Hello, recent indie subscriber. I've managed to export a animated rig as FBX (real simple box with a few bones rotating) into both unreal and unity. It worked ok, although when importing into UE4 I had to specify a frame range as it wouldn't detect it itself.

I can't seem to get blend shapes to import into UE4 or unity from houdini. I've managed to do this from Max, and I tried to follow then the same procedure in houdini but being so new to this I'm sure I missed a step.

In max:
-created a basic geometry and duplicate
-modify duplicated into morph target
-add morpher modifier to base and select duplicate as morph target
-animate the blend value
-add a bone to the scene (center of object)
-add skin modifier on top of morpher modifier and add created bone
-export

now I'm not saying this is best workflow for this but it works, however in houdini following a similar route doesn't seem to work.

in Houdini:
-created a basic geometry and duplicate
-modify duplicated into morph target
-add blendshape node with both base and target connected
-animate the blend value
-add a bone to the scene(center of object)
-use capture geometry on base
-export

pretty much the same steps as in max, yet when I import into UE4 or unity it doesn't work (UE4 simply fails, in unity geometry shows up but no animation takes show up).

I've included my indie scene if anyone want to take a look.

Anyone have tips on how to get blendshapes from houdini into UE4 or unity? Thanks.

I'm stuck on this one too. Hope the pros can give us a pointer - no tutorials and videos that i can find. Seems like a pretty big feature for animation in general.

Hey guys, just subscribing to this thread - hopefully to see some dev input.

I would love to have the ability to rig / animate in Houdini and have it seemlessy translate to Unity

Rick.

Houdini does not export blendshapes like maya & co, export FBX as ascii
and have a look at it in an text editor…

Maya:

Deformer: 1172482112, “Deformer::blendShape1”, “BlendShape” {
Version: 100
}
Deformer: 850784352, “SubDeformer::blendShape1.pSphere1”, “BlendShapeChannel” {
Version: 100 ……

Houdini, no BlendShape deformer in the FBX, if I'm right :-(

ok, any workaround on this ?

Give Houdini Engine a try :-)

matthias_k
Give Houdini Engine a try :-)

I'm experimenting with engine for UE4 but from my understanding I don't see how this could help resolve getting blend shapes into UE4. I can get an HDA in with a blend node parameter that I can tweak into UE4 but how would I get it to animate? Since I thought houdini engine only runs during the editor and not runtime… anyway if you figured out a way to use engine and blendshapes (that lets you animate) I'm all ears.

You only have to export your animation as MDD then open Blender import the base mesh and then import ( not use the modifier) the MDD onto it.

export it as FBX from blender and everything works fine

Still not implemented? I mean the need to install another 3D software package so I just can reimport/export through it to get deformers set up in Houdini working is really pain and clumsy.

Is this issue unresolved?

I made a simple FK test rig with a bit of animation which exported fine into UE4 (4.11.2). However, as soon as I add blendshapes into the mix, the animation stops working. UE4 still sees the animation track, but all I get is the T-pose.

In case someone is reading this thread lately - like I did.
The answer is here: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/unreal/_f_b_x.html [www.sidefx.com]

If you want to export Blend Shapes to Morph Targets in UE4, your asset's network needs to be "FBX Compatible". Please make sure that there is no nodes that modify the geometry after the blendshape nodes. Nulls, switches, caches, attributes, skin deform or merge nodes won't block the blend shapes from being exported, but nodes that alter the geometry, like a subdvide for example, will.

This also works without Houdini Engine!
Cheers!