Hello @ArtificerForge
Thanks for reaching out to the Epic Developer Community.
This is a known issue with attaching custom footwear or modular attachments to the MetaHumans. You are seeing this clipping occur due to a mismatch between the root transform or foot bone offsets of the default MetaHuman skeleton base and the thick sole geometry of the newly equipped footwear. As the default MetaHuman bodies are calibrated to have barefoot alignment or flat sandals, attaching shoes with elevated soles pushes the visual mesh lower than the characters’ ground plane collision capsule.
Below is a detailed breakdown of why this occurs. As there are a few possible ways to solve it directly inside the Unreal Engine depending on the pipeline you are using, I will provide three different step-by-step methods to resolve it.
Sole Thickness Discrepancy: The default MetaHuman Control Rig and Animation Blueprints position the foot_l and foot_r bones assuming a flat ground line. When high-top boots or thick-soled shoes are bound to the foot bones, the bottom of the geometry extends past the bone pivot point.
IK Rig / Control Rig Floor Planes: If IK (Inverse Kinematics) is enabled on your character blueprint (such as CR_Foot_IK), the solver traces ground collisions using the origin of the foot bone or designated IK targets. If the mesh geometry extends below those targets, the feet will clip through geometry.
Method 1: Applying a Z-Axis Offset in the Animation Blueprint (Recommended)
If you are using an existing Animation Sequence or Retargeter and you want to quickly offset the feet globally across all animations:
Open your MetaHuman Animation Blueprint:
Navigate to your MetaHuman folder in the Content Browser: Content/MetaHumans/[YourMetaHuman]/
Open the primary Animation Blueprint assigned to the Feet or Body component (typically named ABP_MetaHuman or ABP_Feet).
Access the AnimGraph:
Double-click the AnimGraph tab to view the node graph.
Add a Modify (Translation) Bone Node:
Right-click in an open area of the graph and search for Transform (Modify) Bone.
Insert this node right before the Output Pose node or right before the Component to Local transformation node.
Configure the Node Properties:
Select the Transform (Modify) Bone node and open the Details panel on the right.
Set Bone to Modify to ik_foot_root or modify foot_l / foot_r individually.
Under Translation, set Translation Mode to Add to Existing.
Set Translation Space to World Space or Component Space.
Adjust the Z value in the Translation vector (e.g., set Z to 3.0 or 5.0 cm depending on the sole thickness of your boots).
Compile and Save:
Click Compile and Save at the top left of the Animation Blueprint editor.
Method 2: Adjusting Component Z-Offset in MetaHuman Character Blueprint
Use this method if you only need to move the shoes mesh or lower body part location relative to the Capsule Collider:
Open the meta human blueprint:
Open BP_ [YourMetaHuman] in the blueprint editor.
Select the Feet component:
In the Components panel in the upper left, select the Feet Skeletal Mesh component (or Legs depending on your modular setup).
Adjust the location offset:
In the Details panel under Transform find the Location and increase the Z location value by a some units (3, 4.5 or others).
Adjust the IK offset settings:
If your character uses procedural IK floor detection, select the Feet component, scroll down to the Child Actor or Control Rig section and adjust the IK Foot Offset variable if it is exposed.
Method 3: Fixing FootIK Targets in IK Rig / Control Rig
This method is useful for advanced projects that use the full control rig IK tracing:
Open the IK rig asset:
Go to Content/MetaHumans/Common/Common/IK/ and open IK_MetaHuman
Adjust the foot target offsets:
Select the ik_foot_l and ik_foot_r goals in the scene.
Set target position offset:
In the Details panel adjust the Z-offset on the IK goal properties so that the trace origin would be at the bottom surface of the boot sole rather than the center of the foot bone.
Epic Games Official Documentation:
MetaHuman Documentation
Animation Node Reference
Video: Fixing Foot IK in Metahumans in UE5
Let me know if you run into any hurdles while adjusting these settings in your AnimBP!
