The Blender to Unreal Engine Workflow
som.bz/42Sk3EN - Unreal isn’t a Blender replacement, it’s a Blender enhancement. These two free-to-use tools are powerful on their own, but when they work together it’s truly magical. After spending a few years switching over to Blender (from C4D) and getting comfortable, I started to become concerned that I’d need to drop all of that knowledge and fully switch over to Unreal. The good news is your Blender knowledge is still every bit as useful, don’t worry. Here’s how to use the two together.
IN THIS TUTOIAL
Todd Blankenship's Channel @AmIAFilmmaker
Blender Bake Textures - • Blender Bake Textures ...
Capturing Lofoten in Unreal Engine 5 - • Capturing Lofoten in U...
Make Nightmare Men in Blender - Lazy Tutorials - • Make Nightmare Men in ...
Get Blender - www.blender.org/
Get Unreal Engine - www.unrealengine.com/en-US
SCHOOL OF MOTION COURSES
All Courses - som.bz/3SUg5Yb
Unreal Engine for 3D Artists - som.bz/3N9aU5L
3D Courses - som.bz/3ArdpZu
Guided Courses - som.bz/3LYmJef
Instant Access Courses - som.bz/3AWv63C
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction
01:00 - Exporting from Blender to UE
03:49 - Modeling
04:15 - Scene Layout
04:56 - Materials
06:45 - Foliage
07:32 - Outro
Error at 2:55 is caused by your static mesh and texture having the same name, use the recommended UE naming conventions in Blender or else you will regret it later. "SM_Skeleton_01" for the Static Mesh and "M_Skeleton_01" for the Material, your maps need proper names too like "T_Skeleton_01_N" for the Normal Map. Also when importing a Normal Map created in Blender make sure you flip the Green Channel in UE.
I wonder if that's the reason why a fully rigged character that I imported for Blender became a fucking Skulltula the second I pressed play in Unreal. It was traumatic.
W comment thanks
@@DodaGarciahahaha!
hey where are you learning all of these
Blender comment added.
[4:37] If you do want to bring all objects over in 1 FBX file whilst retaining their individual origns: 1. Parent all objects to an empty in blender 2. Select empty last - Export fbx (selection only) 3. Import to UE as a "FBX scene" This will result in a "master" origin point represented by the empty, whilst each individual section retains its own vector data.
This is the GOAT tip
"Allah! There is no god but He - the Living, The Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him Nor Sleep. His are all things In the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede In His presence except As he permitteth? He knoweth What (appeareth to His creatures As) Before or After or Behind them. Nor shall they encompass Aught of his knowledge Except as He willeth. His throne doth extend Over the heavens And on earth, and He feeleth No fatigue in guarding And preserving them, For He is the Most High. The Supreme (in glory)." [Surah al-Baqarah 2: 255]
Thanks a lot for this!!
Haven't tried it but defs an excellent piece of advice
+1
For the issue where a person has done scene layout in Blender (or another DCC), and exported the entire scene as an FBX and is importing it into Unreal, the best way to import it into Unreal is to use File->Import Into Level, instead of just dragging and dropping the FBX into the Unreal editor. This preserves instancing, origins, and transforms. (Also, somewhat counterintuitively, you'll want to tick the 'Apply Transform' box when exporting the FBX from Blender, otherwise the meshes will be imported as 1 Blender Unit = 1 Unreal Unit, and an Unreal Unit is a centimeter, so they'll be tiny) The biggest downside to this method is that it *does* make re-importing individual meshes of that scene a little more complicated. You can either make individual FBXes for each of the meshes and import them separately and then change the reference for the mesh actor in the level, or you can go through the re-import dialogue and manually select the mesh you want to re-import.
A tip for the pivot offset when you import a full scene: you can hold Alt+MMB to move the pivot independently of the mesh. This is a one-time effect(good for a single translation) You can set the new pivot location permanently by right clicking the static mesh in the viewport>pivots>use one of the options.
basically model your stuff in blender and then do the rest in unreal ?
Model, sculpt, bake, unwrap low poly/retopo etc in blender. You can even texture procedurally then iterate inn unreal engine.
If you have an experimental workflow like me, where modelling and animation is not devided moving to unteal is next to impossible - probably I will use unreal for 10% - I would love to build some scenes specially around fluid ninjas features in unreal. And of course heavy nanite stuff.
@@Hemlok69 and u6⁷
Yup
@@Bulborb1I just skip the whole sculp mumbo jumbo. Everything is box modelled. No retopo needed.
Foliage in Unreal continues to blow my mind!! Really good idea to use the best parts of each software, will keep that in mind :)
The lighting you have in your office is soooooo nice.
4:33 IF you are importing entire scenes / sets of meshes from blender you can quite easily change the pivot point for each object as needed. After importing, in the unreal editor modeling mode select your object, select the pivot option in the menu and select center. This will modify the pivot points for all instances of this mesh. Great tutorial, cheers!
If you want to keep the origins of multiple meshes within a single exported .fbx file intact, make sure you select ".fbx scene" when in the "select asset to import"-window (unreal), not just .fbx ... it not a bug, its a feature (seemingly nobody knows about) ;)
4:28 that's not the only problem. Another problem is that will import the same mesh several times, instead of importing it once and instance it on the level.
Very nice video. It feels so nice to see people getting up-to-date by learning blender.
thank you for this, i was debating on which platform to start with and this video gave me a really good POV
for the 4:35 you can separate by loose part in blender, and do origin to geometry, now every object have its own parent bone and rotate around itself
How did you know this is the content I needed right now?
i've been a 3d artist for 3 years now... I now just realized and learned to use boleans as a geometry clean up tool from now! thank you!
Seems a bit tedious just select the faces and delete them
Great overview, these higher level view workflow videos are very useful, thanks.
Excelent, thanks for the insights!
Welp, I needed this video. thank you!
Bro this video really just confirmed all my hopes for adapting to UE5 with a blender/c4d brain. Thank you...
really cool! Thanks for making this video!
I believe you can change the origin of the mesh in Unreal through the Modeling Mode, however it is best to do it as you mentioned.
Thanks for sorting that all out on video. I'm trying to teach high school film students both programs so they can get more creative with what they create. This video is something I can definitely share with them.
Ypu should look at reallusion. Im not very good a some things and that program helps me beyond all. CC4 & IC8 is a lifesaver ;) Theres a ic8 to unreal plug in that makes all the complex materials connect automatically (saving valuable time). Animation is sweet. Mocap clean up. Character Creator for creating humans and monsters.
1:55
🎉 2:25
been needing a video like this! This clears up a lot of confusion about blender to UEFN (The Unreal Fortnite Editor) as well!
Hey, just a helper here! Try to export with the USD file extension. It'll save you a lot of time. Also, lastly- you need to set each individual game object with individual origins. This is why you have the issue found in 4:55.
Dude this is scary. I was literally looking for this EXACT topic and your video posted WITHIN THE HOUR. Awesome content. You have a new follower
Same here!
Buenísimo!!!🎉🎉🎉muchas gracias!!
Glad to hear that I’m not the only one that doesn’t know which program to use and for what.
Amazing stuff
there is also a blender to unreal plugin that is really useful when correctly setup
Yeah, Unreal's official "Send to Unreal" add-on is pretty powerful.
It was so helpful and thanks for your sharing.
what specs d you have on the computer that you use for these projects?
This was awesome thank you
WONDERFUL. Thanks!
THANK YOU!
I’m barely getting in to blender don’t know anything at all but still seeing this video as if I understood anything you go over haha
Great info .. Thank You for sharing .. Cheers :)
4:48 I work with FBX imports to blender sometimes at work, and from what I've found, that's a limitation of the filetype. I don't know if its different in other software like 3ds max, but every time I import something as an FBX into blender, I have to deal with a whole host of messed up origins and relationship lines all leading to one random point. At least in blender you can just right click and set origin to geometry in all of them. It's slightly better when going from blender to unity because of the native .blend support. Maybe that's what a future update may bring us.
yes, FBX is a pain in Blender. They improved it over the years, but its still not user-friendly. For concepts, i always use OBJ instead. Especially when exporting object with boolean and cutting on it. FBX mess, for no reason, randomly points up.
I’ve been thinking about this pipeline for a bit, what would you say the best option would be for animation? i’ve had this idea where i’d make my animation in blender and send it over to UE for rendering and such but i’m not quite sure how it would all end up after sending it over
Great information here.
5:26 If you want any interactable cloth Simulation (Like cloaks or hair) it's best to do the cloth simulation in Unreal Engine and not have things in the sequencer
"Allah! There is no god but He - the Living, The Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him Nor Sleep. His are all things In the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede In His presence except As he permitteth? He knoweth What (appeareth to His creatures As) Before or After or Behind them. Nor shall they encompass Aught of his knowledge Except as He willeth. His throne doth extend Over the heavens And on earth, and He feeleth No fatigue in guarding And preserving them, For He is the Most High. The Supreme (in glory)." [Surah al-Baqarah 2: 255]
@@alkatheri-pk4hck
Hello everyone. I am still green. I used to play around with Blender. Also used to play around with Unreal Engine 2 4 So much has changed I am sure. Looking forward to taking the next 2 years in Learning both. Namaste Dave Ross
so if I want to bring over a character I have to rig it in blender first and do the animations in unnreal?
If you want to make complex materials in blender and import them to unreal, just bake the different PBR "slots" before hand. You can do it in blender, and there are nice plug-ins for it
Which one do you recommend?
@@ribthiefz8283 Principled Baker is what I use, great quality bakes that are easy and fast to do. It's also free
Wanna hear more about what is best for each program. Keep it up
Awesome thanks!
hey man thanks, this helped me :)))
thx bro
exzzzzellent video
datasmith for 3dsmax is great as you can select all your objects and it brings them in exactly where they were so you can alter and swap out.
very very true , best with the best
Interesting to see how two different branches of the entertainment industry start to merge. Meet in the middle. Game engines are capable enough to be a viable option in the movie industry, and software from the movie industry can be used for games.
to be honest, you dont need to thank us for watching, me myself watching you because i need to know and some advise for which one is better between unreal and blender, turnout combining them is the best choice, thank you for the vid sir
Hey great video thanks, how about you make scene comparisons? Render times, quality, path tracing etc..
Great Video
Anyone have advice on animations/rigging? Should I rig and animate in Blender and bring that exported animation to Unreal? Or instead, should I create the mesh in Blender, bring it to Unreal, and rig/animate/pose within Unreal?
I used 3DS Max for 19 years and have been using Blender for 2 years now. My background is games design, creating assets, weapons, etc. I recently got back into Unreal and decided to do some work in UE5.. However I find it SO confusing switching between Blender and UE5 because of the controls 😂😂 I keep going to use WASD in Blender to move around lol.
im confused why u used booleans to clean up the photoscan mesh
Can in unreal make animations? Or is it easier make in blender?
Very informative 👊🏾
👊 Thanks! I've been learning from the best 😉
@@AmIAFilmmaker Appreciate it buddy, we should collab on a tutorial as I get a lot of questions about Blender but I barely know it
@@JonathanWinbush Todd & Jonathan, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship ...
Oh man I'd be all about that! Down to collab any time.
one Word "DATASMITH", it is not perfect but works very good. I use it in Unreal 5.1 and i get all materials and textures into Unreal. As you said we need to prevent over work for nothing. The only Nodes that can be imported actually are the texture (image) nodes. Thats why i try to keep my uvs clean and for large areas i use cube map projection. For me Datasmith is actually better than using fbx for unreal imports. I hope it gets better :D
Thank you. Not enough people seem to be aware of datasmith
I can't find a tutorial on the materials, I'm trying to export my skin shader from blender to unreal or else, recreate one but I'm new to the engine and so far I haven't found anything conclusive, apparently c it's the color ramp that's missing. If you have a good link or a place where I could detail information, I'm interested as well as learning how to create these materials well on unreal.
THIS!! IS! POWERRRRR!!
great
I started mixing the blender with the unreal engine month ago and I thought I was the only one doing this!!!
Crazy bc I was looking at unreal videos and said to myself. Im going to start modeling everything in blender and render in unreal engine. I downloaded unreal and haven't used it yet. Then this video showed up on my feed. I gotta get going now. Lol
"And some fun foliage over there"... this is exactly my thought process when Im walking through the forest, "Oh look, some fun foliage over there.... and right here is some fun foliage, and FF EVERYWHERE!!"
In the video you mentioned a tutorial for baking but after looking through the links in the description, I don't see the link to the video. Can you share it with us, please? Thanks, man 👍
Will the geometry nodes /baking /smoke , fluids effects of blender will work on unreal engine
Can we change ue5 mouse navigation controls like that in blender? As switching from blender to ue5 is really confusing when we navigate with mouse.
5:50 Would be great if we could use some live link plug in boft software packages. And that Blender or Unreal has a texture node system that works with the other software. This way you can texture your objects in Blender and see the real time result in Unreal. This already excists with Substance Painter but i left this texture package since Adobe took it over...
What software are you using to capture point cloud data ?
UE5 supports GLB as far as i know, and GLB retains those PBR parameters so you might want export in GLB format. Or better use USD ( Universal Scene Descriptor) because it's the new industry standards and it just works, like everything without tweaking a bit.
Blender doesn't support USD does it?
@@wallacesousuke1433 it fully supports USD import and export, use newer version of blender
Actually, you can use Datasmith to transfer pretty much the entire scene from Blender to UE, along with lights and some shader nodes, but I don't know if they ported the bridge to UE 5 yet.
Datasmith don't work with Blender 3.xx and UE5.x as far as i know. Correct me if i am wrong please.
@@janvollgod7221 i'd like to know too.
There's an experimental version that's released for 5.2
Hmn
how hard is it to get any scene changes made in Unreal exported back in to Blender?
New sub
When you go from blender to UE5, does your weight paint forfeit during that process? Rigs as concerned.
Should you rig in blender or unreal engine?
you can change temporaly the origin with Alt+middle click
What is the best way to export Rigify animation data from Blender into Unreal 5.2 ? Auto Rig Pro has dedicated preset for their rig system export to Unreal but for Rigify I have no luck.
is there a way to import a object that currently have a active addon (like Gscatter) into unreal 5???
Hi, could you make a tutorial, how to export cinematic quality animation to video? Because I'm getting low quality every time I bake my animation to video 😭😭
I want to create a plan of my town in medieval times. I’m struggling to find any tutorials for this. I’ve used blendergis but it’s not good for finer details like little rivers and hills. Should I just recreate the town plan using a canvas in unreal as my guide, or is there a way of sculpting the blendergis export. Thank you.
Thank you this helps a lot. I was worried all the time i spent in Blender would of been wasted if unreal engines 3d was better since I plan to use the unreal engine for my game/skills devleopment. It's nice to know it will still be useful.
* have been not "of been" 🤦🏼♂🤦🏼♂🤦🏼♂
My biggest issue with unreal is that it is always crashing on me and I have a decent cpu. I hired a guy to do a set for some development and it just crashed all the time. He constantly had to optimize to add more foliage on his cpu because he was always running out of space. Also the files project file sizes were huge. I love the way unreal looks and I want it to be what I use but I can’t work on something that crashes all the time. A friend has a show that is all unreal. They had to hire a coder to make software to make it usable. I love that it’s working for you. I just don’t get how you get it to not crash all the time.
You need a decent GPU as well.
Your computer is prob at fault unreal is GPU dependent
I've found that UE doesn't handle even basic stuff e.g. texture plugged into alpha ( for decals ) it just doesn't import properly. I am talking about GLTF and USD and crappy "Blend File Importer" plugin which basically converts .blend into .FBX and imports. FBX isn't an option because it doesn't import materials as instances. So far USD does the best job, but I don't know how to enable alpha in the master material, tried to plug stuff in and convert the shader to masked but it does nothing for the instances so basically alpha opacity masks doesn't work.
I was hoping you were going to answer the one question I have about importing from Blender to Unreal. Importing a model made up of multiple objects and that has multiple textures added to it, how is that process? Importing a single object like the Skeleton seems straight forward but the other doesn't seem as cut and dry. If I have a sci fi model that has rigged components for example, like landing gear how does this translate to Unreal Engine and what is that process like? Would I simply not check the selected object option so it brings in the entire scene or is there another step that needs to be taken into account?
U can Export the different individuell parts of your object with different materials as fbx. In unreal make sure to uncheck combine meshes. U will get Ur different parts with different materials. In unreal u can ether Group or combine the parts to move around together.
What about character animation? I am not that interested in performance capture. I still like the idea of using traditional keyframing and crafting out character animations. That being said, I AM interested in unreal's renderer. A huge reason why I love staying inside of blender is that you can stay pretty non destructive if you choose to. The minute I start exporting to .fbx files and having different versions of things that way. I am concerned that my process becomes destructive in some way. Any tips on that workflow? I'd love to hear the best way of tackling this process
I definitely have faced the same issue. Something I once tried was exporting my character to character creator 4 then sending it to iclone 8,applying all my animations and sending it to Unreal using live link. The process is painful 😅.
"Allah! There is no god but He - the Living, The Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him Nor Sleep. His are all things In the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede In His presence except As he permitteth? He knoweth What (appeareth to His creatures As) Before or After or Behind them. Nor shall they encompass Aught of his knowledge Except as He willeth. His throne doth extend Over the heavens And on earth, and He feeleth No fatigue in guarding And preserving them, For He is the Most High. The Supreme (in glory)." [Surah al-Baqarah 2: 255]
@@alkatheri-pk4hc 💩🤡💣💣💣💣💥
Can't wait for the movie: The Sword In a Stump 😜🔥🔥🔥
I have a 1.3GB fbx from SketchUp19 that does not load well in UE 5.3 :-(.. It shows in blender but I can never see the entire model and don't know how to resolve this sort of limited focus issue . When I rotate the model I see the other side but the rest is not visible again although I have 32GB of RAM. The model is 9 floors up like a game park under a dome and seven floors underground
Please SOM make a blender course and i'm 100% sure I'm gonna buy it, I need it so bad!
You can move the origin point in Unreal.
the new 5.2 is great. Many good stuff. What i miss is a Live Link Bridge or like Houdini has, directly a Node Access. The Point is, doing modification on the fly, for an already imported object, is a pain in the ass. Especially when positioning and scaling was involved. I know there was a good project for a Plugin, but obviously it's stalled 2015.
Like datasmith?
I'm curious about vfx effects transferring in to UE5 from Blender.
Hello! Love your page's concept. I’m interested in buying your artwork. Thanks! ❤️🙏
Not to take away from your video as you do have information that helps. There is a Blender to Unreal plugin for Unreal that allows importing of whole scenes. Every object and collection can be imported and uses the PBR workflow node to automatically setup your materials.
Is it up-to-date? The page date says: July 29, 2020
@@wallacesousuke1433 As far as I know. I used it with 5.2 for work and it did everything properly. I can say the only thing it doesnt do is bring textures in that arent setup with the principled shader
How do u move characters in unreal like i want that skeleton to talk and move?
Great stuff! Blender + Unreal is the future ;)
What kind of scanner do you use?
Even more powerful with high poly generator 😎
Tomorrow my new system will arrive. Can i use UE5 with a rtx4060ti 16gb and a intel i9-11900KF and 32gb RAM? It also got a 1tb sdd which i want to upgrade with another one later. I used unity for my recent projects but i want to switch to unreal engine. greetings from germany edit: unity worked with my old pc well, but the gtx970+athlon x4 880K quadcore cant run ue4 properly.. so im kinda curious