MetaHuman Identity — Empty viewport and red/inactive playback bar when using "From Footage" option (UE 5.8)

Development Character & Animation
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1

Hi everyone,

I am trying to use the MetaHuman Identity capture workflow from footage recorded with the Live Link Face app on iPhone, but I am running into an issue and hoping someone has encountered this before.

Environment:

  • Unreal Engine: 5.8
  • Live Link Hub: 5.8
  • Live Link Face app: iPhone (latest available version)
  • OS: Windows 11

Description of the issue:
When attempting to create a new MetaHuman Identity asset using the From Footage workflow, the video viewport inside the MetaHuman Identity Editor remains completely empty and the playback bar is red and inactive — the footage does not load or play.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Record facial performance footage using the Live Link Face app on iPhone.
  2. Transfer and process the footage through Live Link Hub 5.8 — this step completes successfully.
  3. A capture folder is automatically created inside the Unreal Engine project Content Browser — this also appears correct.
  4. Open MetaHuman Identity Editor → create a new Identity asset → select From Footage.
  5. Select the capture folder/footage from the Content Browser.
  6. Result: The video viewport is empty, the playback scrubber is red and non-interactive — footage does not display or play.

Expected result:
The recorded footage should appear in the MetaHuman Identity viewport, allowing facial tracking and identity solving to proceed.

What has been tested:

  • Multiple video lengths and quality settings recorded via Live Link Face app on iPhone
  • The capture folder is created successfully by Live Link Hub — the issue occurs specifically inside the MetaHuman Identity Editor
  • The workflow matches official tutorial videos and documentation steps exactly

Additional notes:
I have watched multiple official and community tutorial videos where this workflow functions correctly. All steps have been followed as documented. The issue appears to be either a compatibility problem in UE 5.8, a video codec/format issue introduced by the Live Link Face app, or a bug in how the MetaHuman Identity Editor reads the capture asset.

Any guidance or workaround would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

2

Hi @Gen_loc,

Thanks for the detailed report, we’re sorry to hear that you’re having issues.

Could you please perform the reproduction steps once again and then pass on the full contents of the ‘Output Log’ from within the editor? If you would prefer to send this via a direct message, then please contact me directly.

In addition, could you also provide the following information from the iOS app:

  1. The app version (available in Settings → About) used to record the footage.
  2. The configured capture mode (is it MetaHuman Animator or ARKit?)
  3. The encoding settings used with the Live Link Face iOS app, specifically:
    1. Video Codec
    2. Video Quality

One thing to double check is that the iOS application is configured to use the ‘MetaHuman Animator’ mode. Footage recorded using the ‘ARKit’ mode can be transferred to UE via Live Link Hub, but can’t be used for the MetaHuman Animator workflow (including creating an identity).

I managed to re-create your issue by trying to use an ARKit take in the identity editor. In my Output Log this produces the following error:

LogMetaHumanIdentity: Error: Footage Capture Data asset doesn't contain valid data: 'Capture Data doesn't contain depth sequences'

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