So I'm trying to export the sample FBX from Maya 2015 to Unreal 4 on Win7, without using FaceFX Studio, and I'm running into a problem at the ffxc compilation stage--I can't seem to generate the correct set of files that I see in the finished example project; Unreal can't import them.
I can export a .facefx file from Maya using the FaceFX plugin, but when I compile it using ffxc, the output isn't the same as in the provided finished example. When I run
ffxc --platforms=x86 FILENAME.facefx
...I get the following three files as output:
\.facefx\x86\FILENAME.ffxcadb
\FILENAME\x86\FILENAME.ffxactor
\FILENAME\x86\FILENAME.ffxbones
The provided finished example has .ffxactor and .ffxbones but no .ffxadb...and in addition it has .ffxamap, .ffxguid, and .ffxids files. There's also a /Default subfolder holding multiple .ffxanim files apparently derived from audio.
Any idea how I can generate valid output from ffxc? Is there a switch I'm forgetting?
Yes, check the documentation for the FaceFX Runtime Compiler plugin for FaceFX Studio. It details what switches are required for the UE4 plugin. This is also detailed in the UE4 FaceFX plugin documentation as well: https://github.com/FaceFX/FaceFX-UE4/blob/master/Documentation/Requirem…
Note that the Studio plugin does the "copy modified files to .facefx directory" step, which you will have to emulate if you want your custom pipeline to do the same thing as the default workflow. The Runtime also comes with extensive documentation (see doc/pdf/manual.pdf), where you will read about the the various file types and what they are and where they are stored (you should *never* have to deal with .ffxadb files, for example).
Why do you want to remove Studio, and its plugin that does exactly the correct things, from your pipeline? You can use FaceFX Studio in command line mode and have it do all of this without ever popping up the GUI, fyi.
- Jamie