The String-Based Facial Animation system allows you to create and store facial animations that are so small in file size, they practically do not exist by today's standards. To put it into perspective, 11.6 hours of Facial Animation fits into 1MB. Not only that, but the core operating files of this animation system consume only ~2.2 MB of disk space. The system is extremely friendly to any projects with a small storage space budget.
This system is especially well-suited for developers who are working with extremely non-human characters, where the standard MetaHuman workflow would be awkward, or even create hinderances.
In addition to handling the speech events, the Actor Component (the center of the system) handles natural blinking and eye movements, as well as seamlessly switching the eyeballs to look at and focus on a user-specified location in World Space.
Almost everyone agrees: Gameplay > Graphics. So if you're working on a project where you feel you can sacrifice some of that Ultra-High MetaHuman Realism, in exchange for some Ultra-High Efficiency, this might be the system for you.
I will provide a disclaimer that this system is not intended to create your skeletal meshes or your animations for you. You will still have to put in the effort to create your meshes with Morph Targets (Also called Shape Keys, in Blender), as well as your resulting string tracks. However, I have provided extensive instructions in all of the blueprints to help the user better understand the system. With enough practice, a single facial animation can be made in about 5 minutes, depending on your level of skill and the duration of the animation.