The following article will help Axis Neuron and Axis Neuron Pro users stream data to Mannequin or Metahuman characters inside of Unreal Engine. This process is supported for 4.27-5.03
Characters supported:
- Unreal Engine Mannequin
- Unreal Engine Metahumans
Axis Software Setup
In this section we will set Axis Neuron to begin streaming BVH data onto TCP/UDP protocol. This data will then be received to Unreal Engine for proper retargeting. To begin, open Axis Neuron and locate the Settings Menu
Axis Neuron
In the Settings Menu, Go to Output Format. Disable Displacement.
Navigate to the Broadcasting menu and choose UDP protocol communication. Then Click OK to confirm changes.
In Axis Neuron connect your motion capture hardware for real-time motion data. Optionally you can playback pre-recorded data.
BVH motion capture is now streaming from Axis Neuron in the background.
Import Corrective Pose
Our Axis Neuron skeleton data is provided in a T-POSE, whereas the UNREAL ENGINE characters such as METAHUMAN and MANEQUIN have characters in a A-POSE. This discrepancy causes problems in the resulting target posture. For that we provide a corrective T-POSE for the UE target characters to receive data from our TPOSE skeleton. Please download the following corrective pose Corrective Pose (16 MB)
When importing the Corrective TPOSE to your content browser you'll need to make two important selections. The first selection is which Skeleton Mesh to utilize, choose the target skeleton that corresponds to the target character you wish to retarget the data to. In the following image we choose metahuman_base.., since we will be working with a METAHUMAN. Second, select Use Default Sample Rate, so that UE can import the file correctly in your browser. Then select Import once selection is complete.
Once the corrective pose file is imported into your Content Browser, the pose is now mapped to the skeleton that was chosen during import. The following image shows that there is a new Animation Sequence containing the metahuman skeleton mesh with the new pose we mapped to. This file will be used to properly receive retargeted data from Axis Neuron.
Create Anim Blueprint
Right-click the Skeleton Asset
Click Create --> Anim Blueprint.
Rename the character with prefix of ABP_
Open the Anim Blueprint. Create a Live Link Pose node in the Anim Graph. Connect the Live link Pose to the Output Pose and Select the Live Link Pose node.
In the Details panel, select UE_Metahumans_LiveLink_RemapAsset.
Drag and drop the imported corrective pose animation into the animation blueprint window and connect it to the input of the Live Link Pose
Once you have Axis Studio connected to Unreal via Live Link, select the incoming Live Link Subject Name from the drop-down menu.
Locate your metahuman Actor Blueprint
Add a Live Link Skeletal Animation component to view your data in real time in the viewport
Select the Body component and change the Animation Mode in the Details panel to Use Animation Blueprint
Load the metahuman's Anim Blueprint we just created from the drop-down menu
Compile and Save
Place the Actor into your scene