Transferring Reference Meshes from Unreal to iClone (New for v1.1)

The Unreal Live Link plugin for iClone allows you to quickly and easily export any mesh from an Unreal project into iClone to use as a reference for interactive motions within an environment. This includes the landscape as well as any prop meshes in your scene.

Exporting Reference Mesh from Unreal

Make sure iClone and Unreal are launched and the Live Link plugins have been installed on both application.

  1. Create a landscape in an Unreal project and select it inside the Outliner.
  2. Right click on the object for export and choose Transfer to iClone > Transfer to iClone.
  3. The mesh will be immediately imported into iClone project under a "UE_Scene" folder.

    Since the mesh is used as reference, the material is redundant and removed.
  4. You can repeat the same steps to transfer multiple objects from Unreal to iClone for reference.
  5. The props will be transferred into iClone under a folder named UE_Actor.
  6. Select multiple objects in Unreal and choose Transfer to iClone (Merged) command for transferring.

    The meshes will be merged and transferred to iClone under a folder named UE_Merged.
  7. If you choose the Transfer to iClone (Simplified) command, then the meshes will be merged with reduced polycount.

Animating Characters with Reference Meshes

  1. Apply a character to the iClone project (you maybe need to align the character to the desired props).
  2. By using the Motion Director feature in iClone, the character can be moving around the reference meshes with foot contact securely on the mesh surfaces.
  3. When iClone and Unreal are connected by the Live Link plugin, you can synchronizingly animate the unreal character on the scene by the motion-related features provided in iClone.
    (left: iClone, right: Unreal)
  4. In order to generate precise motion and interaction between the character and its environment, you can take advantage of the ability of the pipeline.
    • Motion Editing: You can either apply pose from the Content Manager or use Edit Motion Layer panel to tweak the character's pose.
    • Reach: You can constrain the character's hands or feet to specific parts of objects in the environment

      In this case, when you animate the character, its hands will be locked to the props.