Retarget Unreal Engine 4 Mannequin animation

This article explains how to retarget Mannequin-compatible animation for a Skeletal Mesh with Mannequin-compatible skeleton (armature).

The entire process happens only in Unreal Engine 4 and implies you have done FBX export with a mannequin-compatible character (perhaps following another How-To).

Intro

This article is an example of a retargeting procedure and does not contain the optimal retargeting settings. Every Skeletal Mesh is unique and may require different retargeting settings for achieving better results. Do not take the advice given here as the best possible for your project.

1. Import FBX

Create a separate folder for the character and import the FBX file with default settings.

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2. Select Rig for Mannequin

We need the retargeting system to pick up Mannequin animation blueprints as a potential source of retargeting. For that, you may need to assign the humanoid rig to the Mannequin Skeleton.

1. Find and Open the Mannequin Skeleton asset
2. Open the Retarget Manager
3. Select Humanoid Rig
4. Save the Mannequin Skeleton

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3. Retarget your character

1. Find and Open your character skeleton asset
2. Open the Retarget Manager
3. Select Humanoid Rig
4. Open Skeleton Tree
5. Select "Show Retargeting Options" in the dropdown
6. Recursively set Translation Retargeting Skeleton for all bones
7. Set Translation Retargeting Animation for root
8. Set Translation Retargeting Animation Scaled for pelvis
9. Save the skeleton

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4. Retarget the animation blueprint

1. Find the animation blueprint you want to retarget
2. Choose the correct retargeting options
3. Retarget and save the resulting assets

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5. Use your character and animation on the player pawn

1. Swap skeletal mesh with your character
2. Choose your retargeted animation blueprint as the Anim Class

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Conclusion

As the result, we can reuse the existing animation blueprints made for the Mannequin.