How To Put Maya Assets Into Unreal

Choose your operating organisation:

In this How-to, we use the Live Link Plugin to connect Unreal Engine to Maya, which enables us to control our Skeletal Mesh and animations within Maya while live previewing them on a rendered Skeletal Mesh in Unreal Engine in real-time.

Using the Live Link Plugin tin speed up your blitheness workflow equally y'all no longer need to export your content and import it into Unreal Engine to see how it looks. Yous can now work straight inside Maya, and through Alive Link, preview what it volition look like inside the Engine in existent-time. In this How-to, nosotros get through the process of getting Live Link prepare for Maya, and command a Skeletal Mesh animation in Maya while previewing it in Unreal Engine.

For this guide nosotros are using the Blueprint Tertiary Person Template Project and Maya 2022.

Live Link works with other versions of Maya and other DDC tools. For more information, please refer to the Alive Link Plugin documentation pages.

ane - Enabling the Live Link Plugin

Inside your project, from the Menu Bar under Edit, select Plugins.
Under the Blitheness section, click Enabled for Live Link, and Yes on the confirmation window, and so restart the Editor.

This will enable the Live Link plugin, which can be used to connect to external DDC tools. In order for your DDC tool to connect to Unreal Engine, you will need to enable the corresponding plugin. For this How-to, nosotros are focusing on Maya, and demand to enable the plugin inside Maya.
Download the MayaLiveLink Lawmaking Plugin files from the Unreal Engine Marketplace.

Unless you've tweaked your install locations, these files will likely be installed to: C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.25\Engine\Plugins\Market place\MayaLiveLink.
Copy the folder for your version of Maya, then navigation to your Maya installation folder, and paste it in the plug-ins folder.

There are pre-built binaries for Maya versions 2022-2019, for this guide nosotros are using Maya 2022.

In the next pace, we will enable the Live Link plugin within of Maya, and open the Maya Live Link UI window. This enables you lot to see the connexion status to a running version of the Unreal Engine Editor.

2 - Enabling Maya Live Link

Open Maya, and then under Windows and Settings/Preferences, select Plug-in Manager.
Click the Browse push, and then navigate to the copied MayaLiveLink folder, so add together the .mll file.
Repeat the previous stride and add the .py file from the Plug-in Manager.

In one case added, you lot will encounter the plugins inside the Plug-in Director equally Loaded.
In the MEL console in the lower-left of Maya, enter MayaLiveLinkUI then press Enter.

The MEL console control is instance-sensitive, so y'all will need to enter it as specified in the step above.

This will open the Maya Live Link UI Connexion Status window.

In the upper-correct of the window, the connection status is displayed to point if you are connected to a running version of the Unreal Engine Editor. You tin can use the lower window to name and add together/remove Subjects that you wish to stream to Unreal Engine, which we will do later in this guide.

For at present, nosotros are not connected, however in the side by side footstep we will establish a connection to Unreal Engine. We will also export an animation asset and Skeletal Mesh that we can use to work with in Maya, then add it as a Bailiwick to stream back to Unreal Engine for live previewing.

3 - Establishing a Connection to Unreal Engine

In Maya, select an object (i.due east. a cube, sphere, etc.) and select "Add Selection in Maya Live Link UI." This volition help UE recognize the newly enabled plug in.
Inside the Unreal Engine Editor, from the Card Bar under Window, select Alive Link.
In the Alive Link window, click the Source push button, then under Bulletin Passenger vehicle Source, select your Maya Live Link source and click Ok.

If you return to Maya, the Maya Alive Link Connection Status window will update to reverberate the new connexion status.

At present that we are connected, nosotros need a Subject to preview and examination the connection.
Within Unreal Engine, in the Content/Mannequin/Animations folder, open the ThirdPersonRun asset.
From the Toolbar, click Consign Asset and select Preview Mesh.
Select Yes to export the Skeletal Mesh, enable Export Preview Mesh, cull an export location, so select Export at the FBX Export Options window.
Inside Maya, under File select Import, and import the FBX nugget from the previous footstep.
Switch to Animation style, and then select the Root bone for the character.
In the Maya Alive Link UI window, click the Add together Selecton button.

This will add the pick (or selections) equally the Subject field to stream to Unreal Engine.

The plugin knows that this is a joint bureaucracy and labels the Subject equally a Graphic symbol. The name Root is the name of the Subject which you can change in the text entry box. This proper name will be the Subject name reflected inside Unreal Engine. By default, the Stream Type volition be prepare based on the type information being streamed. You can alter this to stream over the information you lot want within the Stream Blazon setting.

If you have more than one Network Adapater in your machine and want to specify which one to recieve data from, y'all will need to specify the Unicast Endpoint in your Project Settings.

Maya is at present fix upwardly to stream our Subject to the Unreal Engine Editor. In the next step, nosotros will set up Unreal Engine to receive the streamed Subject and then that we tin outset to live preview the content from Maya inside Unreal Engine.

4 - Live Link Preview Controller

Inside Unreal Engine, under the Content/Mannequin/Character/Mesh folder, open the SK_Mannequin asset.
Click the Preview Scene Settings tab, and and then under Preview Controller, select Live Link Preview Controller.
Under Alive Link Subject field Proper noun, click the drib-down menu, and select root.

The viewport will update and the character will enter the pose that the character is using within Maya.
Enable the Enable Camera Sync option.

This will sync Unreal Engine's camera to the last viewport photographic camera used inside Maya. Anytime you motility the camera in Maya, Unreal Engine's camera will update to friction match.
Get to your Editor Preferences, and under Operation, disable the Use Less CPU when in Background pick.

This selection throttles background operation on the Editor and stops the Editor from rendering while Maya has focus, which will prevent us from seeing the updates in real time.

If yous want the Editor to continue evaluating while you are idle, you tin also suit the Valid Engine Time in the Live Link Connection window to give you more than time before the Editor stops evaluating.
Return to Maya and scrub the animation, or motility the camera in the viewport.

For this example, we are using the Alive Link Preview Controller, even so you can besides stream data through the Live Link Component fastened to an Actor.

5 - Cease Result

Equally yous scrub the animation in Maya or move the photographic camera, the character and camera movement in Unreal Engine will update to match what you lot see in Maya. A typical workflow would be to author your content in Maya, export the Skeletal Mesh and import it into Unreal Engine, follow the connection setup steps outlined in this guide to establish a connection, so preview animations authored in Maya on the Alive Link Subject in Unreal Engine.

You can also make changes to your animations and those volition be reflected in real-time inside Unreal Engine on the Alive Link Subject area.

Above, we re-key the position of the head then the character is looking around while running, and see what it would await like within Unreal Engine. While this is a simplistic example of how to use the Live Link Plugin, there are many more advantages to this feature which yous can find on the Alive Link Plugin documentation folio.

If you are using the Maya Alive Link Plugin prior to four.23, when driving a camera through Pattern, it may not have the correct transform. You can set up this by adding an Add together Relative Rotation node fix to 0, 180, 90 equally indicated below.