I’m working on a custom MetaHuman for cinematic sequences in Unreal Engine 5.8, and I’ve encountered an issue with the Mesh to MetaHuman workflow. I would appreciate any advice from those experienced with custom facial modeling and MetaHuman.
My workflow is as follows:
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I modeled a custom face mesh in Blender and exported it as an OBJ file.
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I imported the mesh into Unreal Engine and opened a MetaHuman Identity asset.
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I used Create Components to import the face mesh, followed by Promote Frame.
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I adjusted facial landmarks, including the eyes, mouth, and nasolabial folds, using Track Markers.
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I completed the MetaHuman Identity Solve process.
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I ran Mesh to MetaHuman and transferred the resulting MetaHuman to MetaHuman Creator.
The problem is that my custom face mesh retained its intended facial shape and wrinkles throughout the Blender and MetaHuman Identity stages. However, after transferring it to MetaHuman Creator through Mesh to MetaHuman, many of the facial features and wrinkles I had carefully modeled disappeared. The final face looked much smoother and more generic than the original model.
I would like to understand whether this is expected behavior or whether I might have missed an important setting or step in the process.
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Is it normal for the facial shape and details of a custom mesh to become simplified or averaged out when transferring it to MetaHuman Creator through the Mesh to MetaHuman workflow? Could this be caused by a missing setting or an issue in my workflow?
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What is the best way to preserve the original facial proportions, shape, and sculpted details of my Blender model as accurately as possible while still using MetaHuman’s facial rigging and animation system?
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Would baking a normal map from my Blender model and applying it to the MetaHuman’s materials in Unreal Engine be a suitable approach for preserving fine details such as wrinkles and skin creases? Or would this only preserve surface details without retaining the original facial geometry?
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Alternatively, is manually adjusting the MetaHuman’s Head Sculpt and materials the only practical option for matching the original model, or are there other recommended workflows that could achieve a more accurate result?
My main goal is to preserve the distinctive facial structure and detailed features of my custom Blender model while taking advantage of MetaHuman’s facial rigging and animation system.
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions, recommended workflows, tutorials, or technical documentation that could help me achieve this in Unreal Engine 5.8.