Tutorial: Importing a Character from AccuRig into Unreal Engine 5.6 and Retargeting Animation

In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through the process of importing a character from AccuRig into Unreal Engine 5.6 and retargeting animations to that character.

We’ll go step-by-step through the process, from exporting your character from AccuRig to Unreal Engine, and then applying motion animations from an existing Unreal Engine skeleton to your custom character.

Links for AccuRig and the Auto Setup for Unreal Engine

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Step 1: Rigging the character in AccuRig

1. Open AccuRig and load the character you want to rig. This can be either and FBX file or an OBJ file. Link to the character I’m using from FAB.
2. Use the “rotate character” options to make sure the character is centered.
3. Activate “force symmetry” to make sure the rig is the same on both sides of the character.
4. In order to rig the character, click on “Rig Body”.
5. You are now able to see the joints. However, you need to make sure the joints are in the correct position – following the guide to the right.
6. Once you have the joints in the correct positions, choose “Rig Hands”. Choose the correct number of fingers in the menu for your character.
7. You are now able to see the hand joints. Make sure the hand joints are in the correct position – following the guide to the right
8. When you are done, select “Calibrate” to generate the rig.
9. Use the “Acting” tab to make sure the rig is working correctly.

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Step 2: Exporting the character from AccuRig

1. Make sure you use the A-Pose to export the character.
2. To export the character you need to click on “Add Motions”.
3. You will now see an Export option. Choose “Export FBX”. The Target Application is Unreal.
4. For the purposes of this tutorial I’ll be “Character Only”. You can use the “Original” option for the textures.

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Step 3: Importing the character into Unreal

1. Download and install the Auto Setup for Unreal Engine (link in the description).
2. Create a folder for the character and import the AccuRig character.
3. Leave everything at default except under the Skeletal Meshes options, activate “Use TO As Ref Pose” to avoid any anomalies with the skeleton. [TIME ZERO]
4. Also make sure “Import Morph Targets” is activated.
5. Under the General options, I will change the “Offset Uniform Scale” for the character I’m using to 0.5 to make sure he doesn’t import too large.
6. Make a new folder for the textures and import the textures into the new folder.
7. Open each Material and connect the Texture to the Base Color.

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Step 4: Retargeting in Unreal

1. Open the folder containing your AccuRig character. Add a new folder for Animations.
2. Open the Mannequins folder and the Anims folder.
3. Select an animation, right-click, and choose “Retarget Animations”.
4. Change the “Target Skeletal Mesh” to your AccuRig character and make sure the “Auto Generate Retargeter” is activated.
5. Search for the Animation you chose from the folder and then choose “Export Animations” and choose the animation folder you just made.
6. When I play the game, I can now see the animation working as expected.