The MetaHuman for Maya plugin provides tools for assembling, editing, and exporting MetaHuman characters directly in Autodesk Maya, including the Character Assembler, Expression Editor, Pose Editor, and Groom Exporter. You access the plugin through Fab, install it to a compatible version of Unreal Engine through the Epic Games Launcher, and then add it to Maya. Plugins for other DCCs (such as Houdini) are also available on the plugins page. This guide assumes you are using the Fab.com website rather than the Unreal Engine Fab integration.
Prerequisites
An Epic Games account for Fab
Epic Games Launcher
Unreal Engine
Autodesk Maya 2024 - 2027
Windows-10/11 or Linux Rocky-8+
Though it should be compatible with any Linux distribution that supports GLIBC-2.28, such as Ubuntu 22.04, MetaHuman for Maya has only been tested and confirmed in Linux Rocky 8.
Install the MetaHuman for Maya Plugin
To install MetaHuman for Maya, it must be added to your Fab Library, added to a compatible Unreal Engine version in the Epic Games Launcher, and then copied into a location pointed at by the MAYA_MODULE_PATH environment variable. For more information about installing Maya modules, consult the Maya documentation.
The Epic Games Launcher is not available on Linux. If you are installing MetaHuman for Maya on Linux, follow the steps below on a Windows computer first, copying the ZIP file to the Linux computer.
Add MetaHuman for Maya to a Compatible Unreal Engine Version
Once added to your library, the MetaHuman for Maya plugin must be added to a compatible Unreal Engine version.
In the Epic Games Launcher, navigate to the Fab Library.
Find the MetaHuman for Maya entry, and click Install to Engine.
Select a compatible version of the Unreal Engine to install to.
Copy MetaHuman for Maya to MAYA_MODULE_PATH
Once installed to a compatible version of Unreal Engine, to complete the installation process the MetaHuman for Maya plugin must be copied to a location point at by the MAYA_MODULE_PATH environment variable.
If you have previously installed MetaHuman for Maya using the MSI installer, you should first remove it using the standard uninstall process for Windows.
Open Windows File Explorer and navigate to the
C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_X.X\Engine\Plugins\Marketplace\MetaHumanForMaya_X.X\Contentdirectory, for the appropriate version of Unreal Engine.Extract the contents of the
MetaHumanForMaya_X.X.zipfile.Copy the contents to a location pointed to by the
MAYA_MODULE_PATHenvironmentvariable. For example:
Windows:
C:\Users\<user>\Documents\maya\modulesLinus:
/home/<user>/maya/modules
Updating MetaHuman for Maya
If you have previously installed MetaHuman for Maya using the MSI installer, you should first remove it using the standard uninstall process for Windows.
If you have previously added MetaHuman for Maya to a compatible version of Unreal Engine in the Epic Games Launcher, it must be updated there first before you can install a new version.
In the Epic Games Launcher, navigate to the Library.
Find the appropriate Unreal Engine tile and click on Installed Plugins.
Look for the MetaHuman for Maya entry, and click Update.
Once the update is complete, follow the steps above to copy MetaHuman for Maya to a location pointed at by the MAYA_MODULE_PATH environment variable.
Enabling MetaHuman for Maya
To enable the plugin in Maya:
Start Maya.
Open the Plugin Manager from the Windows -> Setting/Preferences menu.
Find MetaHumanForMaya.py in the list of available plugins and check loaded.
Click to expand.
Untrusted Plugin Loading in Maya
If you see one or more Untrusted Plugin Loading security warnings when you open Maya, confirm that the plugin location is your MetaHuman for Maya installation folder, then click Allow. Optionally, select Apply to all plugins in this location to allow all of the plugins that MetaHuman for Maya needs to load at once.
Compatibility with Quixel Bridge Plugin
MetaHuman for Maya requires newer versions of some Maya plugins (MayaUERBFPlugin.mll and embeddedRL4.mll) that are currently provided by the Quixel Bridge Maya plugin.
Although MetaHuman for Maya will attempt to ensure that the correct version is loaded, it is possible that a conflict occurs.
As a result, it is not recommended to use the Quixel Bridge Maya plugin and MetaHuman for Maya in the same session.
Compatibility With DNA Calibration Library
MetaHuman for Maya replaces the MetaHuman DNA Calibration library. The MetaHuman DNA Calibration library is available on GitHub for MetaHuman characters created in Unreal Engine 5.5 or earlier.
MetaHuman for Maya requires newer versions of some Maya plugins that are currently provided by the DNA Calibration library. Although MetaHuman for Maya will attempt to ensure that the correct version is loaded, it is possible that a conflict occurs.
As a result, it is not recommended to use the plugins provided by the DNA Calibration library in the same session as MetaHuman for Maya.
Settings
MetaHuman for Maya will store settings in your app data folder C:/Users/<username>/AppData/Roaming/Epic Games/MetaHumanForMaya on Windows, or /home/<username>/.config/Epic Games/MetaHumanForMaya on Linux.
Uninstalling MetaHuman for Maya
If you have previously installed MetaHuman for Maya using the MSI installer, you can remove it using the standard uninstall process for Windows.
For any other version, MetaHuman for Maya can be uninstalled by deleting the MetaHumanForMaya folder and MetaHumanForMaya.mod file from the installed location on the MAYA_MODULE_PATH.
