This document outlines the Mesh to MetaHuman workflow for creating a MetaHuman from an existing Static or Skeletal Mesh.
Prerequisites
To use the Mesh to MetaHuman feature, first familiarize yourself with the following concepts:
Static Meshes and Skeletal Meshes in Unreal Engine.
To ensure that you can see and download your custom MetaHumans in Quixel Bridge, you must sign into Quixel Bridge the first time you open your Unreal project.
This is a required step, even if you signed in to the Epic Games Launcher previously. Signing in to the Launcher does not sign you in to Quixel Bridge automatically.
Required Setup
Create a new Unreal Engine project.
Download, install, and enable the MetaHumans plugin for your project. If you need additional information on how to complete this step, refer to the Working with Plugins page in the Unreal Engine documentation.
Restart Unreal Engine when prompted.
Workflow
The Mesh to MetaHuman workflow consists of the following steps:
Import and prepare the character Mesh.
Create and populate a MetaHuman Identity Asset.
Create and track a Neutral Pose.
Run the Identity Solve.
Submit the Template Mesh to the MetaHuman Backend.
Further customize your MetaHuman in MetaHuman Creator.
Download and import your MetaHuman into Unreal Engine 5.
These steps are covered in detail below.
Import and Prepare the Character Mesh
Follow the workflow outlined on the Importing Raw Content page.
After completing this workflow, you should have a textured Mesh Asset that’s ready to be imported into the Mesh to MetaHuman pipeline.
Create and Populate a MetaHuman Identity Asset
Next, you will create and populate a MetaHuman Identity Asset. This Asset holds the MetaHuman's Face Mesh (Template Mesh), body type information, and pose information.
Follow the steps below:
Create a new MetaHuman Identity Asset. Right-click in the Content Browser. From the context menu, select MetaHuman Animator > MetaHuman Identity.
If you create a MetaHuman from this Asset later, the filename of the Identity Asset you create will be your MetaHuman's name in MetaHuman Creator.
Double-click the MetaHuman Identity Asset you created to open it in the Identity Asset Editor.
Initially, this Asset is empty. You will populate it with data in the next steps.
In the Main Toolbar, click Create Components, then select From Mesh. Search for and select the mesh you imported.
After you complete this step, the Components panel on the left side of the Metahuman Identity Asset Editor will be populated with the following Components:
Face
Poses
Body
Select the Body Component and, in the panel that opens below the Components panel, select your MetaHuman’s Height and Body Type. You can adjust these values in MetaHuman Creator later, but only if you choose to create a MetaHuman from this mesh at the appropriate step in this process.
After completing this step, you now have an Identity Asset populated with all the required Components.
Create and Track a Neutral Pose
Before the MetaHuman backend can create a MetaHuman-compatible Template Mesh from the mesh you uploaded, you need to create and track a Neutral Pose.
To learn more about Neutral Poses, refer to the Key Concepts section on the MetaHuman for Unreal Engine landing page.
Adjust Viewport Lighting
Changing the lighting in the viewport can make it easier to work with your mesh. You can switch between different lighting modes from the Viewport Toolbar, as shown below:
Lit
Unlit
Lighting Only
For meshes that are textured with the skin's albedo texture, Unlit mode works best. For other meshes, you may have to choose Lit mode and rotate the light around until the entire face is lit evenly. To rotate the light, hold down the L key (or Ctrl + L keys, depending on how your engine is configured), then hold down the left mouse button and drag.
Create and Track a Neutral Pose
To create and track a neutral pose, follow these steps:
In the Components panel, under Poses, select the Neutral Pose Component.
Click the Viewport Camera menu and change the Field of View to 20 degrees or less.
In the Viewport, position the camera so that the mesh is facing forward and the head is completely visible.
To navigate the viewport, hold down the right mouse button and use the WASD keys to move, and Q and E keys to pan the camera up and down.
With the Neutral Pose Component still selected, click Promote Frame in the Main Toolbar or the + button in the bottom toolbar.
Click the image for full size. After you promote a frame, it will appear in the Frame Promotion Timeline that runs along the bottom of the Viewport. The first frame you promote will be set as the frontal view and marked with an additional (F) marker.
As this is the first Promoted Frame, its name is Frame 0. You can double-click the frame to rename it.
(Optional) Promote additional frames. In the Frame Promotion Timeline, click the Free Roaming Camera Mode button highlighted in the screenshot below, then repeat the process outlined in step 4.
Only do this step If you need to manually fit details like ears or nostrils (for example, a side profile view) and activate specific markers for those frames in the Markers Outliner. A frontal frame with full view of nasolabial folds, lips, and eyelids is always necessary. Additional frames should only contain Markers not present in the front frame, and be added only if a feature (like ears or nostrils) fits poorly after the Identity Solve step.
If you have multiple frames containing the same markers (for example, two different frontal frames), make sure that only one of them is used for the Identity Solve. The Used to Solve flag is a per-frame attribute that can be set in the Details panel with the Poses > Neutral Pose Component selected.
Use to Solve flag on a Promoted Frame. You can set these flags individually for each frame.
With the frame you created still selected, in the main toolbar, click the Track Markers (Active Frame) button. This creates a series of markers along the facial features of your mesh.
A Promoted Frame with tracking markers active. You can see which markers are active in the Trackers panel on the right. Click the image for full size. If auto-tracking is enabled from the Promoted Frame's context menu, you can unlock the camera and move it around to see how well the tracker responds.
Lock the current frame. In the Frame Promotion Timeline, right-click the frame and make sure that the Lock Camera option is enabled.
Once a frame is locked, you can still navigate by setting the camera in free roaming mode. To do this, click the Camera button on the left of the Frame Promotion Timeline.
(Optional) Zoom in, then click and drag to adjust any markers that don't align correctly with facial features.
Run the Identity Solve
Still in the Identity Asset Editor, from the Main Toolbar, click the MetaHuman Identity Solve button. This button will only be enabled once at least one Promoted Frame exists in the timeline, and will produce good results only when the markers are active and well-tracked.
Identity Solve fits the Template Mesh vertices to the volume of the Neutral Pose Mesh you tracked in previous steps. This part of the process happens in the cloud.
After the Identity Solve completes, you can toggle between your original Mesh and the Template Mesh in the Viewport by clicking the A / B tabs in the Viewport Toolbar. The A and B buttons activate two separate frame buffers for the same Viewport camera, and promoting a frame creates a snapshot of that camera. You can configure Viewport settings, such as lighting, individually for each of these two frame buffers.
In addition, you can toggle the display of both the original Mesh and the Template Mesh in the same frame buffer from the viewport toolbar, by enabling or disabling the Neutral Pose and Template Mesh options. Do this to see if your two meshes "z-fight" for screen occupancy.
Submit the Template Mesh for Auto-Rigging
You can now submit the Template Mesh to the MetaHuman backend. In the Main Toolbar, click the Mesh to MetaHuman button, then select one of the following options:
Auto-Rig Identity (Skeletal Mesh Only): This creates an auto-rigged Skeletal Mesh with embedded MetaHuman DNA. The mesh is automatically downloaded and added to your Unreal Engine project in the same folder as the MetaHuman Identity Asset and has the same name as the Identity Asset, with the prefix
SK_.Auto-Rig Identity (Skeletal Mesh + Full MetaHuman): This creates an auto-rigged Skeletal Mesh with embedded MetaHuman DNA. It also creates a custom MetaHuman you can modify in MetaHuman Creator and download using Bridge.
Unreal Engine will show a confirmation dialog when the process has finished. You will then be able to see the new Skeletal Mesh in the Content Browser and, if you chose to create a MetaHuman as well, the MetaHuman will be available in MetaHuman Creator and Bridge.
You can only perform the following steps if you chose to create a MetaHuman in addition to a Skeletal Mesh.
Customize your MetaHuman in MetaHuman Creator
After the previous step completes, you can now access your MetaHuman in MetaHuman Creator, if you chose to create one.
For MetaHumans created through Mesh to MetaHuman, you will see an additional panel called Custom Mesh. Here, you can adjust the contribution of the Template Mesh’s difference from a standard MetaHuman parametrization (the delta in volume between your input and a MetaHuman, as it could otherwise be created in MetaHuman Creator alone):
Click a region on the sample MetaHuman face in this panel, then move the slider to increase or decrease MetaHuman Mesh influence.
Use the Overall Influence slider to make global adjustments.
Both of the sliders above support symmetrical adjustments, as well as individual adjustments for the left and right side.
Initially, the MetaHuman will use the same texture as the Template Mesh in Unreal Engine for the skin, and the Blend, Sculpt, and Move editing modes will be unavailable. To unlock these modes, click the Enable Editing button. You can choose to either edit your current MetaHuman, or make a duplicate.
The Mesh to MetaHuman process doesn’t automatically match the MetaHuman’s tone with the skin tone of the mesh. Use the Skin controls to choose a skin color for your MetaHuman.
This will override the Template Mesh texture.
The new skin texture may take 20-30 seconds to apply correctly. If the skin texture turns chalk white, keep moving the color picker every few seconds until it's applied. This is a known issue.
Download and Import your MetaHuman into Unreal Engine 5
Your new MetaHuman should now be available for download in Quixel Bridge. In Unreal Engine 5, open Bridge from the Main Toolbar.
Remember to sign in to Bridge with your Epic Games account, if you haven’t done so already. Once you do, you’ll be able to access your new MetaHuman in the My MetaHumans section of Bridge.
To download and export your MetaHuman, follow the guides below: