Introduction
Beginning in Unreal Engine 5.2, the MetaHuman plugin comes with MetaHuman Animator, a powerful tool that can use video footage to create a MetaHuman inside the Unreal Engine editor. In addition, MetaHuman Animator can capture a live animation performance directly inside Sequencer. You can learn more about MetaHuman Animator by reading the MetaHuman Animator documentation.
Several changes were also made to the MetaHuman assets that are exported to Unreal Engine and Maya. These changes break backwards-compatibility with previous versions of MetaHumans in order to accommodate the live capture capability of MetaHuman Animator.
These changes include:
An updated rig and Skeletal Mesh asset for the tongue.
Changes to the backward and forward solvers for the face control board within the Control Rig asset.
Changes in the way eyelashes are solved inside the face control board.
For this reason, it is important to understand how MetaHuman versioning works and how you can update any exported MetaHumans to their latest version. MetaHuman versions match specific Unreal Engine versions, and are made to work seamlessly with their associated engine versions when exported.
You can access different MetaHumans versions by going to the MetaHuman Creator portal, selecting the version from the dropdown menu, and clicking Launch MetaHuman Creator.
This guide will explain how the different versions of MetaHumans found in MetaHuman Creator relate to MetaHumans exported to Unreal Engine or Maya. We will focus on the different upgrade scenarios you will encounter as you continue to use MetaHumans in an evolving project.
How MetaHuman Versioning Works
MetaHuman Assets
MetaHumans can be defined as a collection of assets that you export to your project. MetaHumans share many common assets, such as a Control Rig and various Skeletal Meshes. These assets reside inside the MetaHumans > Common folder in your project.
MetaHumans also contain specific assets located inside the MetaHumans > [MetaHuman Name] folder. These assets include a Blueprint class and source assets specific to that MetaHuman preset.
It is important to understand how versioning works for your MetaHuman assets. If a newer version of a MetaHuman contains breaking changes to the common assets, it will break compatibility with all other MetaHumans that relied on the older version of the files.
When you access the MetaHuman Creator portal you must decide on an engine version before launching the app. This version will define the feature set available for your MetaHuman, and which version of Unreal Engine will work best for it.
If you create a MetaHuman for a specific engine version and export it to that Unreal Engine version, no further action is required. Your MetaHumans will work as expected inside the engine.
However, if you decide to upgrade your project at a later date, or decide to upgrade the MetaHumans inside your project, a series of upgrade scenarios may arise.
Relationship between MetaHumans in Creator and your Project
Your MetaHumans inside MetaHuman Creator are connected to the MetaHumans inside your project by matching the exact name given to the MetaHuman (e.g. ‘Vivian’).
The Quixel Bridge app will scan your project and find all available MetaHumans by looking at the Content > MetaHumans directory and matching the folder name and default Blueprint name inside the corresponding folder.
In this example, Vivian was found inside the project because a folder named Vivian was found inside the MetaHumans folder, along with the Blueprint BP_Vivian.
For this reason, it is recommended that you do not change the location or rename your MetaHumans after exporting them to your project. This will make it easier to upgrade your MetaHumans in the future.
Upgrade Scenarios
In the following section, we will go over the different upgrade scenarios you may encounter when working with MetaHumans.
Upgrade your Project Only
In this scenario, you upgrade your Unreal Engine project to a newer version of the Engine. Your MetaHumans will upgrade to the newest Engine version and will work as expected. However, they will not receive the upgrades from MetaHuman Creator added to newer versions of MetaHumans.
In the following example, you create MetaHumans for Unreal Engine 5.0 and export them to your Unreal Engine 5.0 project. Later on, you upgrade your project from Unreal Engine 5.0 to Unreal Engine 5.2. Your MetaHumans will be upgraded to work with the new engine version, but will keep the same features as before.
Upgrade your MetaHuman Only
In this scenario, you want to upgrade the MetaHumans inside your Unreal Engine project without upgrading the project itself to a newer engine version. This is currently not possible. The newer versions of MetaHumans only work with the matching version of Unreal Engine. For example, the version of MetaHuman for 5.2 only works with Unreal Engine 5.2 or later.
Upgrade Your Project and MetaHumans
In this scenario, you have a project on an older version of Unreal Engine with matching MetaHumans. You want to upgrade your project to a later version of the engine, and also upgrade your MetaHumans to their latest version.
Upgrade your Project
First, upgrade your project to a newer version of Unreal Engine by opening the project in the new engine version. This will upgrade your project, along with your MetaHumans.
In the following example, a project is being upgraded from Unreal Engine 5.0 to Unreal Engine 5.2. Notice that the MetaHumans inside the project keep their 5.0 version, which corresponds to the MetaHuman Creator version and is related to the available feature set.
In the Unreal Engine editor, click Window > Quixel Bridge to open the Quixel Bridge app. Click on the My MetaHumans section and notice that your MetaHumans are marked as legacy.
If you select a legacy MetaHuman, you will be unable to download it to your project. Instead, you are asked to upgrade the MetaHuman by going to MetaHuman Creator.
Upgrade your MetaHumans
Go to the MetaHuman Creator portal and select the version that matches your Unreal Engine version. Click Launch MetaHuman Creator to open the app.
In the example below, we chose Unreal Engine 5.2 since we upgraded our project to that engine version.
Go to the Legacy MetaHumans tab and click Upgrade All or Upgrade Selected to Active Version. For this example, we clicked on Upgrade All to upgrade Taro and Ada to the Unreal Engine 5.2 version.
Once you click the button, a confirmation message will appear. Click Confirm to begin the upgrade process. A copy of your legacy MetaHumans will be upgraded.
When the process is complete your MetaHumans will appear in the Current Version tab.
Return to your project and open Quixel Bridge. Go to the My MetaHumans section and confirm that your upgraded MetaHumans are now showing. Select each one of them and click Download.
You can select multiple MetaHumans inside Quixel Bridge by holding Ctrl or Shift and clicking on multiple portraits.
Wait for the MetaHumans to download. You will see a progress indicator on the top right corner of each MetaHuman portrait.
Once the MetaHumans have finished downloading, select one of your MetaHumans and click Add.
Quixel Bridge will scan your project for existing MetaHumans. If the same MetaHuman presets are found, you will be presented with the option to upgrade them to the latest version.
Quixel Bridge uses the MetaHuman name inside MetaHuman Creator to find MetaHumans inside your project. If the names do not match, or if the MetaHumans are not located inside the Content > MetaHumans directory, the MetaHumans will not be found.
Since an older version of Taro and Ada are already in the project, an Import Warning window appears with the following options:
(1) Click Update All MetaHumans in Project to upgrade all MetaHumans at the same time, or click Continue with Single Import, to only upgrade the selected MetaHuman.
(2) You can see which MetaHuman has been selected for import, and which MetaHumans (if any) should be upgraded as well.
(3) Expand the Detailed asset overwrite info section to see a detailed list of all the assets that will be upgraded.
We strongly suggest updating all MetaHumans in the project to avoid breaking backwards compatibility with older versions of the MetaHumans in your project. If you only upgrade the selected MetaHuman, the common assets will be upgraded and the older MetaHumans will not work as intended.
Click Update All MetaHumans in Project. Then, click Continue on the Quixel MetaHuman Update Dialog.
A final confirmation message will appear. Click Ok to begin the upgrade process.
Once the upgrade process is complete, click Add to begin the re-import process.
The re-import process may take several minutes to complete. After the re-import process is complete, your MetaHumans will now be upgraded.
Add an Older Version of MetaHumans to your Project
In this scenario, you have a project on an older version of Unreal Engine with matching MetaHumans. You want to upgrade your project to a later version of the engine, but want to keep the same version for your MetaHumans. In addition, you want to continue adding MetaHumans to your project after it has been upgraded.
Upgrade your Project
Upgrade your Unreal Engine project by opening it in the newer version of the engine. Keep a copy of your project in the older version of the engine.
In the following example, a project made in Unreal Engine 5.0 was upgraded to Unreal Engine 5.2. The MetaHumans were updated to work with Unreal Engine 5.2, but kept the same features as before.
Add new MetaHumans to your Project
Since your project is now in Unreal Engine 5.2, you will no longer be able to import MetaHumans for 5.0 directly via Quixel Bridge.
Follow these steps to add more MetaHumans to your project:
Go to MetaHuman Creator and select the original version of your project. In the example above, we used Unreal Engine 5.0. This matches the MetaHuman version inside your project.
Create your new MetaHuman. In this example, we used the Kristofer preset.
Open your Unreal Engine 5.0 project and import your new MetaHuman via Quixel Bridge.
Go to the My MetaHumans section and select your new MetaHuman.
Click Download to start downloading the MetaHuman to your project.
Click Add once the download is complete.
In the Content Browser, right-click the root folder for your new MetaHuman and select Migrate.
Verify that the correct files are being migrated and click Ok in the Asset Report window.
Navigate to your 5.2 project directory and select the Content folder. Click Select Folder to begin migration.
Your new MetaHuman is now updated to work in your 5.2 project.
The following example summarizes the workflow path to add legacy MetaHumans to an upgraded Unreal Engine project:
Create a MetaHuman in MetaHuman Creator that matches the original Unreal Engine version of the project.
Export your MetaHuman to the original version of the Unreal Engine project.
Migrate your MetaHuman from the original project to the upgraded project.
Optimize your Workflow
In the current workflow, Quixel Bridge compares the names of the MetaHumans in a specific MetaHuman Creator account with the names of MetaHumans in a specific project. For this reason, it is useful for the Project Manager to have all necessary MetaHumans as part of their account, for ease of update.