RPG Character Customization Using MetaHumans! - DevLog #4

In this Unreal DevLog I create a character customization system using metahumans!
If you're interested in accessing the unreal project files for this prototype that I made in this video, it is now available on my patreon! Make sure to read the patreon tier carefully before subscribing!
/ drhippo
I am a solo veteran developer creating my take on the ARPG genre in Unreal Engine 5!
If you like my content and would like to support me, you can help me grow my channel by simply leaving a like and writing any comment, this will stimulate the mysterious youtube algorithm and expose my videos to more people!
Discord : / discord
0:00 Intro
0:17 Sorry Unity ❤
0:51 Diving into metahumans
2:32 Creating my own blendshapes in maya
4:13 Designing how sculpting will work
6:39 Facial expressions and posture
7:24 Showcase
8:04 Secret ending
#UnrealEngine #GameDev #Metahuman #IndieDev

[@borkor458]

Huge improvement on MetaHumans as a base. I love the random characters at the end! Awesome job.

[@DrHippo]

Thank you for the support as always 🙏

[@ollewedenmark6554]

DUDE. Your video content is off the charts man :D This is seems like the best character creator ive seen //OLLE

[@DrHippo]

Thank you!

[@DonBurgess286]

I agree... That was really amazing. This would be fire on marketplace

[@DrHippo]

Maybe one day if I ever find the time 😅

[@PandemoniumGameDev]

Long time Unity user here (7+ years). Discovered your channel today and I can say that you made me realize all the limitation that Unity has and all the possibilities that Unreal offers. I'll start learning Unreal today :D PS: Your character creator looks off the charts, I'm really interested to see how the game progresses, subbed.

[@DrHippo]

Same here (8 years I believe). Only been using UE4 for a year but used UE3 for years before Unity, so that helped a bit. Good luck on your Unreal journey! And thanks! I'll try not to disappoint 😅

[@thorburnjschwegler]

Bro this is some fire stuff like this is very impressive makes me more and more want to get into video game creation definitely saving this video 😁👍

[@HadesMrDark]

I loooove this channel, keep it up, this looks insane.

[@DrHippo]

Thank you! I'm trying my best :)

[@MattKander]

Amazing work! Your channels going to be huge :-)

[@DrHippo]

Thank you! I would not complain if that happened :D

[@truegamer2819]

this was the best video notes ive ever tooken and will help me learn the fundamental of learning how to create my own metal human character customization

[@DrHippo]

Thank you! Glad you found it useful and good luck! It's quite the mountain to climb 😅

[@Vondora]

I hate to be that guy, but I think this really deserve a tutorial either free or paid. Still, this is great work, I was brainstorming a similar idea the other day, but your current result is much more polished than anything I could achieve right now, subscribed!

[@DrHippo]

I might be working on a tutorial, but I'm taking things slowly so I don't burn out again 😅

[@Kaboomnz]

Wow, you straight up earned my sub.

[@zudma]

Amazing. Good job! Hopefully you'll release on marketpalce in the future, but regardless, good job!

[@elOmegart]

Amazing, those characters at the end really gave me the vibes of Oled vdovenko art lol, amazing job, i'm subscribing

[@DrHippo]

I'll take that as a compliment! Thank you for the sub :)

[@christiantoft]

Holy fuckknuckles!!! You upped that video production game big time!!! Awesome Maximus.

[@DrHippo]

Thank you! I'm trying my best! :D

[@notduke3976]

Thats actually amazing

[@DrHippo]

Glad you like it! :)

[@KatVolts]

Simply Incredible!

[@DrHippo]

Thank you! :D

[@aidancarter9393]

Why do you have so few subs? Your content is quality man!

[@xeniacollins9514]

Good job man. Thinking about getting a system for our project too. It's quite the task though

[@asicveg]

Amazing!

[@DrHippo]

Glad you liked it!

[@ondudengrund]

Very cool !

[@DrHippo]

Thanks!

[@xenamaianielsen1653]

Cool char. creator! like the random side-story :P

[@1nitalien]

It’s a really great job bud !!! I’m a big fan of your channel. I don’t understand a lot blender /maya … I’m an digital artist and my full job haha ! So, I don’t have a lot of time for learn correctly ! I’m waiting patiently for your app ! I stay in alert for buying it when it’s out 👀✨ thank you for all you do for us !!!!!

[@DrHippo]

Thank you for the kind words! Trouble finding time to do things is something I know all too well 😅

[@everettengineers4603]

Great editing!

[@DrHippo]

Thank you! Spending way too much time on it though 😅

[@mrseanwheeler]

I laughed at your characters.. but they look AWESOME. amazing job!

[@DrHippo]

Thank you 🙏

[@stevens3d]

Hi ! Amazing content ! How did you do for the hair to follow morph target. I have morph targets, alembic hair. How Can i do to adapt hair ?

[@DrHippo]

part 6 of my tutorial series covers this and its up within the next hour 😁

[@aliakdogan9426]

7:20 my favourite part ....including the music and edit

[@DrHippo]

Thank you :D

[@tomatoprincess4315]

Brilliant! And why do I have to laugh so hard on 3:08 😂

[@DrHippo]

Maybe you just have really good taste in "funny" animations........ 😉

[@aaronmunoz3423]

I have another question what computer desktop you use cause I wanna buy a computer but I really don’t now which one could you tell me a computer can I use for the program

[@DrHippo]

I'm really not a hardware expert what so ever. If you want to play around with all the latest tech in unreal you'll need a semi beefy pc. I am sure you can find more detail on the epic forums from people who know way more than I do about this :)

[@fancydeer2868]

I have a quick suggestion for possible combat system. You could have different fighting styles that you can discover around the world and with time, you can learn them. The more you learn about a single one, the more proficient you can get in it. You could have the player discover scrolls of combat, or if you have npcs they could know a certain style of fighting which they could teach you. Edit: love your content.

[@DrHippo]

Without going into too much detail, something similar is already planned! :) Feel free to drop by the discord and share your ideas in #suggestions, I love to hear these :D Edit: Thank you!

[@the601today5]

you should make " the wrong turn the game " with these

[@NovaaGrind]

Nice

[@nothingspeaks]

if you dont like the blending mode (thats supposed to kinda mimic DNA mixing ) you can use the sculpting tools

[@DrHippo]

I did, and those are still using real data to "sculpt" the face which still feels very restrictive imo

[@Gurem]

Btw do u plan on publishing this on the unreal marketplace?

[@DrHippo]

For the time being I don't plan on putting anything on the marketplace unfortunately, I am hoping to work on tutorials that cover things I've made in the devlogs though.

[@GOTLANDSKORV]

This is super impressive! Did you get all of those randomly generated characters from just doing blendshapes for a single base face or were there a couple of other base faces you had to do blendshapes for too off screen? Either way, extremely cool! And as you say, the different expressions really add a lot too! Oh and new channel logo, nice!

[@DrHippo]

It is indeed just one base mesh! Thanks, logo is a bit of a work in progress :D

[@astralstormgamestudios1259]

Nice! I would like to integrate this in my game! Im currently working on a finish viking multiplayer game , where I need a character customize system, Im using a metahuman. I imagine that before you hop into the server you will be prompted to create your viking, first I was thinking I will download some hair styles , faces from metahuman creator app , to be able to switch them out in runtime. Then I thought about morphtargets to be able to customize even further but then I read that it's quite har to make it work in multiplayer. What is your thoughts about this.?

[@DrHippo]

Sounds cool! Maybe just swapping heads is good enough? It really depends on the scope of your game. I would probably expect a game I would spend many hours in when I am able to change the face using morph targets where swapping heads is maybe a bit more suitable for smaller games.

[@DrHippo]

If you're interested in accessing the Unreal 5 Project files for this prototype that I made in this video, it is now available on my patreon! Make sure to read the patreon tier carefully before subscribing! www.patreon.com/DrHippo

[@zeynepgamzetopay1172]

Does Master Hippo package contain the tutorial videos for Unreal Engine 5.2?

[@gifeight]

Hi bro, please, I am desprate looking for a solution. How have handled changing facial's part color. I want to make a makeup add to my customization system and I don t know how to do it. I have just one color map for the whole head. What if I wanted to make lips a colour, cheeks another one. I am limited to changing the whole face colour at once and not individual prts. Any idea?

[@DrHippo]

I would make a new mask texture for each part that can be colored, then you tint that black and white mask by the color selected by the player, and you overlay that mask on top of the albedo texture. Hope that makes sense, otherwise you can head over to the discord channel where It's a bit easier to share a more in depth explanation.

[@andreas4959]

6:58 - Me at the rave

[@sargassospace1662]

Hey! I would like to use such plugin to create characters in my project, how to do it?

[@DrHippo]

My character creater is not available as a plugin unfortunately. You can either follow my tutorials that goes over some of these features or get access to the tutorial files on my patreon if you don't feel like building it from scratch. Note that the tutorial only covers a basic version of my own character creator, it's worth watching the beginning of the first part of the tutorial to get an idea of what you get out of the tutorial files. Hope that helps!

[@LumberingTroll]

This is what MetaHumans should have been. Was and am very disappointed that its just a web tool to bake out static characters.

[@DrHippo]

I was also a little disappointed but you can still get incredible value out of it and it's still in early access so let's see how it evolves :)

[@guilloisvincent2286]

How did you get metahuman blendshapes? can't get them in blender :/

[@DrHippo]

I made them myself from scratch, you can't export blendshapes out of metahuman.

[@guilloisvincent2286]

@@DrHippo alright thanks !

[@DrHippo]

np!

[@itsjxomusic]

I wish there was a tutorial for this! Exactly what I've been looking for to give players a complete control. Just have no idea where to start as I'm new to game design (Bhons)

[@DrHippo]

There already is a tutorial, I made one ( and still working on it ), but looks like you found that already ;)

[@RiotGearGaming]

any chance you will sell this on the ue marketplace? :D that would be a huge thing for every indie developer.

[@DrHippo]

For the moment, it only exists in my project, but I have a tutorial that covers the groundwork for this kind of system. You can also get the tutorial files from my patreon if you don't feel like making it from scratch :)

[@Drakmour666]

I wish there was such character creator tool but as a plugin for Unreal Engine 5 itself, to easily make characters that you need with sliders and not with Zbrush, it's so intuitive and feeling right to be done. And tool for all types of characters from ultrarealistic like Metahuman to anime and simpsons like with enormous eyes and face \ body features. It would be massive! I guess so many creators would buy this tool or subscribe to it. Damn. :-)

[@DrHippo]

That does sound awesome! There's a standalone tool called Character Creator 4 that is quite popular, but would be awesome to have one directly in UE5 😄

[@Xashe_]

wait. can you actually use Metahumans in games? I thought it was just for pre-rendered stuff.

[@DrHippo]

Metahumans is pretty flexible and has different levels of detail. You could probably even use it for mobile games if you really wanted.

[@gargoyled_drake]

ngl the randomized characters at the end was way more characteristic and realistic than any characters ever seen in any video game ever.

[@DrHippo]

That is mostly thanks to metahumans, but thanks nonetheless :D

[@spencil9941]

@@DrHippo Question, how did you use metahuman as a base?

[@DrHippo]

@@spencil9941 Can you be a little more specific 😅

[@aaronmunoz3423]

Um hello does this still on develop or it’s on marketplace dude and awesome work

[@DrHippo]

Thank you! It's still in development but I am completely swamped with work so I haven't had time to do a lot of progress lately :( It's not on the marketplace but you can follow my tutorial on this topic or get the tutorial files directly from my patreon.

[@MaskedIG]

I would love to see more of those facial expressions. How difficult was making the blend shapes for those characters?

[@DrHippo]

Hopefully you'll get to see more, It's not the last time I will showcase the character creator :) Pretty easy for this video. I was rushing through all of these blendshapes just to get a proof of concept up and running, you can definitely create some weird looking stuff if you pull a bunch of things to their extremes. So the final blendshapes will be more work. I will have to carefully study the human face.

[@mordicai4296]

I want this in my game!

[@DrHippo]

I have a tutorial series covering a more basic version of this :)

[@kanoeyes]

Are you going to continue to do this type of devlog???

[@DrHippo]

Yes I am! Sorry about things taking forever. Just had to finish the tutorial series I was working on, and now that it's done I can focus again on devlogs but things take time especially with a full time job I have to take of 😅

[@fabricaderender5923]

amazing good job is this on UE Market ? have link ? [

[@DrHippo]

Unfortunately not no, but I have a tutorial on this subject, and you can get the tutorial files on my patreon if you don't feel like making it yourself :)

[@darkgenix]

someone needs to make the ultimate character creator. make characters based on mathematical equations where once you make your character, no one else can ever create the exact same person within the program. your character will be locked on a blockchain and never duplicated. you can have similar characters that look like your work, but mathematically based on geo, it would never be the same char.

[@sophiacody]

you should put the finished system on the unreal marketplace, or create a step by step tutorial. please

[@DrHippo]

It's not on the marketplace but I have a tutorial, and you can get the tutorial files on my patreon - it's not as complex as I show in this video but should give a base to build upon.

[@judanetwork]

I can open this character editor in game?

[@DrHippo]

Yes it's made for players to make their characters in the game.

[@xnicktendox7501]

Do you have a UE5 plugin for this character creator? If not you definitely should. I would pay good money for this.

[@DrHippo]

The full unreal project for this character creator *prototype* is available on my patreon : www.patreon.com/DrHippo Although note that it is just a proof of concept/prototype, I am very slowly working on a more robust and flexible product version that will hopefully sell on the Unreal Marketplace one day but work on it is sporadic and even if I do complete it, it could take a while before it's ready.

[@Relentlessdiver]

Any chance of seeing this character creator in the market place? 😊

[@DrHippo]

In the distant future yes, but it requires a ton of rework for it to be marketplace worthy. In the meantime I have made the unreal project of this prototype available on my patreon if this is still of interest to you :) www.patreon.com/DrHippo

[@supremebeme]

Found you on reddit

[@guilloisvincent2286]

What's the music at the end please ? :)

[@DrHippo]

I bought it from www.storyblocks.com/ I renamed all the files so I don't actually know what the original song is called =/

[@guilloisvincent2286]

@@DrHippo allright no problem :)

[@DrHippo]

🙃

[@EstebanHC]

Hi, I don't know English but I understand something, but this is a tutorial or how? If not, could you make one, plss I need it for my game, that you create your own character :D?

[@DrHippo]

Hi there! It appears to be your lucky day :D I JUST released part 1 of a tutorial series that will cover this :)

[@EstebanHC]

@@DrHippo thanks!! :DDDD

[@DrHippo]

You're welcome! :)

[@jack-spade5647]

Time is REALLY FLY FAST... I wonder where we are today with implementing custom character creation into our games.

[@DrHippo]

Time really does fly fast! :D ..... :) ........ :| .... :( My character creator is on ice, I have many other things in the works that's higher prio sadly :(

[@jack-spade5647]

...esp if you have focused your mind on things, time is tricky like that.@@DrHippo

[@RugiadianL]

[@DrHippo]

🎄

[@alexandrepv]

They all look like... weirdly shaped carrots :D

[@DrHippo]

😂 This is mostly because of my personal taste, I'm not a big fan of the typical perfect looking faces in games and prefer the more "ugly" faces. They're just more interesting to me personally 🙂 So you could just tweak the system I made to make prettier more 'normal' faces. It's also a bit cause it's a work in progress and still has some jankyness that needs to be ironed out eventually. More importanlty, I'm worried about the carrots you eat! :P

[@alexandrepv]

@@DrHippo Hahaha, fair enough mate :) Yeah, I guess you did make the base-meshes with a certain style in mind. Perhaps it is hard to give character a trully distinct look without exacerbating a few features. Metahuman does a great job, but they all look like cousins. Btw, I've been considering creating something similar for an editor I'm making, but for anime faces instead. I was wondering if you would suggest the same approach of creating more extreme basemeshes or just using local distortion. Given that anime faces are way simples, I don't know which approach would be best. And yeah, the last carrot I bit into screamed at me :D haha

[@timsonss]

I wish you dived into how you actually scripted this system. Like at least 30 seconds or smth

[@DrHippo]

I understand, I would feel the same way. I try to keep the devlogs to be a bit less technical to hit a broader audience, that's where I'm hoping to pair the devlogs with tutorials that are closely related to my devlogs for people who are interested in the details. So a tutorial might be on its way related to this video ;)

[@dellfire8826]

Can you do a tutorial on this?

[@DrHippo]

I can! And I did! :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5StlZlrbsaFgaM&ab_channel=DrHippo

[@ktograph1138]

Interesting why MetaHuman developers didn't give more controls in sculpting.

[@DrHippo]

I'm guessing that they want to ensure that the user doesn't make something that is ugly. So it's to ensure high quality assets. I guess it's not good marketing for them if there's a bunch of messed up faces out there with the metahuman brand attached to it. But it could also just be because it's still new and they're working on it.

[@kameenavery9616]

As someone who is HORRIBLE as an Artist in any fashion, I would GLADLY pay for something like this to be on the Marketplace. Or Pay you directly for the finished system.

[@DrHippo]

Unfortunately I don't plan to put anything on the marketplace, but a tutorial might be in the works :P

[@98999j]

I would love a tutorial on how to make this kind of system in unity - LOL preferably for a sloped brain noob like myself

[@DrHippo]

Probably unlikely that I will start doing Unity tutorials sorry :( I don't know if my unreal tutorial could give you clues, otherwise I'm sure a Unity equivilant of the tutorial probably exists already :D

[@Gurem]

Kinks. Nah fam that's a feature. Take it from me. That should be a standalone character creator so u can use that if you're going for a casual game. Would make a survival game like valhiem so fun to play on top of how fun it already is.

[@DrHippo]

I will remember to mention it as a feature in the marketing :P

[@nyzadayz99]

Weird request but could you create me as a metahuman character please? I'd love to play myself in a game

[@DrHippo]

If you just want to play around with metahumans, you can already do that by applying for early access here : www.unrealengine.com/en-US/metahuman-creator

[@thatonefoxxy]

I want this :(

[@DrHippo]

I am slowly working on re-creating this system in a proper package for unreal marketplace so hopefully you'll still be interested by the time I'm done with that 😅

[@thatonefoxxy]

@@DrHippo just checking back rn, how's it going so far?

[@sleepdeprived6565]

We need a full tutorial for this

[@DrHippo]

I'm already making one :) You can watch the first 4 parts on my channel ;) Part 5 and 6 coming soon :D

[@sleepdeprived6565]

@@DrHippo oh, thank you

[@zeynepgamzetopay1172]

Is there a full tutorial for 5.2 version of Unreal Engine

[@DrHippo]

To my knowledge there is no difference for 5.2. But let me know if you encounter issues

[@kennethhoffmann400]

bruv can you just make a character creation system and put it on the market place? Id pay mad money to not have to touch maya

[@DrHippo]

I'm working on a proper fleshed out version of it for marketplace but it's gonna be a while before that's ready, in the meantime I have made the unreal project available for this prototype on my patreon : www.patreon.com/DrHippo

[@kennethhoffmann400]

Your a god. Cant wait to buy it. You could charge whatever you wanted, its like one of the highest demanded items I imagine.@@DrHippo

[@IM4HF1R1N6M4HL4Z0R]

bro plz make a tutorial

[@DrHippo]

Who says I'm not working on one 😉

[@IM4HF1R1N6M4HL4Z0R]

@@DrHippo that would be huge!!!

[@DrHippo]

And I actually finished that tutorial yaaay :D

[@IM4HF1R1N6M4HL4Z0R]

@@DrHippo you are great! keep up the good work!!

[@Madd_Jack]

Metahumans by Balenciaga

[@ashanarchy7255]

Shut up and take my money!

[@DrHippo]

Gladly 😂 But seriously, thank you :)

[@markecgazda3880]

Its to bad and sad that this video has no more views

[@DrHippo]

It takes time to grow a youtube channel and I'm relatively new and I only have a few videos =( Hopefully within the next year this will look different 🙏 Thank you for the motivational comment though!

[@markecgazda3880]

@@DrHippo well said, your video made me to make good comment and to give like keep doing it 🙂

[@DrHippo]

I'm trying! Hard to find time though :(

[@badger_bub]

Explained how nothing works

[@DrHippo]

I understand if that's a turn off, a lot of other devlog creators get more into the technical details but that's just not the kind of content I wanna make, sorry :(

[@badger_bub]

@@DrHippo well, I'm not motivated enough to make tutorials either. So I guess we're both guilty of the same sins.