Houdini VAT3.0: Take Maya animation to Houdini then export as VAT to UE4
The new update on the VAT3.0 allow easier workflow, less manual work on bringing in vertex animation from Houdini to UE4
Open Maya,
Let's create a simple dancing Cube
Create> cube
set subdivision WHD to 10, Scale it up to 100
add the Bones
Go to rigging tab bind the skin
do a quick animation
Select the Geo and the skeleton, Export it out as FBX
make sure animation and bake animation is checked
hit export
Open Houdini
Create a Geo node, within the geo node, add an FBX character import node
import your FBX file here.
add a bone deform node
Go to Out network
for input Geometry
choose bonedeform1 node
for the mode/ target engine: choose soft-body deformation(soft) and Unreal Engine
Click on render all
Go to your project directory
two folders are created
Export>
Geo folder and Tex folder
inside the geo folder is your Geometry FBX
inside the texture folder is your vertex animation textures
Let's jump into UE4
first, import the textures
for the texture detail setting
set compression setting to vectorDisplacement map RGBA8
texture group:UI
filter: nearest
next, let's import the mesh
for the import setting
turn off generate missing collision
turn off remove degenerates
select do not create materials
hit import
now create new material for the VAT animation
make an MF_VAT_Soft node
you have to have the Houdini engine installed first, see my other post for how to install Houdini engine https://www.yanchen3d.com/post/install-houdini-engine-to-ue4-26
For now, the Material function for UE4 is not yet updated, we have manually replaced it
To download the material function for your ue4 version go to their GitHub page https://github.com/sideeffects/SideFXLabs/tree/Development/unreal
for now, I'm using 4.26.
After download, Copy and paste SideFX_Labs Folder to your ue4 directory
restart your UE4
the new material function should look something like this
select your material node, set the num customized uvs to 5
uncheck the tangent space normal box
Let's connect the node
Create a material instance, plugin the textures, and apply to mesh
Dada...