In this tutorial, Senior Technical Product Manager Raffaele Fragapane takes you through the process of turning your own custom scan, sculpt, or model into a MetaHuman using the Mesh to MetaHuman feature in the new MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine.
He also covers further refining your MetaHuman in MetaHuman Creator.
How to use Mesh to MetaHuman?
The MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine delivers its first major feature, Mesh to MetaHuman, which enables artists to turn their scan, sculpt, or model into a fully rigged MetaHuman in minutes.
Download Mesh to MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine 5
With the free MetaHuman plugin for Unreal Engine, you will be able to convert 3D scans of your faces or modeled by yourself into the rigged and setup-ready facial model in MetaHuman.
The new MetaHuman for Unreal Engine plug-in, specifically its Mesh to MetaHuman system, allows you to create MetaHuman based on 3D scans or facial models created in other DCC apps.
The plug-in uses automatic landmark tracking to adapt the MetaHuman facial topology model to the imported mesh, sends it to the cloud, where it is paired with a MetaHuman.
Your 3d mesh is adapted and used for the character’s facial rig, where you can apply a body suit, ready for use in Unreal Engine 5.
Facial meshes can be imported into OBJ in FBX format and require an albedo texture or separate materials for the skin and sclera of the eyes and uniform frontal lighting.
The process works with both skeletal and static meshes, including practically raw scan data – as you can see from the video above, you can even import meshes with holes, as long as they are multiple surfaces.
You can find more details in the online documentation – the process takes some manual input, but it’s largely automated and looks pretty straightforward.