Further Testing

It is a good idea to test how your avatar is going to work in the Otherside by setting up a small test scene to preview some animations.

In order to do this we are going to:

• Create a new ODK project

• Create a new blueprint that will

  • Load a GLB into the ODK at runtime

  • Apply animations

Let's start by creating a new project. Start the ODK Launcher and make sure you are on the Templates Tab.

Once in the project use the Content Browser to navigate to the map called Empty_P, double click on the icon to open the map.

Create a new folder called Blueprints at the root of the content folder.

Right click in the empty window to and click Blueprint Class.

Select Actor

Name the blueprint BP_AvatarPreview and then double click on the blueprint icon to open up the editor. Once in the editor change the visible tab to EventGraph

Press the + next to Variables to add a new variable called Animations

Change the type to Animation Asset

Make the variable public by toggling the eye next to it.

With the variable still selected in the details panel on the right update the variable type to be Array.

We are going to add two more variables:

• GLB Path

  • Type - File Path - Single

  • Public

• Spacing

  • Type - Float - Single

  • Public The Variables section should now look like:

In the EventGraph press tab to add a node glTF Load Asset from Filename

Drag and drop GLB path from the Variables panel into the Event Graph and select Get GLB Path

Right Click on the GLB Path pin and click Split Struct Pin

Now you can connect the pin on GLB Path to the file name on the Load Asset from Filename node.

The next node we will be adding is the Load Skeletal Mesh Recursive node. You will have to uncheck the Context Senstive checkbox in the top right hand corner of the node search window to find it.

Connect the pins as shown in the images below to the Load Asset node.

Pull a connection out from the Loader Config Pin on the glTF Load Asset from Filename. Reenable the Context Sensitve check box and scroll to the bottom and select Make GlTFRuntime Config.

In the dropdown for Transform Base Type choose YForward

Press the down arrow at the bottom of the Load Skeletal Mesh Recursive node and drag out a connection from the Skeletal Mesh Config Pin. Scroll to the bottom and select Make GlTF Runtime Skeletal Mesh Config

From the Skeleton dropdown select SKEL_UE5Mannequin

From the Variables panel drag Animations out to the Event Graph and select Get Animations.

From the Pin on Animations pull off a connection and then select For Each Loop.

Connect the Exec pin from load skeletal mesh to the For Loop.

Add an Add Skeletal Mesh Component Node

Pull a connection off of the Relative Transform Pin and select Make Transform

Split the Location Struct Pin

Next we are going to multiply the Spacing variable by the Array Index from our Loop node. We can also connect the Loop Body Pin o the Loop node to the Exec Pin of the Add Skeletal Mesh Component.

If you haven't Compiled the blueprint yet we can do that now and then set a default value of 200.0 for our Spacing

On our Skeletal Mesh Component, pull out a connection from the Return Value of the Add Skeletal Mesh Component node and select `Set Animation Mode.

In the dropdown for In Animation Mode set it to Use Animation Asset

Also pulling from the Return Value of the Add Skeletal Mesh Component node add an Override Animation Data node, connecting the In Anim to Play to the Array Element of the for loop.

Again pulling a connection from the Add Skeletal Mesh Component node add a Set Skeletal Mesh Asset with the New Mesh Pin connected to the Return Value of Load Skeletal Mesh Recursive.

Back in our main level editor window, drag and drop the BP_AvatarPreview into the level.

In the details panel in the bottom right of the screen we can an animation by pressing the + Next to the Animations label.

For our first test animation I am just going to add a Range of Motion or ROM animation sequence.

Next we can click on the three dots next to the GLB Path field to select the GLB we downloaded from the avatar web tool.

Once that has been entered press the green arrow at the top of the level editor to preview.

We can add more animations to the the Animations list to be able to preview many animations at once. Using emotes is a good way to test extreme poses.

We have successfully brought a character the whole way from nothing to a properly scaled working avatar for the Otherside. Now as we make small tweaks we can quickly see them represented in our test scene by replacing the file that the test scene is referencing.