The Facial Pose Library consists of a number of premade expressions for MetaHumans. These expressions are implemented as Control Rig poses and are added by default into the MetaHumans/Common/Common
folder if you add at least one MetaHuman to your Unreal Engine 5 project.
This page offers a step-by-step guide on how to apply a Control Rig pose from the Facial Pose Library to your MetaHuman using Sequencer.
Required Knowledge and Setup
Before you can follow the steps outlined on this page, create a new Unreal Engine 5 project based on the Third Person Template. If you need help completing this step, refer to the Creating a New Project page in the Unreal Engine 5 documentation.
This workflow requires basic knowledge of the following Unreal Engine 5 features:
Working in Sequencer
In addition, you should be familiar with the MetaHuman Facial Rig.
Workflow
This workflow consists of the following steps:
Add your MetaHuman to the Level.
Create a new Level Sequence and add your MetaHuman to it.
Access the Facial Pose Library
Select facial controls, and then apply a pose of your choice.
Add your MetaHuman to the Level
In the Content Browser, find your MetaHuman’s Blueprint. This will always be named BP_MetaHumanName
. Then, drag and drop the MetaHuman’s Blueprint into the Level.
This tutorial uses the Taro Preset, so we need to drag the BP_Taro Blueprint into the level. You can replace Taro with any MetaHuman.
Create a New Level Sequence and Add Your MetaHuman
Follow these steps:
Right-click in the Content Browser. Then, from the context menu, select Animation > Level Sequence.
Double-click the Level Sequence Asset you created. This opens the Asset in the Sequencer Editor.
In the Sequencer Editor, click the +Track button, then select Actor to Sequencer. Search for and select your MetaHuman’s Blueprint, then click to add it to the Level Sequence.
This creates separate Sequencer tracks for the Body and Face, and adds sections for their respective Control Rigs. Expanding MetaHuman_ControlRig or Face_ControlBoard_CtrlRig shows all the controls that belong to the rig.
The highlighted Asset tree contains a Skeletal Mesh (Face), the Control Rig Asset for the Skeletal Mesh (Face_ControlBoard_CtrlRig), and all the controls that are part of that Control Rig.
Access the Facial Pose Library
Next, switch Unreal Editor to Animation Mode and and access the Facial Pose Library. From the Main Toolbar’s Modes drop-down, select Animation Mode. Alternatively, use the Shift + 7 keyboard shortcut.
In the Animation panel, click the Poses button to open the Control Rig Pose panel.
Right-click an empty area of the navigation panel on the left, then select Add Existing Folder to View. In the navigation panel that opens, browse to the Content/MetaHumans/Common/common/PoseLibrary/Face
folder, then click OK.
Inside this folder, you will find both simple expressions and combinations of different facial expressions. These have intuitive names that describe what emotion is implemented by the pose, such as anger, joy, sadness, and so on.
To learn more about Animation Mode in Unreal Engine, refer to the Animation Mode page in the Unreal Engine 5 documentation.
Select Facial Controls and Apply the Pose
To apply a pose from the library, you must first select all the face controls that the pose will affect. In the Poses panel, right-click a Pose Asset. Then, from the context menu, click Select Controls. Alternatively, click the pose to select it, then click the Select Controls button in the settings panel.
This selects all controls that are parented to the Face_ControlBoard_CtrlRig Control Rig. You can see the selection in Sequencer, where the selected controls are highlighted in blue.
You can select only some face facial controls if you want the pose to affect only those parts of the face (for example, change the eyes and eyebrows, but leave the lower part of the face unchanged). To select or deselect individual controls, hold down the Ctrl key and left-click the controls you want to add or remove from the current selection.
If you want to create a key in the Sequencer timeline for this pose, enable the Key option in the settings panel, which is highlighted in the screenshot below.
With the controls still selected, in the Poses panel, right-click the Pose Asset again. Then, from the context menu, select Paste Pose. Alternatively, click the Paste Pose button in the settings panel.
Doing this will immediately change the MetaHuman’s expression in the Viewport.