The MetaHuman Plugin provides ways to create custom MetaHumans without using a MetaHuman Preset or MetaHuman Creator.
With this plugin, you can create MetaHumans from:
A 3D character mesh.
Facial footage captured with a TrueDepth camera on an iPhone or iPad, or a stereo head-mounted camera (HMC).
This page provides an overview of the MetaHuman for Unreal Engine plugin. For detailed information, refer to the other pages in this section.
Downloading the MetaHuman Plugin
To use the MetaHuman plugin in Unreal Engine, you must first download it from Fab, install it to the version of Unreal Engine you’re using, and enable it.
For more information about how to do this, refer to the Working with Plugins page in the Unreal Engine documentation.
Key Concepts
The MetaHuman plugin uses the following essential concepts:
Term | Description |
---|---|
Character mesh | The Static Mesh or Skeletal Mesh used to create a MetaHuman with Mesh to MetaHuman. This can be in FBX or OBJ format. |
Promoting a frame | Taking a 2D snapshot of the Viewport in the MetaHuman Identity Asset Editor. This frame is tracked (refer to Tracker, below). The resulting image is called a Promoted Frame. |
Neutral Pose | A reference to the mesh representing the face's neutral facial expression. |
Tracker | A process that tracks markers onto facial features on the Neutral Pose. |
Marker | A collection of sequential points on a curve that tracks specific facial features. Markers have control points that you can drag to adjust. |
Identity Solve | The process of fitting the Template Mesh topology onto the target mesh volume. This process happens locally. |
MetaHuman Backend | The cloud service that creates a MetaHuman based on the Template Mesh. |
Template Mesh | The Template Mesh exists inside the MetaHuman Identity Asset. It is a standard topology head that can be fitted onto any appropriate target. |
Privacy Notice
Your scan data, or whatever input you use, is never uploaded to the MetaHuman backend service. It's only ever stored locally on your machine and is not ever made available to Epic Games. The generated mesh data (based on the scan) is discarded once the MetaHuman version of your character has been created and is not stored on our end.
The generated MetaHuman only uses the geometry of the scan data. We do not upload any textures or any other visual information, and so the character generated is not a "true" likeness of the scan. Without their hair or skin texture, they can look significantly different.
Likewise, we don't capture any metadata about the scan or anything as part of the creation process. Once you've created the MetaHuman, you have full control over and are able to delete them, and we do not keep any backups of that character. The data is not used in our database or made available to anyone other than the holder of the account that performed the Mesh to MetaHuman operation.
To tie this back to the EULA, the MHC EULA states that you retain all rights to the data you upload ("You and your licensors own all title, ownership rights, and intellectual property rights in the UGC you upload to MetaHuman Creator") and that we use such data to allow you (and not other clients) to use MHC ("You hereby grant to Epic a non-exclusive, fully-paid, royalty-free, and revocable license to use the UGC to enable your use of MetaHuman Creator with your UGC").
We do not perform facial recognition.
Hardware and Device Requirements
Hardware and device requirements for the MetaHuman plugin in Unreal Engine 5.
Recommended Unreal Engine Project Settings
These are the recommended project settings for using MetaHuman in Unreal Engine
Stereo Camera Calibration and Tools
This guide will take you through the steps necessary to take captured data from a Head Mounted Stereo Camera Couple, and prepare it for processing with the MetaHuman for Unreal Engine plugin.
Assets
List of the core Assets used by the MetaHuman for Unreal Engine plugin.
Facial Performance Capture Guidelines
This page describes guidelines and best practices for capturing performance video to be used as the input to MetaHuman Animator (MHA).
Importing and Ingesting Content
Bring meshes and footage into the Mesh to MetaHuman pipeline.
Mesh to MetaHuman for Unreal Engine
Create a MetaHuman by using the MetaHuman Plugin in Unreal Engine.
Audio Driven Animation for MetaHuman
Learn how to process audio into realistic facial animations for your MetaHuman.
Optimized MetaHuman in Unreal Engine
Learn how to optimize your MetaHuman for Unreal Engine 5.