This page covers a legacy MetaHumans workflow. This workflow is only supported in Unreal Engine 4, for projects that contain MetaHumans created with the original MetaHuman Creator. For an equivalent workflow that uses current MetaHumans and Unreal Engine 5, refer to the Downloading and Exporting MetaHumans section.
This guide walks you through the steps to export a MetaHuman character from Quixel Bridge to Unreal Engine. After this, you will know how to send content from Quixel Bridge to a running instance of Unreal Engine 4 with the click of a button.
Exporting a MetaHuman
In the MetaHumans filter, click on a MetaHuman asset tile. In the information panel that opens on the right side of the window, click on the Settings (gear) icon and select Export Settings.
Under the Export Target tab, use the dropdown next to Export Target to select Unreal Engine from the list. This sets the active export application being used when clicking Export in the information panel.
Quixel Bridge content library supports many different DCC applications through plugins. However, MetaHumans only support Unreal Engine and Maya.
Click Install Plugin.
Press the Back button to go back to the information panel.
Set the resolution you want to export textures at with the MetaHuman assets.
Only texture resolutions that you’ve actually downloaded will be available for exporting. If you choose one that hasn’t been downloaded already, the Export button changes to the Download button and you can download the textures and MetaHuman asset at that resolution.
Open Unreal Engine and have it running in the background. Be sure that the version of Unreal Engine you open is the same as the one you set as the Engine Version in the Export Targets panel earlier in this guide.
Click Export. A pop-up message will appear in Quixel Bridge indicating that assets are being exported. The message will change upon successful export.
During the export process from Quixel Bridge, your selected MetaHuman asset will be imported into the running Unreal Engine project. Files and folders will be created and located in the Content Browser in a MetaHumans folder.
MetaHuman assets require specific project settings, plugins, and console variables to be set in Unreal Engine for them to work correctly. During import into an Unreal Engine project, a check is performed to see if the necessary settings are enabled. If not, prompt windows appear asking you to enable the missing settings, console variables, or plugins.
To ensure MetaHuman assets work correctly, click Enable Missing on any of these prompts and restart the editor where required.
These messages only appear when importing MetaHuman assets to your Unreal Engine project for the first time. Subsequent imports will not require this action. For a full list of requirements, refer to the Unreal Engine Requirements and Configuration Settings page.