Reimagining Characters with Unreal Engine's MetaHuman Creator: Elevate your films with cinema-qulity character designs and motion capture animation

Cover Page....2

Table of Contents....3

Preface....4

Part 1: Creating a Character....11

Chapter 1: Getting Started with Unreal....12

Technical requirements....12

What is Unreal?....14

What are MetaHumans?....16

Setting up Unreal and the MetaHuman Creator....16

Summary....39

Chapter 2: Creating Characters in the MetaHuman Interface....40

Technical requirements....40

Starting up Quixel Bridge....41

Editing your MetaHuman....49

Using the Move and Sculpt tools....93

Downloading and exporting your character....97

Summary....111

Part 2: Exploring Blueprints, Body Motion Capture, and Retargeting....113

Chapter 3: Diving into the MetaHuman Blueprint....114

Technical requirements....114

What are Blueprints?....114

Opening a Blueprint....116

Importing and editing skeletons....122

Summary....135

Chapter 4: Retargeting Animations....137

Technical requirements....137

What is an IK Rig?....137

Creating an IK Rig....144

Creating the IK chains....155

Creating an IK Retargeter....159

Importing more animation data....167

Summary....171

Chapter 5: Retargeting Animations with Mixamo....172

Technical requirements....172

Introducing Mixamo....173

Preparing and uploading the MetaHuman to Mixamo....177

Orienting your character in Mixamo....183

Exploring animation in Mixamo....188

Downloading the Mixamo animation....190

Importing the Mixamo animation into Unreal....192

Summary....210

Chapter 6: Adding Motion Capture with DeepMotion....212

Technical requirements....213

Introducing DeepMotion....213

Preparing our video footage....214

Uploading our video to DeepMotion....217

Exploring DeepMotion’s animation settings....221

Downloading the DeepMotion motion capture file....232

Importing the DeepMotion animation into Unreal....234

Retargeting the DeepMotion motion capture....237

Fixing position misalignment issues....245

Summary....248

Part 3: Exploring the Level Sequencer, Facial Motion Capture, and Rendering....249

Chapter 7: Using the Level Sequencer....250

Technical requirements....250

Introducing the Level Sequencer....251

Creating a Level Sequencer and importing our character Blueprint....252

Adding the retargeted animation to the character Blueprint....256

Adding and editing the Control Rig....261

Adding a camera to the Level Sequencer....267

Rendering a test animation from the Level Sequencer....272

Summary....275

Chapter 8: Using an iPhone for Facial Motion Capture....277

Technical requirements....277

Installing the Live Link Face app....278

Installing Unreal Engine plugins (including Take Recorder)....281

Connecting and configuring the Live Link Face app to Unreal Engine....286

Configuring and testing the MetaHuman Blueprint....291

Calibrating and capturing live data....294

Summary....304

Chapter 9: Using Faceware for Facial Motion Capture....305

Technical requirements....305

Installing Faceware Studio on a Windows PC....306

Installing Unreal’s Faceware plugin and the MetaHuman sample....309

Setting up a webcam and the streaming function....314

Enabling Live Link to receive Faceware data....329

Editing the MetaHuman Blueprint....330

Recording a session with a Take Recorder....332

Importing a take into the Level Sequencer....336

Baking and editing facial animation in Unreal....339

Summary....347

Chapter 10: Blending Animations and Advanced Rendering with the Level Sequencer....348

Technical requirements....348

Adding the MetaHuman Blueprint and body mocap data to the Level Sequencer....349

Adding facial mocap data to the Level Sequencer....360

Exploring advanced rendering features....363

Summary....380

Chapter 11: Using the Mesh to MetaHuman Plugin....382

Technical requirements....382

Installing the Mesh to MetaHuman plugin for Unreal Engine....383

Introducing and installing KIRI Engine on your smartphone....384

Importing your scanned mesh into Unreal Engine....400

Modifying the face mesh inside the MetaHuman Creator online tool....414

Summary....419

Index....421

Why subscribe?....436

Other Books You May Enjoy....437

Packt is searching for authors like you....440

Share your thoughts....440

Download a free PDF copy of this book....441

MetaHuman Creator (MHC) is an online, user-friendly 3D design tool for creating highly realistic digital humans that can be animated within Unreal Engine (UE) and enhanced with motion capture technology. This means that filmmakers and game developers now have access to a high quality, affordable solution that was previously only available to specialist studios.

This book will focus on using UE5 and MHC from a filmmaker angle. Firstly, you’ll understand how to use the online MHC to create a digital character, changing its facial structure, body type, and clothing. After that, you’ll learn all the necessary steps to bring the character into UE5 and set it up for animation. Then, using an iPhone and a webcam to capture face and body movements, you’ll mix these motion capture files, refine the animations using the MetaHuman Control Rig, and save these takes to be reused and edited again within the Level Sequencer. On top of that, you’ll learn how to create a rendered video file for film production using both the Level Sequencer and a VR Cinematic Camera. By the end of this book, you’ll have created your own MetaHuman character, as well as face and body motion capture data, and learned the necessary skills to give your future projects further realism and creative control.

What you will learn

• Create your own bespoke character using MHC
• Develop custom faces based on real people
• Utilize Blueprints to take control of your digital character
• Retarget animations using the Unreal Mannequin
• Use DeepMotion and Live Link for complete body and face animation
• Use the Control Rig to refine animations
• Export and render your character

Who this book is for

This book is for filmmakers and hobbyists who are planning to make a film using Unreal Engine for the first time, having worked in live action or purely digital media previously, either professionally or as a hobby. No experience with Unreal Engine is required, however it is useful to have some knowledge of 3D development applications and concepts like wireframes, skin weights, transform tools, and motion capture. It is recommended that you have access to an iPhone X (or a later model). Alternatively, you can use a free or paid version of Faceware, along with a basic webcam.