MakeHuman Community Wiki - User contributions [en]

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-15T09:45:14Z

Assetdk: /* Tutorials for using MPFB2 */

=MakeHuman Plugin For Blender=
This page is the "main" page for the Blender plugin - in effect an "index" for documentation and tutorials regarding MPFB2.

::{{#ev:youtube|ANnn8qKJMpc}} AfyEbJnB1rs

About loading assets to your character.

::{{#ev:youtube|AfyEbJnB1rs}}

This page will internally hold links for MPFB2 tutorials and development.

==Get MPFB2 here==
:: * '''[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19356&hilit=MPFB#p53411 Makehuman forum about MHFB2 ]'''
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2 MPFB2 on github]
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md MPFB2 status om github]
:: * '''[http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/ MPFB2 download the addon]

====Full announcement from Joel, made on the forum:====

::I have today opened up the git repo of MPFB 2, https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2, for public access.

::This is a complete rewrite of MPFB 1 with added features (rigify support, procedural eyes, rig helpers...) and much improved code structure and performance (imports are 3x faster for example). A list of changes can be found at https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/changes.md

::While some parts of MPFB 1 has not been ported yet (see https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md) and the official status is pre-alpha, I have used MPFB 2 a lot myself lately, and found it to be reasonably stable.

::MPFB 2 should be able to co-exist alongside MPFB 1, but it requires at least Blender 2.90.

::Nightly builds of MPFB 2 can be found at: http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/. Builds made when something relevant has changed can be found in the dist directory of the git repository. Most of the time the dist dir build and the nightly build will be exactly the same code.

==Tutorials for using MPFB2==
There are a few things you need know and do to get this running. Most importantly the current version of MPFB is depending on that you are running the MakeHuman program and Blender side by side. That is the blender version will try to reuse the assets and resources that are "provided" by the MakeHuman program. Also, at the time of writing, you must still use MakeHuman to download assets, that and other functionality is not yet ported to Blender.

==Developers resources==

I will start this by making some developers notes that could eventually compile into one or more tutorials.
I will keep adding more notes to this page, but I urge you to:

* Add comments
* Add tips and links to other tutorials
* Add your own code
* Request topics that you think would need to covered
* Add links to other addons that is useful for VSC and MBFP2

===Using VSCode===
I would recommend that you use VS Code since there is a very handy Blender Extension. This will help you as an experienced developer - and as a novice that wants to learn about Python and Blender.
Take a look at this tutorial to get a quick overview - and follow this link to install blender/ and VSCode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77mMpeoh3OI&t tutorial on installing blender/ and VSCode.]

::::{{#ev:youtube|q06-hER7Y1Q}}

Now - If that did not seem too bad, you can move on to the next pages dedicated to actually running MPFB2 from VS Code:

'''Go here >>>''' '''[[Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code]]'''

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-15T08:45:55Z

Assetdk: /* MakeHuman Plugin For Blender */

=MakeHuman Plugin For Blender=
This page is the "main" page for the Blender plugin - in effect an "index" for documentation and tutorials regarding MPFB2.

::{{#ev:youtube|ANnn8qKJMpc}} AfyEbJnB1rs

About loading assets to your character.

::{{#ev:youtube|AfyEbJnB1rs}}

This page will internally hold links for MPFB2 tutorials and development.

==Get MPFB2 here==
:: * '''[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19356&hilit=MPFB#p53411 Makehuman forum about MHFB2 ]'''
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2 MPFB2 on github]
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md MPFB2 status om github]
:: * '''[http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/ MPFB2 download the addon]

====Full announcement from Joel, made on the forum:====

::I have today opened up the git repo of MPFB 2, https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2, for public access.

::This is a complete rewrite of MPFB 1 with added features (rigify support, procedural eyes, rig helpers...) and much improved code structure and performance (imports are 3x faster for example). A list of changes can be found at https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/changes.md

::While some parts of MPFB 1 has not been ported yet (see https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md) and the official status is pre-alpha, I have used MPFB 2 a lot myself lately, and found it to be reasonably stable.

::MPFB 2 should be able to co-exist alongside MPFB 1, but it requires at least Blender 2.90.

::Nightly builds of MPFB 2 can be found at: http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/. Builds made when something relevant has changed can be found in the dist directory of the git repository. Most of the time the dist dir build and the nightly build will be exactly the same code.

==Tutorials for using MPFB2==
There are a few things you need know and do to get this running. Most importantly the current version of MPFB is depending on that you are running the MakeHuman program and Blender side by side. That is the blender version will try to reuse the assets and resources that are "provided" by the MakeHuman program. Also, at the time of writing, you must still use MakeHuman to download assets, that and functionality is not yet ported to Blender.

==Developers resources==

I will start this by making some developers notes that could eventually compile into one or more tutorials.
I will keep adding more notes to this page, but I urge you to:

* Add comments
* Add tips and links to other tutorials
* Add your own code
* Request topics that you think would need to covered
* Add links to other addons that is useful for VSC and MBFP2

===Using VSCode===
I would recommend that you use VS Code since there is a very handy Blender Extension. This will help you as an experienced developer - and as a novice that wants to learn about Python and Blender.
Take a look at this tutorial to get a quick overview - and follow this link to install blender/ and VSCode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77mMpeoh3OI&t tutorial on installing blender/ and VSCode.]

::::{{#ev:youtube|q06-hER7Y1Q}}

Now - If that did not seem too bad, you can move on to the next pages dedicated to actually running MPFB2 from VS Code:

'''Go here >>>''' '''[[Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code]]'''

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-15T08:43:46Z

Assetdk: /* Tutorials for using MPFB2 */

=MakeHuman Plugin For Blender=
This page is the "main" page for the Blender plugin - in effect an "index" for documentation and tutorials regarding MPFB2.

::{{#ev:youtube|ANnn8qKJMpc}}

This page will internally hold links for MPFB2 tutorials and development.

==Get MPFB2 here==
:: * '''[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19356&hilit=MPFB#p53411 Makehuman forum about MHFB2 ]'''
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2 MPFB2 on github]
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md MPFB2 status om github]
:: * '''[http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/ MPFB2 download the addon]

====Full announcement from Joel, made on the forum:====

::I have today opened up the git repo of MPFB 2, https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2, for public access.

::This is a complete rewrite of MPFB 1 with added features (rigify support, procedural eyes, rig helpers...) and much improved code structure and performance (imports are 3x faster for example). A list of changes can be found at https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/changes.md

::While some parts of MPFB 1 has not been ported yet (see https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md) and the official status is pre-alpha, I have used MPFB 2 a lot myself lately, and found it to be reasonably stable.

::MPFB 2 should be able to co-exist alongside MPFB 1, but it requires at least Blender 2.90.

::Nightly builds of MPFB 2 can be found at: http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/. Builds made when something relevant has changed can be found in the dist directory of the git repository. Most of the time the dist dir build and the nightly build will be exactly the same code.

==Tutorials for using MPFB2==
There are a few things you need know and do to get this running. Most importantly the current version of MPFB is depending on that you are running the MakeHuman program and Blender side by side. That is the blender version will try to reuse the assets and resources that are "provided" by the MakeHuman program. Also, at the time of writing, you must still use MakeHuman to download assets, that and functionality is not yet ported to Blender.

==Developers resources==

I will start this by making some developers notes that could eventually compile into one or more tutorials.
I will keep adding more notes to this page, but I urge you to:

* Add comments
* Add tips and links to other tutorials
* Add your own code
* Request topics that you think would need to covered
* Add links to other addons that is useful for VSC and MBFP2

===Using VSCode===
I would recommend that you use VS Code since there is a very handy Blender Extension. This will help you as an experienced developer - and as a novice that wants to learn about Python and Blender.
Take a look at this tutorial to get a quick overview - and follow this link to install blender/ and VSCode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77mMpeoh3OI&t tutorial on installing blender/ and VSCode.]

::::{{#ev:youtube|q06-hER7Y1Q}}

Now - If that did not seem too bad, you can move on to the next pages dedicated to actually running MPFB2 from VS Code:

'''Go here >>>''' '''[[Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code]]'''

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-13T09:52:04Z

Assetdk: /* Getting started */

Go back to [[Documentation:MPFB|MakeHuman Plugin For Blender - main page]]

=MPFB2 getting started with VS code=
On this page you will find notes, tips and hints - in general I intend to make notes on how MPFB2 was implemented as I learn and hopefully this can help others to understand the addon, debut it, make extensions/suggestions and perhaps you can even learn how to make your own addon?

==Getting started==

As of now VS code - actually Visual Studio Code - will be refereed to as VSC. For your information VSC is a free version of the professional tool called Visual Studio, Both are provided by Microsoft. Visual Studio is used by companies that have a portfolio of software and it is often used as a front end for different repository systems, this is needed when you have complex systems and a need for keeping track of software versions. If you use VSC you will learn a bit... but never mind, lets get to the first issue you may run into.

===Running the addon, startup to-do===
I found that the addon currently depends on that you have MetaHuman (1.2.0?) running already. The addon will try to connect with this and "reuse" some of the setup...

===The very first issue!!===

Getting Blender running from VSC, you need to open the folder in VSC and ctrl-shift-p and select the runtime - in my case D:\Blender\stable\blender-2.92.0-windows64\blender.exe - but if you do this like I did you will just see Blender start up and then pass-away. if you are new to VSC you may not notice that there is a message about this on the console - the operative part is: PermissionError:. This rather meaningless, however but what happen is that did already install the addon with this Blender version 2.92.0... and in short you need to unload and uninstall the addon you want to run/debug in VSC.

This is what Blender should look like when running from VSC - I highlighted tree things:

* It looks like 2.9.2 (or perhaps MBPF2) adds collections to the Scene: Mesh/Rig/Collision/Extras.
* When running from VSC you will get a extra DEV tool-tab, this is good to know i you are running Blender both ways.
* When running from VSC the add on gets installed - and it will '''remain installed as is,''' when you run (the same) Blender stand alone without VSC.
::[[File:MPFB2-VS1.PNG|800px]]

:
===The 2nd issue - upgrade the addon!===
Well perhaps not, but you may well run into this - as did I.

You can not (always) simply install the latest version of the addon on top of a older version. I ran into this and was happy that I made a backup. To install the first version I downloaded mpfb2-latest.zip, unpacked the files directly in a folder called Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest and ran VSCode from that folder. These are the steps you need to follow, to go to the new version:

* Open blender 2.9, disable the MPFB2 addon and close Blender
* Move the old zip file to Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest
* Rename the old folder Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest to say * Move the old zip file to Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest-1
* Download a new version of the mpfb2-latest.zip MPFB file.

Now you should be able to run the new version from VSCode as it were. You will get a message:
::Could not read preference mpfb_user_data

If you set the preferences they are now "lost", I don't know where it is saved...

===Blender preferences===
This is what the MPFB preferences look like in the current version.
::[[File:MPFB2-Options.PNG]]

Please note that the auto discover appears to depend on the running MetaHuman program.

===Developer options===
These are the developer option:
::[[File:MPFB2-DeveloperOptions.PNG]]

===Using GitHub?!===

Placeholder for how to get the addon.

===Inspect an error===

Placeholder for looking at the console and reporting errors.

===Debug the code===

Placeholder for "digging in" and inspecting the code.

===Adding your own code===

Placeholder for - how to "sample" the existing code, adding your own menus/buttons and functions.

===MFB2 in Blender===

Placeholder for "how are the MPFB2 components organized in Blender".

===Useful Blender things===

Placeholder for learning to use Blender via MPFB2!

===Useful VSC things and extensions===

Placeholder for VSC specific tips.

===Useful Blender addons===

Placeholder for addon specific tips.

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-13T09:48:29Z

Assetdk: /* Blender preferences */

Go back to [[Documentation:MPFB|MakeHuman Plugin For Blender - main page]]

=MPFB2 getting started with VS code=
On this page you will find notes, tips and hints - in general I intend to make notes on how MPFB2 was implemented as I learn and hopefully this can help others to understand the addon, debut it, make extensions/suggestions and perhaps you can even learn how to make your own addon?

==Getting started==

As of now VS code - actually Visual Studio Code - will be refereed to as VSC. For your information VSC is a free version of the professional tool called Visual Studio, Both are provided by Microsoft. Visual Studio is used by companies that have a portfolio of software and it is often used as a front end for different repository systems, this is needed when you have complex systems and a need for keeping track of software versions. If you use VSC you will learn a bit... but never mind, lets get to the first issue you may run into.

===The very first issue!!===

Getting Blender running from VSC, you need to open the folder in VSC and ctrl-shift-p and select the runtime - in my case D:\Blender\stable\blender-2.92.0-windows64\blender.exe - but if you do this like I did you will just see Blender start up and then pass-away. if you are new to VSC you may not notice that there is a message about this on the console - the operative part is: PermissionError:. This rather meaningless, however but what happen is that did already install the addon with this Blender version 2.92.0... and in short you need to unload and uninstall the addon you want to run/debug in VSC.

This is what Blender should look like when running from VSC - I highlighted tree things:

* It looks like 2.9.2 (or perhaps MBPF2) adds collections to the Scene: Mesh/Rig/Collision/Extras.
* When running from VSC you will get a extra DEV tool-tab, this is good to know i you are running Blender both ways.
* When running from VSC the add on gets installed - and it will '''remain installed as is,''' when you run (the same) Blender stand alone without VSC.
::[[File:MPFB2-VS1.PNG|800px]]

:
===The 2nd issue - upgrade the addon!===
Well perhaps not, but you may well run into this - as did I.

You can not (always) simply install the latest version of the addon on top of a older version. I ran into this and was happy that I made a backup. To install the first version I downloaded mpfb2-latest.zip, unpacked the files directly in a folder called Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest and ran VSCode from that folder. These are the steps you need to follow, to go to the new version:

* Open blender 2.9, disable the MPFB2 addon and close Blender
* Move the old zip file to Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest
* Rename the old folder Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest to say * Move the old zip file to Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest-1
* Download a new version of the mpfb2-latest.zip MPFB file.

Now you should be able to run the new version from VSCode as it were. You will get a message:
::Could not read preference mpfb_user_data

If you set the preferences they are now "lost", I don't know where it is saved...

===Blender preferences===
This is what the MPFB preferences look like in the current version.
::[[File:MPFB2-Options.PNG]]

Please note that the auto discover appears to depend on the running MetaHuman program.

===Developer options===
These are the developer option:
::[[File:MPFB2-DeveloperOptions.PNG]]

===Using GitHub?!===

Placeholder for how to get the addon.

===Inspect an error===

Placeholder for looking at the console and reporting errors.

===Debug the code===

Placeholder for "digging in" and inspecting the code.

===Adding your own code===

Placeholder for - how to "sample" the existing code, adding your own menus/buttons and functions.

===MFB2 in Blender===

Placeholder for "how are the MPFB2 components organized in Blender".

===Useful Blender things===

Placeholder for learning to use Blender via MPFB2!

===Useful VSC things and extensions===

Placeholder for VSC specific tips.

===Useful Blender addons===

Placeholder for addon specific tips.

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-13T09:28:04Z

Assetdk: /* The very first issue!! */

Go back to [[Documentation:MPFB|MakeHuman Plugin For Blender - main page]]

=MPFB2 getting started with VS code=
On this page you will find notes, tips and hints - in general I intend to make notes on how MPFB2 was implemented as I learn and hopefully this can help others to understand the addon, debut it, make extensions/suggestions and perhaps you can even learn how to make your own addon?

==Getting started==

As of now VS code - actually Visual Studio Code - will be refereed to as VSC. For your information VSC is a free version of the professional tool called Visual Studio, Both are provided by Microsoft. Visual Studio is used by companies that have a portfolio of software and it is often used as a front end for different repository systems, this is needed when you have complex systems and a need for keeping track of software versions. If you use VSC you will learn a bit... but never mind, lets get to the first issue you may run into.

===The very first issue!!===

Getting Blender running from VSC, you need to open the folder in VSC and ctrl-shift-p and select the runtime - in my case D:\Blender\stable\blender-2.92.0-windows64\blender.exe - but if you do this like I did you will just see Blender start up and then pass-away. if you are new to VSC you may not notice that there is a message about this on the console - the operative part is: PermissionError:. This rather meaningless, however but what happen is that did already install the addon with this Blender version 2.92.0... and in short you need to unload and uninstall the addon you want to run/debug in VSC.

This is what Blender should look like when running from VSC - I highlighted tree things:

* It looks like 2.9.2 (or perhaps MBPF2) adds collections to the Scene: Mesh/Rig/Collision/Extras.
* When running from VSC you will get a extra DEV tool-tab, this is good to know i you are running Blender both ways.
* When running from VSC the add on gets installed - and it will '''remain installed as is,''' when you run (the same) Blender stand alone without VSC.
::[[File:MPFB2-VS1.PNG|800px]]

:
===The 2nd issue - upgrade the addon!===
Well perhaps not, but you may well run into this - as did I.

You can not (always) simply install the latest version of the addon on top of a older version. I ran into this and was happy that I made a backup. To install the first version I downloaded mpfb2-latest.zip, unpacked the files directly in a folder called Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest and ran VSCode from that folder. These are the steps you need to follow, to go to the new version:

* Open blender 2.9, disable the MPFB2 addon and close Blender
* Move the old zip file to Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest
* Rename the old folder Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest to say * Move the old zip file to Blender/addon/mpfb2-latest-1
* Download a new version of the mpfb2-latest.zip MPFB file.

Now you should be able to run the new version from VSCode as it were. You will get a message:
::Could not read preference mpfb_user_data

If you set the preferences they are now "lost", I don't know where it is saved...

===Blender preferences===
This is what the MPFB preferences look like in the current version.
::[[File:MPFB2-Options.PNG]]
===Developer options===
These are the developer option:
::[[File:MPFB2-DeveloperOptions.PNG]]

===Using GitHub?!===

Placeholder for how to get the addon.

===Inspect an error===

Placeholder for looking at the console and reporting errors.

===Debug the code===

Placeholder for "digging in" and inspecting the code.

===Adding your own code===

Placeholder for - how to "sample" the existing code, adding your own menus/buttons and functions.

===MFB2 in Blender===

Placeholder for "how are the MPFB2 components organized in Blender".

===Useful Blender things===

Placeholder for learning to use Blender via MPFB2!

===Useful VSC things and extensions===

Placeholder for VSC specific tips.

===Useful Blender addons===

Placeholder for addon specific tips.

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-13T09:03:38Z

Assetdk: /* Using VSCode */

=MakeHuman Plugin For Blender=
This page is the "main" page for the Blender plugin - in effect an "index" for documentation and tutorials regarding MPFB2.

::{{#ev:youtube|ANnn8qKJMpc}}

This page will internally hold links for MPFB2 tutorials and development.

==Get MPFB2 here==
:: * '''[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19356&hilit=MPFB#p53411 Makehuman forum about MHFB2 ]'''
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2 MPFB2 on github]
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md MPFB2 status om github]
:: * '''[http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/ MPFB2 download the addon]

====Full announcement from Joel, made on the forum:====

::I have today opened up the git repo of MPFB 2, https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2, for public access.

::This is a complete rewrite of MPFB 1 with added features (rigify support, procedural eyes, rig helpers...) and much improved code structure and performance (imports are 3x faster for example). A list of changes can be found at https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/changes.md

::While some parts of MPFB 1 has not been ported yet (see https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md) and the official status is pre-alpha, I have used MPFB 2 a lot myself lately, and found it to be reasonably stable.

::MPFB 2 should be able to co-exist alongside MPFB 1, but it requires at least Blender 2.90.

::Nightly builds of MPFB 2 can be found at: http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/. Builds made when something relevant has changed can be found in the dist directory of the git repository. Most of the time the dist dir build and the nightly build will be exactly the same code.

==Tutorials for using MPFB2==

==Developers resources==

I will start this by making some developers notes that could eventually compile into one or more tutorials.
I will keep adding more notes to this page, but I urge you to:

* Add comments
* Add tips and links to other tutorials
* Add your own code
* Request topics that you think would need to covered
* Add links to other addons that is useful for VSC and MBFP2

===Using VSCode===
I would recommend that you use VS Code since there is a very handy Blender Extension. This will help you as an experienced developer - and as a novice that wants to learn about Python and Blender.
Take a look at this tutorial to get a quick overview - and follow this link to install blender/ and VSCode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77mMpeoh3OI&t tutorial on installing blender/ and VSCode.]

::::{{#ev:youtube|q06-hER7Y1Q}}

Now - If that did not seem too bad, you can move on to the next pages dedicated to actually running MPFB2 from VS Code:

'''Go here >>>''' '''[[Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code]]'''

Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there

2021-05-11T20:00:29Z

Assetdk: /* UE4 import, and retarget */

::'''Please take a look at this page: [[Documentation:MH4UE|MH4UE]] - to get an overview of things you can use to get your Makehuman characters into Unreal Engine!'''

Also look at the Forum here for more tips [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=52859&hilit=MH4UE#p52859 MH4UE].

There are, currently, several pages for this, describing the process of getting MH to Blender and then into Unreal. And one describing the addon that will add more "shape keys" to your characters (while in blender).

* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_and_how_to_import_them_there|Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there]].
* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_Materials|How to setup Unreal materials]].
* [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].
* [[Documentation:MHBlenderTools: MakeShapes|MakeShapes - getting more shape keys/morph targets]]

* [[Documentation:MPFB|MakeHuman Plugin For Blender]].

=What can and can't be done?=
I have been working on getting different characters into UE4 for some time, and this have been a real hassle!

On this page I want to summarize what I managed to get done using a workflow that involves Blender. I have had a focus on not going into much details regarding any of the tools, but you will need to know a few things. Even though this looks like a trivial task there are some pitfalls and also there are some things that can not be done, or I have just not found out how to. I will eventually also add links to all the YT tutorials I found helpful.

I found that working with Makehuman very easy, so focus will be very UE4 how to specific.

This is what I will cover thus far:

* Create and save any MH character in Makehuman. Basic stuff, and important things to avoid.
* Getting the character into Blender - import or link?
* Setup Blender for Export, shape keys and morph targets
* First import into UE4
* Introduction to more shape keys
* Mixamo animations

This is the stuff that I did not cover - yet:

* Animations for talking (other tutorials may help)
* Making custom cloth
* Hair

This is the stuff I can not get to work:
* Retargeting to Advanced Locomotion System V3/4
* ALS got something to work! [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there/ALS]]

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine ALS V4]]

Since I am using/learning Blender 2.8, I want to share a bit of bonus info. I managed to make one of the free UE4 packages work a bit "better". That is your characters should have some transportation. This is how:

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine Vehicle Variety Pack]]

=Getting started=
I wanted a quick way to populate a UE4 game, preferably with an unlimited number of varied characters of high quality. This has proven to be a bit harder than expected. The workflow for making characters is not as trivial as one would want but this guide should make it a bit more easy to do. I will focus on describing the "straight" path from Makehuman and into UE4 - so you will not find too much details about Blender. Please refer to Blender specific pages for more on that.

==Need to know==
There are a few terms that you need to know, say you need to know that you will import FBX, textures and other files into UE4. Also you will need to know that a Character consists of a '''Mesh''', a '''Skeleton''' and '''''materials''''' (that refers to textures). I will try to elaborate on these subjects as we go along...

==Making a base-character==

'''IMPORTANT new comment:'''
There is now tree different custom A-poses that you can use - i currently recommend the one highlighted in the list.
Please read more in the [[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=53368#p53368 forum]], for more information.
===Set up Base-Character(s)===
Makehuman provides a range of predefined characters that is supposed to work as-is. You can just load a character, export it to FBX and import that into UE4 - and after a bit of work you can have a working player character! There are however a few pitfalls, so I suggest you make one (or more) base-character(s) that you can elaborate on as you go along. I will be working with ''''''averagedude'''''' as my base-character.

These are the steps to make the base characters:

* Open Makehuman

* Select the files tab and load the character

'''Under 'Geometries''''
* Remove cloth - (uncheck Hide faces under cloth)!
* Remove hair
* Add Teeth
* Choose Topology - '''I have no advice on this - but see comment below!'''
* Chose Eyebrows/Eyelashes, these can be changed as you go along - as can eye colors!
* Add Tongue01 (again I have no advice/recommendation on that, yet)

'''Under 'Materials'''' - I will show you how to work with UE4 "advanced" materials:
* Chose any skin that you like,
* Chose any eyes that you like

'''Under 'Pose/Animate''''
* Chose Skeleton: Uengine - if you do not have this already you my get it via the community tab?
* Chose Expressions: none

* For the POSE chose the Apose_ue
* [[File:MH_UE_Poses.png]]

* Finally, from one of the poses documentations I found this comment: This pose is a near drop in fit for the Unreal mannequin using a generic male with standard proportions and 187.5 cm height.
(You should probably use this, I have been using a height of 168-190, where the better result came from 190)

And this is it! But there is one 'important' option you need know about - you need to '''uncheck''' the Smooth button!

The smooth button/option: [[File:MH-Smooth-option.png]] should be unchecked... that will make your character a bit less attractive, but this will preserve the shape-keys!

Makehuman comes with some 50-60 '''shape-keys''' and these will all be available as '''morph-targets''' in UE4. I will show you how to make more shape-keys, using makehuman+blender!

Now it is time to save your base-character - even though you have made very few changes to the file you should save this file under the save tab and name it
<your-name>-base (say averagedude-base), you can even add your very own tag 'base' to this.

When you save the file like this you will be able to reload it, and we need that later!

====Choose Topology/Shape keys====
When you make your base character without smoothing you get shape keys, and you want to share these between different characters. Specifically you would probably want to share face morphs between male and female characters - and there may be other base character variations, say old/young/child etc.

Later I will focus on how to make new shape keys, using blender - depending on how you want to do this you may want to '''chose Topology that is compatible between the different characters!''' That is you may be able to transfer one "shape" from a male character to a female character, but the result will depend on ''topology compatibility''. I will/may thus update this section to make sure

'''Shape key names''' will be the same for all of the base characters, as they come from - however you will be able to make new keys. You must name these keys the same for all MH characters, like these share the same skeleton (MH_Skelton) they must hold all the same shape keys names. If they don't your game may "break"....

===Export your base-character===
You can now take a break - or you can export your work. There are really tree options for you to look at:

* Save the FBX file directly - make sure to chose the binary file format, if you want to import this file to UE.
* Save a MHX2 file (you may need to install this as a option/utility, find our elsewhere!)
* Load the character to '''Blender''' directly via the link (I will get back to what can be done using that!)

I suggest that you save your base-character now, in both formats - FBX and MHX2! Make a specific 'Base-Characters' folder, because you will need it!

When you export the FBX use these options:

[[File:MH-FBX-export-options.png]]

This is the result for me, you should see something like this also:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder.png]]

You should also see that there is a sub-folder, called Textures - this is where the different textures are saved and it should now look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures.png]]

You can now go over all of the different textures, so you will have a wide selection to chose from. Textures are saved every time you save a FBX file!
Say, I change the base-characters textures, saved the FBX - and this is what I got:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures2.png]]

===Import your base-character to UE4 - FBX===
The FBX file will actually import directly to UE4, but there are a few problems! You should export your FBX file as Binary FBX, and you will get the most out of it. After this you can get to this result (after adjusting the materials, as seen below):

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported.png]]

Your character can look like this (after adjusting materials) - pretty good:

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported-materials.png]]

'''HOWEVER, you have lost the morph-targets! And as you probably noticed, the UE4 standard FBX import do import them!'''

I will get back to what to do about the shape-keys... but let make the materials first?

==Makehuman UE4 materials==
The details for setting up materials was moved to this section: '''[[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine Materials|Materials]]'''

====Customization====
The skin can now be modified using a simple interface in the game. The prototype for this can be seen here: [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].

===More materials?===

You can simply drag and drop more textures from the the base-character/textures folder, then duplicate and rename the materials, and apply different textures to the renamed materials. At some point I want to be able to customize/randomize (NPC) characters, but I have not yet done that.

Also you can make materials instances with parameters... I will show you howto, but first we need to turn shape-keys into morph-targets.

=Use Blender v 2.80 to get more!!=
For some reason the exported FBX file is not organized in a way so you will get the shape-keys imported directly to UE4. However when you follow the next steps, you will not get the correct materials imported, so I recommend that you run FBX import as shown above, and save the textures/materials in a separate folder.

If you are new to Blender please run a few tutorials specifically on on how to import/export, and also get to know about collections - you can do a lot in Blender and you can get confused!

==What will be done here?==
I will show you how to:

* Import your MHX2 files, to preserve the shape-keys
* Export FBX files, so UE4 will import correctly with morph-targets
* Apply expressions etc. to your base character
* Import these to your Blender file and apply the expressions as '''new shape keys'''

==But, first import and inspect FBX and MHX2!==
As you may remember you exported two files, the FBX file and the MHX2 file. You want to import both of these files into Blender, so you need two Collections, called FBX and MHX2. You right-click on the 'Scene collection' select 'New' and rename the collections to 'FBX' and 'MHX2'... I also added Scene collection and dragged the Camera and Light there (as I deleted the box). After this you should see something link this (the small Icons may be different):

[[File:MH-Base-Blender-setup.png]]

When you import your FBX file select/highlight the FBX collection, so the FBX data get imported into that collection. You can use the standard import options. For MHX2 you need to change the setting to match those you see below - when you find they are correct you can click the + sign, marked with a yellow arrow, and save the setting with your own setting-name.
(You may notice that the character you imported is out of proportions, some 17-18 meters high, we will correct that when we export to UE4!)
[[File:MH-Blender-FBX-import-options.png]]

===Inspect the results, in Blender===
Now is a good time to save the Blender file. You should save this in the same folder as the FBX and MHX2. I call this file averagedude-base.blend.

If you did this approximately as described the result should be munch like below. And you will probably notice that there is some structural differences. You can see that by looking at the small icons [[File:MH-Blender-base-imported-icons.png]], that represent where modifiers, vertex groups and Object data is stored! Specifically the Object data holds the shape-keys and those were not imported. (perhaps because I did not use the correct FBX import options - but the same happens in UE4!).

[[File:MH-Blender-base-imported.png]]

You will notice that the MHX2 version of your character holds the Object data (the triangle) and that shape-keys can be seen there!

==Export the FBX for your base character, and import to UE4==
The next step is crucial for getting things to work in UE4, it is not very complicated but you need to have a plan.

When you did this correctly you should be able to get the following results:

* Import your base character into UE4
* Create retargeting for your common skeleton - called MH_Skeleton
* Retarget the Maniqin animations to your base character(s)
* Get additional Mixamo animations
===FBX export settings===
'''Important!''' Before you go any further you should rename your base character to '''main_root''', like this:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-main-root.png]]

.... you should do this for all base characters! main_root will be the root bone in your skeleton. When you do it like this, all of your base characters will be able to share the same skeleton!

Now select the MHX2 collection where you have the character, and go to Export FBX.

I have made a 'Operator preset' for the FBX export, this is the options you need to set:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-operator-presets.png]]

Place the FBX file in the same folder as where you placed the original FBX and the MHX2. You probably do not need the FBX that you made with Makehuman, and you can always make it again?
(You may however want to export more FBX files from Makehuman, simply to get all of the textures. We will look more into how you can use the skin textures!)

==UE4 import, and retarget ==
Go to your UE4 project and make a MH folder containing a new avaragedude folder, and import your base character there!
During the import of the FBX file from Blender into UE4 you must enable the '''Import Morp Targets''' checkbox manually (expand the Mesh section)!

Observe that this character looks very much like the one you did already import from the original FBX, there are little difference - yet you want to set up this as your real base character.

Also you want to rename the skeleton to '''MH_Skeleton'''! And you want to open the skeleton, and retarget it to the humanoid rig... this should look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Skeleton-Retarget.png]]

Make sure that your character is in T-Pose, as you want to retarget the Mannequin animations to your characters MH_Skeleton!
Make a animation folder in your MH, perhaps even Mannequin folder?

You go to the UE4 folder: Content/Mannequin/Animations and right-click on this animation: '''ThirdPerson_AnimBP'''

Select retarget and choose MH_Skeleton as your target - also select the animation folder you made before, something like this:
[[File:MH-Base-Animation-Retarget.png]]

'''Important update:''' You want to use the Pose called '''"UE4 A-Pose for generic male"''' - that can be downloaded from the Community/Download assets/pose.

You may want to rename your new ThirdPerson_AnimBP to '''''MH''_ThirdPerson_AnimBP''' - or perhaps simply MH_AnimBP?

===Translation Retargeting===
After the retargeting the animations will still look odd. You go to the skeleton tree, then check off the "Show Retargeting Options" and set those at and below the spline to Skeleton (recursively) - that looks something like this:
:(Make sure to set the translation to skeleton for ALL bones, but the two first ones)
[[File:MH-Anim-Skeleton.png]]

=More shape keys, made in Blender 2.8=
I have not yet made any target in MH, also I have not had much luck in using the two blender addons. Frankly I don't really understand what the different buttons does, most of them are not active... perhaps they make sens if you use Blender a lot?

But I will show you different ways to get expressions, targets and skeleton animations(!) to shape keys, so then will be new morph targets in UE4!

Before you get started you should probably look at a few Blender tutorials regarding this - these are good:

===Tutorials===

General introduction to MHX2 import and animation. However '''do not''' import the resulting characters into UE4?

{{#ev:youtube|2P1t_nogbGs}}

Short general introduction to using shape keys in Blender 2.8:

{{#ev:youtube|e675Ulc7QL4}}

==Expressions and targets==
Make sure that you have your original base character saved and load it into Makehuman. Remember to check that your base character is in the T-Pose, do not change that!

'''Just in case:''' I recommend that you keep a copy of this file as well as all the blender file etc.

You should also have Blender open and load the .blender file where you saved both your FBX and the MHX2.
Before you go on do as follows: move the MHX2 character to x 10m, so the entire character moves to the left (right to your front view) - this will make it more easy for you to work with! (Save the blender file!)

'''This is the general workflow for transfer of expressions:'''

Makehuman:
* Go to the Pose/Animate tab and select Expressions. From the list select the first expression, Anger01.
* Save the character as .mhx2 - but to a different file name: averagedude-base-expression.mhx2.

Blender:
* In blender, deselect all the collections
* Import the file you made, using the same operator presets as yo saved them.
* Activate your Base character collection and you will have two characters side by side - one base character and a very angry one!
* Go to object mode
* '''Left-click-select''' the angry guy first, then '''shift-left-click''' your base character.
* Go to the vertex tab/shape key, and click on the little down arrow, and select the ''Join as shapes'' - like this:
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey1.png]]
This will make a brand new shape key: Averagedude_base_expression:Proxy

* You rename the shape key by a double-click and call it '''Exp_Anger01'''..
* ... and assign the Vertex group to head
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey2.png]]

In case you can not select ''Join as shapes'' the two characters were not selected in the right order, or perhaps the topology is not the same. Blender will show this as a message some where at the bottom of the screen. I this happens try the blender workflow, in this paragraph only , again!

You can now try to change the value for the shape key, and you should see that your base character can get angry!

When this worked for you you can save the blender file! And you should now do your very first re-import of the FBX. You save your base character in a FBX and Import it to UE4. To be 100% safe you can save and import to different names and folders, but in the end you will re-import the base character each time you do one or more new shape keys.

When you see this working in UE4, you can go on to the next expressions - I simply delete the Averagedude_base_expression collection and save the next expression in the same file. You can naturally do as many expressions as you want. leave some out etc... as you like!

==Observations about Blender 2.8==
You may notice that you can mess this up, so please save your blender file and back up! Say you can easily merge your base character with the expression MHX2 or do something else to corrupt your work!

Please also note that the Vertex Group/relative to, '''head''' and '''Basis''', are rather important! The shape key will change the entire body, to the T-Pose, if head is not set. Likewise you can make some shape keys relative to an other shape key - this will be important a bit later, when we do more "advanced" stuff!

=Blender 2.8 - a bit more advanced?=
This is very fine - we can make your base character use all the expressions, and they can be combined! Also you can tamper with them in UE4, say you can combine them and you can even set minus values, or extreme values not "allowed" in Blender. But you obviously want more than that?

Perhaps you can find some special "targets" you want to use?

Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there

2021-05-11T19:54:01Z

Assetdk: /* Translation Retargeting */

::'''Please take a look at this page: [[Documentation:MH4UE|MH4UE]] - to get an overview of things you can use to get your Makehuman characters into Unreal Engine!'''

Also look at the Forum here for more tips [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=52859&hilit=MH4UE#p52859 MH4UE].

There are, currently, several pages for this, describing the process of getting MH to Blender and then into Unreal. And one describing the addon that will add more "shape keys" to your characters (while in blender).

* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_and_how_to_import_them_there|Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there]].
* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_Materials|How to setup Unreal materials]].
* [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].
* [[Documentation:MHBlenderTools: MakeShapes|MakeShapes - getting more shape keys/morph targets]]

* [[Documentation:MPFB|MakeHuman Plugin For Blender]].

=What can and can't be done?=
I have been working on getting different characters into UE4 for some time, and this have been a real hassle!

On this page I want to summarize what I managed to get done using a workflow that involves Blender. I have had a focus on not going into much details regarding any of the tools, but you will need to know a few things. Even though this looks like a trivial task there are some pitfalls and also there are some things that can not be done, or I have just not found out how to. I will eventually also add links to all the YT tutorials I found helpful.

I found that working with Makehuman very easy, so focus will be very UE4 how to specific.

This is what I will cover thus far:

* Create and save any MH character in Makehuman. Basic stuff, and important things to avoid.
* Getting the character into Blender - import or link?
* Setup Blender for Export, shape keys and morph targets
* First import into UE4
* Introduction to more shape keys
* Mixamo animations

This is the stuff that I did not cover - yet:

* Animations for talking (other tutorials may help)
* Making custom cloth
* Hair

This is the stuff I can not get to work:
* Retargeting to Advanced Locomotion System V3/4
* ALS got something to work! [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there/ALS]]

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine ALS V4]]

Since I am using/learning Blender 2.8, I want to share a bit of bonus info. I managed to make one of the free UE4 packages work a bit "better". That is your characters should have some transportation. This is how:

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine Vehicle Variety Pack]]

=Getting started=
I wanted a quick way to populate a UE4 game, preferably with an unlimited number of varied characters of high quality. This has proven to be a bit harder than expected. The workflow for making characters is not as trivial as one would want but this guide should make it a bit more easy to do. I will focus on describing the "straight" path from Makehuman and into UE4 - so you will not find too much details about Blender. Please refer to Blender specific pages for more on that.

==Need to know==
There are a few terms that you need to know, say you need to know that you will import FBX, textures and other files into UE4. Also you will need to know that a Character consists of a '''Mesh''', a '''Skeleton''' and '''''materials''''' (that refers to textures). I will try to elaborate on these subjects as we go along...

==Making a base-character==

'''IMPORTANT new comment:'''
There is now tree different custom A-poses that you can use - i currently recommend the one highlighted in the list.
Please read more in the [[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=53368#p53368 forum]], for more information.
===Set up Base-Character(s)===
Makehuman provides a range of predefined characters that is supposed to work as-is. You can just load a character, export it to FBX and import that into UE4 - and after a bit of work you can have a working player character! There are however a few pitfalls, so I suggest you make one (or more) base-character(s) that you can elaborate on as you go along. I will be working with ''''''averagedude'''''' as my base-character.

These are the steps to make the base characters:

* Open Makehuman

* Select the files tab and load the character

'''Under 'Geometries''''
* Remove cloth - (uncheck Hide faces under cloth)!
* Remove hair
* Add Teeth
* Choose Topology - '''I have no advice on this - but see comment below!'''
* Chose Eyebrows/Eyelashes, these can be changed as you go along - as can eye colors!
* Add Tongue01 (again I have no advice/recommendation on that, yet)

'''Under 'Materials'''' - I will show you how to work with UE4 "advanced" materials:
* Chose any skin that you like,
* Chose any eyes that you like

'''Under 'Pose/Animate''''
* Chose Skeleton: Uengine - if you do not have this already you my get it via the community tab?
* Chose Expressions: none

* For the POSE chose the Apose_ue
* [[File:MH_UE_Poses.png]]

* Finally, from one of the poses documentations I found this comment: This pose is a near drop in fit for the Unreal mannequin using a generic male with standard proportions and 187.5 cm height.
(You should probably use this, I have been using a height of 168-190, where the better result came from 190)

And this is it! But there is one 'important' option you need know about - you need to '''uncheck''' the Smooth button!

The smooth button/option: [[File:MH-Smooth-option.png]] should be unchecked... that will make your character a bit less attractive, but this will preserve the shape-keys!

Makehuman comes with some 50-60 '''shape-keys''' and these will all be available as '''morph-targets''' in UE4. I will show you how to make more shape-keys, using makehuman+blender!

Now it is time to save your base-character - even though you have made very few changes to the file you should save this file under the save tab and name it
<your-name>-base (say averagedude-base), you can even add your very own tag 'base' to this.

When you save the file like this you will be able to reload it, and we need that later!

====Choose Topology/Shape keys====
When you make your base character without smoothing you get shape keys, and you want to share these between different characters. Specifically you would probably want to share face morphs between male and female characters - and there may be other base character variations, say old/young/child etc.

Later I will focus on how to make new shape keys, using blender - depending on how you want to do this you may want to '''chose Topology that is compatible between the different characters!''' That is you may be able to transfer one "shape" from a male character to a female character, but the result will depend on ''topology compatibility''. I will/may thus update this section to make sure

'''Shape key names''' will be the same for all of the base characters, as they come from - however you will be able to make new keys. You must name these keys the same for all MH characters, like these share the same skeleton (MH_Skelton) they must hold all the same shape keys names. If they don't your game may "break"....

===Export your base-character===
You can now take a break - or you can export your work. There are really tree options for you to look at:

* Save the FBX file directly - make sure to chose the binary file format, if you want to import this file to UE.
* Save a MHX2 file (you may need to install this as a option/utility, find our elsewhere!)
* Load the character to '''Blender''' directly via the link (I will get back to what can be done using that!)

I suggest that you save your base-character now, in both formats - FBX and MHX2! Make a specific 'Base-Characters' folder, because you will need it!

When you export the FBX use these options:

[[File:MH-FBX-export-options.png]]

This is the result for me, you should see something like this also:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder.png]]

You should also see that there is a sub-folder, called Textures - this is where the different textures are saved and it should now look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures.png]]

You can now go over all of the different textures, so you will have a wide selection to chose from. Textures are saved every time you save a FBX file!
Say, I change the base-characters textures, saved the FBX - and this is what I got:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures2.png]]

===Import your base-character to UE4 - FBX===
The FBX file will actually import directly to UE4, but there are a few problems! You should export your FBX file as Binary FBX, and you will get the most out of it. After this you can get to this result (after adjusting the materials, as seen below):

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported.png]]

Your character can look like this (after adjusting materials) - pretty good:

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported-materials.png]]

'''HOWEVER, you have lost the morph-targets! And as you probably noticed, the UE4 standard FBX import do import them!'''

I will get back to what to do about the shape-keys... but let make the materials first?

==Makehuman UE4 materials==
The details for setting up materials was moved to this section: '''[[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine Materials|Materials]]'''

====Customization====
The skin can now be modified using a simple interface in the game. The prototype for this can be seen here: [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].

===More materials?===

You can simply drag and drop more textures from the the base-character/textures folder, then duplicate and rename the materials, and apply different textures to the renamed materials. At some point I want to be able to customize/randomize (NPC) characters, but I have not yet done that.

Also you can make materials instances with parameters... I will show you howto, but first we need to turn shape-keys into morph-targets.

=Use Blender v 2.80 to get more!!=
For some reason the exported FBX file is not organized in a way so you will get the shape-keys imported directly to UE4. However when you follow the next steps, you will not get the correct materials imported, so I recommend that you run FBX import as shown above, and save the textures/materials in a separate folder.

If you are new to Blender please run a few tutorials specifically on on how to import/export, and also get to know about collections - you can do a lot in Blender and you can get confused!

==What will be done here?==
I will show you how to:

* Import your MHX2 files, to preserve the shape-keys
* Export FBX files, so UE4 will import correctly with morph-targets
* Apply expressions etc. to your base character
* Import these to your Blender file and apply the expressions as '''new shape keys'''

==But, first import and inspect FBX and MHX2!==
As you may remember you exported two files, the FBX file and the MHX2 file. You want to import both of these files into Blender, so you need two Collections, called FBX and MHX2. You right-click on the 'Scene collection' select 'New' and rename the collections to 'FBX' and 'MHX2'... I also added Scene collection and dragged the Camera and Light there (as I deleted the box). After this you should see something link this (the small Icons may be different):

[[File:MH-Base-Blender-setup.png]]

When you import your FBX file select/highlight the FBX collection, so the FBX data get imported into that collection. You can use the standard import options. For MHX2 you need to change the setting to match those you see below - when you find they are correct you can click the + sign, marked with a yellow arrow, and save the setting with your own setting-name.
(You may notice that the character you imported is out of proportions, some 17-18 meters high, we will correct that when we export to UE4!)
[[File:MH-Blender-FBX-import-options.png]]

===Inspect the results, in Blender===
Now is a good time to save the Blender file. You should save this in the same folder as the FBX and MHX2. I call this file averagedude-base.blend.

If you did this approximately as described the result should be munch like below. And you will probably notice that there is some structural differences. You can see that by looking at the small icons [[File:MH-Blender-base-imported-icons.png]], that represent where modifiers, vertex groups and Object data is stored! Specifically the Object data holds the shape-keys and those were not imported. (perhaps because I did not use the correct FBX import options - but the same happens in UE4!).

[[File:MH-Blender-base-imported.png]]

You will notice that the MHX2 version of your character holds the Object data (the triangle) and that shape-keys can be seen there!

==Export the FBX for your base character, and import to UE4==
The next step is crucial for getting things to work in UE4, it is not very complicated but you need to have a plan.

When you did this correctly you should be able to get the following results:

* Import your base character into UE4
* Create retargeting for your common skeleton - called MH_Skeleton
* Retarget the Maniqin animations to your base character(s)
* Get additional Mixamo animations
===FBX export settings===
'''Important!''' Before you go any further you should rename your base character to '''main_root''', like this:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-main-root.png]]

.... you should do this for all base characters! main_root will be the root bone in your skeleton. When you do it like this, all of your base characters will be able to share the same skeleton!

Now select the MHX2 collection where you have the character, and go to Export FBX.

I have made a 'Operator preset' for the FBX export, this is the options you need to set:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-operator-presets.png]]

Place the FBX file in the same folder as where you placed the original FBX and the MHX2. You probably do not need the FBX that you made with Makehuman, and you can always make it again?
(You may however want to export more FBX files from Makehuman, simply to get all of the textures. We will look more into how you can use the skin textures!)

==UE4 import, and retarget ==
Go to your UE4 project and make a MH folder containing a new avaragedude folder, and import your base character there!
During the import of the FBX file from Blender into UE4 you must enable the '''Import Morp Targets''' checkbox manually (expand the Mesh section)!

Observe that this character looks very much like the one you did already import from the original FBX, there are little difference - yet you want to set up this as your real base character.

Also you want to rename the skeleton to '''MH_Skeleton'''! And you want to open the skeleton, and retarget it to the humanoid rig... this should look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Skeleton-Retarget.png]]

Make sure that your character is in T-Pose, as you want to retarget the Mannequin animations to your characters MH_Skeleton!
Make a animation folder in your MH, perhaps even Mannequin folder?

You go to the UE4 folder: Content/Mannequin/Animations and right-click on this animation: '''ThirdPerson_AnimBP'''

Select retarget and choose MH_Skeleton as your target - also select the animation folder you made before, something like this:
[[File:MH-Base-Animation-Retarget.png]]

You may want to rename your new ThirdPerson_AnimBP to '''''MH''_ThirdPerson_AnimBP''' - or perhaps simply MH_AnimBP?

===Translation Retargeting===
After the retargeting the animations will still look odd. You go to the skeleton tree, then check off the "Show Retargeting Options" and set those at and below the spline to Skeleton (recursively) - that looks something like this:
:(Make sure to set the translation to skeleton for ALL bones, but the two first ones)
[[File:MH-Anim-Skeleton.png]]

=More shape keys, made in Blender 2.8=
I have not yet made any target in MH, also I have not had much luck in using the two blender addons. Frankly I don't really understand what the different buttons does, most of them are not active... perhaps they make sens if you use Blender a lot?

But I will show you different ways to get expressions, targets and skeleton animations(!) to shape keys, so then will be new morph targets in UE4!

Before you get started you should probably look at a few Blender tutorials regarding this - these are good:

===Tutorials===

General introduction to MHX2 import and animation. However '''do not''' import the resulting characters into UE4?

{{#ev:youtube|2P1t_nogbGs}}

Short general introduction to using shape keys in Blender 2.8:

{{#ev:youtube|e675Ulc7QL4}}

==Expressions and targets==
Make sure that you have your original base character saved and load it into Makehuman. Remember to check that your base character is in the T-Pose, do not change that!

'''Just in case:''' I recommend that you keep a copy of this file as well as all the blender file etc.

You should also have Blender open and load the .blender file where you saved both your FBX and the MHX2.
Before you go on do as follows: move the MHX2 character to x 10m, so the entire character moves to the left (right to your front view) - this will make it more easy for you to work with! (Save the blender file!)

'''This is the general workflow for transfer of expressions:'''

Makehuman:
* Go to the Pose/Animate tab and select Expressions. From the list select the first expression, Anger01.
* Save the character as .mhx2 - but to a different file name: averagedude-base-expression.mhx2.

Blender:
* In blender, deselect all the collections
* Import the file you made, using the same operator presets as yo saved them.
* Activate your Base character collection and you will have two characters side by side - one base character and a very angry one!
* Go to object mode
* '''Left-click-select''' the angry guy first, then '''shift-left-click''' your base character.
* Go to the vertex tab/shape key, and click on the little down arrow, and select the ''Join as shapes'' - like this:
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey1.png]]
This will make a brand new shape key: Averagedude_base_expression:Proxy

* You rename the shape key by a double-click and call it '''Exp_Anger01'''..
* ... and assign the Vertex group to head
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey2.png]]

In case you can not select ''Join as shapes'' the two characters were not selected in the right order, or perhaps the topology is not the same. Blender will show this as a message some where at the bottom of the screen. I this happens try the blender workflow, in this paragraph only , again!

You can now try to change the value for the shape key, and you should see that your base character can get angry!

When this worked for you you can save the blender file! And you should now do your very first re-import of the FBX. You save your base character in a FBX and Import it to UE4. To be 100% safe you can save and import to different names and folders, but in the end you will re-import the base character each time you do one or more new shape keys.

When you see this working in UE4, you can go on to the next expressions - I simply delete the Averagedude_base_expression collection and save the next expression in the same file. You can naturally do as many expressions as you want. leave some out etc... as you like!

==Observations about Blender 2.8==
You may notice that you can mess this up, so please save your blender file and back up! Say you can easily merge your base character with the expression MHX2 or do something else to corrupt your work!

Please also note that the Vertex Group/relative to, '''head''' and '''Basis''', are rather important! The shape key will change the entire body, to the T-Pose, if head is not set. Likewise you can make some shape keys relative to an other shape key - this will be important a bit later, when we do more "advanced" stuff!

=Blender 2.8 - a bit more advanced?=
This is very fine - we can make your base character use all the expressions, and they can be combined! Also you can tamper with them in UE4, say you can combine them and you can even set minus values, or extreme values not "allowed" in Blender. But you obviously want more than that?

Perhaps you can find some special "targets" you want to use?

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-11T19:10:25Z

Assetdk: /* MakeHuman Plugin For Blender */

=MakeHuman Plugin For Blender=
This page is the "main" page for the Blender plugin - in effect an "index" for documentation and tutorials regarding MPFB2.

::{{#ev:youtube|ANnn8qKJMpc}}

This page will internally hold links for MPFB2 tutorials and development.

==Get MPFB2 here==
:: * '''[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19356&hilit=MPFB#p53411 Makehuman forum about MHFB2 ]'''
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2 MPFB2 on github]
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md MPFB2 status om github]
:: * '''[http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/ MPFB2 download the addon]

====Full announcement from Joel, made on the forum:====

::I have today opened up the git repo of MPFB 2, https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2, for public access.

::This is a complete rewrite of MPFB 1 with added features (rigify support, procedural eyes, rig helpers...) and much improved code structure and performance (imports are 3x faster for example). A list of changes can be found at https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/changes.md

::While some parts of MPFB 1 has not been ported yet (see https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md) and the official status is pre-alpha, I have used MPFB 2 a lot myself lately, and found it to be reasonably stable.

::MPFB 2 should be able to co-exist alongside MPFB 1, but it requires at least Blender 2.90.

::Nightly builds of MPFB 2 can be found at: http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/. Builds made when something relevant has changed can be found in the dist directory of the git repository. Most of the time the dist dir build and the nightly build will be exactly the same code.

==Tutorials for using MPFB2==

==Developers resources==

I will start this by making some developers notes that could eventually compile into one or more tutorials.
I will keep adding more notes to this page, but I urge you to:

* Add comments
* Add tips and links to other tutorials
* Add your own code
* Request topics that you think would need to covered
* Add links to other addons that is useful for VSC and MBFP2

===Using VSCode===
I would recommend that you use VS Code since there is a very handy Blender Extension. This will help you as an experienced developer - and as a novice that wants to learn about Python and Blender.
Take a look at this tutorial to get a quick overview - and follow this link to install blender/ and VSCode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77mMpeoh3OI&t tutorial on installing blender/ and VSCode.]

::::{{#ev:youtube|q06-hER7Y1Q}}

Now - If that did not seem too bad, you can move on to the next pages dedicated to actually running MPFB2 from VS Code: '''[[Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code]]'''

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-11T18:54:37Z

Assetdk: /* Full announcement from Joe, made on the forum: */

=MakeHuman Plugin For Blender=
This page is the "main" page for the Blender plugin - in effect an "index" for documentation and tutorials regarding MPFB2.

This page will internally hold links for MPFB2 development and tutorials.

==Get MPFB2 here==
:: * '''[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19356&hilit=MPFB#p53411 Makehuman forum about MHFB2 ]'''
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2 MPFB2 on github]
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md MPFB2 status om github]
:: * '''[http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/ MPFB2 download the addon]

====Full announcement from Joel, made on the forum:====

::I have today opened up the git repo of MPFB 2, https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2, for public access.

::This is a complete rewrite of MPFB 1 with added features (rigify support, procedural eyes, rig helpers...) and much improved code structure and performance (imports are 3x faster for example). A list of changes can be found at https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/changes.md

::While some parts of MPFB 1 has not been ported yet (see https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md) and the official status is pre-alpha, I have used MPFB 2 a lot myself lately, and found it to be reasonably stable.

::MPFB 2 should be able to co-exist alongside MPFB 1, but it requires at least Blender 2.90.

::Nightly builds of MPFB 2 can be found at: http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/. Builds made when something relevant has changed can be found in the dist directory of the git repository. Most of the time the dist dir build and the nightly build will be exactly the same code.

==Tutorials for using MPFB2==

==Developers resources==

I will start this by making some developers notes that could eventually compile into one or more tutorials.
I will keep adding more notes to this page, but I urge you to:

* Add comments
* Add tips and links to other tutorials
* Add your own code
* Request topics that you think would need to covered
* Add links to other addons that is useful for VSC and MBFP2

===Using VSCode===
I would recommend that you use VS Code since there is a very handy Blender Extension. This will help you as an experienced developer - and as a novice that wants to learn about Python and Blender.
Take a look at this tutorial to get a quick overview - and follow this link to install blender/ and VSCode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77mMpeoh3OI&t tutorial on installing blender/ and VSCode.]

::::{{#ev:youtube|q06-hER7Y1Q}}

Now - If that did not seem too bad, you can move on to the next pages dedicated to actually running MPFB2 from VS Code: '''[[Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code]]'''

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-11T18:54:13Z

Assetdk: /* Get MPFB2 here */

=MakeHuman Plugin For Blender=
This page is the "main" page for the Blender plugin - in effect an "index" for documentation and tutorials regarding MPFB2.

This page will internally hold links for MPFB2 development and tutorials.

==Get MPFB2 here==
:: * '''[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19356&hilit=MPFB#p53411 Makehuman forum about MHFB2 ]'''
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2 MPFB2 on github]
:: * '''[https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md MPFB2 status om github]
:: * '''[http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/ MPFB2 download the addon]

====Full announcement from Joe, made on the forum:====

::I have today opened up the git repo of MPFB 2, https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2, for public access.

::This is a complete rewrite of MPFB 1 with added features (rigify support, procedural eyes, rig helpers...) and much improved code structure and performance (imports are 3x faster for example). A list of changes can be found at https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/changes.md

::While some parts of MPFB 1 has not been ported yet (see https://github.com/makehumancommunity/mpfb2/blob/master/docs/general/status.md) and the official status is pre-alpha, I have used MPFB 2 a lot myself lately, and found it to be reasonably stable.

::MPFB 2 should be able to co-exist alongside MPFB 1, but it requires at least Blender 2.90.

::Nightly builds of MPFB 2 can be found at: http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/plugins/. Builds made when something relevant has changed can be found in the dist directory of the git repository. Most of the time the dist dir build and the nightly build will be exactly the same code.

==Tutorials for using MPFB2==

==Developers resources==

I will start this by making some developers notes that could eventually compile into one or more tutorials.
I will keep adding more notes to this page, but I urge you to:

* Add comments
* Add tips and links to other tutorials
* Add your own code
* Request topics that you think would need to covered
* Add links to other addons that is useful for VSC and MBFP2

===Using VSCode===
I would recommend that you use VS Code since there is a very handy Blender Extension. This will help you as an experienced developer - and as a novice that wants to learn about Python and Blender.
Take a look at this tutorial to get a quick overview - and follow this link to install blender/ and VSCode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77mMpeoh3OI&t tutorial on installing blender/ and VSCode.]

::::{{#ev:youtube|q06-hER7Y1Q}}

Now - If that did not seem too bad, you can move on to the next pages dedicated to actually running MPFB2 from VS Code: '''[[Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code]]'''

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-11T18:49:30Z

Assetdk: /* MakeHuman Plugin For Blender */

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-11T18:37:02Z

Assetdk: /* MakeHuman Plugin For Blender */

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-11T18:16:28Z

Assetdk: /* Using GitHub?! */

File:MPFB2-DeveloperOptions.PNG

2021-05-11T18:14:55Z

Assetdk: MPFB Developer options

MPFB Developer options

File:MPFB2-Options.PNG

2021-05-11T18:01:10Z

Assetdk: MPFB2 preferences

MPFB2 preferences

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-11T17:55:28Z

Assetdk:

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-11T17:52:22Z

Assetdk: /* The very first issue!! */

=MPFB2 getting started with VS code=
On this page you will find notes, tips and hints - in general I intend to make notes on how MPFB2 was implemented as I learn and hopefully this can help others to understand the addon, debut it, make extensions/suggestions and perhaps you can even learn how to make your own addon?

==Getting started==

As of now VS code - actually Visual Studio Code - will be refereed to as VSC. For your information VSC is a free version of the professional tool called Visual Studio, Both are provided by Microsoft. Visual Studio is used by companies that have a portfolio of software and it is often used as a front end for different repository systems, this is needed when you have complex systems and a need for keeping track of software versions. If you use VSC you will learn a bit... but never mind, lets get to the first issue you may run into.

===The very first issue!!===

Getting Blender running from VSC, you need to open the folder in VSC and ctrl-shift-p and select the runtime - in my case D:\Blender\stable\blender-2.92.0-windows64\blender.exe - but if you do this like I did you will just see Blender start up and then pass-away. if you are new to VSC you may not notice that there is a message about this on the console - the operative part is: PermissionError:. This rather meaningless, however but what happen is that did already install the addon with this Blender version 2.92.0... and in short you need to unload and uninstall the addon you want to run/debug in VSC.

This is what Blender should look like when running from VSC - I highlighted tree things:

* It looks like 2.9.2 (or perhaps MBPF2) adds collections to the Scene: Mesh/Rig/Collision/Extras.
* When running from VSC you will get a extra DEV tool-tab, this is good to know i you are running Blender both ways.
* When running from VSC the add on gets installed - and it will '''remain installed as is,''' when you run (the same) Blender stand alone without VSC.
::[[File:MPFB2-VS1.PNG|800px]]

:

===Using GitHub?!===

Placeholder for how to get the addon.

===Inspect an error===

Placeholder for looking at the console and reporting errors.

===Debug the code===

Placeholder for "digging in" and inspecting the code.

===Adding your own code===

Placeholder for - how to "sample" the existing code, adding your own menus/buttons and functions.

===MFB2 in Blender===

Placeholder for "how are the MPFB2 components organized in Blender".

===Useful Blender things===

Placeholder for learning to use Blender via MPFB2!

===Useful VSC things and extensions===

Placeholder for VSC specific tips.

===Useful Blender addons===

Placeholder for addon specific tips.

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-11T17:52:00Z

Assetdk: /* The very first issue!! */

=MPFB2 getting started with VS code=
On this page you will find notes, tips and hints - in general I intend to make notes on how MPFB2 was implemented as I learn and hopefully this can help others to understand the addon, debut it, make extensions/suggestions and perhaps you can even learn how to make your own addon?

==Getting started==

As of now VS code - actually Visual Studio Code - will be refereed to as VSC. For your information VSC is a free version of the professional tool called Visual Studio, Both are provided by Microsoft. Visual Studio is used by companies that have a portfolio of software and it is often used as a front end for different repository systems, this is needed when you have complex systems and a need for keeping track of software versions. If you use VSC you will learn a bit... but never mind, lets get to the first issue you may run into.

===The very first issue!!===

Getting Blender running from VSC, you need to open the folder in VSC and ctrl-shift-p and select the runtime - in my case D:\Blender\stable\blender-2.92.0-windows64\blender.exe - but if you do this like I did you will just see Blender start up and then pass-away. if you are new to VSC you may not notice that there is a message about this on the console - the operative part is: PermissionError:. This rather meaningless, however but what happen is that did already install the addon with this Blender version 2.92.0... and in short you need to unload and uninstall the addon you want to run/debug in VSC.

This is what Blender should look like when running from VSC - I highlighted tree things:

* It looks like 2.9.2 (or perhaps MBPF2) adds collections to the Scene: Mesh/Rig/Collision/Extras.
* When running from VSC you will get a extra DEV tool-tab, this is good to know i you are running Blender both ways.
* When running from VSC the add on gets installed - and it will '''remain installed as is,''' when you run (the same) Blender stand alone without VSC.
::[[File:MPFB2-VS1.PNG|800px|left]]

:

===Using GitHub?!===

Placeholder for how to get the addon.

===Inspect an error===

Placeholder for looking at the console and reporting errors.

===Debug the code===

Placeholder for "digging in" and inspecting the code.

===Adding your own code===

Placeholder for - how to "sample" the existing code, adding your own menus/buttons and functions.

===MFB2 in Blender===

Placeholder for "how are the MPFB2 components organized in Blender".

===Useful Blender things===

Placeholder for learning to use Blender via MPFB2!

===Useful VSC things and extensions===

Placeholder for VSC specific tips.

===Useful Blender addons===

Placeholder for addon specific tips.

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-11T17:50:32Z

Assetdk: /* =Useful Blender addons */

=MPFB2 getting started with VS code=
On this page you will find notes, tips and hints - in general I intend to make notes on how MPFB2 was implemented as I learn and hopefully this can help others to understand the addon, debut it, make extensions/suggestions and perhaps you can even learn how to make your own addon?

==Getting started==

As of now VS code - actually Visual Studio Code - will be refereed to as VSC. For your information VSC is a free version of the professional tool called Visual Studio, Both are provided by Microsoft. Visual Studio is used by companies that have a portfolio of software and it is often used as a front end for different repository systems, this is needed when you have complex systems and a need for keeping track of software versions. If you use VSC you will learn a bit... but never mind, lets get to the first issue you may run into.

===The very first issue!!===

Getting Blender running from VSC, you need to open the folder in VSC and ctrl-shift-p and select the runtime - in my case D:\Blender\stable\blender-2.92.0-windows64\blender.exe - but if you do this like I did you will just see Blender start up and then pass-away. if you are new to VSC you may not notice that there is a message about this on the console - the operative part is: PermissionError:. This rather meaningless, however but what happen is that did already install the addon with this Blender version 2.92.0... and in short you need to unload and uninstall the addon you want to run/debug in VSC.

This is what Blender should look like when running from VSC - I highlighted tree things:

* It looks like 2.9.2 (or perhaps MBPF2) adds collections to the Scene: Mesh/Rig/Collision/Extras.
* When running from VSC you will get a extra DEV tool-tab, this is good to know i you are running Blender both ways.
* When running from VSC the add on gets installed - and it will '''remain installed as is,''' when you run (the same) Blender stand alone without VSC.
::[[File:MPFB2-VS1.PNG|800px|left]]

===Using GitHub?!===

Placeholder for how to get the addon.

===Inspect an error===

Placeholder for looking at the console and reporting errors.

===Debug the code===

Placeholder for "digging in" and inspecting the code.

===Adding your own code===

Placeholder for - how to "sample" the existing code, adding your own menus/buttons and functions.

===MFB2 in Blender===

Placeholder for "how are the MPFB2 components organized in Blender".

===Useful Blender things===

Placeholder for learning to use Blender via MPFB2!

===Useful VSC things and extensions===

Placeholder for VSC specific tips.

===Useful Blender addons===

Placeholder for addon specific tips.

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-11T17:50:16Z

Assetdk: /* The very first issue!! */

=MPFB2 getting started with VS code=
On this page you will find notes, tips and hints - in general I intend to make notes on how MPFB2 was implemented as I learn and hopefully this can help others to understand the addon, debut it, make extensions/suggestions and perhaps you can even learn how to make your own addon?

==Getting started==

As of now VS code - actually Visual Studio Code - will be refereed to as VSC. For your information VSC is a free version of the professional tool called Visual Studio, Both are provided by Microsoft. Visual Studio is used by companies that have a portfolio of software and it is often used as a front end for different repository systems, this is needed when you have complex systems and a need for keeping track of software versions. If you use VSC you will learn a bit... but never mind, lets get to the first issue you may run into.

===The very first issue!!===

Getting Blender running from VSC, you need to open the folder in VSC and ctrl-shift-p and select the runtime - in my case D:\Blender\stable\blender-2.92.0-windows64\blender.exe - but if you do this like I did you will just see Blender start up and then pass-away. if you are new to VSC you may not notice that there is a message about this on the console - the operative part is: PermissionError:. This rather meaningless, however but what happen is that did already install the addon with this Blender version 2.92.0... and in short you need to unload and uninstall the addon you want to run/debug in VSC.

This is what Blender should look like when running from VSC - I highlighted tree things:

* It looks like 2.9.2 (or perhaps MBPF2) adds collections to the Scene: Mesh/Rig/Collision/Extras.
* When running from VSC you will get a extra DEV tool-tab, this is good to know i you are running Blender both ways.
* When running from VSC the add on gets installed - and it will '''remain installed as is,''' when you run (the same) Blender stand alone without VSC.
::[[File:MPFB2-VS1.PNG|800px|left]]

===Using GitHub?!===

Placeholder for how to get the addon.

===Inspect an error===

Placeholder for looking at the console and reporting errors.

===Debug the code===

Placeholder for "digging in" and inspecting the code.

===Adding your own code===

Placeholder for - how to "sample" the existing code, adding your own menus/buttons and functions.

===MFB2 in Blender===

Placeholder for "how are the MPFB2 components organized in Blender".

===Useful Blender things===

Placeholder for learning to use Blender via MPFB2!

===Useful VSC things and extensions===

Placeholder for VSC specific tips.

===Useful Blender addons==

Placeholder for addon specific tips.

File:MPFB2-VS1.PNG

2021-05-11T17:45:41Z

Assetdk: Thing I noted about running 2.9.2 and VS code.

Thing I noted about running 2.9.2 and VS code.

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-11T17:44:36Z

Assetdk: /* The very first issue!! */

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-11T17:43:42Z

Assetdk: /* The very first issue!! */

=MPFB2 getting started with VS code=
On this page you will find notes, tips and hints - in general I intend to make notes on how MPFB2 was implemented as I learn and hopefully this can help others to understand the addon, debut it, make extensions/suggestions and perhaps you can even learn how to make your own addon?

==Getting started==

As of now VS code - actually Visual Studio Code - will be refereed to as VSC. For your information VSC is a free version of the professional tool called Visual Studio, Both are provided by Microsoft. Visual Studio is used by companies that have a portfolio of software and it is often used as a front end for different repository systems, this is needed when you have complex systems and a need for keeping track of software versions. If you use VSC you will learn a bit... but never mind, lets get to the first issue you may run into.

===The very first issue!!===

Getting Blender running from VSC, you need to open the folder in VSC and ctrl-shift-p and select the runtime - in my case D:\Blender\stable\blender-2.92.0-windows64\blender.exe - but if you do this like I did you will just see Blender start up and then pass-away. if you are new to VSC you may not notice that there is a message about this on the console - the operative part is: PermissionError:. This rather meaningless, however but what happen is that did already install the addon with this Blender version 2.92.0... and in short you need to unload and uninstall the addon you want to run/debug in VSC.

This is what Blender should look like when running from VSC - I highlighted tree things:

* It looks like 2.9.2 (or perhaps MBPF2) adds collections to the Scene: Mesh/Rig/Collision/Extras.
* When running from VSC you will get a extra DEV tool-tab, this is good to know i you are running Blender both ways.
* When running from VSC the add on gets installed and it will be installed as is, when you run (the same) Blender without VSC.

Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code

2021-05-11T17:42:59Z

Assetdk: Created page with "=MPFB2 getting started with VS code= On this page you will find notes, tips and hints - in general I intend to make notes on how MPFB2 was implemented as I learn and hopefully..."

=MPFB2 getting started with VS code=
On this page you will find notes, tips and hints - in general I intend to make notes on how MPFB2 was implemented as I learn and hopefully this can help others to understand the addon, debut it, make extensions/suggestions and perhaps you can even learn how to make your own addon?

==Getting started==

As of now VS code - actually Visual Studio Code - will be refereed to as VSC. For your information VSC is a free version of the professional tool called Visual Studio, Both are provided by Microsoft. Visual Studio is used by companies that have a portfolio of software and it is often used as a front end for different repository systems, this is needed when you have complex systems and a need for keeping track of software versions. If you use VSC you will learn a bit... but never mind, lets get to the first issue you may run into.

===The very first issue!!===

Getting Blender running from VSC, you need to open the folder in VSC and ctrl-shift-p and select the runtime - in my case D:\Blender\stable\blender-2.92.0-windows64\blender.exe - but if you do this like I did you will just see Blender start up and then pass-away. if you are new to VSC you may not notice that there is a message about this on the console - the operative part is: PermissionError:. This rather meaningless, however but what happen is that did already install the addon with this Blender version 2.92.0... and in short you need to unload and uninstall the addon you want to run/debug in VSC.

This is what Blender should look like when running from VSC - I highlighted tree things:

It looks like 2.9.2 (or perhaps MBPF2) adds collections to the Scene: Mesh/Rig/Collision/Extras.
When running from VSC you will get a extra DEV tool-tab, this is good to know i you are running Blender both ways.
When running from VSC the add on gets installed and it will be installed as is, when you run (the same) Blender without VSC.

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-11T17:30:12Z

Assetdk: /* Using VSCode */

=MakeHuman Plugin For Blender=
This page is the "main" page for the Blender plugin - in effect an "index" for documentation and tutorials regarding MPFB2.

This page will internally hold links for MPFB2 development and tutorials.

==Tutorials for using MPFB2==

==Developers resources==

I will start this by making some developers notes that could eventually compile into one or more tutorials.
I will keep adding more notes to this page, but I urge you to:

* Add comments
* Add tips and links to other tutorials
* Add your own code
* Request topics that you think would need to covered
* Add links to other addons that is useful for VSC and MBFP2

===Using VSCode===
I would recommend that you use VS Code since there is a very handy Blender Extension. This will help you as an experienced developer - and as a novice that wants to learn about Python and Blender.
Take a look at this tutorial to get a quick overview - and follow this link to install blender/ and VSCode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77mMpeoh3OI&t tutorial on installing blender/ and VSCode.]

::::{{#ev:youtube|q06-hER7Y1Q}}

Now - If that did not seem too bad, you can move on to the next pages dedicated to actually running MPFB2 from VS Code: '''[[Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code]]'''

Documentation:MPFB

2021-05-11T17:26:50Z

Assetdk: Created page with "=MakeHuman Plugin For Blender= This page is the "main" page for the Blender plugin - in effect an "index" for documentation and tutorials regarding MPFB2. This page will int..."

=MakeHuman Plugin For Blender=
This page is the "main" page for the Blender plugin - in effect an "index" for documentation and tutorials regarding MPFB2.

This page will internally hold links for MPFB2 development and tutorials.

==Tutorials for using MPFB2==

==Developers resources==

I will start this by making some developers notes that could eventually compile into one or more tutorials.
I will keep adding more notes to this page, but I urge you to:

* Add comments
* Add tips and links to other tutorials
* Add your own code
* Request topics that you think would need to covered
* Add links to other addons that is useful for VSC and MBFP2

===Using VSCode===
I would recommend that you use VS Code since there is a very handy Blender Extension. This will help you as an experienced developer - and as a novice that wants to learn about Python and Blender.
Take a look at this tutorial to get a quick overview - and follow this link to install blender/ and VSCode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77mMpeoh3OI&t tutorial on installing blender/ and VSCode.]

{{#ev:youtube|q06-hER7Y1Q}}

* [[Documentation:MPFB2 getting started with VS code]]

Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there

2021-05-11T17:06:38Z

Assetdk:

::'''Please take a look at this page: [[Documentation:MH4UE|MH4UE]] - to get an overview of things you can use to get your Makehuman characters into Unreal Engine!'''

Also look at the Forum here for more tips [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=52859&hilit=MH4UE#p52859 MH4UE].

There are, currently, several pages for this, describing the process of getting MH to Blender and then into Unreal. And one describing the addon that will add more "shape keys" to your characters (while in blender).

* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_and_how_to_import_them_there|Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there]].
* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_Materials|How to setup Unreal materials]].
* [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].
* [[Documentation:MHBlenderTools: MakeShapes|MakeShapes - getting more shape keys/morph targets]]

* [[Documentation:MPFB|MakeHuman Plugin For Blender]].

=What can and can't be done?=
I have been working on getting different characters into UE4 for some time, and this have been a real hassle!

On this page I want to summarize what I managed to get done using a workflow that involves Blender. I have had a focus on not going into much details regarding any of the tools, but you will need to know a few things. Even though this looks like a trivial task there are some pitfalls and also there are some things that can not be done, or I have just not found out how to. I will eventually also add links to all the YT tutorials I found helpful.

I found that working with Makehuman very easy, so focus will be very UE4 how to specific.

This is what I will cover thus far:

* Create and save any MH character in Makehuman. Basic stuff, and important things to avoid.
* Getting the character into Blender - import or link?
* Setup Blender for Export, shape keys and morph targets
* First import into UE4
* Introduction to more shape keys
* Mixamo animations

This is the stuff that I did not cover - yet:

* Animations for talking (other tutorials may help)
* Making custom cloth
* Hair

This is the stuff I can not get to work:
* Retargeting to Advanced Locomotion System V3/4
* ALS got something to work! [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there/ALS]]

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine ALS V4]]

Since I am using/learning Blender 2.8, I want to share a bit of bonus info. I managed to make one of the free UE4 packages work a bit "better". That is your characters should have some transportation. This is how:

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine Vehicle Variety Pack]]

=Getting started=
I wanted a quick way to populate a UE4 game, preferably with an unlimited number of varied characters of high quality. This has proven to be a bit harder than expected. The workflow for making characters is not as trivial as one would want but this guide should make it a bit more easy to do. I will focus on describing the "straight" path from Makehuman and into UE4 - so you will not find too much details about Blender. Please refer to Blender specific pages for more on that.

==Need to know==
There are a few terms that you need to know, say you need to know that you will import FBX, textures and other files into UE4. Also you will need to know that a Character consists of a '''Mesh''', a '''Skeleton''' and '''''materials''''' (that refers to textures). I will try to elaborate on these subjects as we go along...

==Making a base-character==

'''IMPORTANT new comment:'''
There is now tree different custom A-poses that you can use - i currently recommend the one highlighted in the list.
Please read more in the [[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=53368#p53368 forum]], for more information.
===Set up Base-Character(s)===
Makehuman provides a range of predefined characters that is supposed to work as-is. You can just load a character, export it to FBX and import that into UE4 - and after a bit of work you can have a working player character! There are however a few pitfalls, so I suggest you make one (or more) base-character(s) that you can elaborate on as you go along. I will be working with ''''''averagedude'''''' as my base-character.

These are the steps to make the base characters:

* Open Makehuman

* Select the files tab and load the character

'''Under 'Geometries''''
* Remove cloth - (uncheck Hide faces under cloth)!
* Remove hair
* Add Teeth
* Choose Topology - '''I have no advice on this - but see comment below!'''
* Chose Eyebrows/Eyelashes, these can be changed as you go along - as can eye colors!
* Add Tongue01 (again I have no advice/recommendation on that, yet)

'''Under 'Materials'''' - I will show you how to work with UE4 "advanced" materials:
* Chose any skin that you like,
* Chose any eyes that you like

'''Under 'Pose/Animate''''
* Chose Skeleton: Uengine - if you do not have this already you my get it via the community tab?
* Chose Expressions: none

* For the POSE chose the Apose_ue
* [[File:MH_UE_Poses.png]]

* Finally, from one of the poses documentations I found this comment: This pose is a near drop in fit for the Unreal mannequin using a generic male with standard proportions and 187.5 cm height.
(You should probably use this, I have been using a height of 168-190, where the better result came from 190)

And this is it! But there is one 'important' option you need know about - you need to '''uncheck''' the Smooth button!

The smooth button/option: [[File:MH-Smooth-option.png]] should be unchecked... that will make your character a bit less attractive, but this will preserve the shape-keys!

Makehuman comes with some 50-60 '''shape-keys''' and these will all be available as '''morph-targets''' in UE4. I will show you how to make more shape-keys, using makehuman+blender!

Now it is time to save your base-character - even though you have made very few changes to the file you should save this file under the save tab and name it
<your-name>-base (say averagedude-base), you can even add your very own tag 'base' to this.

When you save the file like this you will be able to reload it, and we need that later!

====Choose Topology/Shape keys====
When you make your base character without smoothing you get shape keys, and you want to share these between different characters. Specifically you would probably want to share face morphs between male and female characters - and there may be other base character variations, say old/young/child etc.

Later I will focus on how to make new shape keys, using blender - depending on how you want to do this you may want to '''chose Topology that is compatible between the different characters!''' That is you may be able to transfer one "shape" from a male character to a female character, but the result will depend on ''topology compatibility''. I will/may thus update this section to make sure

'''Shape key names''' will be the same for all of the base characters, as they come from - however you will be able to make new keys. You must name these keys the same for all MH characters, like these share the same skeleton (MH_Skelton) they must hold all the same shape keys names. If they don't your game may "break"....

===Export your base-character===
You can now take a break - or you can export your work. There are really tree options for you to look at:

* Save the FBX file directly - make sure to chose the binary file format, if you want to import this file to UE.
* Save a MHX2 file (you may need to install this as a option/utility, find our elsewhere!)
* Load the character to '''Blender''' directly via the link (I will get back to what can be done using that!)

I suggest that you save your base-character now, in both formats - FBX and MHX2! Make a specific 'Base-Characters' folder, because you will need it!

When you export the FBX use these options:

[[File:MH-FBX-export-options.png]]

This is the result for me, you should see something like this also:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder.png]]

You should also see that there is a sub-folder, called Textures - this is where the different textures are saved and it should now look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures.png]]

You can now go over all of the different textures, so you will have a wide selection to chose from. Textures are saved every time you save a FBX file!
Say, I change the base-characters textures, saved the FBX - and this is what I got:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures2.png]]

===Import your base-character to UE4 - FBX===
The FBX file will actually import directly to UE4, but there are a few problems! You should export your FBX file as Binary FBX, and you will get the most out of it. After this you can get to this result (after adjusting the materials, as seen below):

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported.png]]

Your character can look like this (after adjusting materials) - pretty good:

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported-materials.png]]

'''HOWEVER, you have lost the morph-targets! And as you probably noticed, the UE4 standard FBX import do import them!'''

I will get back to what to do about the shape-keys... but let make the materials first?

==Makehuman UE4 materials==
The details for setting up materials was moved to this section: '''[[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine Materials|Materials]]'''

====Customization====
The skin can now be modified using a simple interface in the game. The prototype for this can be seen here: [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].

===More materials?===

You can simply drag and drop more textures from the the base-character/textures folder, then duplicate and rename the materials, and apply different textures to the renamed materials. At some point I want to be able to customize/randomize (NPC) characters, but I have not yet done that.

Also you can make materials instances with parameters... I will show you howto, but first we need to turn shape-keys into morph-targets.

=Use Blender v 2.80 to get more!!=
For some reason the exported FBX file is not organized in a way so you will get the shape-keys imported directly to UE4. However when you follow the next steps, you will not get the correct materials imported, so I recommend that you run FBX import as shown above, and save the textures/materials in a separate folder.

If you are new to Blender please run a few tutorials specifically on on how to import/export, and also get to know about collections - you can do a lot in Blender and you can get confused!

==What will be done here?==
I will show you how to:

* Import your MHX2 files, to preserve the shape-keys
* Export FBX files, so UE4 will import correctly with morph-targets
* Apply expressions etc. to your base character
* Import these to your Blender file and apply the expressions as '''new shape keys'''

==But, first import and inspect FBX and MHX2!==
As you may remember you exported two files, the FBX file and the MHX2 file. You want to import both of these files into Blender, so you need two Collections, called FBX and MHX2. You right-click on the 'Scene collection' select 'New' and rename the collections to 'FBX' and 'MHX2'... I also added Scene collection and dragged the Camera and Light there (as I deleted the box). After this you should see something link this (the small Icons may be different):

[[File:MH-Base-Blender-setup.png]]

When you import your FBX file select/highlight the FBX collection, so the FBX data get imported into that collection. You can use the standard import options. For MHX2 you need to change the setting to match those you see below - when you find they are correct you can click the + sign, marked with a yellow arrow, and save the setting with your own setting-name.
(You may notice that the character you imported is out of proportions, some 17-18 meters high, we will correct that when we export to UE4!)
[[File:MH-Blender-FBX-import-options.png]]

===Inspect the results, in Blender===
Now is a good time to save the Blender file. You should save this in the same folder as the FBX and MHX2. I call this file averagedude-base.blend.

If you did this approximately as described the result should be munch like below. And you will probably notice that there is some structural differences. You can see that by looking at the small icons [[File:MH-Blender-base-imported-icons.png]], that represent where modifiers, vertex groups and Object data is stored! Specifically the Object data holds the shape-keys and those were not imported. (perhaps because I did not use the correct FBX import options - but the same happens in UE4!).

[[File:MH-Blender-base-imported.png]]

You will notice that the MHX2 version of your character holds the Object data (the triangle) and that shape-keys can be seen there!

==Export the FBX for your base character, and import to UE4==
The next step is crucial for getting things to work in UE4, it is not very complicated but you need to have a plan.

When you did this correctly you should be able to get the following results:

* Import your base character into UE4
* Create retargeting for your common skeleton - called MH_Skeleton
* Retarget the Maniqin animations to your base character(s)
* Get additional Mixamo animations
===FBX export settings===
'''Important!''' Before you go any further you should rename your base character to '''main_root''', like this:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-main-root.png]]

.... you should do this for all base characters! main_root will be the root bone in your skeleton. When you do it like this, all of your base characters will be able to share the same skeleton!

Now select the MHX2 collection where you have the character, and go to Export FBX.

I have made a 'Operator preset' for the FBX export, this is the options you need to set:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-operator-presets.png]]

Place the FBX file in the same folder as where you placed the original FBX and the MHX2. You probably do not need the FBX that you made with Makehuman, and you can always make it again?
(You may however want to export more FBX files from Makehuman, simply to get all of the textures. We will look more into how you can use the skin textures!)

==UE4 import, and retarget ==
Go to your UE4 project and make a MH folder containing a new avaragedude folder, and import your base character there!
During the import of the FBX file from Blender into UE4 you must enable the '''Import Morp Targets''' checkbox manually (expand the Mesh section)!

Observe that this character looks very much like the one you did already import from the original FBX, there are little difference - yet you want to set up this as your real base character.

Also you want to rename the skeleton to '''MH_Skeleton'''! And you want to open the skeleton, and retarget it to the humanoid rig... this should look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Skeleton-Retarget.png]]

Make sure that your character is in T-Pose, as you want to retarget the Mannequin animations to your characters MH_Skeleton!
Make a animation folder in your MH, perhaps even Mannequin folder?

You go to the UE4 folder: Content/Mannequin/Animations and right-click on this animation: '''ThirdPerson_AnimBP'''

Select retarget and choose MH_Skeleton as your target - also select the animation folder you made before, something like this:
[[File:MH-Base-Animation-Retarget.png]]

You may want to rename your new ThirdPerson_AnimBP to '''''MH''_ThirdPerson_AnimBP''' - or perhaps simply MH_AnimBP?

===Translation Retargeting===
After the retargeting the animations will still look odd. You go to the skeleton tree, then check off the "Show Retargeting Options" and set those at and below the spline to Skeleton (recursively) - that looks something like this:

[[File:MH-Anim-Skeleton.png]]

=More shape keys, made in Blender 2.8=
I have not yet made any target in MH, also I have not had much luck in using the two blender addons. Frankly I don't really understand what the different buttons does, most of them are not active... perhaps they make sens if you use Blender a lot?

But I will show you different ways to get expressions, targets and skeleton animations(!) to shape keys, so then will be new morph targets in UE4!

Before you get started you should probably look at a few Blender tutorials regarding this - these are good:

===Tutorials===

General introduction to MHX2 import and animation. However '''do not''' import the resulting characters into UE4?

{{#ev:youtube|2P1t_nogbGs}}

Short general introduction to using shape keys in Blender 2.8:

{{#ev:youtube|e675Ulc7QL4}}

==Expressions and targets==
Make sure that you have your original base character saved and load it into Makehuman. Remember to check that your base character is in the T-Pose, do not change that!

'''Just in case:''' I recommend that you keep a copy of this file as well as all the blender file etc.

You should also have Blender open and load the .blender file where you saved both your FBX and the MHX2.
Before you go on do as follows: move the MHX2 character to x 10m, so the entire character moves to the left (right to your front view) - this will make it more easy for you to work with! (Save the blender file!)

'''This is the general workflow for transfer of expressions:'''

Makehuman:
* Go to the Pose/Animate tab and select Expressions. From the list select the first expression, Anger01.
* Save the character as .mhx2 - but to a different file name: averagedude-base-expression.mhx2.

Blender:
* In blender, deselect all the collections
* Import the file you made, using the same operator presets as yo saved them.
* Activate your Base character collection and you will have two characters side by side - one base character and a very angry one!
* Go to object mode
* '''Left-click-select''' the angry guy first, then '''shift-left-click''' your base character.
* Go to the vertex tab/shape key, and click on the little down arrow, and select the ''Join as shapes'' - like this:
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey1.png]]
This will make a brand new shape key: Averagedude_base_expression:Proxy

* You rename the shape key by a double-click and call it '''Exp_Anger01'''..
* ... and assign the Vertex group to head
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey2.png]]

In case you can not select ''Join as shapes'' the two characters were not selected in the right order, or perhaps the topology is not the same. Blender will show this as a message some where at the bottom of the screen. I this happens try the blender workflow, in this paragraph only , again!

You can now try to change the value for the shape key, and you should see that your base character can get angry!

When this worked for you you can save the blender file! And you should now do your very first re-import of the FBX. You save your base character in a FBX and Import it to UE4. To be 100% safe you can save and import to different names and folders, but in the end you will re-import the base character each time you do one or more new shape keys.

When you see this working in UE4, you can go on to the next expressions - I simply delete the Averagedude_base_expression collection and save the next expression in the same file. You can naturally do as many expressions as you want. leave some out etc... as you like!

==Observations about Blender 2.8==
You may notice that you can mess this up, so please save your blender file and back up! Say you can easily merge your base character with the expression MHX2 or do something else to corrupt your work!

Please also note that the Vertex Group/relative to, '''head''' and '''Basis''', are rather important! The shape key will change the entire body, to the T-Pose, if head is not set. Likewise you can make some shape keys relative to an other shape key - this will be important a bit later, when we do more "advanced" stuff!

=Blender 2.8 - a bit more advanced?=
This is very fine - we can make your base character use all the expressions, and they can be combined! Also you can tamper with them in UE4, say you can combine them and you can even set minus values, or extreme values not "allowed" in Blender. But you obviously want more than that?

Perhaps you can find some special "targets" you want to use?

Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there

2021-05-11T17:06:02Z

Assetdk:

::'''Please take a look at this page: [[Documentation:MH4UE|MH4UE]] - to get an overview of things you can use to get your Makehuman characters into Unreal Engine!'''

Also look at the Forum here for more tips [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=52859&hilit=MH4UE#p52859 MH4UE].

There are, currently, several pages for this, describing the process of getting MH to Blender and then into Unreal. And one describing the addon that will add more "shape keys" to your characters (while in blender).

* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_and_how_to_import_them_there|Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there]].
* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_Materials|How to setup Unreal materials]].
* [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].
* [[Documentation:MHBlenderTools: MakeShapes|MakeShapes - getting more shape keys/morph targets]]

* [[Documentation:MPFB 2|MakeHuman Plugin For Blender]].

=What can and can't be done?=
I have been working on getting different characters into UE4 for some time, and this have been a real hassle!

On this page I want to summarize what I managed to get done using a workflow that involves Blender. I have had a focus on not going into much details regarding any of the tools, but you will need to know a few things. Even though this looks like a trivial task there are some pitfalls and also there are some things that can not be done, or I have just not found out how to. I will eventually also add links to all the YT tutorials I found helpful.

I found that working with Makehuman very easy, so focus will be very UE4 how to specific.

This is what I will cover thus far:

* Create and save any MH character in Makehuman. Basic stuff, and important things to avoid.
* Getting the character into Blender - import or link?
* Setup Blender for Export, shape keys and morph targets
* First import into UE4
* Introduction to more shape keys
* Mixamo animations

This is the stuff that I did not cover - yet:

* Animations for talking (other tutorials may help)
* Making custom cloth
* Hair

This is the stuff I can not get to work:
* Retargeting to Advanced Locomotion System V3/4
* ALS got something to work! [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there/ALS]]

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine ALS V4]]

Since I am using/learning Blender 2.8, I want to share a bit of bonus info. I managed to make one of the free UE4 packages work a bit "better". That is your characters should have some transportation. This is how:

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine Vehicle Variety Pack]]

=Getting started=
I wanted a quick way to populate a UE4 game, preferably with an unlimited number of varied characters of high quality. This has proven to be a bit harder than expected. The workflow for making characters is not as trivial as one would want but this guide should make it a bit more easy to do. I will focus on describing the "straight" path from Makehuman and into UE4 - so you will not find too much details about Blender. Please refer to Blender specific pages for more on that.

==Need to know==
There are a few terms that you need to know, say you need to know that you will import FBX, textures and other files into UE4. Also you will need to know that a Character consists of a '''Mesh''', a '''Skeleton''' and '''''materials''''' (that refers to textures). I will try to elaborate on these subjects as we go along...

==Making a base-character==

'''IMPORTANT new comment:'''
There is now tree different custom A-poses that you can use - i currently recommend the one highlighted in the list.
Please read more in the [[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=53368#p53368 forum]], for more information.
===Set up Base-Character(s)===
Makehuman provides a range of predefined characters that is supposed to work as-is. You can just load a character, export it to FBX and import that into UE4 - and after a bit of work you can have a working player character! There are however a few pitfalls, so I suggest you make one (or more) base-character(s) that you can elaborate on as you go along. I will be working with ''''''averagedude'''''' as my base-character.

These are the steps to make the base characters:

* Open Makehuman

* Select the files tab and load the character

'''Under 'Geometries''''
* Remove cloth - (uncheck Hide faces under cloth)!
* Remove hair
* Add Teeth
* Choose Topology - '''I have no advice on this - but see comment below!'''
* Chose Eyebrows/Eyelashes, these can be changed as you go along - as can eye colors!
* Add Tongue01 (again I have no advice/recommendation on that, yet)

'''Under 'Materials'''' - I will show you how to work with UE4 "advanced" materials:
* Chose any skin that you like,
* Chose any eyes that you like

'''Under 'Pose/Animate''''
* Chose Skeleton: Uengine - if you do not have this already you my get it via the community tab?
* Chose Expressions: none

* For the POSE chose the Apose_ue
* [[File:MH_UE_Poses.png]]

* Finally, from one of the poses documentations I found this comment: This pose is a near drop in fit for the Unreal mannequin using a generic male with standard proportions and 187.5 cm height.
(You should probably use this, I have been using a height of 168-190, where the better result came from 190)

And this is it! But there is one 'important' option you need know about - you need to '''uncheck''' the Smooth button!

The smooth button/option: [[File:MH-Smooth-option.png]] should be unchecked... that will make your character a bit less attractive, but this will preserve the shape-keys!

Makehuman comes with some 50-60 '''shape-keys''' and these will all be available as '''morph-targets''' in UE4. I will show you how to make more shape-keys, using makehuman+blender!

Now it is time to save your base-character - even though you have made very few changes to the file you should save this file under the save tab and name it
<your-name>-base (say averagedude-base), you can even add your very own tag 'base' to this.

When you save the file like this you will be able to reload it, and we need that later!

====Choose Topology/Shape keys====
When you make your base character without smoothing you get shape keys, and you want to share these between different characters. Specifically you would probably want to share face morphs between male and female characters - and there may be other base character variations, say old/young/child etc.

Later I will focus on how to make new shape keys, using blender - depending on how you want to do this you may want to '''chose Topology that is compatible between the different characters!''' That is you may be able to transfer one "shape" from a male character to a female character, but the result will depend on ''topology compatibility''. I will/may thus update this section to make sure

'''Shape key names''' will be the same for all of the base characters, as they come from - however you will be able to make new keys. You must name these keys the same for all MH characters, like these share the same skeleton (MH_Skelton) they must hold all the same shape keys names. If they don't your game may "break"....

===Export your base-character===
You can now take a break - or you can export your work. There are really tree options for you to look at:

* Save the FBX file directly - make sure to chose the binary file format, if you want to import this file to UE.
* Save a MHX2 file (you may need to install this as a option/utility, find our elsewhere!)
* Load the character to '''Blender''' directly via the link (I will get back to what can be done using that!)

I suggest that you save your base-character now, in both formats - FBX and MHX2! Make a specific 'Base-Characters' folder, because you will need it!

When you export the FBX use these options:

[[File:MH-FBX-export-options.png]]

This is the result for me, you should see something like this also:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder.png]]

You should also see that there is a sub-folder, called Textures - this is where the different textures are saved and it should now look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures.png]]

You can now go over all of the different textures, so you will have a wide selection to chose from. Textures are saved every time you save a FBX file!
Say, I change the base-characters textures, saved the FBX - and this is what I got:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures2.png]]

===Import your base-character to UE4 - FBX===
The FBX file will actually import directly to UE4, but there are a few problems! You should export your FBX file as Binary FBX, and you will get the most out of it. After this you can get to this result (after adjusting the materials, as seen below):

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported.png]]

Your character can look like this (after adjusting materials) - pretty good:

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported-materials.png]]

'''HOWEVER, you have lost the morph-targets! And as you probably noticed, the UE4 standard FBX import do import them!'''

I will get back to what to do about the shape-keys... but let make the materials first?

==Makehuman UE4 materials==
The details for setting up materials was moved to this section: '''[[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine Materials|Materials]]'''

====Customization====
The skin can now be modified using a simple interface in the game. The prototype for this can be seen here: [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].

===More materials?===

You can simply drag and drop more textures from the the base-character/textures folder, then duplicate and rename the materials, and apply different textures to the renamed materials. At some point I want to be able to customize/randomize (NPC) characters, but I have not yet done that.

Also you can make materials instances with parameters... I will show you howto, but first we need to turn shape-keys into morph-targets.

=Use Blender v 2.80 to get more!!=
For some reason the exported FBX file is not organized in a way so you will get the shape-keys imported directly to UE4. However when you follow the next steps, you will not get the correct materials imported, so I recommend that you run FBX import as shown above, and save the textures/materials in a separate folder.

If you are new to Blender please run a few tutorials specifically on on how to import/export, and also get to know about collections - you can do a lot in Blender and you can get confused!

==What will be done here?==
I will show you how to:

* Import your MHX2 files, to preserve the shape-keys
* Export FBX files, so UE4 will import correctly with morph-targets
* Apply expressions etc. to your base character
* Import these to your Blender file and apply the expressions as '''new shape keys'''

==But, first import and inspect FBX and MHX2!==
As you may remember you exported two files, the FBX file and the MHX2 file. You want to import both of these files into Blender, so you need two Collections, called FBX and MHX2. You right-click on the 'Scene collection' select 'New' and rename the collections to 'FBX' and 'MHX2'... I also added Scene collection and dragged the Camera and Light there (as I deleted the box). After this you should see something link this (the small Icons may be different):

[[File:MH-Base-Blender-setup.png]]

When you import your FBX file select/highlight the FBX collection, so the FBX data get imported into that collection. You can use the standard import options. For MHX2 you need to change the setting to match those you see below - when you find they are correct you can click the + sign, marked with a yellow arrow, and save the setting with your own setting-name.
(You may notice that the character you imported is out of proportions, some 17-18 meters high, we will correct that when we export to UE4!)
[[File:MH-Blender-FBX-import-options.png]]

===Inspect the results, in Blender===
Now is a good time to save the Blender file. You should save this in the same folder as the FBX and MHX2. I call this file averagedude-base.blend.

If you did this approximately as described the result should be munch like below. And you will probably notice that there is some structural differences. You can see that by looking at the small icons [[File:MH-Blender-base-imported-icons.png]], that represent where modifiers, vertex groups and Object data is stored! Specifically the Object data holds the shape-keys and those were not imported. (perhaps because I did not use the correct FBX import options - but the same happens in UE4!).

[[File:MH-Blender-base-imported.png]]

You will notice that the MHX2 version of your character holds the Object data (the triangle) and that shape-keys can be seen there!

==Export the FBX for your base character, and import to UE4==
The next step is crucial for getting things to work in UE4, it is not very complicated but you need to have a plan.

When you did this correctly you should be able to get the following results:

* Import your base character into UE4
* Create retargeting for your common skeleton - called MH_Skeleton
* Retarget the Maniqin animations to your base character(s)
* Get additional Mixamo animations
===FBX export settings===
'''Important!''' Before you go any further you should rename your base character to '''main_root''', like this:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-main-root.png]]

.... you should do this for all base characters! main_root will be the root bone in your skeleton. When you do it like this, all of your base characters will be able to share the same skeleton!

Now select the MHX2 collection where you have the character, and go to Export FBX.

I have made a 'Operator preset' for the FBX export, this is the options you need to set:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-operator-presets.png]]

Place the FBX file in the same folder as where you placed the original FBX and the MHX2. You probably do not need the FBX that you made with Makehuman, and you can always make it again?
(You may however want to export more FBX files from Makehuman, simply to get all of the textures. We will look more into how you can use the skin textures!)

==UE4 import, and retarget ==
Go to your UE4 project and make a MH folder containing a new avaragedude folder, and import your base character there!
During the import of the FBX file from Blender into UE4 you must enable the '''Import Morp Targets''' checkbox manually (expand the Mesh section)!

Observe that this character looks very much like the one you did already import from the original FBX, there are little difference - yet you want to set up this as your real base character.

Also you want to rename the skeleton to '''MH_Skeleton'''! And you want to open the skeleton, and retarget it to the humanoid rig... this should look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Skeleton-Retarget.png]]

Make sure that your character is in T-Pose, as you want to retarget the Mannequin animations to your characters MH_Skeleton!
Make a animation folder in your MH, perhaps even Mannequin folder?

You go to the UE4 folder: Content/Mannequin/Animations and right-click on this animation: '''ThirdPerson_AnimBP'''

Select retarget and choose MH_Skeleton as your target - also select the animation folder you made before, something like this:
[[File:MH-Base-Animation-Retarget.png]]

You may want to rename your new ThirdPerson_AnimBP to '''''MH''_ThirdPerson_AnimBP''' - or perhaps simply MH_AnimBP?

===Translation Retargeting===
After the retargeting the animations will still look odd. You go to the skeleton tree, then check off the "Show Retargeting Options" and set those at and below the spline to Skeleton (recursively) - that looks something like this:

[[File:MH-Anim-Skeleton.png]]

=More shape keys, made in Blender 2.8=
I have not yet made any target in MH, also I have not had much luck in using the two blender addons. Frankly I don't really understand what the different buttons does, most of them are not active... perhaps they make sens if you use Blender a lot?

But I will show you different ways to get expressions, targets and skeleton animations(!) to shape keys, so then will be new morph targets in UE4!

Before you get started you should probably look at a few Blender tutorials regarding this - these are good:

===Tutorials===

General introduction to MHX2 import and animation. However '''do not''' import the resulting characters into UE4?

{{#ev:youtube|2P1t_nogbGs}}

Short general introduction to using shape keys in Blender 2.8:

{{#ev:youtube|e675Ulc7QL4}}

==Expressions and targets==
Make sure that you have your original base character saved and load it into Makehuman. Remember to check that your base character is in the T-Pose, do not change that!

'''Just in case:''' I recommend that you keep a copy of this file as well as all the blender file etc.

You should also have Blender open and load the .blender file where you saved both your FBX and the MHX2.
Before you go on do as follows: move the MHX2 character to x 10m, so the entire character moves to the left (right to your front view) - this will make it more easy for you to work with! (Save the blender file!)

'''This is the general workflow for transfer of expressions:'''

Makehuman:
* Go to the Pose/Animate tab and select Expressions. From the list select the first expression, Anger01.
* Save the character as .mhx2 - but to a different file name: averagedude-base-expression.mhx2.

Blender:
* In blender, deselect all the collections
* Import the file you made, using the same operator presets as yo saved them.
* Activate your Base character collection and you will have two characters side by side - one base character and a very angry one!
* Go to object mode
* '''Left-click-select''' the angry guy first, then '''shift-left-click''' your base character.
* Go to the vertex tab/shape key, and click on the little down arrow, and select the ''Join as shapes'' - like this:
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey1.png]]
This will make a brand new shape key: Averagedude_base_expression:Proxy

* You rename the shape key by a double-click and call it '''Exp_Anger01'''..
* ... and assign the Vertex group to head
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey2.png]]

In case you can not select ''Join as shapes'' the two characters were not selected in the right order, or perhaps the topology is not the same. Blender will show this as a message some where at the bottom of the screen. I this happens try the blender workflow, in this paragraph only , again!

You can now try to change the value for the shape key, and you should see that your base character can get angry!

When this worked for you you can save the blender file! And you should now do your very first re-import of the FBX. You save your base character in a FBX and Import it to UE4. To be 100% safe you can save and import to different names and folders, but in the end you will re-import the base character each time you do one or more new shape keys.

When you see this working in UE4, you can go on to the next expressions - I simply delete the Averagedude_base_expression collection and save the next expression in the same file. You can naturally do as many expressions as you want. leave some out etc... as you like!

==Observations about Blender 2.8==
You may notice that you can mess this up, so please save your blender file and back up! Say you can easily merge your base character with the expression MHX2 or do something else to corrupt your work!

Please also note that the Vertex Group/relative to, '''head''' and '''Basis''', are rather important! The shape key will change the entire body, to the T-Pose, if head is not set. Likewise you can make some shape keys relative to an other shape key - this will be important a bit later, when we do more "advanced" stuff!

=Blender 2.8 - a bit more advanced?=
This is very fine - we can make your base character use all the expressions, and they can be combined! Also you can tamper with them in UE4, say you can combine them and you can even set minus values, or extreme values not "allowed" in Blender. But you obviously want more than that?

Perhaps you can find some special "targets" you want to use?

Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there

2021-05-11T09:16:39Z

Assetdk:

::'''Please take a look at this page: [[Documentation:MH4UE|MH4UE]] - to get an overview of things you can use to get your Makehuman characters into Unreal Engine!'''

Also look at the Forum here for more tips [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=52859&hilit=MH4UE#p52859 MH4UE].

There are, currently, several pages for this, describing the process of getting MH to Blender and then into Unreal. And one describing the addon that will add more "shape keys" to your characters (while in blender).

* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_and_how_to_import_them_there|Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there]].
* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_Materials|How to setup Unreal materials]].
* [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].
* [[Documentation:MHBlenderTools: MakeShapes|MakeShapes - getting more shape keys/morph targets]]

=What can and can't be done?=
I have been working on getting different characters into UE4 for some time, and this have been a real hassle!

On this page I want to summarize what I managed to get done using a workflow that involves Blender. I have had a focus on not going into much details regarding any of the tools, but you will need to know a few things. Even though this looks like a trivial task there are some pitfalls and also there are some things that can not be done, or I have just not found out how to. I will eventually also add links to all the YT tutorials I found helpful.

I found that working with Makehuman very easy, so focus will be very UE4 how to specific.

This is what I will cover thus far:

* Create and save any MH character in Makehuman. Basic stuff, and important things to avoid.
* Getting the character into Blender - import or link?
* Setup Blender for Export, shape keys and morph targets
* First import into UE4
* Introduction to more shape keys
* Mixamo animations

This is the stuff that I did not cover - yet:

* Animations for talking (other tutorials may help)
* Making custom cloth
* Hair

This is the stuff I can not get to work:
* Retargeting to Advanced Locomotion System V3/4
* ALS got something to work! [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there/ALS]]

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine ALS V4]]

Since I am using/learning Blender 2.8, I want to share a bit of bonus info. I managed to make one of the free UE4 packages work a bit "better". That is your characters should have some transportation. This is how:

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine Vehicle Variety Pack]]

=Getting started=
I wanted a quick way to populate a UE4 game, preferably with an unlimited number of varied characters of high quality. This has proven to be a bit harder than expected. The workflow for making characters is not as trivial as one would want but this guide should make it a bit more easy to do. I will focus on describing the "straight" path from Makehuman and into UE4 - so you will not find too much details about Blender. Please refer to Blender specific pages for more on that.

==Need to know==
There are a few terms that you need to know, say you need to know that you will import FBX, textures and other files into UE4. Also you will need to know that a Character consists of a '''Mesh''', a '''Skeleton''' and '''''materials''''' (that refers to textures). I will try to elaborate on these subjects as we go along...

==Making a base-character==

'''IMPORTANT new comment:'''
There is now tree different custom A-poses that you can use - i currently recommend the one highlighted in the list.
Please read more in the [[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=53368#p53368 forum]], for more information.
===Set up Base-Character(s)===
Makehuman provides a range of predefined characters that is supposed to work as-is. You can just load a character, export it to FBX and import that into UE4 - and after a bit of work you can have a working player character! There are however a few pitfalls, so I suggest you make one (or more) base-character(s) that you can elaborate on as you go along. I will be working with ''''''averagedude'''''' as my base-character.

These are the steps to make the base characters:

* Open Makehuman

* Select the files tab and load the character

'''Under 'Geometries''''
* Remove cloth - (uncheck Hide faces under cloth)!
* Remove hair
* Add Teeth
* Choose Topology - '''I have no advice on this - but see comment below!'''
* Chose Eyebrows/Eyelashes, these can be changed as you go along - as can eye colors!
* Add Tongue01 (again I have no advice/recommendation on that, yet)

'''Under 'Materials'''' - I will show you how to work with UE4 "advanced" materials:
* Chose any skin that you like,
* Chose any eyes that you like

'''Under 'Pose/Animate''''
* Chose Skeleton: Uengine - if you do not have this already you my get it via the community tab?
* Chose Expressions: none

* For the POSE chose the Apose_ue
* [[File:MH_UE_Poses.png]]

* Finally, from one of the poses documentations I found this comment: This pose is a near drop in fit for the Unreal mannequin using a generic male with standard proportions and 187.5 cm height.
(You should probably use this, I have been using a height of 168-190, where the better result came from 190)

And this is it! But there is one 'important' option you need know about - you need to '''uncheck''' the Smooth button!

The smooth button/option: [[File:MH-Smooth-option.png]] should be unchecked... that will make your character a bit less attractive, but this will preserve the shape-keys!

Makehuman comes with some 50-60 '''shape-keys''' and these will all be available as '''morph-targets''' in UE4. I will show you how to make more shape-keys, using makehuman+blender!

Now it is time to save your base-character - even though you have made very few changes to the file you should save this file under the save tab and name it
<your-name>-base (say averagedude-base), you can even add your very own tag 'base' to this.

When you save the file like this you will be able to reload it, and we need that later!

====Choose Topology/Shape keys====
When you make your base character without smoothing you get shape keys, and you want to share these between different characters. Specifically you would probably want to share face morphs between male and female characters - and there may be other base character variations, say old/young/child etc.

Later I will focus on how to make new shape keys, using blender - depending on how you want to do this you may want to '''chose Topology that is compatible between the different characters!''' That is you may be able to transfer one "shape" from a male character to a female character, but the result will depend on ''topology compatibility''. I will/may thus update this section to make sure

'''Shape key names''' will be the same for all of the base characters, as they come from - however you will be able to make new keys. You must name these keys the same for all MH characters, like these share the same skeleton (MH_Skelton) they must hold all the same shape keys names. If they don't your game may "break"....

===Export your base-character===
You can now take a break - or you can export your work. There are really tree options for you to look at:

* Save the FBX file directly - make sure to chose the binary file format, if you want to import this file to UE.
* Save a MHX2 file (you may need to install this as a option/utility, find our elsewhere!)
* Load the character to '''Blender''' directly via the link (I will get back to what can be done using that!)

I suggest that you save your base-character now, in both formats - FBX and MHX2! Make a specific 'Base-Characters' folder, because you will need it!

When you export the FBX use these options:

[[File:MH-FBX-export-options.png]]

This is the result for me, you should see something like this also:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder.png]]

You should also see that there is a sub-folder, called Textures - this is where the different textures are saved and it should now look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures.png]]

You can now go over all of the different textures, so you will have a wide selection to chose from. Textures are saved every time you save a FBX file!
Say, I change the base-characters textures, saved the FBX - and this is what I got:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures2.png]]

===Import your base-character to UE4 - FBX===
The FBX file will actually import directly to UE4, but there are a few problems! You should export your FBX file as Binary FBX, and you will get the most out of it. After this you can get to this result (after adjusting the materials, as seen below):

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported.png]]

Your character can look like this (after adjusting materials) - pretty good:

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported-materials.png]]

'''HOWEVER, you have lost the morph-targets! And as you probably noticed, the UE4 standard FBX import do import them!'''

I will get back to what to do about the shape-keys... but let make the materials first?

==Makehuman UE4 materials==
The details for setting up materials was moved to this section: '''[[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine Materials|Materials]]'''

====Customization====
The skin can now be modified using a simple interface in the game. The prototype for this can be seen here: [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].

===More materials?===

You can simply drag and drop more textures from the the base-character/textures folder, then duplicate and rename the materials, and apply different textures to the renamed materials. At some point I want to be able to customize/randomize (NPC) characters, but I have not yet done that.

Also you can make materials instances with parameters... I will show you howto, but first we need to turn shape-keys into morph-targets.

=Use Blender v 2.80 to get more!!=
For some reason the exported FBX file is not organized in a way so you will get the shape-keys imported directly to UE4. However when you follow the next steps, you will not get the correct materials imported, so I recommend that you run FBX import as shown above, and save the textures/materials in a separate folder.

If you are new to Blender please run a few tutorials specifically on on how to import/export, and also get to know about collections - you can do a lot in Blender and you can get confused!

==What will be done here?==
I will show you how to:

* Import your MHX2 files, to preserve the shape-keys
* Export FBX files, so UE4 will import correctly with morph-targets
* Apply expressions etc. to your base character
* Import these to your Blender file and apply the expressions as '''new shape keys'''

==But, first import and inspect FBX and MHX2!==
As you may remember you exported two files, the FBX file and the MHX2 file. You want to import both of these files into Blender, so you need two Collections, called FBX and MHX2. You right-click on the 'Scene collection' select 'New' and rename the collections to 'FBX' and 'MHX2'... I also added Scene collection and dragged the Camera and Light there (as I deleted the box). After this you should see something link this (the small Icons may be different):

[[File:MH-Base-Blender-setup.png]]

When you import your FBX file select/highlight the FBX collection, so the FBX data get imported into that collection. You can use the standard import options. For MHX2 you need to change the setting to match those you see below - when you find they are correct you can click the + sign, marked with a yellow arrow, and save the setting with your own setting-name.
(You may notice that the character you imported is out of proportions, some 17-18 meters high, we will correct that when we export to UE4!)
[[File:MH-Blender-FBX-import-options.png]]

===Inspect the results, in Blender===
Now is a good time to save the Blender file. You should save this in the same folder as the FBX and MHX2. I call this file averagedude-base.blend.

If you did this approximately as described the result should be munch like below. And you will probably notice that there is some structural differences. You can see that by looking at the small icons [[File:MH-Blender-base-imported-icons.png]], that represent where modifiers, vertex groups and Object data is stored! Specifically the Object data holds the shape-keys and those were not imported. (perhaps because I did not use the correct FBX import options - but the same happens in UE4!).

[[File:MH-Blender-base-imported.png]]

You will notice that the MHX2 version of your character holds the Object data (the triangle) and that shape-keys can be seen there!

==Export the FBX for your base character, and import to UE4==
The next step is crucial for getting things to work in UE4, it is not very complicated but you need to have a plan.

When you did this correctly you should be able to get the following results:

* Import your base character into UE4
* Create retargeting for your common skeleton - called MH_Skeleton
* Retarget the Maniqin animations to your base character(s)
* Get additional Mixamo animations
===FBX export settings===
'''Important!''' Before you go any further you should rename your base character to '''main_root''', like this:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-main-root.png]]

.... you should do this for all base characters! main_root will be the root bone in your skeleton. When you do it like this, all of your base characters will be able to share the same skeleton!

Now select the MHX2 collection where you have the character, and go to Export FBX.

I have made a 'Operator preset' for the FBX export, this is the options you need to set:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-operator-presets.png]]

Place the FBX file in the same folder as where you placed the original FBX and the MHX2. You probably do not need the FBX that you made with Makehuman, and you can always make it again?
(You may however want to export more FBX files from Makehuman, simply to get all of the textures. We will look more into how you can use the skin textures!)

==UE4 import, and retarget ==
Go to your UE4 project and make a MH folder containing a new avaragedude folder, and import your base character there!
During the import of the FBX file from Blender into UE4 you must enable the '''Import Morp Targets''' checkbox manually (expand the Mesh section)!

Observe that this character looks very much like the one you did already import from the original FBX, there are little difference - yet you want to set up this as your real base character.

Also you want to rename the skeleton to '''MH_Skeleton'''! And you want to open the skeleton, and retarget it to the humanoid rig... this should look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Skeleton-Retarget.png]]

Make sure that your character is in T-Pose, as you want to retarget the Mannequin animations to your characters MH_Skeleton!
Make a animation folder in your MH, perhaps even Mannequin folder?

You go to the UE4 folder: Content/Mannequin/Animations and right-click on this animation: '''ThirdPerson_AnimBP'''

Select retarget and choose MH_Skeleton as your target - also select the animation folder you made before, something like this:
[[File:MH-Base-Animation-Retarget.png]]

You may want to rename your new ThirdPerson_AnimBP to '''''MH''_ThirdPerson_AnimBP''' - or perhaps simply MH_AnimBP?

===Translation Retargeting===
After the retargeting the animations will still look odd. You go to the skeleton tree, then check off the "Show Retargeting Options" and set those at and below the spline to Skeleton (recursively) - that looks something like this:

[[File:MH-Anim-Skeleton.png]]

=More shape keys, made in Blender 2.8=
I have not yet made any target in MH, also I have not had much luck in using the two blender addons. Frankly I don't really understand what the different buttons does, most of them are not active... perhaps they make sens if you use Blender a lot?

But I will show you different ways to get expressions, targets and skeleton animations(!) to shape keys, so then will be new morph targets in UE4!

Before you get started you should probably look at a few Blender tutorials regarding this - these are good:

===Tutorials===

General introduction to MHX2 import and animation. However '''do not''' import the resulting characters into UE4?

{{#ev:youtube|2P1t_nogbGs}}

Short general introduction to using shape keys in Blender 2.8:

{{#ev:youtube|e675Ulc7QL4}}

==Expressions and targets==
Make sure that you have your original base character saved and load it into Makehuman. Remember to check that your base character is in the T-Pose, do not change that!

'''Just in case:''' I recommend that you keep a copy of this file as well as all the blender file etc.

You should also have Blender open and load the .blender file where you saved both your FBX and the MHX2.
Before you go on do as follows: move the MHX2 character to x 10m, so the entire character moves to the left (right to your front view) - this will make it more easy for you to work with! (Save the blender file!)

'''This is the general workflow for transfer of expressions:'''

Makehuman:
* Go to the Pose/Animate tab and select Expressions. From the list select the first expression, Anger01.
* Save the character as .mhx2 - but to a different file name: averagedude-base-expression.mhx2.

Blender:
* In blender, deselect all the collections
* Import the file you made, using the same operator presets as yo saved them.
* Activate your Base character collection and you will have two characters side by side - one base character and a very angry one!
* Go to object mode
* '''Left-click-select''' the angry guy first, then '''shift-left-click''' your base character.
* Go to the vertex tab/shape key, and click on the little down arrow, and select the ''Join as shapes'' - like this:
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey1.png]]
This will make a brand new shape key: Averagedude_base_expression:Proxy

* You rename the shape key by a double-click and call it '''Exp_Anger01'''..
* ... and assign the Vertex group to head
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey2.png]]

In case you can not select ''Join as shapes'' the two characters were not selected in the right order, or perhaps the topology is not the same. Blender will show this as a message some where at the bottom of the screen. I this happens try the blender workflow, in this paragraph only , again!

You can now try to change the value for the shape key, and you should see that your base character can get angry!

When this worked for you you can save the blender file! And you should now do your very first re-import of the FBX. You save your base character in a FBX and Import it to UE4. To be 100% safe you can save and import to different names and folders, but in the end you will re-import the base character each time you do one or more new shape keys.

When you see this working in UE4, you can go on to the next expressions - I simply delete the Averagedude_base_expression collection and save the next expression in the same file. You can naturally do as many expressions as you want. leave some out etc... as you like!

==Observations about Blender 2.8==
You may notice that you can mess this up, so please save your blender file and back up! Say you can easily merge your base character with the expression MHX2 or do something else to corrupt your work!

Please also note that the Vertex Group/relative to, '''head''' and '''Basis''', are rather important! The shape key will change the entire body, to the T-Pose, if head is not set. Likewise you can make some shape keys relative to an other shape key - this will be important a bit later, when we do more "advanced" stuff!

=Blender 2.8 - a bit more advanced?=
This is very fine - we can make your base character use all the expressions, and they can be combined! Also you can tamper with them in UE4, say you can combine them and you can even set minus values, or extreme values not "allowed" in Blender. But you obviously want more than that?

Perhaps you can find some special "targets" you want to use?

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-05-11T09:15:42Z

Assetdk:

Once you have the character inside Unreal you want to utilize the shape keys to customize your character.

I am working on a generic solution that will allow you to do just that, this is the first preview!

::'''Please take a look at this page: [[Documentation:MH4UE|MH4UE]] - to get an overview of things you can use to get your Makehuman characters into Unreal Engine!'''

==Parameter Setup and Parameter Functions==

In order to make the customization work you need to make a table containing all the parameters that can be adjusted. This is a bit complicated, but you need to do this once only.. The parameters are imported into Unreal and from there the customization components should handle the rest! The parameter setup is done in a CSV file - I use a google sheet for this, but you can use any tool that works for you and Unreal.

The parameters/functions can be listed like this:

* Shape key grouping
* Customize option
* Randomize
* Randomize grouping
* Randomize exclusive grouping
* Clamp min/max
* Display name
* Tool tip
* Comment

The exclusive grouping can be used at group level, so you can group shape keys that does not mix well - say one major body shape will corrupt an other shape. You will be able to exclude/clamp the other shapes to prevent this from happening.

=MHC - UE4 Generic Character customization for MakeHuman, and other characters=

I am making a Generic Customization package that can be used for MakeHuman. This is an overview of the functionality, introducing the components that are available in the package.

==Introduction==
If you follow the [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there|instructions]] on how to import your MakeHuman characters to Unreal there is still a lot of work to do. In general you will need a generic blueprint to "assemble" your character and the cloth element, also you need a basic clothing system, and you need some basic interface to work with the "morph targets". Some of the morph targets will affect the basic shape of the character, while others can handle the general expressions.

The prototype for this can be seen below, in this you can see the shape keys as well as the buttons where you can change the base-tint parameter.

[[File:MH UE4 MaterialCustom 1.png|400px]]

The basic parts leads to two different components for your character blueprint one for customizing the character shape and a system for cloth, hair and other modular attachments. Also the system should be able to handle different character types, say you may have several "base characters", characters of different genders etc.

This page contains a general introduction to the MHC components, breaking down what you need to know to understand and setup the system with your own characters.

==Package components - GenCustomize_Comp==

This is what the Blueprint for the MH generic character looks like, currently.

[[File:MHC_GenericMH_BP-V1.png|300px]]

This first version of MHC only contains the '''GenCustomize_Comp''', but the one that i going out will not yet contain the '''GenInventory_Comp'''. (The GenInventory_Comp will come with a few Widgets new and it will allow your character to pickup "items" and "cloth". But in the current version you will not yet be able to set that up.)

In addition to these components there are two interfaces - the Interact interface will enable item pickup and other interactions, while the Customize interface will allow the customization - like setting the morph targets and base tint color. (Others will follow).

[[File:MHC_GenericMH_Comp-V1.png|300px]]

Special to the customization is that you must provide/build a table holding the skeleton mesh specific information for morph targets. This will allow you to setup the customization specific to your MakeHuman character. (Also you need a specific material if you want to enable the color tint.)

If your base characters holds different morph targets your "Morph Table" must contain that specific skeleton reference, more details in the technical section on that topic:

[[File:MHC_GenericMH_Cust-MT.png|800px]]

You can do this in two ways, either you drag/drop the BP into the level, or you can make a subclass of it - add the morph table to either of these.
Also there is a debug option, to be used for your own code... or for that in the customize blueprints.

[[File:MHC GenericMH BPMT-V1.png|400px]]

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-05-11T09:14:24Z

Assetdk:

Once you have the character inside Unreal you want to utilize the shape keys to customize your character.

I am working on a generic solution that will allow you to do just that, this is the first preview!

Please take a look at this page: [[Documentation:MH4UE|MH4UE]] - to get an overview of things you can use to get your Makehuman characters into Unreal Engine!

==Parameter Setup and Parameter Functions==

In order to make the customization work you need to make a table containing all the parameters that can be adjusted. This is a bit complicated, but you need to do this once only.. The parameters are imported into Unreal and from there the customization components should handle the rest! The parameter setup is done in a CSV file - I use a google sheet for this, but you can use any tool that works for you and Unreal.

The parameters/functions can be listed like this:

* Shape key grouping
* Customize option
* Randomize
* Randomize grouping
* Randomize exclusive grouping
* Clamp min/max
* Display name
* Tool tip
* Comment

The exclusive grouping can be used at group level, so you can group shape keys that does not mix well - say one major body shape will corrupt an other shape. You will be able to exclude/clamp the other shapes to prevent this from happening.

=MHC - UE4 Generic Character customization for MakeHuman, and other characters=

I am making a Generic Customization package that can be used for MakeHuman. This is an overview of the functionality, introducing the components that are available in the package.

==Introduction==
If you follow the [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there|instructions]] on how to import your MakeHuman characters to Unreal there is still a lot of work to do. In general you will need a generic blueprint to "assemble" your character and the cloth element, also you need a basic clothing system, and you need some basic interface to work with the "morph targets". Some of the morph targets will affect the basic shape of the character, while others can handle the general expressions.

The prototype for this can be seen below, in this you can see the shape keys as well as the buttons where you can change the base-tint parameter.

[[File:MH UE4 MaterialCustom 1.png|400px]]

The basic parts leads to two different components for your character blueprint one for customizing the character shape and a system for cloth, hair and other modular attachments. Also the system should be able to handle different character types, say you may have several "base characters", characters of different genders etc.

This page contains a general introduction to the MHC components, breaking down what you need to know to understand and setup the system with your own characters.

==Package components - GenCustomize_Comp==

This is what the Blueprint for the MH generic character looks like, currently.

[[File:MHC_GenericMH_BP-V1.png|300px]]

This first version of MHC only contains the '''GenCustomize_Comp''', but the one that i going out will not yet contain the '''GenInventory_Comp'''. (The GenInventory_Comp will come with a few Widgets new and it will allow your character to pickup "items" and "cloth". But in the current version you will not yet be able to set that up.)

In addition to these components there are two interfaces - the Interact interface will enable item pickup and other interactions, while the Customize interface will allow the customization - like setting the morph targets and base tint color. (Others will follow).

[[File:MHC_GenericMH_Comp-V1.png|300px]]

Special to the customization is that you must provide/build a table holding the skeleton mesh specific information for morph targets. This will allow you to setup the customization specific to your MakeHuman character. (Also you need a specific material if you want to enable the color tint.)

If your base characters holds different morph targets your "Morph Table" must contain that specific skeleton reference, more details in the technical section on that topic:

[[File:MHC_GenericMH_Cust-MT.png|800px]]

You can do this in two ways, either you drag/drop the BP into the level, or you can make a subclass of it - add the morph table to either of these.
Also there is a debug option, to be used for your own code... or for that in the customize blueprints.

[[File:MHC GenericMH BPMT-V1.png|400px]]

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-03-31T16:13:41Z

Assetdk: /* Package components - GenCustomize_Comp */

Once you have the character inside Unreal you want to utilize the shape keys to customize your character.

I ma working on a generic solution that will allow you to do just that, this is the first preview!

==Parameter Setup and Parameter Functions==

In order to make the customization work you need to make a table containing all the parameters that can be adjusted. This is a bit complicated, but you need to do this once only.. The parameters are imported into Unreal and from there the customization components should handle the rest! The parameter setup is done in a CSV file - I use a google sheet for this, but you can use any tool that works for you and Unreal.

The parameters/functions can be listed like this:

* Shape key grouping
* Customize option
* Randomize
* Randomize grouping
* Randomize exclusive grouping
* Clamp min/max
* Display name
* Tool tip
* Comment

The exclusive grouping can be used at group level, so you can group shape keys that does not mix well - say one major body shape will corrupt an other shape. You will be able to exclude/clamp the other shapes to prevent this from happening.

=MHC - UE4 Generic Character customization for MakeHuman, and other characters=

I am making a Generic Customization package that can be used for MakeHuman. This is an overview of the functionality, introducing the components that are available in the package.

==Introduction==
If you follow the [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there|instructions]] on how to import your MakeHuman characters to Unreal there is still a lot of work to do. In general you will need a generic blueprint to "assemble" your character and the cloth element, also you need a basic clothing system, and you need some basic interface to work with the "morph targets". Some of the morph targets will affect the basic shape of the character, while others can handle the general expressions.

The prototype for this can be seen below, in this you can see the shape keys as well as the buttons where you can change the base-tint parameter.

[[File:MH UE4 MaterialCustom 1.png|400px]]

The basic parts leads to two different components for your character blueprint one for customizing the character shape and a system for cloth, hair and other modular attachments. Also the system should be able to handle different character types, say you may have several "base characters", characters of different genders etc.

This page contains a general introduction to the MHC components, breaking down what you need to know to understand and setup the system with your own characters.

==Package components - GenCustomize_Comp==

This is what the Blueprint for the MH generic character looks like, currently.

[[File:MHC_GenericMH_BP-V1.png|300px]]

This first version of MHC only contains the '''GenCustomize_Comp''', but the one that i going out will not yet contain the '''GenInventory_Comp'''. (The GenInventory_Comp will come with a few Widgets new and it will allow your character to pickup "items" and "cloth". But in the current version you will not yet be able to set that up.)

In addition to these components there are two interfaces - the Interact interface will enable item pickup and other interactions, while the Customize interface will allow the customization - like setting the morph targets and base tint color. (Others will follow).

[[File:MHC_GenericMH_Comp-V1.png|300px]]

Special to the customization is that you must provide/build a table holding the skeleton mesh specific information for morph targets. This will allow you to setup the customization specific to your MakeHuman character. (Also you need a specific material if you want to enable the color tint.)

If your base characters holds different morph targets your "Morph Table" must contain that specific skeleton reference, more details in the technical section on that topic:

[[File:MHC_GenericMH_Cust-MT.png|800px]]

You can do this in two ways, either you drag/drop the BP into the level, or you can make a subclass of it - add the morph table to either of these.
Also there is a debug option, to be used for your own code... or for that in the customize blueprints.

[[File:MHC GenericMH BPMT-V1.png|400px]]

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-03-31T16:13:07Z

Assetdk: /* Package components - GenCustomize_Comp */

File:MHC GenericMH BPMT-V1.png

2021-03-31T16:09:02Z

Assetdk:

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-03-31T13:39:54Z

Assetdk: /* Package components - GenCustomize_Comp */

File:MHC GenericMH Cust-MT.png

2021-03-31T13:35:42Z

Assetdk:

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-03-31T13:22:50Z

Assetdk: /* Package components - GenCharacter */

File:MHC GenericMH Comp-V1.png

2021-03-31T13:10:24Z

Assetdk:

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-03-31T12:54:22Z

Assetdk: /* Introduction */

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-03-31T12:53:51Z

Assetdk: /* Customization */

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-03-31T12:53:16Z

Assetdk: /* Package components - GenCharacter */

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-03-31T12:52:56Z

Assetdk: /* Customization */

File:MHC GenericMH BP-V1.png

2021-03-31T12:50:35Z

Assetdk:

Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there

2021-03-14T19:34:21Z

Assetdk:

Please take a look at this page: [[Documentation:MH4UE|MH4UE]] - to get an overview of things you can use to get your Makehuman characters into Unreal Engine!

Also look at the Forum here for more tips [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=52859&hilit=MH4UE#p52859 MH4UE].

There are, currently, several pages for this, describing the process of getting MH to Blender and then into Unreal. And one describing the addon that will add more "shape keys" to your characters (while in blender).

* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_and_how_to_import_them_there|Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there]].
* [[Documentation:Saving_models_for_Unreal_Engine_Materials|How to setup Unreal materials]].
* [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].
* [[Documentation:MHBlenderTools: MakeShapes|MakeShapes - getting more shape keys/morph targets]]

=What can and can't be done?=
I have been working on getting different characters into UE4 for some time, and this have been a real hassle!

On this page I want to summarize what I managed to get done using a workflow that involves Blender. I have had a focus on not going into much details regarding any of the tools, but you will need to know a few things. Even though this looks like a trivial task there are some pitfalls and also there are some things that can not be done, or I have just not found out how to. I will eventually also add links to all the YT tutorials I found helpful.

I found that working with Makehuman very easy, so focus will be very UE4 how to specific.

This is what I will cover thus far:

* Create and save any MH character in Makehuman. Basic stuff, and important things to avoid.
* Getting the character into Blender - import or link?
* Setup Blender for Export, shape keys and morph targets
* First import into UE4
* Introduction to more shape keys
* Mixamo animations

This is the stuff that I did not cover - yet:

* Animations for talking (other tutorials may help)
* Making custom cloth
* Hair

This is the stuff I can not get to work:
* Retargeting to Advanced Locomotion System V3/4
* ALS got something to work! [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there/ALS]]

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine ALS V4]]

Since I am using/learning Blender 2.8, I want to share a bit of bonus info. I managed to make one of the free UE4 packages work a bit "better". That is your characters should have some transportation. This is how:

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine Vehicle Variety Pack]]

=Getting started=
I wanted a quick way to populate a UE4 game, preferably with an unlimited number of varied characters of high quality. This has proven to be a bit harder than expected. The workflow for making characters is not as trivial as one would want but this guide should make it a bit more easy to do. I will focus on describing the "straight" path from Makehuman and into UE4 - so you will not find too much details about Blender. Please refer to Blender specific pages for more on that.

==Need to know==
There are a few terms that you need to know, say you need to know that you will import FBX, textures and other files into UE4. Also you will need to know that a Character consists of a '''Mesh''', a '''Skeleton''' and '''''materials''''' (that refers to textures). I will try to elaborate on these subjects as we go along...

==Making a base-character==

'''IMPORTANT new comment:'''
There is now tree different custom A-poses that you can use - i currently recommend the one highlighted in the list.
Please read more in the [[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=53368#p53368 forum]], for more information.
===Set up Base-Character(s)===
Makehuman provides a range of predefined characters that is supposed to work as-is. You can just load a character, export it to FBX and import that into UE4 - and after a bit of work you can have a working player character! There are however a few pitfalls, so I suggest you make one (or more) base-character(s) that you can elaborate on as you go along. I will be working with ''''''averagedude'''''' as my base-character.

These are the steps to make the base characters:

* Open Makehuman

* Select the files tab and load the character

'''Under 'Geometries''''
* Remove cloth - (uncheck Hide faces under cloth)!
* Remove hair
* Add Teeth
* Choose Topology - '''I have no advice on this - but see comment below!'''
* Chose Eyebrows/Eyelashes, these can be changed as you go along - as can eye colors!
* Add Tongue01 (again I have no advice/recommendation on that, yet)

'''Under 'Materials'''' - I will show you how to work with UE4 "advanced" materials:
* Chose any skin that you like,
* Chose any eyes that you like

'''Under 'Pose/Animate''''
* Chose Skeleton: Uengine - if you do not have this already you my get it via the community tab?
* Chose Expressions: none

* For the POSE chose the Apose_ue
* [[File:MH_UE_Poses.png]]

* Finally, from one of the poses documentations I found this comment: This pose is a near drop in fit for the Unreal mannequin using a generic male with standard proportions and 187.5 cm height.
(You should probably use this, I have been using a height of 168-190, where the better result came from 190)

And this is it! But there is one 'important' option you need know about - you need to '''uncheck''' the Smooth button!

The smooth button/option: [[File:MH-Smooth-option.png]] should be unchecked... that will make your character a bit less attractive, but this will preserve the shape-keys!

Makehuman comes with some 50-60 '''shape-keys''' and these will all be available as '''morph-targets''' in UE4. I will show you how to make more shape-keys, using makehuman+blender!

Now it is time to save your base-character - even though you have made very few changes to the file you should save this file under the save tab and name it
<your-name>-base (say averagedude-base), you can even add your very own tag 'base' to this.

When you save the file like this you will be able to reload it, and we need that later!

====Choose Topology/Shape keys====
When you make your base character without smoothing you get shape keys, and you want to share these between different characters. Specifically you would probably want to share face morphs between male and female characters - and there may be other base character variations, say old/young/child etc.

Later I will focus on how to make new shape keys, using blender - depending on how you want to do this you may want to '''chose Topology that is compatible between the different characters!''' That is you may be able to transfer one "shape" from a male character to a female character, but the result will depend on ''topology compatibility''. I will/may thus update this section to make sure

'''Shape key names''' will be the same for all of the base characters, as they come from - however you will be able to make new keys. You must name these keys the same for all MH characters, like these share the same skeleton (MH_Skelton) they must hold all the same shape keys names. If they don't your game may "break"....

===Export your base-character===
You can now take a break - or you can export your work. There are really tree options for you to look at:

* Save the FBX file directly - make sure to chose the binary file format, if you want to import this file to UE.
* Save a MHX2 file (you may need to install this as a option/utility, find our elsewhere!)
* Load the character to '''Blender''' directly via the link (I will get back to what can be done using that!)

I suggest that you save your base-character now, in both formats - FBX and MHX2! Make a specific 'Base-Characters' folder, because you will need it!

When you export the FBX use these options:

[[File:MH-FBX-export-options.png]]

This is the result for me, you should see something like this also:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder.png]]

You should also see that there is a sub-folder, called Textures - this is where the different textures are saved and it should now look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures.png]]

You can now go over all of the different textures, so you will have a wide selection to chose from. Textures are saved every time you save a FBX file!
Say, I change the base-characters textures, saved the FBX - and this is what I got:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures2.png]]

===Import your base-character to UE4 - FBX===
The FBX file will actually import directly to UE4, but there are a few problems! You should export your FBX file as Binary FBX, and you will get the most out of it. After this you can get to this result (after adjusting the materials, as seen below):

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported.png]]

Your character can look like this (after adjusting materials) - pretty good:

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported-materials.png]]

'''HOWEVER, you have lost the morph-targets! And as you probably noticed, the UE4 standard FBX import do import them!'''

I will get back to what to do about the shape-keys... but let make the materials first?

==Makehuman UE4 materials==
The details for setting up materials was moved to this section: '''[[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine Materials|Materials]]'''

====Customization====
The skin can now be modified using a simple interface in the game. The prototype for this can be seen here: [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].

===More materials?===

You can simply drag and drop more textures from the the base-character/textures folder, then duplicate and rename the materials, and apply different textures to the renamed materials. At some point I want to be able to customize/randomize (NPC) characters, but I have not yet done that.

Also you can make materials instances with parameters... I will show you howto, but first we need to turn shape-keys into morph-targets.

=Use Blender v 2.80 to get more!!=
For some reason the exported FBX file is not organized in a way so you will get the shape-keys imported directly to UE4. However when you follow the next steps, you will not get the correct materials imported, so I recommend that you run FBX import as shown above, and save the textures/materials in a separate folder.

If you are new to Blender please run a few tutorials specifically on on how to import/export, and also get to know about collections - you can do a lot in Blender and you can get confused!

==What will be done here?==
I will show you how to:

* Import your MHX2 files, to preserve the shape-keys
* Export FBX files, so UE4 will import correctly with morph-targets
* Apply expressions etc. to your base character
* Import these to your Blender file and apply the expressions as '''new shape keys'''

==But, first import and inspect FBX and MHX2!==
As you may remember you exported two files, the FBX file and the MHX2 file. You want to import both of these files into Blender, so you need two Collections, called FBX and MHX2. You right-click on the 'Scene collection' select 'New' and rename the collections to 'FBX' and 'MHX2'... I also added Scene collection and dragged the Camera and Light there (as I deleted the box). After this you should see something link this (the small Icons may be different):

[[File:MH-Base-Blender-setup.png]]

When you import your FBX file select/highlight the FBX collection, so the FBX data get imported into that collection. You can use the standard import options. For MHX2 you need to change the setting to match those you see below - when you find they are correct you can click the + sign, marked with a yellow arrow, and save the setting with your own setting-name.
(You may notice that the character you imported is out of proportions, some 17-18 meters high, we will correct that when we export to UE4!)
[[File:MH-Blender-FBX-import-options.png]]

===Inspect the results, in Blender===
Now is a good time to save the Blender file. You should save this in the same folder as the FBX and MHX2. I call this file averagedude-base.blend.

If you did this approximately as described the result should be munch like below. And you will probably notice that there is some structural differences. You can see that by looking at the small icons [[File:MH-Blender-base-imported-icons.png]], that represent where modifiers, vertex groups and Object data is stored! Specifically the Object data holds the shape-keys and those were not imported. (perhaps because I did not use the correct FBX import options - but the same happens in UE4!).

[[File:MH-Blender-base-imported.png]]

You will notice that the MHX2 version of your character holds the Object data (the triangle) and that shape-keys can be seen there!

==Export the FBX for your base character, and import to UE4==
The next step is crucial for getting things to work in UE4, it is not very complicated but you need to have a plan.

When you did this correctly you should be able to get the following results:

* Import your base character into UE4
* Create retargeting for your common skeleton - called MH_Skeleton
* Retarget the Maniqin animations to your base character(s)
* Get additional Mixamo animations
===FBX export settings===
'''Important!''' Before you go any further you should rename your base character to '''main_root''', like this:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-main-root.png]]

.... you should do this for all base characters! main_root will be the root bone in your skeleton. When you do it like this, all of your base characters will be able to share the same skeleton!

Now select the MHX2 collection where you have the character, and go to Export FBX.

I have made a 'Operator preset' for the FBX export, this is the options you need to set:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-operator-presets.png]]

Place the FBX file in the same folder as where you placed the original FBX and the MHX2. You probably do not need the FBX that you made with Makehuman, and you can always make it again?
(You may however want to export more FBX files from Makehuman, simply to get all of the textures. We will look more into how you can use the skin textures!)

==UE4 import, and retarget ==
Go to your UE4 project and make a MH folder containing a new avaragedude folder, and import your base character there!
During the import of the FBX file from Blender into UE4 you must enable the '''Import Morp Targets''' checkbox manually (expand the Mesh section)!

Observe that this character looks very much like the one you did already import from the original FBX, there are little difference - yet you want to set up this as your real base character.

Also you want to rename the skeleton to '''MH_Skeleton'''! And you want to open the skeleton, and retarget it to the humanoid rig... this should look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Skeleton-Retarget.png]]

Make sure that your character is in T-Pose, as you want to retarget the Mannequin animations to your characters MH_Skeleton!
Make a animation folder in your MH, perhaps even Mannequin folder?

You go to the UE4 folder: Content/Mannequin/Animations and right-click on this animation: '''ThirdPerson_AnimBP'''

Select retarget and choose MH_Skeleton as your target - also select the animation folder you made before, something like this:
[[File:MH-Base-Animation-Retarget.png]]

You may want to rename your new ThirdPerson_AnimBP to '''''MH''_ThirdPerson_AnimBP''' - or perhaps simply MH_AnimBP?

===Translation Retargeting===
After the retargeting the animations will still look odd. You go to the skeleton tree, then check off the "Show Retargeting Options" and set those at and below the spline to Skeleton (recursively) - that looks something like this:

[[File:MH-Anim-Skeleton.png]]

=More shape keys, made in Blender 2.8=
I have not yet made any target in MH, also I have not had much luck in using the two blender addons. Frankly I don't really understand what the different buttons does, most of them are not active... perhaps they make sens if you use Blender a lot?

But I will show you different ways to get expressions, targets and skeleton animations(!) to shape keys, so then will be new morph targets in UE4!

Before you get started you should probably look at a few Blender tutorials regarding this - these are good:

===Tutorials===

General introduction to MHX2 import and animation. However '''do not''' import the resulting characters into UE4?

{{#ev:youtube|2P1t_nogbGs}}

Short general introduction to using shape keys in Blender 2.8:

{{#ev:youtube|e675Ulc7QL4}}

==Expressions and targets==
Make sure that you have your original base character saved and load it into Makehuman. Remember to check that your base character is in the T-Pose, do not change that!

'''Just in case:''' I recommend that you keep a copy of this file as well as all the blender file etc.

You should also have Blender open and load the .blender file where you saved both your FBX and the MHX2.
Before you go on do as follows: move the MHX2 character to x 10m, so the entire character moves to the left (right to your front view) - this will make it more easy for you to work with! (Save the blender file!)

'''This is the general workflow for transfer of expressions:'''

Makehuman:
* Go to the Pose/Animate tab and select Expressions. From the list select the first expression, Anger01.
* Save the character as .mhx2 - but to a different file name: averagedude-base-expression.mhx2.

Blender:
* In blender, deselect all the collections
* Import the file you made, using the same operator presets as yo saved them.
* Activate your Base character collection and you will have two characters side by side - one base character and a very angry one!
* Go to object mode
* '''Left-click-select''' the angry guy first, then '''shift-left-click''' your base character.
* Go to the vertex tab/shape key, and click on the little down arrow, and select the ''Join as shapes'' - like this:
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey1.png]]
This will make a brand new shape key: Averagedude_base_expression:Proxy

* You rename the shape key by a double-click and call it '''Exp_Anger01'''..
* ... and assign the Vertex group to head
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey2.png]]

In case you can not select ''Join as shapes'' the two characters were not selected in the right order, or perhaps the topology is not the same. Blender will show this as a message some where at the bottom of the screen. I this happens try the blender workflow, in this paragraph only , again!

You can now try to change the value for the shape key, and you should see that your base character can get angry!

When this worked for you you can save the blender file! And you should now do your very first re-import of the FBX. You save your base character in a FBX and Import it to UE4. To be 100% safe you can save and import to different names and folders, but in the end you will re-import the base character each time you do one or more new shape keys.

When you see this working in UE4, you can go on to the next expressions - I simply delete the Averagedude_base_expression collection and save the next expression in the same file. You can naturally do as many expressions as you want. leave some out etc... as you like!

==Observations about Blender 2.8==
You may notice that you can mess this up, so please save your blender file and back up! Say you can easily merge your base character with the expression MHX2 or do something else to corrupt your work!

Please also note that the Vertex Group/relative to, '''head''' and '''Basis''', are rather important! The shape key will change the entire body, to the T-Pose, if head is not set. Likewise you can make some shape keys relative to an other shape key - this will be important a bit later, when we do more "advanced" stuff!

=Blender 2.8 - a bit more advanced?=
This is very fine - we can make your base character use all the expressions, and they can be combined! Also you can tamper with them in UE4, say you can combine them and you can even set minus values, or extreme values not "allowed" in Blender. But you obviously want more than that?

Perhaps you can find some special "targets" you want to use?

Documentation:Unreal MHC

2021-03-14T19:13:44Z

Assetdk: /* Customization */

Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there

2021-03-14T19:08:11Z

Assetdk: /* Set up Base-Character(s) */

Please take a look at this page: [[Documentation:MH4UE|MH4UE]] - to get an overview of things you can use to get your Makehuman characters into Unreal Engine!

Also look at the Forum here for more tips [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=52859&hilit=MH4UE#p52859 MH4UE].

*

=What can and can't be done?=
I have been working on getting different characters into UE4 for some time, and this have been a real hassle!

On this page I want to summarize what I managed to get done using a workflow that involves Blender. I have had a focus on not going into much details regarding any of the tools, but you will need to know a few things. Even though this looks like a trivial task there are some pitfalls and also there are some things that can not be done, or I have just not found out how to. I will eventually also add links to all the YT tutorials I found helpful.

I found that working with Makehuman very easy, so focus will be very UE4 how to specific.

This is what I will cover thus far:

* Create and save any MH character in Makehuman. Basic stuff, and important things to avoid.
* Getting the character into Blender - import or link?
* Setup Blender for Export, shape keys and morph targets
* First import into UE4
* Introduction to more shape keys
* Mixamo animations

This is the stuff that I did not cover - yet:

* Animations for talking (other tutorials may help)
* Making custom cloth
* Hair

This is the stuff I can not get to work:
* Retargeting to Advanced Locomotion System V3/4
* ALS got something to work! [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there/ALS]]

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine ALS V4]]

Since I am using/learning Blender 2.8, I want to share a bit of bonus info. I managed to make one of the free UE4 packages work a bit "better". That is your characters should have some transportation. This is how:

* [[Documentation:Unreal Engine Vehicle Variety Pack]]

=Getting started=
I wanted a quick way to populate a UE4 game, preferably with an unlimited number of varied characters of high quality. This has proven to be a bit harder than expected. The workflow for making characters is not as trivial as one would want but this guide should make it a bit more easy to do. I will focus on describing the "straight" path from Makehuman and into UE4 - so you will not find too much details about Blender. Please refer to Blender specific pages for more on that.

==Need to know==
There are a few terms that you need to know, say you need to know that you will import FBX, textures and other files into UE4. Also you will need to know that a Character consists of a '''Mesh''', a '''Skeleton''' and '''''materials''''' (that refers to textures). I will try to elaborate on these subjects as we go along...

==Making a base-character==

'''IMPORTANT new comment:'''
There is now tree different custom A-poses that you can use - i currently recommend the one highlighted in the list.
Please read more in the [[http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18462&p=53368#p53368 forum]], for more information.
===Set up Base-Character(s)===
Makehuman provides a range of predefined characters that is supposed to work as-is. You can just load a character, export it to FBX and import that into UE4 - and after a bit of work you can have a working player character! There are however a few pitfalls, so I suggest you make one (or more) base-character(s) that you can elaborate on as you go along. I will be working with ''''''averagedude'''''' as my base-character.

These are the steps to make the base characters:

* Open Makehuman

* Select the files tab and load the character

'''Under 'Geometries''''
* Remove cloth - (uncheck Hide faces under cloth)!
* Remove hair
* Add Teeth
* Choose Topology - '''I have no advice on this - but see comment below!'''
* Chose Eyebrows/Eyelashes, these can be changed as you go along - as can eye colors!
* Add Tongue01 (again I have no advice/recommendation on that, yet)

'''Under 'Materials'''' - I will show you how to work with UE4 "advanced" materials:
* Chose any skin that you like,
* Chose any eyes that you like

'''Under 'Pose/Animate''''
* Chose Skeleton: Uengine - if you do not have this already you my get it via the community tab?
* Chose Expressions: none

* For the POSE chose the Apose_ue
* [[File:MH_UE_Poses.png]]

* Finally, from one of the poses documentations I found this comment: This pose is a near drop in fit for the Unreal mannequin using a generic male with standard proportions and 187.5 cm height.
(You should probably use this, I have been using a height of 168-190, where the better result came from 190)

And this is it! But there is one 'important' option you need know about - you need to '''uncheck''' the Smooth button!

The smooth button/option: [[File:MH-Smooth-option.png]] should be unchecked... that will make your character a bit less attractive, but this will preserve the shape-keys!

Makehuman comes with some 50-60 '''shape-keys''' and these will all be available as '''morph-targets''' in UE4. I will show you how to make more shape-keys, using makehuman+blender!

Now it is time to save your base-character - even though you have made very few changes to the file you should save this file under the save tab and name it
<your-name>-base (say averagedude-base), you can even add your very own tag 'base' to this.

When you save the file like this you will be able to reload it, and we need that later!

====Choose Topology/Shape keys====
When you make your base character without smoothing you get shape keys, and you want to share these between different characters. Specifically you would probably want to share face morphs between male and female characters - and there may be other base character variations, say old/young/child etc.

Later I will focus on how to make new shape keys, using blender - depending on how you want to do this you may want to '''chose Topology that is compatible between the different characters!''' That is you may be able to transfer one "shape" from a male character to a female character, but the result will depend on ''topology compatibility''. I will/may thus update this section to make sure

'''Shape key names''' will be the same for all of the base characters, as they come from - however you will be able to make new keys. You must name these keys the same for all MH characters, like these share the same skeleton (MH_Skelton) they must hold all the same shape keys names. If they don't your game may "break"....

===Export your base-character===
You can now take a break - or you can export your work. There are really tree options for you to look at:

* Save the FBX file directly - make sure to chose the binary file format, if you want to import this file to UE.
* Save a MHX2 file (you may need to install this as a option/utility, find our elsewhere!)
* Load the character to '''Blender''' directly via the link (I will get back to what can be done using that!)

I suggest that you save your base-character now, in both formats - FBX and MHX2! Make a specific 'Base-Characters' folder, because you will need it!

When you export the FBX use these options:

[[File:MH-FBX-export-options.png]]

This is the result for me, you should see something like this also:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder.png]]

You should also see that there is a sub-folder, called Textures - this is where the different textures are saved and it should now look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures.png]]

You can now go over all of the different textures, so you will have a wide selection to chose from. Textures are saved every time you save a FBX file!
Say, I change the base-characters textures, saved the FBX - and this is what I got:

[[File:MH-Base-Character-Folder-textures2.png]]

===Import your base-character to UE4 - FBX===
The FBX file will actually import directly to UE4, but there are a few problems! You should export your FBX file as Binary FBX, and you will get the most out of it. After this you can get to this result (after adjusting the materials, as seen below):

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported.png]]

Your character can look like this (after adjusting materials) - pretty good:

[[File:MH-MH-FBX-imported-materials.png]]

'''HOWEVER, you have lost the morph-targets! And as you probably noticed, the UE4 standard FBX import do import them!'''

I will get back to what to do about the shape-keys... but let make the materials first?

==Makehuman UE4 materials==
The details for setting up materials was moved to this section: '''[[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine Materials|Materials]]'''

====Customization====
The skin can now be modified using a simple interface in the game. The prototype for this can be seen here: [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].

===More materials?===

You can simply drag and drop more textures from the the base-character/textures folder, then duplicate and rename the materials, and apply different textures to the renamed materials. At some point I want to be able to customize/randomize (NPC) characters, but I have not yet done that.

Also you can make materials instances with parameters... I will show you howto, but first we need to turn shape-keys into morph-targets.

=Use Blender v 2.80 to get more!!=
For some reason the exported FBX file is not organized in a way so you will get the shape-keys imported directly to UE4. However when you follow the next steps, you will not get the correct materials imported, so I recommend that you run FBX import as shown above, and save the textures/materials in a separate folder.

If you are new to Blender please run a few tutorials specifically on on how to import/export, and also get to know about collections - you can do a lot in Blender and you can get confused!

==What will be done here?==
I will show you how to:

* Import your MHX2 files, to preserve the shape-keys
* Export FBX files, so UE4 will import correctly with morph-targets
* Apply expressions etc. to your base character
* Import these to your Blender file and apply the expressions as '''new shape keys'''

==But, first import and inspect FBX and MHX2!==
As you may remember you exported two files, the FBX file and the MHX2 file. You want to import both of these files into Blender, so you need two Collections, called FBX and MHX2. You right-click on the 'Scene collection' select 'New' and rename the collections to 'FBX' and 'MHX2'... I also added Scene collection and dragged the Camera and Light there (as I deleted the box). After this you should see something link this (the small Icons may be different):

[[File:MH-Base-Blender-setup.png]]

When you import your FBX file select/highlight the FBX collection, so the FBX data get imported into that collection. You can use the standard import options. For MHX2 you need to change the setting to match those you see below - when you find they are correct you can click the + sign, marked with a yellow arrow, and save the setting with your own setting-name.
(You may notice that the character you imported is out of proportions, some 17-18 meters high, we will correct that when we export to UE4!)
[[File:MH-Blender-FBX-import-options.png]]

===Inspect the results, in Blender===
Now is a good time to save the Blender file. You should save this in the same folder as the FBX and MHX2. I call this file averagedude-base.blend.

If you did this approximately as described the result should be munch like below. And you will probably notice that there is some structural differences. You can see that by looking at the small icons [[File:MH-Blender-base-imported-icons.png]], that represent where modifiers, vertex groups and Object data is stored! Specifically the Object data holds the shape-keys and those were not imported. (perhaps because I did not use the correct FBX import options - but the same happens in UE4!).

[[File:MH-Blender-base-imported.png]]

You will notice that the MHX2 version of your character holds the Object data (the triangle) and that shape-keys can be seen there!

==Export the FBX for your base character, and import to UE4==
The next step is crucial for getting things to work in UE4, it is not very complicated but you need to have a plan.

When you did this correctly you should be able to get the following results:

* Import your base character into UE4
* Create retargeting for your common skeleton - called MH_Skeleton
* Retarget the Maniqin animations to your base character(s)
* Get additional Mixamo animations
===FBX export settings===
'''Important!''' Before you go any further you should rename your base character to '''main_root''', like this:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-main-root.png]]

.... you should do this for all base characters! main_root will be the root bone in your skeleton. When you do it like this, all of your base characters will be able to share the same skeleton!

Now select the MHX2 collection where you have the character, and go to Export FBX.

I have made a 'Operator preset' for the FBX export, this is the options you need to set:

[[File:MH-Base-FBX-operator-presets.png]]

Place the FBX file in the same folder as where you placed the original FBX and the MHX2. You probably do not need the FBX that you made with Makehuman, and you can always make it again?
(You may however want to export more FBX files from Makehuman, simply to get all of the textures. We will look more into how you can use the skin textures!)

==UE4 import, and retarget ==
Go to your UE4 project and make a MH folder containing a new avaragedude folder, and import your base character there!
During the import of the FBX file from Blender into UE4 you must enable the '''Import Morp Targets''' checkbox manually (expand the Mesh section)!

Observe that this character looks very much like the one you did already import from the original FBX, there are little difference - yet you want to set up this as your real base character.

Also you want to rename the skeleton to '''MH_Skeleton'''! And you want to open the skeleton, and retarget it to the humanoid rig... this should look like this:

[[File:MH-Base-Skeleton-Retarget.png]]

Make sure that your character is in T-Pose, as you want to retarget the Mannequin animations to your characters MH_Skeleton!
Make a animation folder in your MH, perhaps even Mannequin folder?

You go to the UE4 folder: Content/Mannequin/Animations and right-click on this animation: '''ThirdPerson_AnimBP'''

Select retarget and choose MH_Skeleton as your target - also select the animation folder you made before, something like this:
[[File:MH-Base-Animation-Retarget.png]]

You may want to rename your new ThirdPerson_AnimBP to '''''MH''_ThirdPerson_AnimBP''' - or perhaps simply MH_AnimBP?

===Translation Retargeting===
After the retargeting the animations will still look odd. You go to the skeleton tree, then check off the "Show Retargeting Options" and set those at and below the spline to Skeleton (recursively) - that looks something like this:

[[File:MH-Anim-Skeleton.png]]

=More shape keys, made in Blender 2.8=
I have not yet made any target in MH, also I have not had much luck in using the two blender addons. Frankly I don't really understand what the different buttons does, most of them are not active... perhaps they make sens if you use Blender a lot?

But I will show you different ways to get expressions, targets and skeleton animations(!) to shape keys, so then will be new morph targets in UE4!

Before you get started you should probably look at a few Blender tutorials regarding this - these are good:

===Tutorials===

General introduction to MHX2 import and animation. However '''do not''' import the resulting characters into UE4?

{{#ev:youtube|2P1t_nogbGs}}

Short general introduction to using shape keys in Blender 2.8:

{{#ev:youtube|e675Ulc7QL4}}

==Expressions and targets==
Make sure that you have your original base character saved and load it into Makehuman. Remember to check that your base character is in the T-Pose, do not change that!

'''Just in case:''' I recommend that you keep a copy of this file as well as all the blender file etc.

You should also have Blender open and load the .blender file where you saved both your FBX and the MHX2.
Before you go on do as follows: move the MHX2 character to x 10m, so the entire character moves to the left (right to your front view) - this will make it more easy for you to work with! (Save the blender file!)

'''This is the general workflow for transfer of expressions:'''

Makehuman:
* Go to the Pose/Animate tab and select Expressions. From the list select the first expression, Anger01.
* Save the character as .mhx2 - but to a different file name: averagedude-base-expression.mhx2.

Blender:
* In blender, deselect all the collections
* Import the file you made, using the same operator presets as yo saved them.
* Activate your Base character collection and you will have two characters side by side - one base character and a very angry one!
* Go to object mode
* '''Left-click-select''' the angry guy first, then '''shift-left-click''' your base character.
* Go to the vertex tab/shape key, and click on the little down arrow, and select the ''Join as shapes'' - like this:
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey1.png]]
This will make a brand new shape key: Averagedude_base_expression:Proxy

* You rename the shape key by a double-click and call it '''Exp_Anger01'''..
* ... and assign the Vertex group to head
[[File:MH-Blender-shapekey2.png]]

In case you can not select ''Join as shapes'' the two characters were not selected in the right order, or perhaps the topology is not the same. Blender will show this as a message some where at the bottom of the screen. I this happens try the blender workflow, in this paragraph only , again!

You can now try to change the value for the shape key, and you should see that your base character can get angry!

When this worked for you you can save the blender file! And you should now do your very first re-import of the FBX. You save your base character in a FBX and Import it to UE4. To be 100% safe you can save and import to different names and folders, but in the end you will re-import the base character each time you do one or more new shape keys.

When you see this working in UE4, you can go on to the next expressions - I simply delete the Averagedude_base_expression collection and save the next expression in the same file. You can naturally do as many expressions as you want. leave some out etc... as you like!

==Observations about Blender 2.8==
You may notice that you can mess this up, so please save your blender file and back up! Say you can easily merge your base character with the expression MHX2 or do something else to corrupt your work!

Please also note that the Vertex Group/relative to, '''head''' and '''Basis''', are rather important! The shape key will change the entire body, to the T-Pose, if head is not set. Likewise you can make some shape keys relative to an other shape key - this will be important a bit later, when we do more "advanced" stuff!

=Blender 2.8 - a bit more advanced?=
This is very fine - we can make your base character use all the expressions, and they can be combined! Also you can tamper with them in UE4, say you can combine them and you can even set minus values, or extreme values not "allowed" in Blender. But you obviously want more than that?

Perhaps you can find some special "targets" you want to use?

Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine Materials

2021-03-14T18:51:32Z

Assetdk: /* Experimental Skin material */

When you import the FBX made you exported from Makehuman, both textures and materials are made. You will also notice that UE4 will try to match the materials correctly to the material slots, as seen above in the 'Asset Details' of, in my case, averagedude-base (do not worry about the physics and the skeleton yet!).

To get you started, we need to take a look at the Eye, Eyelashes and Eyebrow materials...

==Getting started==
You will notice that when you import the original FBX file and Import it into Unreal, the "correct" materials are created. You can thus, in principle, export/import all the skin variations to Unreal in this way. BUT, you can also go to the '''makehuman\v1py3\Data\skins''' folder and locate the texture files needed there, and then import them directly to Unreal. For the "upcoming" [[Documentation:Unreal MHC|Unreal MH Character customization]] tool you will have options register the texture files and use then from there.

==Specifics for the individual Materials==
===Eye and teeth materials===
First you can rename the '''high-poly''' material '''high-poly-''blue-eye''''' - or to whatever color you chose! You will probably make more eye materials.

Next you can double-click the material, to open the material-editor and change it to look something like this:

[[File:Ue4-26-eye-material.JPG|800px]]

Your teeth material should look like this:

[[File:Ue4-26-teeth-material.jpg|800px]]

Other parts of the materials my need to be setup like this also. Please add more suggestions, and feel free to edit this page!

===Eyelashes and Eyebrow materials===
Likewise you can set up the eyelashes, and the eyebrows are the same only you do not need ''two sided'' for the bows:

[[File:MH-UE4-Eyelashes-material.png]]

!?You may want to play with the shading model.

===Normal and Experimental Skin material===
I wanted to have a very diverse skin material, that can be used for making a wide range of NPC characters. After experimenting a lot, I found that you can setup parameters and still keep the skin material quite simple. I ended up with a master material, that can be used as an instance... from where I can manipulate ink color and age!

Please note! These are not working all that good! There are some obvious errors. The skin appears to mismatch especially on the back and on the back of the head.
If you know how to correct this please make comments or post the correct solution.
In case you need your characters to be better than this you should '''not''' use the lerp functions as seen in this example?

The problems mentioned here stems from the top part of the materials, you can thus simplify this and simply use specific materials for all the variations old/young/light/dark etc. (Still trying to figure out how to do this with "advanced" materials.)

[[File:MH UE4 MaterialInstance 1.png|1200px]]

====Old/young and age!====
The "master material" looks like this in details - in the first part you can combine young/old+light/dark skin with age.. the textures are all from make human.

[[File:MH_UE4_MaterialMaster_1.png]]

====Old/young and color!====
In the 2nd part you have all the other material parameters. I made the various textures for this using at normal map generator.

[[File:MH_UE4_MaterialMaster_2.png]]

====Customization====
The skin can now be modified using a simple interface in the game. The prototype for this can be seen here: [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].

===More materials?===

You can simply drag and drop more textures from the the base-character/textures folder, then duplicate and rename the materials, and apply different textures to the renamed materials. At some point I want to be able to customize/randomize (NPC) characters, but I have not yet done that.

Also you can make materials instances with parameters... I will show you howto, but first we need to turn shape-keys into morph-targets.

Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine Materials

2021-03-14T18:46:26Z

Assetdk: /* Experimental Skin material */

When you import the FBX made you exported from Makehuman, both textures and materials are made. You will also notice that UE4 will try to match the materials correctly to the material slots, as seen above in the 'Asset Details' of, in my case, averagedude-base (do not worry about the physics and the skeleton yet!).

To get you started, we need to take a look at the Eye, Eyelashes and Eyebrow materials...

==Getting started==
You will notice that when you import the original FBX file and Import it into Unreal, the "correct" materials are created. You can thus, in principle, export/import all the skin variations to Unreal in this way. BUT, you can also go to the '''makehuman\v1py3\Data\skins''' folder and locate the texture files needed there, and then import them directly to Unreal. For the "upcoming" [[Documentation:Unreal MHC|Unreal MH Character customization]] tool you will have options register the texture files and use then from there.

==Specifics for the individual Materials==
===Eye and teeth materials===
First you can rename the '''high-poly''' material '''high-poly-''blue-eye''''' - or to whatever color you chose! You will probably make more eye materials.

Next you can double-click the material, to open the material-editor and change it to look something like this:

[[File:Ue4-26-eye-material.JPG|800px]]

Your teeth material should look like this:

[[File:Ue4-26-teeth-material.jpg|800px]]

Other parts of the materials my need to be setup like this also. Please add more suggestions, and feel free to edit this page!

===Eyelashes and Eyebrow materials===
Likewise you can set up the eyelashes, and the eyebrows are the same only you do not need ''two sided'' for the bows:

[[File:MH-UE4-Eyelashes-material.png]]

!?You may want to play with the shading model.

===Experimental Skin material===
I wanted to have a very diverse skin material, that can be used for making a wide range of NPC characters. After experimenting a lot, I found that you can setup parameters and still keep the skin material quite simple. I ended up with a master material, that can be used as an instance... from where I can manipulate ink color and age!

Please note! These are not working all that good! There are some obvious errors. The skin appears to mismatch especially on the back and on the back of the head.
If you know how to correct this please make comments or post the correct solution.
In case you need your characters to be better than this you should '''not''' use the lerp functions as seen in this example?

[[File:MH UE4 MaterialInstance 1.png|1600px]]

====Old/young and age!====
The "master material" looks like this in details - in the first part you can combine young/old+light/dark skin with age.. the textures are all from make human.

[[File:MH_UE4_MaterialMaster_1.png]]

====Old/young and age!====
In the 2nd part you have all the other material parameters. I made the various textures for this using at normal map generator.

[[File:MH_UE4_MaterialMaster_2.png]]

====Customization====
The skin can now be modified using a simple interface in the game. The prototype for this can be seen here: [[Documentation:Unreal_MHC|Unreal MakeCustomization]].

===More materials?===

You can simply drag and drop more textures from the the base-character/textures folder, then duplicate and rename the materials, and apply different textures to the renamed materials. At some point I want to be able to customize/randomize (NPC) characters, but I have not yet done that.

Also you can make materials instances with parameters... I will show you howto, but first we need to turn shape-keys into morph-targets.