Creating art in a 3D modeling package such as Max or Maya and then trying to get it to work in the Unreal Editor can sometimes be quite a feat, especially if you’ve never done it before. Hopefully this process will provide a basic understanding of the art pipeline for Unreal Ed and answer any questions you may have about getting your static meshes from the 3D package of your choice into the Unreal Editor and into your Mod.

First off, what is a static mesh? In Unreal Ed, a static mesh is a piece of geometry that does not have any animations. This is not to say it won’t move in game. A few examples of static meshes would be the decorative piping you see running along walls or ceilings, a tree stump, or even an elevator lift that moves once you step on it. In the case of the elevator lift, it is animated using Matinee, Unreal’s key frame animation system, not an external 3D package such as Max or Maya. For more examples of static meshes, simply hop into Unreal Ed, open up your favorite package and look at the static meshes in there.
Note: This tutorial is being created using Maya 2008 as the 3D package of choice. There are slight differences and peculiarities in how you export models from the various 3D packages.

Download pdf Static Mesh Pipeline