Hello FaceFX.
I'm doing a morph target test right now and can't export a morph out of Maya at all. I've attached a screenshot of plugin exporter. I can't see any drop down menu that should help me to export a morph.
I haven't seen a morph target export option in 3ds Max plugin also.
I've typed morph name in a batch export file for bone poses but with no result.
I've read about some fxr exporter also, but didn't find any plugin with that name.
Can you tell me about the proper pipeline?
Andrey
You are using UE3, but if you were using FaceFX 2013.4, the way to get your morph character talking is to create an FBX file that matches your batch export text file (make the mouth form the "open" shape on frame 10 using bones or morph targets for example). No Maya plugin needed, other than the Autodesk FBX exporter.
Documentation on the FBX pipeline:
http://facefx.com/documentation/2013.4/W246
As far as using FaceFX 2013.4 plugins with UE3 via the XML pipeline, which I believe you are doing based on prior posts, there are a few problems:
1) From your screenshot, it appears that you are using an old FaceFX.mel file. That's probably not going to work. Use the FaceFX.mel that comes with the version of the 2013.4 plugin that you are using.
2) The new FaceFX.mel file is not going to create the correct type of Face Graph Node for use in UE3. If you search for FxMorphTargetNode and replace it with FUnrealFaceFXMorphNode, that might get you where you need to be. I can't say I've done much testing on this, but I just tried it out and it seemed to recognize and create UE3 morph nodes correctly. But I didn't try bringing the file into Unreal. You will need to select "FUnrealFaceFXMorphNode" from the "Node Type" dropdown however to work with morph nodes.
I will also say that you shouldn't really need to use the plugin to operate on Unreal morph nodes to begin with. These should be created inside UnrealEd. The only thing the FaceFX plugins might be useful for is to get the morph animation data back into Maya, but in that scenario you might as well just use the latest FaceFX version 2013.4 because you aren't relying on the FaceFX integration in UE3 anyway.
Thanks for the response, Doug.
I'm sorry I didn't mentioned, that I'm using 1.7.4 version of FaceFX.
As it was the easiest way, I've tried to key morph and export it alongside with other bone poses. But nothing happened. Morph pose appeared in FaceFX studio as a bone node and didn't work.
I've checked also, I have FUnrealFaceFXMorphNode in FaceFX studio, not FxMorphTargetNode.
"you shouldn't really need to use the plugin to operate on Unreal morph nodes to begin with. These should be created inside UnrealEd" - did you mean that I should use animtree with presetupped morphes linked to face bones?
Andrey
"As it was the easiest way, I've tried to key morph and export it alongside with other bone poses. But nothing happened. Morph pose appeared in FaceFX studio as a bone node and didn't work."
This only works in FaceFX Studio 2013 or later using the FBX pipeline. Since you are using FaceFX 1.7.4 this won't work.
It's been a while since I've worked in UE3, but you can follow a tutorial on how to create morph nodes and drive them in UE3 here:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealSpecificFaceFXNodes.html
As you can see in the tutorial, there is no reason to create morph nodes from a plugin. You set everything up from Unreal. Does that answer your question, or are you trying to do something else?
Thanks Doug.
That's what I've missed!
I've seen 4-5 ways to work with morphs, and was confused by so many options available.
I can't believe, it is so simple in my case.