I'm bringing in animated objects from Cinema 4D using an Alembic SOP (I tried Alembic Import but that will overwrite anything you do to it if you reload the file, but it was at least easy to apply materials at the SOP object level using drag and drop in the editor).

Right now I'm using the @path= option in a material SOP's group field(I think separate material SOPs might be better) but selecting and applying is tricky and editing the list of long alembic path names is impossible after the fact if I want to change what's applied to what.

There must be an easier way?

RT_SD
Right now I'm using the @path= option in a material SOP's group field(I think separate material SOPs might be better) but selecting and applying is tricky and editing the list of long alembic path names is impossible after the fact if I want to change what's applied to what.

There must be an easier way?

I usually use interactive primitive picking in alembic path mode. Editing is a matter of clicking the arrow by the group field on the material sop.

Use the Alembic Group SOP, there you will get a nice hierarchical view of your Alembic, and can easily make groups
from whatever you select in the list. Way better than messing about with other methods, nice and clean.

tinyhawkus
Use the Alembic Group SOP, there you will get a nice hierarchical view of your Alembic, and can easily make groups
from whatever you select in the list. Way better than messing about with other methods, nice and clean.

excellent, that's what I'm looking for. thx!

If you are like me looking how to assign multiple materials to the animated alembic when exporting from Houdini - so multiple materials are shown in Unreal Engine, make sure to check "Build Hierarchy from Attribute" and set shop_materialpath as a Path Attribute below. Ofc material should be assigned before.

Thanks to topicstarter and lewis_T, and some testing!