MLV: Rigging & Animation Tools for Unreal Engine and Maya

This is an Autorigger optimised for an Unreal Engine 4 or 5 pipeline. it's designed to work with Maya in Z-Up and to streamline the animation pipeline from Maya to Unreal Engine. This is a tool I 've put together after gathering all the skills I've learned from working on several projects, with several teams and studios.

You can try out the Manny & Mannequin rigs for free here:

https://laviolamichael.gumroad.com/l/zezht

COMPATIBILITY:

This tool was written in Python 3 and developed on Maya 2023, but it will work on any version of Maya after 2022.

HOW TO INSTALL:

Simply place the "MLV" folder you'll see in the download into your maya version scripts directory, it usually looks like this:

D:\Documents\maya\2023\scripts

After that, use the following scripts to bring up the UI of each tool in the set, you can easily add these to your shelf, give it an icon etc.

Rigging Tool:

from MLV.Autorigger import Rigging_Tool

import importlib

importlib.reload(Rigging_Tool)

IKFK Tools:

from MLV.IKFK_Functionalities import IKFK_Tools

import importlib

importlib.reload(IKFK_Tools)

Animation Importer Tool:

from MLV.IKFK_Functionalities.Animation_Import import import_mocap_GUI

import importlib

importlib.reload(import_mocap_GUI)

Feedback & Support

This is a 1.0 version of this toolset, but if you have any questions or run into any problems don't hesitate to email me at: laviolamichael3d@gmail.com

F.A.Q.

Is this an autorigger like Mixamo or AccuRig?

No, this won't skin a mesh to a skeleton, but it will create the entire Maya control rig based on the naming convention, it will work with any character as long as the joint names match your preferred skeleton

Is this compatible with Mixamo characters?

No, as Mixamo has its own naming convention, the autorigger won't work with it

Is this compatible with Epic Games Marketplace assets?

Yes, as long as the character itself is skinned to the Epic Skeleton, if the character is missing joints or isn't following the convention correctly, the tool won't work. This also applies to the IK Joints, they are extremely useful in UE5 for sharing animations but some artists don't include them, you can easily add them yourself.

I'm trying to add mocap but it doesn't work

The Animation Importer tool is not meant for retargeting, it's meant to easily import an animation already retargeted to the compatible skeleton and bake its animation to the control rig for further editing & polishing, if the Animation Importer doesn't work, check what FBX you're trying to import.

The knees/elbow poses don't match after the IK/FK Matcher tool

This is an issue with the animation itself, if the knee or the elbow are not correctly aligned to their natural planes the script will correct it and reposition the elbow/knee where it should be biomechanically, this can happen if your FK animation has X or Y rotation values on the forearms or calves, but the tool is working as intended.

Is there a picker included with this?

Yes, although you will need to have AnimSchoolPicker installed, as the picker I provide is a template for that plugin

Will this work with Maya set to Y-up?

Generally I highly discourage having Maya set to Y-up if you're working with an Unreal Engine pipeline, the autorigger itself will not work if your Maya is set to Y-up, however the other tools could still work, although they may not work as intended. You can always build the rig as Z-up, then switch back to Y-up and add the needed offset to a group. Although I do not recommend this.