Merging 2 Skeletons for animation

Hello, I have two separated rigs for the character and skateboard (skateboard has bones hierarchy too), imported to the Unreal engine as a seperate Skeletons (one for char and one for skateborad). Now, for the animations I have a scene in Maya, were loading two referenced rigs (char and skateboard) and I’m creating animations for both assets in one scene.
How can I create the same thing in Unreal in easiest way without programming (blueprints are ok)? So I need to merge two Skeletons in one, or in char Skeleton use referenced Skeleton for the skateboard and the animatons that is using bones from both rigs will be working proper in Unreal. Or the easiest way is just to merge skateboard into char rig in Maya and just export both? The thing is that I’m using 3rd person project preset in Unreal and retarget standard animations, if I’ll add skateboard to the hierarchy not sure if retarget will work proper unless there is a way to ignore skateboard for just those animations (like run, jump and etc).

Thanks in advance.

Hi Teho,

there a several way to do this, but when i read without programming i assume the easiest way is to merge both skeletons into a single one from maya and then manipulate it as a single skeletalmesh in UE4.

You could also export both the character and the board with their own skeleton and mesh and then attach one to the other in blueprint and everytime you play an animation on the character you’ll also play the matching one on the board (but this is more complex to setup).

Thank you, I’ll try your second suggestion, because already have imported to Unreal two separated skeletons. Maybe you can help me how can I add 2nd Skeleton to the character’s animation blueprint? I already added socket for the skateboard, character could pick up it in at runtime and attach to the leg, but maybe you can advice where I can find how to make it work with animation? So i need to do when pawn picked up the skateboard, the currently running animation for the character must apply to the skateboard’s skeleton too.

Teho, did you solved this problem this way? I have the same problem.

Do you have any ways using programming?