Images about realistic skin in UE5 Custom Metahuman.
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This is beyond cool.
Any chance of sharing your workflow/tools.
I am working on a custom mh for a project and i’m struggling to have it resemble my blender/facebuilder model. I’l also need to create a custom hair/groom and i’d love to know how you did the amazing facial hair/beard. I’ll need to add some stubbs myself but not as long as yours, a rough/shaved stubbs look. Probably custom textures will suffice.
Anyway, would love to hear a bit more.
Cheers
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Whatever shaver “The General” uses is very efficient and makes for a very clean shave! 
How much time would you say you’ve poured into developing this custom metahuman model and your other custom models in general? 
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If you don’t mind, I will respond to both of you at once.
As you know, this face model was created from a very primitive 3D scan, specifically from a scan of my father’s face.
It was transformed using the custom Metahuman tool to utilize the capabilities of Metahuman. Unfortunately, developing a good face rig is incredibly expensive, not to mention the animation part. So, the situation is that I don’t understand why, but the Mesh to Metahuman tool completely changes the character of the face, and it’s quite interesting that in Unreal Engine, when I align the 3D scan and the Metahuman face together, the custom MH mesh closely resembles the original. However, the moment I import it into the Metahuman editor to add textures and hair, it no longer resembles the original at all. I don’t get it. Out of six 3D scans, only one “General” face turned out to resemble the 3D scan, capturing the original facial features. I was lucky with that because I wanted my father’s face to be in the film since he wrote the basic story. For example, I also wanted to include myself in a supporting role, but the received custom Metahuman mesh doesn’t look anything like me. However, I must say that even the “General” face is not identical to the 3D scan; it resembles it, and you can recognize it, but it looks quite different in many areas, like having a stronger facial structure than if it were plumper, and you can see this additional flesh or fat layer well around the earlobes. I have some ideas about why there are discrepancies, but it’s too long to explain, and besides, I’m not skilled in this area, so I won’t delve into it now.
As unbelievable as it sounds, the facial texture is entirely composed of the textures available in Metahuman. I didn’t use any custom or external textures, so I will always be 100% compatible with the system. As for the custom hair and fur, I can’t provide much insight on that since I’m not an expert in this area. I used only the default fur, but in Unreal Engine, you have a lot of parameters to adjust the fur, so you can easily make it thinner, thicker, taper it, or make it thicker towards the ends. For example, if you want a specific stubble, you can simply reduce the length of one of the existing beards, and you’re done. However, with custom hair and fur, there’s always a chance that it won’t perfectly align with the facial skin when the face moves. By the way, I’m currently discussing this topic with a grooming artist to figure out how to achieve custom fur. As for how much time I spend on these faces, it’s hard to say since I’m constantly refining them. As I test them in Unreal Engine, I realize which direction I should take and what adjustments are needed. It may be too tedious or too serious, not funny enough, or perhaps too funny. The facial texture is one such thing. I just noticed that what I set up for the MH editor in terms of texture appears slightly lighter in Unreal Engine, less pronounced. That’s why in the Metahuman Editor, I make the skin tone slightly darker, much more contrasty, and add more skin imperfections to achieve a more realistic result in the final render. So, I can’t say how much time I spend on them. The first version usually takes 1-2 days. Then, after a short break, I notice something and my brain starts working. I keep reevaluating it, and if necessary, I override myself and start working on the new version. The “Convict” character, who is the other protagonist of my story, has already gone through 4-5 versions. The first one was similar, but it has evolved or become more refined in many aspects.
In total, I spend about 2-3 weeks on each face. The other aspect, and perhaps not much talked about, is the lighting. Even a beautiful, well-constructed face can look average or bad with poor lighting. Our skin always has a slightly oily appearance, more or less for different individuals. Especially in adults, the skin can be quite shiny. So, if the roughness on the skin is not sufficient, the light won’t reflect nicely on it or from the environment. Lately, I even slightly exaggerate the shine on the facial skin, but it looks incredibly good. So, lighting plays a significant role. Despite having lots of Global Illumination and automatic light bounces like what Lumen provides, you still need to light the scenes and locations separately, just like in a real movie shoot. It’s worth looking into how to do these on YouTube; it’s worth learning.
I know that these are very general things, and if someone expected a magic solution, they might be disappointed. Most of the time, this profession owes its success or failure to the small details. For instance, the skin and overall appearance of the character “General” took several months to develop. The first version and lighting were quite weak compared to the final result. So, I believe that this technology will improve, and custom Metahuman meshes will better represent the original faces, but for now, this is what we have. And let’s not forget that it’s incredibly great to have such a tool available for free. Huge respect to Epic and all the professionals working there!
I hope I managed to answer everything you asked, but if you have any other questions, feel free to write. I’ll help if I can.
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Hi Daniel,
Thank you for a great read.
I have to agree that i am struggling to get a closer match concerning resemblence.
I see folks on YT nailing the looks easy but as always there’s probably more to it than they share.
I for one need to nail it and i’m not yet sure how i will achieve that but it’s good to hear how you tried things as well.
Thanks again for the great reply and the best of luck to you.
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“I see folks on YT nailing the looks easy but as always there’s probably more to it than they share.”
That sounds interesting, for sure. I’ve gone through it many times, always the same way, and only with this one model did it give a similarity. I’ve watched every tutorial and official videos, doing it exactly the same way, yet I still got an incorrect result.
I can imagine that if the 3D scan resembles an existing metahuman head that is already in the database, then there will be a better chance of recognition. However, my father’s head model contradicts this because his face is quite unique with huge ears and a curved nose. I have never seen any Metahuman face like that, so it can’t resemble anything… so I can only speculate as well.
I hope that over time, this problem will be resolved, and every 3D scan can be completely transformed into MH.
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This is amazing!
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@Feeding_Wolves Thank you!
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Hey guys. I know it’s a year later but as someone who also struggled with Metahuman changing the overall look of my custom actor scans, I wanted to HIGHLY recommend MetaReforge on Artstation. This changed everything for me. I can now import my heads directly into Blender, and sculpt the head exactly over the original scan. Once finished, it has all the exporting options built in. Just thought i would drop this info here if anyone else is still struggling like I did.