In the picture above I have applied an animation that I retargeted to an Apex rig, edited then exported out as an FBX. When using the bone deform node to view the animation on the mesh this is the result. I did solve the issue inside of Houdini by checking the Normalize Joint Scales. However, when using this animation in Unreal Engine on the same mesh the problem persists.

Now my apex rig was created using the auto rig builder node with the same mesh that was imported using a FBX Character Import node. I've tried multiple setting configurations but no matter what I do, the result is the same. The animation when applied to the mesh it is for explodes the mesh.

After further investigation, I've narrowed it down to the rigs transform matrix being altered by the auto rig builder sop. There is no direct setting that verifies that but I did a manual rig following the Rig A Character tutorial and did my exact same export settings that I used earlier and the mesh + the animation looked 1:1 how it does in Houdini and the mesh is compatible with the base mesh that I'm using all together.

Greggory_Addison
I did solve the issue inside of Houdini by checking the Normalize Joint Scales. However, when using this animation in Unreal Engine on the same mesh the problem persists.

if this worked on import
can you try checking Remove Scaling From Joint Transforms checkbox on ROP FBX Character Export

@tamte This does work, however it is not a solid solution. It essentially exports a mesh that is not compatible with my existing assets putting me in the same boat I’m currently in. If I were to use the mesh exported from Houdini instead of the base mesh I brought into Houdini I would then have to retarget my entire existing animation library to this new Houdini mesh along woth manually updating all references to the original mesh. What I’d prefer is to export the animation out which is using the same mesh and it be compatible with that mesh in the engine. This is not the case when using Auto Rig Builder sop. Ran a test with another rig using auto rig components and this issue was not present.

I’d start with the smallest possible test: one character, one skeleton and one animation clip. This should show whether Apex is exporting the animation correctly or whether something changes when the file is imported into the game engine. I’d also compare the bone hierarchy and the names with the original asset, because even a small difference there can break the animation. I usually find it easier to change one setting at a time instead of modifying everything together, since that makes it much simpler to find where the problem starts. That is also why I found https://online-casinosbe.com/fr/sans-depot/ [online-casinosbe.com] relevant here, as the article explains the idea of testing an option on a small scale before going further. The same approach makes sense with this export issue: use a minimal file first, check the result, and then add the rest step by step.