From the course: Unreal Engine: Product Visualization

Import the mesh files - Unreal Engine Tutorial

From the course: Unreal Engine: Product Visualization

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Import the mesh files

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- [Instructor] To make a start at using the Unreal Engine to produce product visualization pieces, we will first of all need a product with which to work and so, let's take a look at this video at how to bring meshes into the Unreal Engine from any DCC application that supports the FBX format. Now, do feel free to use a mesh file and textures of your own if you have them available but if not and if you have access to the exercise files download, you can join me in bringing in the two FBX files that will make up our lantern product. Good organization makes projects easy to work with and so, let's right click inside the Content Browser, create a new folder called PorductZ or Zee and then press the enter key once done. Now, this is the folder that we will use in order to store our textures and mesh files and so, let's double click to enter it and then right click again to create another folder and this time calling it Mesh_Files. Again, we need to double click to enter, click the Import button to go and grab our files and then navigate to the Exercise Files and Resources folders. Now once there we can select both the lantern and glass FBX files and then click Import to bring them in choosing Import All when asked. Now, we can click and drag each mesh in turn making sure to set its location fields to zero, zero, zero which we can do because the object pivot points were set up at the lantern's base in the original DCC application and the objects were then exported whilst placed at the world origin, so zero, zero, zero on the X, Y and Z coordinates which really makes placement inside of Unreal nice and easy for us as you can see. Let's set our viewport camera speed to a value of two in order to make navigation easier on the eyes. We can then select the lantern object with a left click and with our 3D view selected, press the F key to focus in on our mesh. We can then move our view into place. Now, this particular mesh has been purposefully kept in a very low poly state so that it is quick and easy to work with as we move through the course but it's good to keep in mind that we can certainly increase the level of detail and poly count by quite a bit if we are only going to have a single product in our shot. This way we can make the product look as good as possible. Now, the import of higher polygon count meshes may take a little longer to bring into the engine but so long as we don't go way over the top, Unreal will be able to handle it without a problem. Knowing how to bring a mesh into Unreal and make sure that the folder structure is set up correctly might seem a simple task but if you are completely new to the Unreal Engine, then knowing how to do these things is indeed going to be a must.

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