The hair and clothing tools can be used to further style the appearance of the character. Use these tools to build a wardrobe of items that can be worn as part of the character’s costume. The costume can be tailored by overriding selected attributes without affecting the original item in the wardrobe.
The wardrobe is initially populated with grooms and an outfit shipped with MetaHuman Creator as part of the additional content enabled during installation. You can add your own MetaHuman-compatible groom and outfit assets to curate your own wardrobe.
As of UE 5.6, the default +2cm offset applied to all MetaHuman characters has been removed, which means the sole of any footwear will appear beneath the ground plane. For more information, see Base Skeleton Offset Update.
MetaHuman-compatible grooms and outfits purchased on Fab can also be added to the wardrobe.
To style the appearance of your character, navigate to the Hair & Clothing tool in the ribbon menu.
Wardrobe
The wardrobe is found by navigating to the Hair & Clothing > Selection panel.
The wardrobe contains pre-defined slots for different hair and clothing items. There are hair slots for head hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, mustache, beard, and peach fuzz. The clothing slots are divided based on how the garment has been created. Clothing garments can be created either using the Chaos Outfit Asset (and added to the Cloth Outfits slot) or using a SkeletalMesh.
Eyelashes can be applied from either this section, or the Teeth and Eyelash Controls while modeling the head.
Eyelashes applied from this section are treated as separate assets and not stored in the head DNA file (created during assembly). Selecting an eyelash style in the Wardrobe will not be reflected in the
Eyelashes applied from the Teeth & Eyelash Controls while modeling the head are applied as a groom and cards, with some information also written into the head DNA file. Selecting an eyelash style in the Teeth & Eyelash Controls will be reflected in the character’s wardrobe. Materials for these card-based eyelashes can be adjusted in the Materials tool.
Wearing a Wardrobe Item
Items in the wardrobe can be worn by the character either by double-clicking the item, or selecting it and clicking the Wear button. A character can only wear a single item from each slot at a time.
A character can wear more than one clothing item in each slot at a time. To avoid this, double-click items you no longer want your character to wear.
When an item is being worn by the character it becomes part of the costume. The wardrobe thumbnail for items worn as part of the costume will be decorated with a ‘t-shirt’ icon
There may be a short delay in wearing an item for the first time while the underlying assets are prepared for use.
Wearing an outfit will cause it to automatically resize to fit the current body. It will continue to be resized automatically if further changes to the body shape are made.
Preparing Wardrobe Items
The first time an item is worn by the character it must be prepared for use. This will be done automatically when the item is worn by the character for the first time. It can also be triggered manually by selecting the item and clicking Prepare.
The wardrobe thumbnail for items that have been prepared will be decorated with a ‘tick’ icon.
Items that have been prepared can be worn more quickly to the character in future.
Prepared wardrobe items cache computed data on the MetaHuman Character asset which can cause it to become quite large. Click Unprepare to remove unwanted items from the cache to manage memory usage.
Add Your Own Wardrobe Items
Any MetaHuman-compatible groom or clothing asset can be added to the wardrobe. This is a powerful way to curate your own set of hair styles and clothing garments with which to style your character before assembly. You can add items to the library individually, or automatically by monitoring a folder.
When an item is added to the wardrobe, a MetaHuman Wardrobe Item asset will be created if it does not already exist. This asset will be created in the Content Browser alongside the item being added.
Adding Wardrobe Items Individually
In the Content Browser, navigate to the folder where you have created the hair or clothing assets(s) you wish to add to the wardrobe. Drag and drop the asset(s) into the appropriate slot in the wardrobe.
Any wardrobe items added manually will only be available for the current MetaHuman Character asset.
Monitoring a Folder
In the Project Settings, find the Wardrobe setting under the MetaHuman Character plugin. Add elements to the array for each folder that you wish to monitor.
All fields must be completed for the folder to be monitored.
Although the Content Directory to Monitor can be any folder in the current project, only specific values are allowed for Slot Name and Classes to Filter. The Class to Filter is determined by the Slot Name. The accepted combinations are shown in the table below:
| Slot Name | Classes to Filter |
|---|---|
Hair | GroomBindingAsset |
Eyebrows | GroomBindingAsset |
Eyelashes | GroomBindingAsset |
Mustaches | GroomBindingAsset |
Beards | GroomBindingAsset |
Peachfuzz | GroomBindingAsset |
Top Garment | ChaosOutfitAsset |
SkeletalMesh | SkeletalMesh |
The wardrobe items found in a monitored folder will be available in the wardrobe of any MetaHuman Character asset.
Wardrobe Item Validation
Validation rules ensure that wardrobe items worn by a MetaHuman Character meet MetaHuman standards, guaranteeing their compatibility within the MetaHuman ecosystem.
Validation can be disabled in the Project Settings, under the Wardrobe section, by disabling Enable Wardrobe Item Validation. This will skip the validation rules for any wardrobe item in the current project, which is useful for custom items that are not meant to be shared. Note that the same validation rules are always required to pass when submitting to Fab.
When a Wardrobe Item fails validation, a warning icon will be displayed, and the reason for the failure will be displayed in the Message Log. Detailed information about the failures can be found there, alongside links to the assets for ease of navigation.
In this example, a Skeletal Clothing Wardrobe Item was created using an incompatible skeleton.
When a failure is detected, the Message Log opens automatically. This behavior can be changed by enabling Suppress Message Log when Validating Items in the Project Settings.
Validation failures can then be addressed by making the required changes in the Wardrobe Item asset, or any linked asset as reported in Message Log.
Double-click on the Wardrobe Item or click the Wear button to perform the validation again. If the validation succeeds, the item will be applied and displayed in the viewport.
Validation is also performed for all applied items when the MetaHuman Character is loaded. Any item that fails validation won’t be applied.
Costume
Any items currently being worn by the character become part of the costume. The costume can be viewed in the Hair & Clothing > Details panel.
Modifying the Costume
Depending on the costume item, some attributes may be overridden to further style it for the specific character. These attributes can be set in the costume panel by expanding each item.
The attributes available for customization are determined by the MetaHuman Wardrobe asset. If the item in the costume does not expose the attribute you wish to change, you must edit the underlying asset instead.
