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MetaHuman

High-fidelity digital humans made easy

MetaHuman is a complete framework that gives any creator the power to use highly realistic human characters in any way imaginable.

It includes MetaHuman Creator, a free cloud-based app that enables you to create fully rigged photorealistic digital humans in minutes. 

01

Overview

Meet some of the real humans behind the MetaHumans

 
The MetaHuman framework has been decades in the making. Companies like 3Lateral and Cubic Motion have been pushing the limits of digital human creation for years. Now, as part of Epic Games, they've been able to push the technology even further—and make it happen in real time. Most importantly, they've made it accessible to everyone.
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Features

Key features

Easy and fun

MetaHuman Creator is so easy to use, you may not even need to open the user guide! Simply select a starting point from the diverse range in the database, choose several more to contribute to your MetaHuman, and blend between them. Then, refine your character with sculpting tools and control guides, just by dragging on the asset.

Physically plausible

MetaHuman Creator derives its data from real-world scans and your adjustments are constrained to fit within the limits of the examples in its database, so it’s simple to make physically plausible MetaHumans. Other factors, such as the carefully selected range of skin tones and hair colors, also help ensure accuracy.

Hugely variable

With near-infinite variations of facial features and skin complexions, plus an array of different choices for hair, eyes, make-up, and teeth, you can create a huge variety of faces for your projects. Pick the body type you want for your character and dress them with different clothing sets in the tool—soon, you’ll have the perfect MetaHuman.

Real-time ready

MetaHumans can run in real time on high-end PCs with RTX graphics cards, even at their highest quality with strand-based hair and ray tracing enabled. Assets come with eight LODs, some of which employ hair cards, enabling you to achieve real-time performance on everything from Android to XSX and PS5.

Rigged for animation

MetaHumans come with a full facial and body rig, ready to animate in Unreal Engine, either keyed, or using a performance capture solution like our own Live Link Face iOS app. There's also support in the works from the vendors of ARKit, DI4D, Digital Domain, Dynamixyz, Faceware, JALI, Speech Graphics, and Cubic Motion solutions.

Source data included

When you're happy with your MetaHuman, you can download it via the free Quixel Bridge application, which is now integrated into UE5. You'll also get the source data in the form of an Autodesk Maya file, including meshes, skeleton, facial rig, animation controls, and materials, so you can further edit and refine your MetaHuman to your heart's content.

Mesh to MetaHuman

The MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine includes Mesh to MetaHuman, an exciting feature that enables you to turn a custom mesh created by scanning, sculpting, or traditional modeling into a fully rigged MetaHuman. You can then further refine your character in MetaHuman Creator.  Check out the tutorial section to learn how!

Dozens of ready-made MetaHumans at your fingertips

Just want to play with some high-fidelity characters in Unreal Engine? You can download any of our diverse selection of premade, fully rigged MetaHumans directly from Quixel Bridge, which is now integrated into UE5. If you're still using UE4, you can download the standalone Bridge application for free.
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What's new

New MetaHuman release brings easier sharing and DNA calibration

The latest MetaHuman release includes the ability to more easily share, collaborate, and iterate on characters, together with a new resource that enables you to edit various aspects of the MetaHuman DNA file for customization and/or pipeline integration.

Want to be the first to know about the latest developments?

Sign up below and we’ll send you every article we post, event we organize, and announcement we make regarding digital humans and the MetaHuman project.
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Tutorials

MetaHuman Performance and Scalability Settings

Here, Lead Technical Animator Chris Evans shows you how to get the best performance out of your MetaHumans in Unreal Engine by using the included LODs, switching from strand-based hair to hair cards, disabling ray tracing, and more.

Using the MetaHuman Facial Rig in Unreal Engine

Technical Animator Adam Walton takes you through using every control in the facial rig included with MetaHumans in Unreal Engine, explaining which ones work well together and which should be considered mutually exclusive. 

Animating MetaHumans with Control Rig in Unreal Engine

Senior Technical Animator Riham Toulan shows you how to animate a MetaHuman with Control Rig in Sequencer. These techniques can be applied to animating any asset rigged with Control Rig.

Making Realistic Digital Humans with MetaHuman Creator

Join Art Director Alexsandar Popov and Concept Artist Aleksa Bračić as they take you through the MetaHuman Creator interface, and demonstrate how to create your own unique plausible digital humans.  

Using Mesh to MetaHuman in Unreal Engine

Senior Technical Product Manager Raffaele Fragapane takes you through the process of turning your scan, sculpt, or model into a MetaHuman in Unreal Engine. He also covers further refining your MetaHuman in MetaHuman Creator.

Scan yourself for Mesh to MetaHuman with RealityCapture

In this tutorial, Capturing Reality Product Specialist Wallace Wainhouse shows you how to take the first steps towards turning yourself (or someone else) into a fully rigged MetaHuman, with no expensive setup required.
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Resources

Need help, advice, or inspiration?

Documentation

Learn the ropes

Find all the info you need on creating your MetaHumans and using them with Quixel Bridge, Autodesk Maya, and Unreal Engine in the documentation.

Frequently asked questions

MetaHuman Creator

MetaHuman Creator is free to use in your Unreal Engine projects. This means that MetaHuman assets must be rendered with Unreal Engine.
You will need a Windows or macOS computer with internet access and a Chrome, Edge (Chromium), Firefox, or Safari web browser. You will also need an Epic Games account. To download your MetaHumans, you will need to use Quixel Bridge, which is now integrated into Unreal Engine 5. If you're still using UE4, download the free standalone Bridge application.
MetaHumans require Unreal Engine 4.26.2 or later. We recommend using Unreal Engine 5, where you can use them in conjunction with new animation, rigging, and ragdoll physics features.
MetaHuman source assets can be downloaded for animating in Autodesk Maya. However, you cannot publish MetaHumans as final content unless rendered with Unreal Engine. 
Characters generated in MetaHuman Creator, including those in the sample project, are licensed for use in Unreal Engine projects. This means that you must render MetaHumans with Unreal Engine; you cannot render them outside of Unreal Engine.

MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine

The first major feature of the new MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine, Mesh to MetaHuman, enables you to take your own custom facial mesh and convert it into a MetaHuman, fully rigged and ready to animate. You can even further refine your character in MetaHuman Creator. 
The MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine requires UE5.
You can download the MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine here.