Cannot find skeleton when retargeting animation

Hello! I hope someone can help me with this.

I have an animation which is already attached to a skeleton, but I want to retarget it to another one.
Im right clicking on the animation-> retarget anim assets - > Duplicate anim assets and retarget.

Then a window pops up where I have to search the skeleton I want to retarget to. I have plenty of skeletons in content that should appear, but when using the search bar for that window, it fails to find any.

It says, no results, check filter. I have never tinkered with any filters. I dont even know where to find the filter they are talking about.

It would be awesome if someone could tell me why I fail to find my desired skeleton assets (which are saved under content folder, in case youre wondering), and how I can make it work!

Best regards!

I have the exact same problem. I have animation from the marketplace AnimStarterPack, and I click on skeleton and retarget manager, I add a new Retarget Source and I select the SK_Mannequin. I select rig ‘Humanoid’. All the bones show up and then I save pose, and I save all under asset browser. I do the same exact thing for another skeleton that is exactly like the SK_Mannequin.

After I save it. I should be able to right click on an animation and hit ‘Retarget Anim Assets’ then ‘Duplicate Anim Assets and Retarget’. When I do the Select Skeleton box appears and only has one skeleton which is the SKEL_Mannequin, and not the other. It is definitely a but with this version. I have done this many times with other versions and it works fine.

Thank you very much Ananda Divine. I wasnt sure it was an engine version thing although I had a hunch, cause it had worked for me before aswell.

The only thing I can give you (cause I still havent found the answer), is an alternative, which is to just reimport from scratch the animations in .fbx format and then attaching them to your new skeleton. You probably new about this rudimentary solution though, and it surely doesnt solve out problem.

Best regards!

I found my answer at least. The problem happened because both models have exactly the same skeleton. Which is a problem because I rather have the Epic character in a T-Pose and not an A pose. That is why I was trying to retarget. It won’t let me as I mentioned. Mixamo and others like Motionbuilder are in a T-Pose not an A pose. and I hate to manually change Epics character everytime I want to retarget.

I hope that helps…

Ananda

Hmmm…

Im sorry Ananda, Im a bit thick. Would you mind ellaborating a bit on that? Both my skeletons are in the T-Pose at the momento. What do you mean both models have the same skeleton? Youre talking about the skeletal mesh? I definitely have a mesh for each skeleton, so Im not too sure what it is.

Apologies for my noobness and best regards.

In my case, Im building a big game called Intruders (you can check it out on fb on the page Tessera Studios by the way :wink: haha), but honestly, Im just the programmer in this group, so the skeleton that Im handed, is imported as a .fbx file from the artists, and there is no further tinkering with said skeleton in unreal. But there are indeed two different skeletons in my Project.

Yeah. but Mine were both Epic’s, and exactly the same. I think that’s why it didn’t work. It would be very nice if they had templates already in the retargeting for Motionbuilder & Mixamo, it would make life much easier.

About you’re game. If you’d like I can test the skeleton for you, and see if I get the same error if you’d like.

You mean the same retargeting? So I send you both .fbxs and you import animations to one and then try retargeting to the other?

That sounds awesome! but sadly right now I do not possess the .fbx, only the .uasset. Thank you so much for your offer, but how do you suggest proceding with that?

I can try with the uasset, and see if I can get it to work… you can send me a link, and when I get back tonight I can look at it.

Wow that is super kind! Thank you so much! Ill send you skeleton 1 with its mesh, skeleton 2 with its mesh and a single animation which I believe will be enough to try retargeting.

Thank You!

Here you go brother. I have had no problem re-targeting. I have included all the updated uasset files for you. just put it in the root of your project, and you shouldn’t have a problem. I have optionally included a .fbx with the re-targeted animation :wink:

Woow! Thank you so much bro! Youre a freaking boss! Hmm but Im just ■■■■■■ off cause Im not sure were the problem lies with mine. The skeletons were already under the same content root, but Ive even moved the skeletons to the same exact subfolder, and my search bar cant yet detect it.

The thing is we have hundreds of animations in unreal that we just want to retarget. This whole process seems like a lottery to me :/.

Anyways! Thank you so much for your kindness! Its hard to believe someone can be so generous to do what you did. I hope I can compensate you in the future!

Best regards :slight_smile:

No Problem. I have created very complex scripts that allow me to retarget animation very easily with Maya and Motionbuilder. It’s not 100% because some times the animation has to be cleaned up. But at least I don’t have to sit years in front of the computer getting a hand cramp.

Glad I could help. Let me know if you need help with retargeting. UE4 Retarget is ok, but like you said it’s a lottery. Better to use Motionbuilder or Maya (Character retargeting). In my opinion. You can get better results if you’re not doing crazy stuff with roll joints, or hips rotation or broken hierarchy.

You’re projects looks cool. VR is the next big thing. Congrats…

Ananda

Thank you so much friend! Apologies for the late answer but I was travelling.

Well, I found another solution to the problema just in case anyone reads this. You move the new skeleton to the exact same folder, then you delete the old one to which the animations are attached. Doing this will automatically allow you to retarget and locate the new skeleton for your animations.

Thank you very much for the support! We really hope we will have something cool by next month! Good luck to you and any projects youre working on with unreal buddy!

Cool, Let me know when you’ve got something new on your VR Project!

Ananda

OK This is 6 months old, but hits high in Google search, so here is the solution.

The problem is that mannequin skeleton is not set to Humanoid. Simply go into mannequin (or whatever other source skeleton you want the animations from), click Retargetting Manager, and then set it to Humanoid. The bones will appear already mapped. This also must be done in the destination skeleton too of course - and bone mapping therein.
Now the destination and source match and animations can be retargeted.

Hop[e this helps for those stuck on this.

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Thank you very much Electronik Eel.

To be fully honest with you, its been so long that I dont have a fresh memory about this. I could solve my problem by just deleting the skeleton to which the animations where attached to.

I do believe both skeletons were already set to humanoid. I searched for similar solutions which suggested doing just that, but with no avail. Again, I think it was a bit of a file and references thing for me, and frankly, a bit of a lottery.

Not entirely though, but Ill just indicate my solution and mark the problem as solved, so I wont bother nice people like you with problems I cant even recall completely.

SOLUTION: Delete skeleton.uasset to which animations are attached. They will become disatached. Now jus target those animations to the new skeleton.

thank you ElectronikEel, you saved me!

thanks, man. I’ve already last any hope

this is the real solution, it worked without need to delete the source skeleton