Ensure your collectable item is combined into one object, by selecting the objects (Q) and using
Mesh > Booleans > Union or Mesh > Combine.
I also recommend moving your object to the center of the grid plane, this will make moving the object easier.
Export your collectable from Maya by selecting your object (Q) and clicking File > Export Selection.
While exporting be sure to change File of Type to FBX export.
If you are using a textured model be sure to tick “include texture info”.
Name your FBX file something easy identifiable and save it to your Maya assets folder.
To import your collectable into Unreal Engine open the Content Draw in the lower left corner, press
Add > Import to/Game…
After selecting your object in files a popup menu will come up, while these settings are often important, today we will use the defaults, press import.
To create a blueprint your open Content Draw, select Add > Blueprint and choose Actor from the pop-up menu.
Name it something that makes sense and identifies it as a blueprint; as my collectable is a key, I am naming it BP_KeyCollectible.
Double-click your newly created Blueprint to open it.
We are now going to add our Maya object into the Blueprint. You may need to change the view to “Viewport”
Using the Components menu in the top left click Add. Type “Static Mesh” in the search window and select it when it appears in the menu.
On the right side select your object as the static mesh. At this point you may want to scale or reposition your object in the right menu.
While we are here, let’s turn off collisions so that our character’s won’t bump into the collectable as they pick them up.
Let’s make our collectable easier to see by making it rotate on the spot.
Back in the Components menu on the left, click Add and type “Rotating Movement”, select this when it appears below. For now, we will use the default rotation rate.
You can return to the main window and click play to test the rotation effect. Be sure to drag the blueprint from the Content Drawer, not the static mesh.
Next, let’s add collision so that our character can pick up the collectable. In the Components menu click Add, type “Sphere Collision” and select this option when it appears. Move and scale this sphere so it surrounds the Maya object.
Now we need to tell our Collision Sphere how to operate. Select “Sphere” in the Components menu and click the Event Graph tab above the viewport. This screen allows us to program how our collectable operates.
To add a new event, we need to right click a blank area of the Event Graph. Through the menu select Add Event for Sphere > Collision > Add on Component Begin Overlap.
Drag from the arrow next to “Other Actor” and release into a blank space to create a new action. After releasing type and select “Cast To BP_ThirdPersonCharacter” from the list. This sets the conditions for activating the collectable.
Finally, let’s make the collectable disappear when we collect it. From the top right arrow of Cast To BP_ThirdPersonCharacter drag and release to a blank space in the Event Graph. Type “Destroy Actor” and select this from the menu.
When completed, our Event Graph should look like this.
Return to the main window and click play to test. Don’t forget to drag the blueprint (not the object) out of the Content draw and into the scene first.