I've acquired a great quad model. I skinned and animated it to a rig build by a Mel script. It works great as far as editing the animation using sliders and parameters in Maya. When I export the file as an FBX file to Unity3D, it does not animate. Is something being lost in the translation from Mel to the rig? Unity needs a boned rig, is this procedural rig not the equivalent of a rig built and animated with the skeleton tools in Maya? I've check that I have a 'Reference' folder, I've set keys, changed root name to "Hips".
Thanks for any insight on this question.
dDuane
If you are transferring the file with no errors and there is no animation then there are three issues to look at.
First, you may have accidentally not exported the keyframes. Make sure the box is checked to export animation on the FBX export UI.
Second, it's possible that the object that contains the actual keyframes is not being exported. When you animate using the MEL scripted GUI, find out where the actual keyframes are on the rig and make sure that object is exporting with the rest of the character.
Third, the object might be transferring fine but depending on the rig setup the connections/constraints/whatever might not be working or supported in Unity. You might consider baking the animation to the skeleton before transferring to the engine. To do this, select the skeleton, click [Edit -> Keys -> Bake Simulation].