Export Workflow Improvements

[eisegesis-623]

Hello,
Thank you all for creating this system, it works beautifully and has been a lifesaver.

Something that I think would speed up workflows even more is a way to configure a consistent path for exporting an FK animation to Unreal. Currently every time you export, you have to set the path manually (and it doesn't remember the previous location). Something similar to what collection exporters provide, where you can list a single path and re-export easily, would be incredibly useful for rapid iteration.

Currently I'm just running the following as a workaround:

import bpy
path = "C:\\path\\filename.fbx"
bpy.ops.character_control_rig.export_body_animation(filepath=path)

Even though it's as simple as it gets, it would be nice to have something similar natively.

---

One other question, is it necessary to enable bone evaluation and RBFs for exporting animations, or does the plugin handle this automatically? If it doesn't, would it be possible to include in a future update?

Thanks for your time! Keep up the good work. :)

[jack-yao91]

Yea we could probably add some bulk export functionality. Like a list of actions or something.

For the body, it shouldn't matter since the MetaHuman in Unreal should have a post-process blueprint that will be evaluating the RBFs after the animation keys are applied. I guess currently the exporter should either prune those bone curves from the animations, or there be a setting to bake the evaluated values. (This might be something we add later)

However to answer your question now, you shouldn't need the RBFs evaluating for exporting your animations if you are importing your animations onto a normal MetaHuman with a post process animation BP enabled.

[eisegesis-623]

Thanks for the clarification!

[Danok998]

If anyone else is having issues exporting animations (my FBX was exporting as an empty file), here's what worked for me.

I imported the original MetaHuman rig and used a simple Python script (generated with ChatGPT) that adds Copy Location and Copy Rotation constraints from the original MetaHuman skeleton to my target skeleton. I definitely wasn't going to add all those constraints manually lol.

To make the script work:

• Select the source armature first (the original MetaHuman rig).
• Then select the target armature (make it the active object).
• Switch to Pose Mode on the target rig.
• Run the script.

Once the constraints are added, just Bake Action on the target skeleton, then export the FBX. That completely fixed the issue for me, and the animation exports correctly now.

Hopefully this helps someone!

(Script)

[Danok998]

Python Script

import bpy

SOURCE_NAME = "NewMetaHumanCharacter_body_rig"

# Source armature
source_obj = bpy.data.objects.get(SOURCE_NAME)
if source_obj is None or source_obj.type != 'ARMATURE':
    raise Exception(f"Source armature '{SOURCE_NAME}' not found.")

# Target armature (active object)
target_obj = bpy.context.active_object
if target_obj is None or target_obj.type != 'ARMATURE':
    raise Exception("The active object must be an Armature.")

if target_obj == source_obj:
    raise Exception("The target armature cannot be the source armature.")

added_location = 0
added_rotation = 0
skipped = 0

for bone in target_obj.pose.bones:
    if bone.name not in source_obj.pose.bones:
        skipped += 1
        continue

    # Copy Location
    if not any(
        c.type == 'COPY_LOCATION'
        and c.target == source_obj
        and c.subtarget == bone.name
        for c in bone.constraints
    ):
        con = bone.constraints.new('COPY_LOCATION')
        con.name = "Copy Location"
        con.target = source_obj
        con.subtarget = bone.name
        con.target_space = 'WORLD'
        con.owner_space = 'WORLD'
        added_location += 1

    # Copy Rotation
    if not any(
        c.type == 'COPY_ROTATION'
        and c.target == source_obj
        and c.subtarget == bone.name
        for c in bone.constraints
    ):
        con = bone.constraints.new('COPY_ROTATION')
        con.name = "Copy Rotation"
        con.target = source_obj
        con.subtarget = bone.name
        con.target_space = 'WORLD'
        con.owner_space = 'WORLD'
        added_rotation += 1

print(f"Copy Location constraints added: {added_location}")
print(f"Copy Rotation constraints added: {added_rotation}")
print(f"Bones skipped (no matching source bone): {skipped}")