Motion Matching with Daz Characters in EPIC's Game Animation Sample

[@j05hau]

Thanks!

[@j05hau]

This is incredible. I would have had a thousand retargeted animations of a mess in my project if I didn't stumble across this. Thanks so much

[@j05hau]

One difference with my mesh is that it appears to have hunched shoulders as if the skeleton proportions have a mismatch - it looks like the Daz mesh is unsuccessfully trying to fit into UEFN mesh proportion and when moving the mesh looks a bit awkward. It might have something to do with my retargeting settings in the G3 skeleton or that it is in a T-Pose rather than an A-Pose but can't be quite sure at this time. Time to investigate!

[@WPguru]

Hey thank you for the Super Thanks Josh! The retargeter can make a big difference. UE 5.4 has really nice auto-adjustment options that work most of the time, but not always. If something's amiss, try creating your own IK Rig and Retargeter for your figure. On the IK Rig, let UE infer both the rigging and IK chains, then use it in the retargeter (source is the UEFN rig, target is your new IK Rig based on your Daz mesh). At the top there's an option to let UE align all bones automatically. Some adjustments may be necessary, but it should get most of them right. Having said that, I've never tried this with a G3 character, which one were you using?

[@j05hau]

Your tutorials are fantastic and concise, WPGuru, thank you! Keep up the amazing work! Yeah I created the IK rig based on how you did it in this video and also by the method you suggested, and it produces the same result for both. It seems to be how the IK is matching to the parent mesh, the G3 base female (and male, but haven’t tried this yet) is what I am using and has morphs for a bunch of different characteristics. The shoulders appear to be squashed and the head hunched when traversing, also some weird bending of the legs on the thighs. I have a feeling it’s got to do with the T-Pose but not sure how to retarget to the pose asset with UE5’s new tools like it was possible in UE4. The IK rig seems to retarget to the correct bones in both cases, but the UEFN character mesh is shorter than the G3 female mesh so I am guessing this is where the hunching is coming from, i get this impression due to applying this same technique and retargeting to the UE4 mannequin who is taller, and instead of the head hunching and shoulders being squashed, the G3 mesh arms are bent upwards in an attempt for the hands to meet the mannequin parent hands where the IK is situated in the world. I might try converting my G3 assets to G8/9 and see how that fares instead since they are exported as an A-Pose. I’ve had Daz for years and most of my assets are for the G3 base so don’t want to start buying for a new base until I can be sure my library can work on them. I’ll give this a go tomorrow and report my findings. Hopefully this strategy is successful. Otherwise it’s back to the drawing board.

[@j05hau]

I just did a quick test with a G8 base female and the same shoulder squash is happening, but worse. I am clearly missing something, will have to go over this with a fine tooth comb and triple check the implementation when I can find the time. I am starting to believe this is a me thing and not the mesh or retargeting, animations are not my strong suit. As a side note, according to forums and guides, converting to G8 appears to be quite involved and not all that reliable so might have to stick with G3.

[@WPguru]

I did a quick test with the base G3 Female and I'm getting OKish results. The shoulders and head look OK, especially when traversing. When idle, the knees are bent a little (more exaggerated compared to the UEFN dummy), probably because the feet are placed too far back. I can't figure out how to adjust that in the retargeter. I had to rotate the feet after auto alignment (they were pointing down). I also changed the height of my target character to 0.92, that seemed to have an impact. Here's a quick demo: vimeo.com/991871533/5f420f8a46

[@j05hau]

You bloody beauty, @WPguru! You really are a master at this, thank you so much for looking into that and demonstrating that its possible. In that demo video you posted I noticed that your A-Pose was matching the source almost exactly, whereas mine had the arms more down by her sides. So I modified rShldrBend and lShderBend to align more closely to the source, and voila! I now have zero hunch in the shoulders! I *knew* it had something to do with the pose but had no idea that modifications in that hierarchy tree would affect the runtime pose. That is so damn cool. You are a lifesaver, that would've taken me some time to work out :) many thanks!

[@Sam-zw9vp]

This is amazing, but you should clarify that the Real-Time Retarget method is very expensive for the CPU, in fact the creator himself recommends not to use it for projects due to the same, it is actually for testing or rendering purposes. I say this especially for those who plan to use this method for their project such as a video game, in simple words, you should replace the skeleton, not the Retarget if you are going to create a Real Time project.

[@WPguru]

That is incorrect, EPIC actually recommend live retargeting, especially for projects where replacing 500+ animations is impractical (such as this one). There’s no performance overhead when using a UE5 skeleton, and only a very small one if you use a non-UE5 skeleton.

[@Sam-zw9vp]

hi @@WPguru, When you replace the skeleton, the animations become compatible without the need for retargeting, that is the only purpose of replacing the skeleton on import, to avoid retargeting, you can do this by modifying the default skeleton in Project Settings - DazToUnreal - Default Skeleton. In the end, the best thing is to have only one Skeleton, only one animation BP (with programming to change animation sets) and only change the SkeletalMesh and some specific programming for each Mesh if it has several characters. It may be impractical, but in the end, efficiency is what is sought above all in Real-Time projects. It is of no use to you that it is easy for the developer if in the end the console cannot process more than 3 characters on screen (Remember the consoles like the PS5 do not stand out precisely for power, they are like an R3 with a 3060). Replacing the Skeleton results in less processing per frame, allowing the game to run at higher FPS or fit more characters on screen.

[@kairosbeat1429]

gracias por estos videos.... hay alguna forma de cambiar algunas animaciones?.... por ejemplo cambiar la forma de caminar y de correr por algunas animaciones mas femeninas?

[@WPguru]

I'm sure there is, but how to do that I don't know. There is a 2 hour live stream on the Unreal Channel in which they discuss this in more detail, and they show an example on how to add crouch functionality. I would image the same principle could be used to add other animation to the mix, like swimming or fighting.

[@thornbloodstone6275]

It's really good your doing these videos bro, honestly I've needed good info on many functions required for making daz3d assets usable in any sort of interactive way. Now that you can see the changes that are required are major just to get any model working making daz3d interactive licenses irrelevant since you need to change the whole asset including the skeleton which needs to retarget to Unreal mannequins, same when using Unity engine so many adjustments must be made that it could not possibly be the same product you buy the interactive license for. If it was the case you buy the asset and license that when you port over to Unreal or Unity that it is already preconfigured to the mannequins and ready to start adding animations too with all cloth or gear simulated with the functions any gear requires, this isn't the case yet they try to make you pay for work you have to do yourself to make it interactive.

[@harismirza]

Hi. I select all the key frames for a property e.g twist in the graph editor, how can i assign a value for example, zero to all of them at once? I don't want to move them but i want to assign a value, all of them. Thanks

[@alextheguardianangel]

When I right click on the skeletal mesh for the ''Create IK Retargeter'' there's no option for me to choose it. I only got ''UV Editor'' and ''Create'' but nothing in between. I am on 5.4.3, I don't know if the new update broke something...

[@WPguru]

It definitely works in 5.4.3, for me it's the second entry in the menu, with a flyout menu to pick the skeleton. Another option to create a retargeter is by right-clicking in your content browser, then navigate to Animation - Retargeting. If all else fails, I'd try it with a different generation character (Genesis 9 and 8.1 both work well, 8 has issues).

[@pitriaina8290]

Hello Mr. Guru, can you make a video tutorial for making Genesis 9 characters for beginners step by step because I don't really understand it! I hope mr guru can make it, thank you.

[@WPguru]

Hi Pirti, I'll see if I can make a concise video about the it, there are so many sliders to explain. No promises, but I'll put it on my list. In the meantime, I've done two live streams on the Daz channel that show how you can make your own Genesis 9 characters. This one is about making a female figure (Greta): kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXOwgpSkf79gj6c And here's the one about making her a male companion: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5W8iYqLqs6nr8k Hope this helps, have fun!

[@rebekahj8662]

Can you do CC4? When I did it for CC4 the hands seem claw-like, the thumb is quite splayed, and the legs super wide apart compared to the other retargeted characters in the sample project.

[@WPguru]

Yes CC4 characters work the same way. I've done it on stream with this project recently: kzbin.infoig3mXKzDibg?feature=share

[@achenyouchenyo4862]

Hello Sir. So I have been battling with something for some days now, and i feel if anyone knows the answers it should be you. My question is, how do you export dforce simulation from daz3d studio to maya?

[@WPguru]

To get animated dForce drapes out of Daz Studio, the only reliable way I know of is as MDD point cache. You'll need to export the first frame of your cloth as OBJ, then MDD for the entire sequence and combine them. The full version of Animate is required to do this (doesn't work with the lite version). Blender can handle this, so I'm assuming Maya can as well - if not, you can export another format from Blender (like Alembic or OBJ sequence). Get the full version of Animate here: wpguru.tv/animate

[@achenyouchenyo4862]

@@WPguru Thank you so much you replied. I am greatful. Have you done any tutorial on this? I would love to check it out.

[@LenaSuvorova-gq1wf]

It's great, thanks. Could you make some videos for Unity too?

[@WPguru]

Sorry, Unity and I are not compatible ☔️ There's only so many 3D applications my brain can handle.

[@hardwire666too]

"Face to Right" is gone. Now in Unreal Engine goto Project Settings > Left side scroll down to Plugins > Daz to Unreal Settings > Zero Root Rotation on Import > UNCHECK

[@j05hau]

Thanks!