Bringing a Marvelous Designer Cloth Simulation into Unreal
Project - Migrated from Tumblr
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Method 1: Simulate in Marvelous Designer and import as Geometry Cache
Create your Animation in Maya
First you will need a preview mesh with a head on it. You can get them here, or you can export using quixel bridge and reexport. If you get your preview from that link, make sure it is the same body type as the metahuman you’re using. In the import settings for skeleton select “metahuman_base_skeleton”
Grab your body animation. Thats a longer tutorial, but make sure the animation starts on an A or T pose. I grabbed mine from rokoko studio, and applied an IK Rig and IK Regtargeter in Unreal.
Unreal - make sure your body deforms correctly
Enable the Metahuman plugin
Content > Metahumans > Common > Common > Open the metahuman preview mesh that corresponds with your body type
This folder contains all preview meshes with heads, download the one that matches your body. Import, selecting “metahuman_base” for your skeleton.
Open that blueprint. In the “asset details” tab, find “Skeletal Mesh > Post Process Animation Blueprint”, and load the character that matches your body type. Save.
Open your animation blueprint and set your preview mesh to be the preview mesh you just made. You’re looking for a green warning telling you that the post process animation blueprint is running. Apply to asset.
Export Asset (Top) > Preview Mesh. Make sure export preview mesh is true.
If any body type comes too close to the cloth in a way you don’t want simulated, you can delete it in Maya and reexport before importing into Marvelous Designer.
In Marvelous Designer
File > Import > FBX, and apply the following settings: Scale - CM Daz. Joint and Cache Animation: True. Adjust the bounding box so it fits around your characters A or T Pose.
I grabbed the pattern for the Tamarind Dress from https://www.moodfabrics.com/
and imported it as a pattern reference. (Right Click in 2D Window > Add Background Image). I found that when doing the simulation, deleting any body parts not driving any motion yielded better results. Go into the animation tab, set simulation quality animation to stable. You’ll need to change the time warp to 2 if you’re exporting at 60 FPS. File > Export > Alembic
In Unreal
Import into Unreal. Make sure you’re on Geometric Cache, and set orientation to 3DSMax.
Animate. Drag your outfit into the level sequencer. Track > Geometry Cache. You can crop the start and end position by right clicking the track in the LS and editing the properties. Move the clothing on top of your animated character. (Shift+RMB, Shift+LMB to copy paste values quickly)