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In this How-to, we apply the Live Link Plugin to connect Unreal Engine to Maya, which enables u.s.a. to command our Skeletal Mesh and animations inside Maya while alive previewing them on a rendered Skeletal Mesh in Unreal Engine in real-time.

Using the Alive Link Plugin can speed upward your animation workflow as you no longer need to export your content and import information technology into Unreal Engine to see how it looks. Yous can now work directly inside Maya, and through Live Link, preview what information technology will look like within the Engine in real-time.  In this How-to, we go through the process of getting Alive Link set upwardly for Maya, and control a Skeletal Mesh blitheness in Maya while previewing it in Unreal Engine.

For this guide we are using the Blueprint Third Person Template Project and Maya 2017.

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

1 - Enabling the Live Link Plugin

1. Inside your project, from the Menu Bar under Edit, select Plugins.

   

2. Under the Animation section, click Enabled for Live Link, and Yeah on the confirmation window, then restart the Editor.

   

   This volition enable the Alive Link plugin, which tin be used to connect to external DDC tools. In guild for your DDC tool to connect to Unreal Engine, you volition need to enable the corresponding plugin. For this How-to, we are focusing on Maya, and demand to enable the plugin inside Maya.

3. Download the MayaLiveLink Lawmaking Plugin files from the Unreal Engine Marketplace.

   

   Unless yous've tweaked your install locations, these files will likely be installed to: C:\Programme Files\Epic Games\UE_4.25\Engine\Plugins\Market place\MayaLiveLink.

4. Copy the binder for your version of Maya, then navigation to your Maya installation binder, and paste it in the plug-ins binder.

   

   There are pre-congenital binaries for Maya versions 2016-2019, for this guide we are using Maya 2017.

In the next step, nosotros volition enable the Live Link plugin inside of Maya, and open the Maya Live Link UI window. This enables yous to see the connection status to a running version of the Unreal Engine Editor.

2 - Enabling Maya Live Link

1. Open Maya, then under Windows and Settings/Preferences, select Plug-in Managing director.

   

2. Click the Browse push, then navigate to the copied MayaLiveLink folder, then add together the .mll file.

   

3. Repeat the previous step and add the .py file from the Plug-in Manager.

   

   Once added, y'all will run across the plugins inside the Plug-in Manager as Loaded.

4. In the MEL console in the lower-left of Maya, enter MayaLiveLinkUI then printing Enter.

   

   The MEL panel command is example-sensitive, so y'all will demand to enter it as specified in the step to a higher place.

   This volition open the Maya Live Link UI Connection Status window.

   

   In the upper-right of the window, the connection condition is displayed to indicate if you are connected to a running version of the Unreal Engine Editor. Yous can employ the lower window to name and add/remove Subjects that yous wish to stream to Unreal Engine, which nosotros will practice after in this guide.

For at present, nosotros are not connected, however in the next step we will constitute a connexion to Unreal Engine. We will as well export an blitheness asset and Skeletal Mesh that we tin can utilize to work with in Maya, then add it as a Subject area to stream back to Unreal Engine for live previewing.

3 - Establishing a Connexion to Unreal Engine

1. In Maya, select an object (i.east. a cube, sphere, etc.) and select "Add Selection in Maya Live Link UI." This will assist UE recognize the newly enabled plug in.

2. Within the Unreal Engine Editor, from the Menu Bar nether Window, select Live Link.

   

3. In the Live Link window, click the Source button, and then nether Message Omnibus Source, select your Maya Live Link source and click Ok.

   

   If you return to Maya, the Maya Live Link Connection Status window volition update to reverberate the new connectedness status.

   

   Now that we are connected, we demand a Subject area to preview and test the connection.

4. Within Unreal Engine, in the Content/Mannequin/Animations folder, open the ThirdPersonRun asset.

5. From the Toolbar, click Export Asset and select Preview Mesh.

   

6. Select Yes to export the Skeletal Mesh, enable Export Preview Mesh, cull an export location, then select Export at the FBX Export Options window.

   

7. Inside Maya, nether File select Import, and import the FBX asset from the previous step.

   

8. Switch to Animation fashion, and so select the Root bone for the character.

   

9. In the Maya Live Link UI window, click the Add Selecton push button.

   

   This will add the selection (or selections) as the Subject to stream to Unreal Engine.

   

   The plugin knows that this is a joint hierarchy 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 name will be the Subject field name reflected inside Unreal Engine. By default, the Stream Type will be prepare based on the type data being streamed. Yous can change this to stream over the information you want within the Stream Type setting.

If you have more than ane Network Adapater in your machine and want to specify which 1 to recieve data from, you will demand to specify the Unicast Endpoint in your Projection Settings.

Maya is now prepare up to stream our Subject to the Unreal Engine Editor. In the next step, we will ready upwards Unreal Engine to receive the streamed Subject so that we can start to live preview the content from Maya inside Unreal Engine.

iv - Alive Link Preview Controller

1. Inside Unreal Engine, under the Content/Mannequin/Character/Mesh folder, open the SK_Mannequin nugget.

2. Click the Preview Scene Settings tab, and so under Preview Controller, select Live Link Preview Controller.

   

3. Nether Live Link Subject field Name, click the drop-downwardly menu, and select root.

   

   The viewport will update and the character will enter the pose that the character is using inside Maya.

4. Enable the Enable Camera Sync option.

   

   This will sync Unreal Engine's photographic camera to the last viewport camera used inside Maya. Someday you move the photographic camera in Maya, Unreal Engine's camera will update to match.

5. Get to your Editor Preferences, and under Performance, disable the Utilize Less CPU when in Background pick.

   

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

   If you want the Editor to proceed evaluating while you are idle, you tin also adjust the Valid Engine Time in the Alive Link Connection window to give y'all more time before the Editor stops evaluating.

6. Return to Maya and scrub the blitheness, or move the camera in the viewport.

For this example, nosotros are using the Live Link Preview Controller, however you tin as well stream data through the Live Link Component attached to an Thespian.

5 - End Upshot

Every bit yous scrub the animation in Maya or move the camera, the grapheme and camera movement in Unreal Engine will update to lucifer what you 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 institute a connectedness, then preview animations authored in Maya on the Live Link Bailiwick in Unreal Engine.

You can besides make changes to your animations and those will be reflected in real-time within Unreal Engine on the Live Link Subject field.

To a higher place, we re-cardinal the position of the caput and then the graphic symbol is looking around while running, and see what it would wait like inside Unreal Engine. While this is a simplistic example of how to utilise the Live Link Plugin, at that place are many more advantages to this feature which y'all can find on the Alive Link Plugin documentation page.

If you are using the Maya Live Link Plugin prior to 4.23, when driving a photographic camera through Blueprint, it may not have the right transform. You can set this by adding an Add Relative Rotation node set to 0, 180, 90 as indicated beneath.

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Source: https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/live-link-stream-maya-to-unreal-engine

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