MetaHuman

Epic's high-fidelity character system. Three components:

Tool	Purpose
MetaHuman Creator (cloud)	Author MetaHumans in browser
MetaHuman SDK	Import + manage MetaHumans in UE
MetaHuman Animator	Facial mocap from iPhone footage

Quick start

1. Sign into Epic Games
2. Open MetaHuman Creator at https://metahuman.unrealengine.com
3. Build a character
4. In Quixel Bridge inside UE → Sign in → MetaHumans tab → Download → drag to scene

Project setup

Enable:

• MetaHuman SDK
• Live Link (for face capture)
• Apple ARKit (Live Link Face source on iOS)
• Groom (for hair / fur — required for MetaHuman hair)

Tech under the hood

• Skeleton: UE5 Mannequin-derived; full body + face control rig
• Face: ~100 joints, blendshape-driven via FACS
• Hair: Groom system — strands rendered via Niagara or Hair Strands
• Skin shader: custom subsurface scattering material with profile asset

Animation

Source	How
Body	Standard skeletal anim, IK Rig retarget from UE Mannequin
Face	Live Link Face (iPhone TrueDepth) or MetaHuman Animator (iPhone footage)
Lip sync	MetaHuman Animator computes phonemes from audio

MetaHuman Animator workflow

1. Record on iPhone using the Live Link Face app — exports .mov + headcam audio
2. Import into UE — MetaHuman Animator processes:
3. Identity solve (matches your MetaHuman to the actor)
4. Performance solve (FACS curves per frame)
5. Output is a UAnimSequence driving the face rig

Performance

• High-fidelity MetaHumans are expensive — budget 3–8 ms per character at LOD0.
• Use LOD bias on the SkeletalMesh and Groom LOD for hair.
• For crowds, MetaHuman Optimizer (community plugin) reduces them to dramatic-LOD chars.

Gotchas

• The Groom system needs DX12 and a recent GPU. Mobile = no Groom.
• Lighting MetaHumans correctly requires scattering-aware lighting — Lumen handles this; baked lighting struggles.
• The face rig depends on Live Link Face's data shape — custom face mocap pipelines need conversion.

See also

• Control Rig
• UE — MetaHuman docs