Blender with new skeleton and use that as my main skeleton. This way any animation from blender works directly and any animation purchased from the unreal marketplace is easily retargeted.

@@RakizFarooq I ran some tests and it looks like it'll just be best if I take my custom character mesh I made and create a new rig for it in Uefy. I saw you have a tutorial on what to do if your mesh already has a skeleton but the old one I have is very poor and I'd like to just try to start over again.

The addon doesn't support the newer face rigging samples. Only the older "faces.superface" sample is supported as shown in kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3u4iH2ud9-Kabs Uefy is meant to be used for creating new animations. Your older animations may or may not work based on many factors.

Thanks for the reply, I have about 15 hours into my rigified character and I’m probably going to have to start over from scratch with the animations 😢 Id like to try the add-on but I know there’s no refunds if it doesn’t work so I’ll have to figure something else out, thanks though your add-on seems really helpful

After you have rigged your custom character as shown here with either UE4 or UE5 bones. You can follow along kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZWyk3qcnbeDfaM and subsequent tutorials to create the Control rig, IKRig and IKRetargeter objects. Just check the video descriptions for following tutorials.

@@RakizFarooq Thank you for your quick response. I need the control rig to create a pose only, I don't plan to use retargeting. Why ue5 for poses, because in ue5 you need to binding the hair alembic to the skeleton so that you can set the pose.

@@RakizFarooq I almost succeeded, but for some reason, when I connect the control rig from the manikin to the character, his middle body is twisted. Now I'm going to try the method you recommended.

Uefy supports the older rigify superface rig. Currently there is no support for the newer face bones. However you can still use superface as shown in kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3u4iH2ud9-Kabs The rigify superface rig is overkill in most cases. You can also add basic_copy type bones for simpler jaw movement as shown in the Uefy metarigs for daz and cc3.

nevermind figured it out. didnt use the skele with the ue rolls. changed it and its working

Uefy provides base skeletons that you can weight paint into your static mesh. Once that initial skeleton is working you can follow kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5iaZp6JoLCeq8k to rig your character as usual. Both UE4 and UE5 skeletons are supported. Once the character is imported to the engine marketplace animations can be retargeted to the imported character.

@@RakizFarooq lol ty i just finished watching it actually. this is really awesome stuff.

If you are referring to Uefy Script Panel properties, pressing the refresh button updates the dropdown options. You still have to select one of those options manually. The dropdown options are restricted to 'Armature' type objects. If it says 'No results found' then you don't have any armatures in the scene.

At this time Uefy only supports the older rigify superface facial rig. As shown in kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3u4iH2ud9-Kabs The new face parts are not currently supported, perhaps in the future. You can also construct simple face rigs using just 'basic.super_copy' and simple hairstyles with just 'limbs.simple_tentacle' and 'limbs.super_finger' For overly complex rigs you are better off with a separate head and your own custom rigging.

Uefy supports a subset of Rigify part types. The list is in the FAQ section of the product page. The message indicates that either you are using a non-supported rigify type on the indicated bone or did not specify any type at all. The rigify metarig is composed entirely of rigify type parts like leg, arm, spine etc. This is what is meant by the Rigify Type.

@@RakizFarooq Very interesting. Is it possible that something changed in a new blender version with the horse skeleton to cause this issue? If I recall correctly UEFY 2.5 was working with Blender 4.1, but I might have misread! I will mess around with those bones and see what is going on next time I sit down to get some work done. I appreciate your response on this to give context.

I'm using Uefy 2.6 with Blender 4.1.1 For the Horse metarig, go to Pose mode then for the 'hip' and 'abdomen' bones go to Bone (Properties Panel) -> Rigify Type -> Rig Type dropdown and set it to 'basic.super_copy' Then you can generate the rig and 'Build Skeleton' using Freeform mode and the rig is successfully built. You can also review the 'chest' bone which is correctly preconfigured in the metarig as an example. Just update the other two bones in the same way and it works.

@@RakizFarooq I just got around to going through these steps today. This solution worked, and I learned something new about Rigify in the process. Thank you for all the help, and have a great day ahead.

Blender 4.0 brought many changes to the api. Use your download link to get Uefy 2.6 that is minimum version for Blender 4. If you are working on a project from Blender 3.6 or older you will need to know how to set the new bone layer names. If not then you are better off starting with a new metarig in Blender 4 with Uefy 2.6 or above. It will provide all the correct bone layer names and support them in the export rig.

In armature data properties, scroll up to the Bone Collections panel and turn off Uefy Body, Uefy Face and Uefy IK to stop showing the deform bones.

The metarig for CC3 was built by following the basic tutorial as shown in kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5iaZp6JoLCeq8k followed by kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGm4l4tsZ7iff5I to add additional bones for the face. The addon isn't aware of CC3 or CC4. You can follow the same process just pick the UE5 option when fixing the metarig.

Select the IK bone you want to control in Pose mode. In the bone constraints panel set the Influence of the copy transform to 0.0 Then you can animate and key frame it like any bone.

but then it will not follow hand_r@@RakizFarooq

The default constraint setup on the ik bones have them follow the limbs on their own. If you want to do something different then you can change the copy constraint influence and/or target on the respective ik bones. You can have hand_r follow whatever you want to.

Instead of setting the influence to 0 change the constraint target to one of the other ik bones. Set the influence to 0 on the other ik bone and animate that one. The first ik bone will then folllow along.

For rigging UE5 custom characters we only really do two things different. We would import the Unreal Engine 5 mannequin instead of the UE4 manny. The new version of the addon will correctly pose both the character and metarig according the new UE5 mannequin pose. Secondly before clicking on "Fix Metarig" we have the option to specify how many bones to add to the spine/neck plus to keep the metacarpals in the hands or not. The rest of the process follows exactly as shown in this tutorial. However import to Unreal Engine 5 and retargeting requires some additional work by setting up a couple of Rig related UE5 objects inside the editor. You can check that pipeline by following the links in the description of kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5nTgKWnrqyZZtE

@@RakizFarooq Sooo, bought the addon, great stuff! And understood, thank you! That's awesome. So it poses to whatever you specify in Properties: UE Mannequin, that's so smart. I thought the pose was like hard-coded or something (basically always UE4 Mannequin). Question, though: When you create the final rig based on the MetaRig, the new bones (e.g. spine) don't seem to be weighted. Basically rendering all that elaborate weight painting at an earlier stage (When adding the Basic Pose skeleton) somewhat useless. I mean yes, the weight painting in that stage needs to be done properly to get the character into UE5 Quinn pose; But then you basically have to do it again on the Epic skeleton towards the end of the pipeline, is that correct?

No.. If you follow the procedure as shown in the tutorial the original weights of the initial character are transferred to the final rigged character ready for export.

@@RakizFarooq thanks again for the reply! Oh, I have to go through it again then. How can the weights be properly transferred though, if the bones don’t even exist on the initial character? Like the basic pose skeleton doesn’t have metacarpals or the extra spine bones that the UE5 manny has. However, the metaRig does. Are the weights just averaged divided up between the additional bones? On that note, when I pose the metaRig (like ->fix metaRig -> pose metarig), the metacarpals are left behind. That’s expected? Basic pose skeleton only has 1 hand bone, so I guess that would make sense. Thanks Rakiz, will try again.

The addon only transfers weights for bones that exist in the initial skeleton. The Basic Posing Skeleton is only an example. If you need more bones like metacarpals or twists you can add them and weight paint them before starting rigging. You can also do Shift + A -> Armatures -> Uefy Script -> Reference Skeleton -> UE5 Manny 89 Proxy (A-pose) and use that as your initial skeleton instead of the Basic Posing one. It has all the default metacarpals and twists that you will need to weight paint. You can also add additional bones not in the Mannequin skeletons. There are rules for doing that as described in kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWOmg2yQrcekZsU and also shown in the advanced tutorial at kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGm4l4tsZ7iff5I

Rename bone is working perfectly fine for me in Uefy 2.5 and Uefy 2.6 both. Most likely you missed a ' or " pair or a comma in the custom json file. Since the file is parsed by Python you are probably seeing errors. Fix the json file and it will work. Other than that there is also the bone chain rename tool. Plus you can always select each bone and press F2 to rename.

In Uefy 2.6 you have to select the first and last bones in the chain before using the rename tool.

@@RakizFarooq Every single bone renaming is very time consuming :(

@@RakizFarooq Please Help Me

You can reply to the email with your order id and download link. Attach images and description of the issue and of the steps you have taken.

Currently the addon supports only the older superface rig from rigify. You can build something like kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3u4iH2ud9-Kabs with it. That is a bit much though, you can also add additional bones for just the eyes and mouth as in kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHPCk6Gfjt90esU

Click on 'Refresh list' button in the Uefy Script Panel and make sure the Metarig option is set to the correct object ie a rigify "Human (Meta-rig)". I'm using Blender 4 with Uefy 2.6.0 and I'm not getting any errors with any of the options with the Fix Metarig tool. If you still have an issue you can reply to the email with your download link and attach your blend file or screenshots of the issue.

I was able to reproduce this error. You definitely have the wrong object selected for the metarig in the Uefy Script Panel. Take action as suggested above. I'll add a nicer error message without the traceback in the next update for this situation.

Thank you, this has been resolved - must have bugged out on me because I re-opened and then refreshed again and it was fine.@@RakizFarooq

Also, while I did fix the metarig callback errors from occurring and the buttons functioning, I have clicked pose metarig and my metarig is now offset at least 0.1 meters from the characters original pose. If I were to send a screenshot if that helps, would I just reply to my purchase email or were you referring to sending a new email to you? Thank you again in advance and I appreciate the support. @@RakizFarooq

You can reply to the email with your download link to contact me.

I am interested in this addon, but is it compatible with Blender 4.1?

At the time of this writing I'm using it with Blender 4.1.1 it works fine.

You can absolutely rig a custom character to the UE5 mannequin skeleton using Uefy addon. But let me ask you this .. How much time did you spend learning what an armature is? how to add bones? what is a constraint? what is skinning? how to weight paint? How many times did you attempt to rig and export simple objects like boxes with lids etc without any addon to learn what the exporting pipeline is? If the answer to all of the above is nothing than I'd say you will continue to be frustrated and waste your money, because no addon is a replacement for actual time spent learning, knowledge and experience. If you have questions on how to use the addon and what to do then be specific. Tell us what you are trying to do and what steps you took in detail. I can't get it to work is not a question.

Hi @@RakizFarooq and thanks for your quick response. I have been using Blender and Unity for about 10 years now. Im not a rigger, however Im very familiar with the process using both simple bone armatures and rigify, skinning, weight painting and making games in Unity. Im new to Unreal, and I did not mean to be rude or anything, my frustration comes from several errors and crashes that I have been getting with UE5 when importing skeletal meshes. My question is: I have a character, custom made, I dont have it rigged or skinned yet, is only the mesh at the moment. I want to know what is the best approach to use the addon to add the skeleton, skin it using rigify so I can add my own animations but still retain the compatibility with UE5 mannequins so I can use UE marketplace animations as well as my own. I also learned how to retarget animations in UE, which is far better and more elegant than Unity Mechanim. Thanks for your time, looking forward to hearing from you.

In order to use Uefy your static mesh needs to be already skinned to a skeleton. The addon doesn't weight paint for you. The best course of action is to do Shift + A -> Armatures -> Uefy Script -> Reference Skeleton -> Uefy Manny89 Proxy (A-Pose) to bring a prebuilt skeleton into the scene. Weight paint your character to this skeleton. Do not weight paint it directly to Rigify, it will complicate matters to no end. You can also weight paint it to any of the other reference skeletons in the list if you want to. Once you have finished skinning your character. Start with the tutorial at kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5iaZp6JoLCeq8k to rig custom characters. That tutorial rigs a mixamo character to a ue4 skeleton. But the process if the same for you. The reference skeleton you skinned in the previous step will act as the character's original skeleton and it's weight paint will be transferred to the final rigify rig for export to UE5. The only things you will do differently is in "Metarig Operators" you will check the "Keep Metacarpals" checkbox and change the spine to be "6 spine 2 neck 1 head (UE5)" before you click on the 'Fix Metarig' button. The rest of the tutorial is as shown in the video and it will give you a rigify rig that is exportable to Unreal Engine with a UE5 mannequin 89 bone skeleton hierarchy. To be clear at this point when you import your character into the engine. You will select a "New Skeleton" or a skeleton that was built in blender previously imported. You can not select the original mannequin skeleton that comes with the engine. If your goal is to import characters directly to the original mannequin skeleton. Uefy has support for that too, it requires a couple of extra steps but it is not a recommended process.

@@RakizFarooq thanks for the explanation, I will try that and let you know how it went.

Differences in how bone rolls are stored in Blender and UE5 prevent that when using Rigify/Uefy. The workaround is to export a skeleton created in Blender to Unreal which can directly run Blender made animations. Once the Blender created animation is in Unreal, if needed it can also be retargeted to the original mannequin.

It means the addon can not find a foot_l or foot_r bone. This could be for many reason. You should check that the bones actually exist, with correct name and in correct position in leg chain hierarchy.

@@RakizFarooq thanks. In which one do they have to exist? In the metarig?

Yes in the metarig there needs to be a foot bone. It should be named foot.L in the metarig. However manually adding a bone is not the answer. Uefy is designed work with the rigify limbs.leg sample type. This sample has all the details needed to complete a fully functioning rigify leg rig. You should use Shift + A -> Armatures -> Human (Meta-rig) and follow procedure shown in this video to fix the metarig, it is prebuilt with limbs.leg and limbs.arm samples. Or if you are an advanced user you can directly add a rigify limbs.leg sample type. But you can not put together a bunch of bones and call it a leg.

Thanks. The metarig has these bones. Could there be another reason? @@RakizFarooq

If you created a json file for renaming bones of your original character make sure the entries for the feet are set correctly to "foot_l" and "foot_r". Also make sure there are not any other misnamed bones. These are case sensitive names, all of them must be correct. Review all the bone names of your character original unrigged skeleton after running the json file. They should match the hierarchy in the Unreal Mannequin. Other that I can't think of anything else. The addon is working correctly for me running on the default rigify human meta-rig.

This video is only for rigging the Unreal Mannequins. If you are rigging a custom character follow the instructions in kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5iaZp6JoLCeq8k . There are additional steps to ensure the weights from the original skeleton are transferred correctly to the final export rig.

This tutorial is for rigging the Mannequin character only. To rig a custom mesh you can check kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5iaZp6JoLCeq8k

Unreal engine and Blender have different default orientations on the bones. So even if you have the exact same bone hierarchy. The skeletons will not be compatible. This is due to differences in how rigging and animation is handled in UE5 and Blender. To get around this problem Uefy offers two different export options. The export with "UE Rolls" is a drop in replacement for the original sk_mannequin skeleton. There is no difference, all existing Blueprints and animation should just work with out any retargeting. The downside of this approach is that the character becomes incompatible with Blender due to the different orientation of the bones. You can not create new animations with it or export them to unreal. This is where the other export with Blender rolls comes in. If you follow that path you can rig a character, create new animations and directly export both to Unreal using a new skeleton (not original sk_mannequin). You will need to setup retargeting and create your own blueprints. But if Blender is your main tool then this is the recommended path as both characters and animations work on direct import. Once you have your Blender Rolls based character and animations in Unreal. You can also use UE5 to retarget your custom animations to the original UE5 mannequin. In this way your custom animations will also work with any UE Rolls character imported to the original mannequin.

it worked in the end, not sure what I did wrong :)

I'm thinking your root isn't set up. Go to your Skeleton in Unreal and check the hierachy. The top root should be root, then pelvis and spine_01, spine_02, spine_03

No .. even though it is something you could do with Uefy. That is not what the tool is for and you will need to add weight paint for the missing bones in the original skeleton. More importantly why would you want to convert UE4 characters to a UE5 skeleton anyway? It offers no benefit. The animation retargeting system in Unreal Engine 5 lets you use any kind of skeleton with relative ease.

@@RakizFarooq I know the anims can be retargetted easily enough through the ikrt tools (and honestly, with much better results than 4.27) but I have other plugins that essentially don't work as well without the 5 spine sk version. They deal with warping, and other new functions of the anim BP they claim only work/work better with Manny. I don't understand it at all, so you might be right, I'm only regurgitating what I've been told so I couldn't tell you either way. Thanks for the speedy reply, though. <3

You may be correct about using other plugins. I tend to write my own code so this is not an issue for me. If you want to convert a UE4 skeleton to a UE5 skeleton you will need to provide weight paint for all the new bones in the spine/hands/twists etc using built in skinning tools of Blender.

I ignore IK bones in this tutorial but they do work. The addon creates all the required bones. But you need to properly setup IK in unreal editor. This requires more than just creating chains for the bones. You can reference this post forums.unrealengine.com/t/uefy-2-0-pro-edition-make-blenders-rigify-rigs-compatible-with-ue5-also-has-a-free-version/120782/259?u=waves

@@RakizFarooq thank you very much) And yeaa there are problems with ik bone rotations((