The capture device determines the plugin(s) that must be enabled to use MetaHuman Animator. This page describes the plugins that are available, and how to enable them in your project.
For more information about how to enable plugins in your project, refer to the Working with Plugins page in the Unreal Engine documentation.
When enabling plugins, a warning message may appear stating "You must restart Unreal Editor for your changes to take effect." If you have enabled all the plugins you want and you are ready to restart the Unreal Editor, click Restart Now.
MetaHuman Animator Plugins
Unreal Engine ships with a number of plugins that enable MetaHuman Animator functionality. The plugin you need will depend on the device you are using to capture data, and whether you are solving in real time:
MetaHuman Live Link: This plugin is required for all real time animation use cases, regardless of the capture device.
MetaHuman Animator: The MetaHuman Animator plugin is required for all offline animation use cases, regardless of the capture device. It is also required to create a MetaHuman Identity as input for MetaHuman Creator.
MetaHuman Animator Calibration Processing: This is required to calibrate footage from a stereo camera pair.
Follow these steps to enable the relevant plugins in your Unreal Engine project:
Create or open an Unreal Engine project.
From the Unreal Editor menu bar, navigate to Edit > Plugins. This will open the Plugins window.
In this window, search for “MetaHuman.” A number of MetaHuman-related plugins should appear in the search results.
Enable the MetaHuman Live Link, MetaHuman Animator, or MetaHuman Animator Calibration Processing plugin as needed.
MetaHuman Animator Depth Processing Plugin
The MetaHuman Animator Depth Processing plugin is required to generate offline animation from depth data captured with an iPhone, or a stereo head-mounted camera (HMC). It is also required when using MetaHuman Identity assets (including Mesh to MetaHuman). This plugin is available from Fab.
Follow these steps to download, install, and enable the MetaHuman Animator Depth Processing plugin in your Unreal Engine project:
In Fab, search for the MetaHuman Animator Depth Processing plugin and click on Add to My Library from the listing.
Once downloaded, find the plugin in the Library section of the Epic Games Launcher and Install to Engine.
Create or open an Unreal Engine project.
From the Unreal Editor menu bar, navigate to Edit > Plugins. This will open the Plugins window.
In this window, search for MetaHuman Animator Depth Processing and enable the plugin.
MetaHuman Animator Markerless Motion Capture Plugin
The MetaHuman Animator Markerless Motion Capture plugin integrates Mocapade's markerless motion capture technology into MetaHuman Animator, enabling you to generate body animation from a single video source. The plugin is available as a free download from Fab.
With the plugin installed, you can process body-only animation or combined face and body animation from a single camera, using the same MetaHuman Performance asset workflow you already know. For productions where facial and body performances were captured separately, you can solve each independently and merge them in a Level Sequence.
To download, install, and enable this plugin, follow the standard process for installing Fab plugins.
Allowlist Domains
MetaHuman Animator uses cloud services for auto-rigging. If you are working in an environment with restricted internet access, you must ensure the following domains are part of your allowlist:
https://mh-uemhc-autorig-service.eeeb.live.use1a.on.epicgames.com
http://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/
