So, I have had a model produced using the UE4 toolkit for Maya, and it’s been sent over to me as a .ma and .mb export file. I can load the file, and all the IKs that were placed using the toolkit appear correctly. The problem I’m having is that I can’t open the animation interface for this character, or edit it. When I do, the only option presented to me is a project called “Sample”, with the built-in mannequin model as the only available option. Is there something specific I have to do to allow the toolkit to interpret the model correctly?
So you were given files that you didn’t create? If so, you’ll need to put them in the appropriate folders for the tool to recognize them. the export file for the character (should have _Export on the file) needs to go in:
…\MayaTools\General\ART\Projects\YOUR_PROJECT\ExportFiles
the other file, usually just the character name, goes here:
…\MayaTools\General\ART\Projects\YOUR_PROJECT\AnimRigs
You may run into an issue where the animrig file cannot find the reference to the export file if these were created on someone else’s machine. If so, just open the anim rig file, go to the reference editor, and point to the export file location on your machine.
Ah. I’ll give this a try. This is probably a useful thing to have on the documentation for the ART, as many work pipelines have multiple people doing different jobs (separate modellers and animators, as in my case, for example). As far as I could tell, this information wasn’t available on the documentation.
Will do! Here at the office, we use source control so that everyone is working out of the same area. You could also put everything in a network location to make life easier too. But I’ll definitely add it to the docs!
We have a source control hub set up for the main project, but we didn’t consider that simply exchanging a finished asset would require it. I have the model importing and animating in Maya now, using the toolset. I do want to ask, though, do things such as dynamic chains and jiggle bones export dynamic data automatically to Unreal, or are their effects baked into the animation?
Those would be baked into the animation, which for cinematic content is great. For game content, the only issue can be blending between animations, as your start/end pose likely won’t be the same. For our games, running real time cloth simulations gets incredibly costly, so we try to use baked where we can 
Hmm… that’s a pain, because I’m having real trouble setting up real-time jiggle bones. If you have the time, I have another question open for the issues I’m having with that: Jiggle bones using skeletal mesh physics - World Creation - Epic Developer Community Forums
I’ll jump on there right now.