Animation retargeting not working correctly

Hello guys

I was retargeting an animation from a Mixamo model to the default UE4 model

For my surprise, after adjust both poses (from mixamo’s model and UE4 one) and setting the rig and opening the retargeting anim assets window, the source skeleton was empty

Here is the video where I did everything contained inside UE4 documentation, you can see it at 10:31

And here is the video where I’m trying to retarget a UE4 model animation to Mixamo’s model

What’s the problem here? I’ve tested with a different animation with another mixamo’s model and the same problem happens =S

Thanks!

I made this for someone earlier.

It shows converting Animations for the Mannequin to Mixamo figures.

You can do the same with animations made for the Mixamo figures to convert them to work with the mannequin/hero character.

Retarget Animations

Thanks for your answer… I tried the way you showed me, but without success

Then I saw the imported model’s skeleton had no preview skeletal mesh linked to him, that’s why the retargeting anim asset window showed no source

What I did was the inverse: I got one animation from the model I want to receive the desired animation and retarget it to the imported model’s skeleton… You can see in the video below that the target window is empty but the engine allow to retarget it anyway. After that the imported model’s skeleton got a preview skeletal mesh linked to him (WTF ???) and after that I could retarget the desired animation to the destiny

Here is the video

Man, this was a great WTF !?!?

I was searching how to manually set a preview mesh to a skeleton without success, but the video above proved a alternative way to do it =S is ugly as hell

Do you know a way to manually attach a preview skeletal mesh to a skeleton with none? =|

You should be able to right click the skeletal mesh and chose to “create Skeleton” - then when you select Humanoid rig type it has all of the bones pre-set.

yes, I tried this before =)… but, after creating this skeleton and selecting humanoid rig while editing it, this new skelly has no preview skeletal mesh on it when you mouse rollover it and a window popup showing some info about the asset… the lack of a preview skeletal mesh in the skeleton is the cause of this “issue” =S

That is where I’m lost. I am not familiar with “preview skeleton.”
There should be a physics asset defining the parts collisions.
A skeleton defining the joints/bones.
And any number of meshes assigned to use them as an animation format.

I’ve never had a situation come up where a mesh with the joints (named as they are) not automatically assign them to the rigging format, and requiring you to manually select them as you were doing.

And you’re absolutely right

I understand the “preview skeletal mesh” that the UE4 engine is talking about and the issue on my videos is a reference to one (or more) mesh used to wrap a animated skeleton

I don’t know why Mixamo model’s skeleton have no reference to the Mixamo model’s mesh (you can see that on my videos when I roll the mouse pointer ove the skeleton after import them, the Vanguard model from Mixamo), but if you compare with the UE4 default humanoid model, you can see the UE4 model’ skeleton has a reference to the UE4 model’s mesh as a preview skeleton mesh =), the UE4 model has no problem showing as a retargeting animation asset window’s source

I’ve posted this thread because I’m a newbie on UE4 and I was thinking why this is happening with the Mixamo’s models and not why other ones (I tested with some others models made on Maya and 3DS max), and I was looking for some feedback from people with more experience than me, to point if I was doing some basic mistake =S

I guess I will use both the traditional retargeting paths (both your way and the UE4 documentation way to retargeting an animation works flawless) for non Mixamo models and I have to accept the alternative way I posted here for the Mixamo ones

I really appreciate your support here, you’re very helpful =)

Tc and have a happy new year! See you in 2017! =)

Ps: if the humanity doesn’t destroy our world before that, things were bad on news today T_T

I hope the following link could help you:


It’s about how to set the preview mesh in the skeleton mode of the mesh.

Hey have you been able to fix this?

I had the same issue: For me even when the preview mesh was actually set up (you can check it under “preview scene settings” if you click on the little arrow in the top left in the main Persona window) or hover over your skeleton in the content browser) but still it was not showing up when in the anim retarget window!! How I fixed is simply, clear the selection in the setup preview mesh area, select the mesh again and relaunch the project. That fixed for me (I am on ver 16.2.)