Custom Character Development (Modular Pawn)
polycounter lvl 15
Hey guys,
So this feels like a pretty newbie question, but oddly enough I can't find any solid examples of what I'm thinking.
So I'm trying to create a customizable character to go into the UDK. I've got the model all finished and textured and separated into the parts I want to be interchangeable in Maya-- that's the easy bit. In the research I've done, it looks like my best bet to create a UDK Pawn whose arms, legs, head, etc. can be swapped out in-game is to create a Modular Pawn. Also looks easy enough, according to UDN.
But my problem is, I can't find any info on how exactly to skin and export the modular pieces. I understand that each piece should be skinned to the same Skeletal Mesh, but this is my question: does that mean that I can skin everything to one rig, export the FBX, and UDK's ModularPawn.uc code will automagically separate the pieces based on their exported names? Or do I have to skin each piece separately (ie, skin the torso, export the FBX; unbind the rig, skin the legs, export THAT FBX; unbind the rig, skin the head, export the FBX, ad nauseum) then import the individual pieces into a single collection for the Modular Pawn setup?
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
So this feels like a pretty newbie question, but oddly enough I can't find any solid examples of what I'm thinking.
So I'm trying to create a customizable character to go into the UDK. I've got the model all finished and textured and separated into the parts I want to be interchangeable in Maya-- that's the easy bit. In the research I've done, it looks like my best bet to create a UDK Pawn whose arms, legs, head, etc. can be swapped out in-game is to create a Modular Pawn. Also looks easy enough, according to UDN.
But my problem is, I can't find any info on how exactly to skin and export the modular pieces. I understand that each piece should be skinned to the same Skeletal Mesh, but this is my question: does that mean that I can skin everything to one rig, export the FBX, and UDK's ModularPawn.uc code will automagically separate the pieces based on their exported names? Or do I have to skin each piece separately (ie, skin the torso, export the FBX; unbind the rig, skin the legs, export THAT FBX; unbind the rig, skin the head, export the FBX, ad nauseum) then import the individual pieces into a single collection for the Modular Pawn setup?
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
Replies
And with that, I am going to document my process here, that others can see a step-by-step method for getting a character into UDK 3 with interchangeable parts.
Wish me luck!