Is MetaHuman 5.6 Body Conform feature broken in the public release?

peter_schon · June 16, 2025, 9:23am

Hey, not sure if you’ve seen it, but there’s a free add-on you can use for vertex order. I haven’t tested it, but it should work.

github.com/hannesdelbeke/blender-transfer-vertex-order-addon

transfer_vertex_order.py

main

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bl_info = {
    "name": "Transfer Vert Order",

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But there are more issues here. As Mysfit said, something happens to the FBX during export — it corrupts the file and reshuffles the whole vertex order.

There is also one major problem with skinning (if you do get it to work): it distorts the joints, such as the wrists, knees, and legs, especially for bulky characters.

Here is something interesting: in the editor, it indicates that the actual size of the wrist is greater than the default value. Therefore, if the joints are set to the maximum value (as defined by the editor), and the conformed costume mesh skinning is smaller than the actual mesh, it leads to these deformations. This is likely because the deformation feature does not appear to support larger, wider, or more bulky characters. The system seems to interpret its own highest value as a limit—if you exceed that value, it simply applies the maximum setting rather than accommodating the actual required size.

Karlifetz · June 18, 2025, 9:47pm

I tried it with @Dog_OW 's body and face. Body works fine after ZWrapping but how come people are getting the head to work? Even I load in the default provided file, it just doesn’t conform because the Topology is off. Am I going crazy? Probably.

Is it giving this error because not LEye REye and Teeth Mesh is imported with it?

peter_schon · June 20, 2025, 5:46am

No, they work — you don’t want a mesh that includes eyes when deforming (the wrap only needs a head and body, or a combined base mesh if you want a perfect fit). You are going to have to separate your wrapped mesh after. But it is a messy pipeline. I’ve never gotten a mesh I export out working as a deform mesh — they all break regardless of what I do, but the two linked meshes work for some reason. there are a few thing you need to after the wrap, If you don’t fix the vertex order on , everything breaks. There is also a big problem with skinning for bulky characters ( im hoping epic can adress that) . Double-check that nothing was added — it needs the same UV, same polygon count, same vertex order. If you messed up the eyes, the problem is where your loops are After the wrap, smooth out edge loops around the eyes just in case you have stacked polygons. That would also deform the eye socket

When you place the markets this one works pretty good.

Karlifetz · June 20, 2025, 3:00pm

Then I think I am just missing something.

I used @kantemrati & @Navi_srivamsi linked meshes for the head replacement. One on the drive (kante’s), one the gumroad (navi’s). Neither work. No matter how I import them, I cant believe I am this dense because people are obviously getting it to work.

When I import @kantemrati 's quad head meshe into unreal - it imports as three groups or if I combine the static meshes on import it imports everything. Neither shell works in the head conform. → Topology error.

When I import @Navi_srivamsi 's linked mesh on Gumroad and seperate the head shell from all the other Objects (Eyes, Mouth etc.) I can conform it but I get the vertex explosion again.

Here’s my issue explained in image form.

Does anyone know where I can find a working headmesh? I can’t use the export DCC Mesh Option because I do not own Maya. Sorry if I have misread something in here but I just can’t seem to figure it out. I would love to finally get a decent workflow going but I just can’t seem to figure it out.

peter_schon · June 21, 2025, 4:35am

Hey, I was linked in this thread. Look up
Yes, the topology error happens after a wrap. You need to copy over the vertex order — that was also linked here.
I posted the add-on link (if you are using Blender).

Karlifetz · June 21, 2025, 9:18pm

It even happens without a Wrap on the default Mesh for the Head. And that is my issue. I cant copy a vertex order from a default mesh to a wrapped mesh if the default mesh isn’t being accepted by UE in the first place. I have looked at everything in and I am just flabbergasted as to what I am doing wrong. I’ve tried everything in here that doesnt involve Maya.

I will follow the blender tutorial again just to make sure I didn’t do anything wrong with the provided default meshes but as I said, I wasnt even able to conform with no changes made to it.

edwardVanLu · July 8, 2025, 1:24pm

When I export in engine Creator, and directly use them to coform, only the body can work.

If you export fbx from the file from Creator, then import them back, nothing can work.
Seems the body mesh is splited by UV, so the vertex can’t be right, and my transfer vertex order always crashed on my metahuman test.
Besides, all meshes are triangled mesh.

Best way I found is use a get the source file from Bridge or web Creator. Usually, it’s a maya file.

By the way, strongly suggest that Unreal can offer an officially free download base mesh with source file.

In the maya file, you will get a full body with head, and a body no head, but no head only mesh, and no eyes and teeth in it.
I’m much familiar with 3ds max, so I send to Max for further edit. Keep skin, or collapse it, don’t delete. Use the full body mesh, select the body part by UV, directly delete body mesh to get head mesh.

Now you get perfect head and body. Export FBX, import back to UE, all work good.
Then you can wrap the mesh to your customized one, remember better to keep the pose, and stick vertex by vertex on the open border.

You still need eyes and teeth. I get them from JonCG’s example project on his patron. Fortunately, quadify the mesh won’t break them.

Finally I set in ‘only mesh’ when conform body, and set ‘none’ and uncheck ‘adapt neck’ for head conform.

peter_schon · July 8, 2025, 7:39pm

I also noticed something — if you sculpt your mesh and the pose is off, when you do a conform on your handmade mesh, the wrapped geometry will twist slightly. This results in very bad skinning for the model.

What I do is sculpt whatever creature I want, then I quickly rig it in Blender to match the correct Metahuman pose.i will then fonform that mesh. That gives me a pretty solid mesh without major deformation. in the joints refguardless body type. yu can do pretty much any form you like.

im in dwarf of orc land atm

hey edward i was that video was that your upload m8?

edwardVanLu · July 9, 2025, 5:29am

Nope, it’s a tutorial I found while learning. It gives me the final piece to complete the whole base mesh.
The pose is really really important. To fix it, I made a rig in Metahuman Creator, and export the skeleton, then fit my mesh to the pose. Not a good pipeline, but it’s a stright ball to fix the issue when you already had something.

tekano · July 17, 2025, 7:56am

ok so this is the closest thread on the planet currently - Custom conformed metahuman inside of unreal engine 5.6 seems to work with the head mesh. OK great so now I want to do variations - Export the head > do so mods > use as morph target for custom variation

BUT simply exporting the FBX head or skm_face in unreal and reimporting EXACTLY the same fbx file as a morph target then it errors - Failed to import Morph target - Warning: FInterchangeMeshUtilities::ImportMorphTarget: Cannot import morph targets, the imported morph target geometry don’t match target skeletal mesh geometry topology. (LOD in 0)
so indeed yes - metahuman is currently BROKE for FBX export - interestingly enough I can import the .DNA file as a morph target - that works! wtf? the dna is exported from the creator when in assembly DCC export mode. but obviously I need to do something for the variations in a DCC but im using Houdini , not Maya or Blender

AND. apparently in the metahuman SDK there is cmd tool called DNA2FBX …! this is the missing sauce no? WHY oh WHY is this sdk not available as a developer? apparently I have to beg for permission to access this? come on Epic

virtual_pancakes · July 17, 2025, 2:34pm