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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
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Sep 16, 2022
The Unreal Live Link plug-in lets you stream animation data from Maya to Unreal in real time, allowing you to work on character assets in Maya while seeing a preview of your work inside Unreal as you are making changes.
You can find Epic's documentation here.
Contribute to the open source repo
Note: The robot in this image was created using create3dcharacters.com.
To learn more about using the Unreal Live Link, see the following:
To install Unreal Live Link for Autodesk Maya, do one of the following:
Execute the .msi installer file and follow the instructions.
Note: You will need to be logged into git and have permission to Unreal's repo for the above link to work.
Note: Live Link also requires a local installation of Unreal Engine to run properly.
To uninstall Unreal Live Link for Autodesk Maya, do one of the following:
Delete the install folder (as noted in the Installation section).
Note: If Linux distribution does not have OpenSSL 1.1 installed, you may see OpenSSL errors. We advise using OpenSSL 1.1.x. Note: Uninstalling the plugin during an active Maya session will leave Maya unresponsive.
Before using the Unreal Live Link, you must first set up a link between a Maya asset (the source) and Unreal asset (the target).
Before you can start a live link, you must first activate the respective plug-ins in Maya and Unreal.
To activate the Unreal Live Link plug-ins:
Before you can live link specific objects between Maya and Unreal, you first need to set up a connection between the two applications:
Note: The Unreal Live Link plug-in is supported by previous versions of Maya, starting in Maya 2018.
Note: If Unreal Live Link fails to load properly, make sure that you have Unreal Engine installed to the same machine.
Once Maya and Unreal are connected, you can live link specific objects in each scene by doing the following:
To link an asset in the Animation Editor:
The link is now established between your Maya and Unreal objects. For more on retargeting an actor in Unreal, see the documentation here .
The following list of Maya features are compatible with the Unreal Live Link plug-in.
Note: Before you can control the camera attributes, you need to install the LiveLinkCamera plug-in in Unreal.
Feature |
What's compatible |
Cameras (Maya name -> Unreal name) |
Note: If Depth of Field is turned off in Maya, you must manually set the Focus method to Disable in Unreal. |
Lights (point, directional, spotlight) |
|
Joints |
|
| |
Time codes |
See Syncing with Timecodes for more information |
To ensure objects are compatible between Maya and Unreal, you can export the Maya object to Unreal using an FBX file.
To export the scene to your Unreal project:
Note: If you don't see the File > Send To Unreal options, ensure that the GamePipeline.mll plug-in is loaded.
Note: You can also use File > Export All / Export Selection and change the file type to FBX_export. If you use this method, you'll want to make sure Bake Animation, and Blendshapes options are enabled.
Syncing animation between Maya and Unreal can be tricky when working with data from different sources running at different speeds (24fps, 30fps, 60fps, etc). To avoid aligning these disparate sources by hand, you can create a time code as a central unit for them to synchronize to.
To enable time codes:
Now if you open the Timecode Provider (Window > Developer Tools > Timecode Provider) you should see a timecode that updates when you scrub the Timeslider in Maya.
To make Unreal's Sequencer compatible, you need to perform some additional steps.
To synchronize Unreal Sequencer with time codes:
Now if you play the scene in Maya, Unreal remains synchronized with it.
Note: The robot in the video was created using create3dcharacters.com.
When live linking a skeleton joint from Maya to Unreal, you can choose to stream any keyframed custom attributes. This is useful for enabling compound or custom behavior.
To stream custom attributes:
In Maya, create a custom float attribute on a joint and make sure to set at least one keyframe on it.
Export the joint (or entire skeleton) as an FBX file.
Import the file into Unreal, making sure to enable the following.
Now if you open Unreal's Asset Editor, you'll see the custom attributes on the skeleton. You can then alter the values in Maya to stream them to Unreal.
You can create an animation blueprint to synchronize your skeletal mesh and preview updates in Unreal’s Viewport.
Now you can preview of your work inside Unreal as you are making changes in Maya.
By default, Maya will link to a single instance of Unreal running on the same device. However, if you are on a local area network where multiple devices are being used, you can link to specific instances of Unreal using a Unicast Endpoint and Static Endpoint to act as each end of the bridge.
To set up these network endpoints, you will first need the IPv4 address of the device running Maya and the device running Unreal.
Once you have your IPv4 values, you can then proceed to set up the link depending on the two scenarios outlined below:
In Maya, open the Unreal Live Link Editor and open the Settings window.
In Unreal, open the Project Settings and go to the UDP Messaging section.
Enter the IPv4 value into Maya and Unreal based on the following scenarios:
The Unreal Live link window is where you create and manage live link connections from Maya to Unreal. You can access it via File > Unreal Live Link.
Note: When new updates are available, a message appears at the bottom of the Unreal Live Link window. Click the link to install the latest version.
Select an object in the scene, then click this to add it to the list of active connections.
Displays a list of objects currently connected to Unreal via live link.
Displays the type of object being linked. Clicking this will give you a list of preset hierarchy connections to send to Unreal.
The name of the object being sent to Unreal. You can change this name to match different objects in the Unreal project.
The Maya hierarchy location of the object being linked.
Select an existing object in the Connection list, then click this button to remove it.
Select Edit > Settings to open the Unreal Live Link settings window with the following options.
Use this to point a specific instance of Maya to a specific instance of Unreal (if multiple instances are running).
Below you'll find a list of common issues you may run into when using Live Link and their resolutions.
If you can't find your Live Link Editor window, it's possible it's been hidden behind the Maya window. This can happen if you restarted Maya while a the Live Link Editor window was already open. If this happens, move the main Maya window aside and click on the Live Link Editor window to bring it back to the front.
If Depth of Field is turned off in Maya, you must manually set the Focus method to Disable in Unreal.
If you don't see the File > Send To Unreal options, ensure that the GamePipeline.mll plug-in is loaded.
If Unreal Live Link fails to load properly, make sure that you have Unreal Engine installed to the same machine.
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