Stylized Metahumans in Unreal: Getting a Near-Exact Shape Match with Mesh-to-Metahuman

Mesh-to-Metahuman (M2MH) is Unreal's excellent tool for taking any face mesh and rigging it as a Metahuman face - this is really useful if you want to use facial mocap from MH Animator, or just use the FaceControl rig board inside the engine. My problem with M2MH's default output is that in order to safely fit the rig, a lot of the more stylized elements of a cartoony sculpt get rounded off (as you can see in the results at the end of Step 1).

The major insight is that by using the console command "mh.Identity.ExportMeshes 1" before you run the M2MH Identity Solve, you automatically get an extra conformed mesh that matches your target exactly, but also works for Metahuman components. You can then sculpt / wrap / edit this, and use it in a second round of M2MH (via the new 'Configure from Conformed' option) to get an exactly matched Metahuman head. Sometimes there is a need for some minor manual cleanup, which can be done via sculpting / smoothing.

Note that there is an optional step I follow where I check some of the eye movements with the paid plugin MeshMorpher from the excellent @PugLifeStudio - this is not required, its just useful. You can also use it to fix things like the eyelids using morphs and Bonesnapshots if that is your preference vs. sculpting.

Good luck, and would love to hear about results and approaches building on this workflow.

00:00 Intro
00:09 Step 1: Basic Mesh-to-Metahuman (remember to do "mh.Identity.ExportMeshes 1" first)
02:59 Step 2: Wrap conformed mesh around target mesh
04:21 Step 3: Second M2MH process using conformed mesh
06:54 Step 4: Manually cleanup any problem areas
09:20 Final Result

@UnrealEngine #metahuman #stylizedcharacter #autorigging

Music: Bitchin' Fanfare by Martin Landstrom / Epidemic Sound

[oberdoofus]

Very awesome! Look forward to seeing more!

[matiasmarek]

You, Sir, truly are Mr Incredible! Thanks for sharing Anthony! This mixed with MHuman animator sparkles my imagination with possibilities. 🔥

[sidkr]

I have no idea what most of this means but you are a great teacher so I watched the whole video. 😂

[Drakmour]

Oh damn. I didn't understand 90% of steps since I am a very beginner at using UE, but you did exactly same thing that I plan to implement in my game. I need to turn anime style character face into a methuman to use all those face expression controls to make procedural animations for different situations. Not to make every expression by hand every time, just to make certain rules and add them when I need from a in-project "library". I hope one day I'll manage to do so, I guess with Metahuman this is possible. Keep the good work! Looking forward for more videos about stylized custom stuff for metahuman!

[PugLifeStudio]

awesome job. I'd like to see this in a short movie.

[antoniogarciapalacios]

Thank you for this tutorial, its awesome!

I have a question. I'm trying to replicate this on 5.5, but on the 2nd M2MH, new SK mesh seems to loose some of the likeness again :( Any changes on your workflow for the newest versions?

[LastRally]

very exciting - how did you get the texture to look like that?

[lagonzaco]

hello! How do you change the eyes basecolormap???? THANK YOU!!!

[P_AnkitSaroha]

hello sir, conformed mesh obj not generating in my file and i'm also confused about FBX export settings for unreal i'm new to unreal please guide

[jysn]

Thanks for sharing, one Question, i'm not sure if i missed it, but my Conformed mesh is Quads, yours is tris? is this correct.. 5.3?

[omarkhtamimi]

Hello, wonderful tutorial, Can you attach this metahuman head back to a metahuman body?

[nataschafarmer]

I'm trying to use a one eyed creature, yet when i try and put it through the metahuman identity solve, it says scan failed. Can you give me any tips on getting this to work? Thanks

[MrJonathanwolff]

Hi there this is great. Am I correct in saying the only paid for element of this process is faceform Wrap. Just a newbie trying to get my head wrapped around this (pun intended)