Importing animation from Unreal Engine to Cascadeur is pretty straightforward.

1. In Unreal Engine, select an asset that contains an animation you’d like to export.

2. Right-click it and select Export from the Asset Actions menu:

3. Select the destination to store the file, and a name for it
As for the export format, use FBX, as it is the only format that is supported by both UE and Cascadeur.

4. Set the export settings:

We recommend to use modern versions of the FBX format, such as 2022 or 2020.

Then, you'll need to import this FBX file to Cascadeur and apply the animation to the character in the scene.
To do this:

5. In Cascadeur, open a scene with a character.
The character should have the exact same skeleton as the one used in the animation you plan to import.

6. Select Import → Import Fbx/Dae from the File menu:

7. Select the Animation preset:

8. Click Import and select the animation file.

Animation should be applied to the same model it is intended to work with in Unreal Engine.

Applying it to a different model would lead to distortions - even when both models have the same skeleton.
If you need to use another model, use the Retargeting feature.

Common Issues

Incorrect Rotation

Sometimes when you apply an animation from UE to a Cascadeur character, the rotation will be incorrect.

This happens because when you export a 3D model from Unreal Engine, its skeleton has a transform object at the root of the hierarchy:

Animation, on the other hand, is exported without such an object. Its hierarchy starts right with the root joint:

When you apply an animation to a model exported from Unreal, you might get an incorrect rotation result due to Unreal and Cascadeur's different Up axis.

To fix this problem, you can change either of these parameters in the Import window:

1. Change the Fbx up axis to Z.
2. Change the Adjust axis system on import to Off.

With these settings, animation should be imported properly.

Misplaced Joints

When you export animation from Unreal Engine to Cascadeur, you might get a model with Joints that don’t align exactly like they do in UE.

This happens because in Unreal Engine, there are two types of rigs: full and simple. ‘Full’ rigs have additional Joints for small-scale adjustments, while simple rigs do not.

Cascadeur models by default use simple rigs with reduced Joint count. So when such a rig is supplied with an animation intended for a complex skeleton, you might get distortions.

It can be fixed by baking animations of these additional Joints to regular Joints.
For this, set Bake Actor Animation to Bake All in the Unreal Engine's export dialog:

See Also

Import

Export to Unreal Engine