Metahuman Animator Part 2: Fixing detached floating head & rendering

🏃‍♂️🎦 Second part of the #metahuman #animator for #unrealengine 5.2 tutorial
👉 1st part here: • Troubleshooting Metahu...
French version of the 2nd part here:
• Tutoriel Metahuman Ani...
Summary:
- Combining facial performance capture with a whole metahuman body (current gen i.e. 5.2, think to upgrade your Metahumans)
- Cut/Paste workflow between control rigs
- Retargeting some animations from UE Mannequin
- Movie Render Queue / Animation export
Skip to solution:
• Metahuman Animator Par... &t=619 (10:19)
Other solutions seen elsewhere didn't make the job for me (disabling blueprint post-process, blend shapes, etc.), so i made a workaround by stitching head keyframes to the body.
Timestamps :
0:00 Introduction
0:21 Import a metahuman
0:55 Offset character pivot
1:31 Enable camera speed modification (experimental control)
2:01 Checking your previous MHP captures
2:30 Export MHP to animation with head rotation
3:20 Double-checking animation
3:39 Creating a Level Sequence
4:25 Adding face animation to the body
4:48 Problems start HERE
5:28 Add external animation
5:32 Add external starter content (3rd-person player stuff)
6:08 Retarget mannequin animation to our metahuman
7:15 Adding animation to our character
7:51 A brief explanation of the detached head issue
8:25 Bake body animation to body control rig
10:19 Bake head/MHP animation to face control rig
10:59 Replace body/neck IK keyframes by head/neck IK ones
12:51 Offset body values to correct head
14:12 Preparing for animation (camera, sequence)
15:03 Add to movie render queue & parameters
15:42 Animation result & final thoughts
We'll talk about :
#tuto #tutoriel #UE52, #metahuman #metahumans, #mocap, #,epicgames, #unrealengine #unrealengine5 , #motioncapture, #performance, #performancecapture, #controlrig, #pivot, #pivotoffset,#vtubing and so on.
Thanks for watching,
comments and questions are welcome, I'll do my best to help.
Useful Links:
- metahuman.unrealengine.com
- dev.epicgames.com
Hope it will be useful!
Enjoy animating ;)
By the way, I'm Paul, aka SUPER3, freelance Technical Art Director in France.
You can contact me for visual/technical projects at :
[e-mail]
or on freelance platform malt.fr/profile/paulpuaux 🖖

[@liammurphy3693]

Quick tip if someone got stuck on bake to control rig, Just uncheck filter asset by skeleton and it will show up.

[@aliceyuki4632]

I watched 4-6 videos on this issue, only this solution is working perfectly without any bug, thank you so much

[@super3studio]

Very pleased to hear that ! I'm still working on a more straightforward version, hope to give some news soon 😊

[@1armedScissor]

Tried 3 other tutorials to fix this problem and none of them worked. this was the first one that did. thank you for sharing.

[@operators-verse]

Clear and to the point, which most Metahuman / Unreal videos are not. Goldmine, so thanks!

[@super3studio]

Thank you so much Michael 😊

[@grit-mike]

After trying to find a solution that works - this is the only one that works for me. And now I understand the difference betweeen baking and real-time, that was key for me - thanks!

[@super3studio]

Hey Michael, glad to hear that, took me some time to get the difference too, this is why I decided to record this one. Enjoy !

[@EthanCasner]

I watched 8+ videos on this issue and exactly zero worked for me until i found this one. Thank you SO MUCH man!!!

[@super3studio]

Thanks for watching and taking time to reply Ethan ! Glad It helped you

[@AndrewMcDonald]

Great tutorial! Thank you for sharing.

[@SarbjeetSingh-zp5xy]

this tutorial helped me alot...thank you..keep up good work.

[@lilylikesherpotato3461]

great tutorial... easy to understand

[@BurningYacht]

Thanks! Great tutorial!!

[@jochmajor6925]

Best tutorials so informative!🙏🙏

[@super3studio]

Thanks a lot ! Always glad to see it may help ♥️

[@cianmcqueene5831]

Hi Paul, Really helpful video .. well presented. Thanks for the time and effort.

[@super3studio]

Thank you for taking the time too ! Much appreciated

[@tonidorotic2726]

Thanks alot, it worked !! :)

[@faxin-studio]

thank you

[@allenxiang4507]

Thx! Bro😄

[@99Bflash99]

i cant thank you enough for this great tutorial. But I faced one small problem, after correcting the offset of the head to the body (14min) it jumps straight back to the wrong offset after the animation is over.

[@zulkifilmasood8600]

I have did the same thing but the head rotation is now freeze even after body head on 1 and face head on 0

[@Tigerhearty]

nice tutorial, what iphone do you recommend for metahuman animator with a sufficient truedepth camera to capture most of facial features / animations ? is iphone X enough or 13 with it's new camera seem mandatory ? I really wish i didn't have to break the bank on buying an expensive iphone just to animate quests characters so close to christmas :/

[@super3studio]

Hi ! Thanks for appreciation 😊 not totally sure, but any model using truedepth sensors should fit. I’ve not found a clear answer, but it seems 11/11 pro is a good balance on budget and quality. Let me know, I’m interested

[@tagrandmere0782]

You can just disable head_movement when Processing in your Performance Windows (FaceCapture). The head will no longer detach

[@super3studio]

I'll give it a try 🥹

[@BrianBFS]

Can`t find any mha_head_ik_ctrl or other ik_ctrl in the baked "Face_Controlboard_CtrlRig"- Rig

[@elipeters5658]

9:40 If you can't bake to MetaHuman rig then try turning off "Filter Asset by Skeleton"

[@super3studio]

Cool ! Thanks for the precision

[@miayoung1343]

THX for sharing~ Have you tried to use large body movement animation? Because when I use large body movements, it makes me kit a lot of keyframes to the body_offset. While this solves the head, the feet don't stick to the ground🥲. What should I do?

[@super3studio]

Process is a bit different for wide body movements, I'm currently editing the movie about it, coming very soon !

[@super3studio]

Hey, new solution for moving bodies, no keyframe, but still workarounds to play with: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npDSgI2hfplqn9E . Hope it may help you :)

[@Hu-u]

Can I add an audio recording of him moving his lips automatically the same audio recording

[@krishnakukade]

Yes by selecting 'Create Lip sync animation from audio'.

[@user-fq2dl7md9j]

Thank you for your work. I do everything identically, but at 3:28 my head does not move. How do I beat this?

[@super3studio]

Hey 2 things to check imho : make another export of the head ensuring that the export head movement is correctly checked. Second option : close editor. Close the projec Rand reopen it, open the animation editor once more, it may resolve issues ! (Looks dumb but it saved me a couple of times from getting crazy )

[@psychTech321]

i am having a probllemm when adding the animation to the head in sequencer the neck rotation is there but the lips are not moving.Pls help?

[@super3studio]

Hey 👋 seems odd, have you checked in your performance everything was correctly playing back ? You may try making another anim export without head rotation to see if it does read lip sync anim ?

[@Usernamenotfound32910]

Once I bake the body to MetaHuman_ControlRig, the body stops moving :( what did I do wrong?

[@ramacharly9516]

Great my friend. Tu es français non? je reconnais l'accent. Anycase I tried others tutos, not working but yours did

[@super3studio]

French indeed i admit 😊 great to know it helped !

[@Car_Fluffy]

How fix small jittering of eyebrows/? Thanks

[@super3studio]

Jitters and small movements may happen, I did not have the case, but I think you'll have to tweak it manually, grab the lines you want to adjust, and you may reduce the scale or even assign a constant value for the whole line. I did this to correct teeth position for example, and it did the job

[@Eclectic_Chicken]

Hik, I have head tearing when playing the animation. Any idea how to fix this ?

[@super3studio]

Hi, did you try disabling post-process blueprint on head IK ?

[@krishnakukade]

This is really helpfull video than i seen on the youtube of others, but i have different problem because i using body animation from Mixamo so it doesn't have the same rig of Metahuman instead it has maniquin rig which Mixamo converter provides, what should i do?

[@super3studio]

Thanks Krishna ☺️ actually, I'm making next video longer than I expected because of large body movements, and Mixamo related issues is part of the question. Stay tuned ! 🤞 hope it's online this weekend

[@krishnakukade]

@@super3studio appreciated

[@super3studio]

Hi, here we go with moving bodies ! kzbin.info/www/bejne/npDSgI2hfplqn9E

[@user-kn2ih1hq1s]

when i try to bake the body animation animation there is no option to metahuman controlrig, anyone had the same issue???

[@super3studio]

Hey Eros, I’m trying to reproduce your error, but I do have the MH controlrig at all times. Did you check your body was correctly selected at the base level to assign the baking ? Other possibility, trying to swap with a different metahuman, delete the current and re-download it. Corrupted MH file info may be an option … good luck 🤞

[@user-kn2ih1hq1s]

@@super3studio thank you for your answer, I will try to use anothe MH and unreal 5.2 and see what happen 🙄

[@user-kf1qc3pd5r]

Hello, my metahuman body does not have mha_head_ik, only a head_ctrl why?

[@super3studio]

Hi, hard to know out of the project, but it normally cames straightforward when adding your character. Try deleting your Metahuman, add to the scene again, and track its blueprint, make sure to search for "mha_head_ik_ctrl" and "mha_head_ik_switch_ctrl"

[@Christenbach]

After following the tutorial to a tee, (several times) my head is still detached from the body. It is standing completely still in the air while the body is moving as it should. Any suggestions?

[@super3studio]

I'm so sorry for you :( Did you have your keyframes all baked? That was my most common unlucky move on the first days. Also try saving/rebooting Unreal in the middle of baking process, it saved me a couple of times . Cross my fingers for you !

[@Christenbach]

@@super3studio Yes all the keyframes are baked, also in the right position, the keyframes of the different headtracks are copy pasted, and deleted as prescribed. the weights (1 and 0) should be set correctly as well. I have followed your tutorial about 8 times, but each time with the same outcome. Well. Back at it I guess ;)

[@Christenbach]

and thank you for all the help!

[@super3studio]

@@Christenbach oh 8 Times ! So sorry for your time ! Pm me some captures if I may help, my email is on description

[@TheChrisNong]

can't find mha_head_ik controls of the body

[@super3studio]

Give it a try pasting this : mha_head_ik_ctrl

[@MMUnubi]

Does this work with real-tike animation with live-link?

[@super3studio]

Hi, no it doesn’t. MHA is another way to animate, like capturing an actor performance and playing it again later, but not for live production. But it means that the performance precision is way higher, too

[@MMUnubi]

Got it. Thank you!@@super3studio

[@jonos138]

Doesn't work for me.

[@deedyago]

A lot of sarcasm in the comments :'d

[@jmargus8834]

'promo sm'

[@zungmg2866]

spend 15 minutes to fix head detached. How crazy bugy UE, make me sick

[@a420dro]

spent 1week non stop to find acceptable solution at gameplay, blueprint driven dynamic lipsync, not in sequencer (basic talkative NPC), so far I failed to blend head and body animations.

[@AsAsAsASin]

Thank you very much for this tutorial, helped me a lot!

[@super3studio]

Thank you for watching ! Glad to hear it ♥️