Tutorial: Attach Metahuman head to different body in Unreal (method 2) and remove neck and shoulders

[@sayanmonk6]

For anyone that got stuck finding the M_head after the metahuman update, its been relocated at Metahumans/Common/Face/Materials/Baked and it should be M_Head_Baked. It worked for me afterwards

[@Nodia]

Thanks, bro!

[@AnimazeOdyssey]

I’m sticker at the parent socket nothing is coming up 03:00

[@mrjablicko9140]

Thanks, really helped me. Even two years after you posted this video.

[@Monoville]

You're welcome!

[@Monoville]

Stuff I forgot to mention: to animate the metahuman head, do +track>(name of metahuman)_FaceMesh in the level sequence, delete face control rig and find animations via track>animation from the facemesh section that is now there. Also, whenever you add an object to the character blueprint, make sure it's attached to something via the Socket>Parent Socket section on the right in the blueprint window (eg: left forearm of skeletal mesh, or jaw root of Metahuman head, etc) or it won't move along with whatever animation you have. So if say you want to put a hat on the blueprint character, attach it to the Metahuman head, then attach it via parent socket to FACIAL_C_FacialRoot

[@lukebicevskis4980]

Awesome tute. thanks. Any way to use the face control rig? If I try and key any face animations by hand, they work fine previewing but at render time the face just goes blank :|

[@قصصوحكايات-خ4ل]

can we use the same method to hide some body parts ?

[@Monoville]

@@قصصوحكايات-خ4ل the opacity mask method? Sure, yep.

[@قصصوحكايات-خ4ل]

@@Monoville can you make video plz i want to hide some part of the body like torso and i want to keep the arms

[@Monoville]

@@قصصوحكايات-خ4ل will make a video at some point soon!

[@RobertManzanilla]

In UE5.03, I found this mask error "sampling a virtual texture is not allowed" This fixed it for me... @ 0:58 in the video, the mask png is imported and the dragged into the event graph. It was labeled as a virtual texture and not working. Try converting to a 'regular texture' and then dragging into the graph - and proceeding with the tutorial.

[@ScottBarrettihq]

I got no such warning - it just didn't work and the material changed to look like the world material. right click on the 'VT' image and convert to regular texture did it!

[@tcrproductions7508]

Thank you!! Converting to regular texture worked for me and everything looks great now.

[@whyareless]

You're a legend brother

[@honerablemention4550]

Sheesh, thank you.

[@cgxlv]

@@ScottBarrettihq Cheers buddy. I was stuck on that too and it fixed it for me.

[@williamreid74]

Ok so, your little details in this are AWESOME!!! Wish all tuts were like yours

[@Monoville]

Thank you!

[@williamreid74]

@@Monoville I know your previous video you put the head on CC3 body AFTER the body animation. But now this way animation/mocap of head and body are together at beginning, making facial gestures together with body movements complement each other. :)

[@Monoville]

Yeah definitely works better this way a lot of the time, unless specific head movements are needed!

[@Sky-hl8iw]

this is a pro methods of teaching a workflow! simple fast efficient

[@virtual_intel]

Stunning results in your final render love it 👍🏽

[@Monoville]

Thank you!

[@virtual_intel]

@@Monoville You’re welcome

[@beyondcinema]

You're a life saver! Thank you for the opacity mask tip!!

[@Monoville]

You're welcome!

[@metushelach8]

Thank you, it is possible to match the head to a body mesh using the technique you've shown - Very Nice !

[@Monoville]

You're welcome!

[@jakecolefilms]

For those having a hard time attaching to a socket you have to parent the face mesh to the piece of armor or clothing you are attaching it to

[@SupremeMister]

Still it gave me no ideas how to do it. Please explain 🙏

[@EslamBiker]

plz help y got "[SM5] Sampling a virtual texture is currently not supported when connected to the Opacity Mask material attribute.

[@DesignsbyElement]

were you able to fix this? I disable virtual texturing in project settings, but I wonder if that fixes one thing and breaks another

[@EslamBiker]

​@@DesignsbyElement before use image just resize photo resolution in pinter 95% and use it

[@chriskellett6754]

This solution was very helpful, thank you.

[@athradian4752]

Literally exactly what I was looking for and a simple solution! You're the best, thank you so much!!

[@Monoville]

You're welcome!

[@TOCSTUDIO7777]

Thank you so much for creating this video, its very helpful for the project I am creating :)

[@Monoville]

You're welcome!

[@cyber0505]

Thank you so much, worked brilliantly on my custom android robot containing my own face!!!

[@GameDevUE]

What did you use for your own face?

[@sphangman]

amazing tutorial , thanks. Been looking for this solution for a long time.

[@nickkaverin]

Thanks for the video!

[@Unreal_KatyaFedak]

thank you! super helpfull :)

[@Monoville]

You're welcome!

[@shamsbijan5864]

Cool stuff :) keep going

[@Monoville]

Thanks!

[@cinemyscope6630]

Hi, Thank you! The moment I attach an animation the head becomes offset. Do you know what the fix is? (UE5)

[@NickRomick]

Try this! kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6qpn3yVadijd8k

[@jackloucas7019]

Thanks for sharing, it help me a lot

[@commanderskullySHepherdson]

Thanks for the tutorial this is just what I need

[@Monoville]

You're welcome!

[@starvosxant4348]

Very nice! Now i have a question that is a suggestion also: We see a lot of tutorials showing how to attach metahuman HEAD to a custom body using either this process or the previous one, my question is if it is possible to do this but for other parts instead of the head only. Like if i want to attach a robotic arm to a metahuman, or add a human arm to a robot. The suggestion part is, if this can be possible, you could be the first to make a tutorial like this. Because everyone out there is making only the head from metahuman to another mesh. No one does other part and no one does from another mesh to the metahuman (like the robotic arm example).

[@Monoville]

Not sure how I'd go about doing this but could maybe attach an arm to the metahumam that you animate with control rig, and mask out the metahuman arm. Might do a tutorial along those lines eventually

[@lilylikesherpotato3461]

this helped me a lot...thanks

[@Monoville]

You're welcome, glad it was helpful!

[@manzorid]

thanks a lot, it still works even on ue5.4

[@SupremeMister]

How so? Don’t you have a problem with parent socket thing? My UE 5.4 says it’s impossible to change, so I can’t attach head to the new body

[@dow647]

Amazing tutorial, thanks for sharing

[@newageanimators4594]

your the best hopefully unreal do a automatic conversion.

[@Monoville]

Thanks. Yeah that would be nice!

[@kovayasKTB]

This tutorial helped tremendously. I'm running into issues where the eyebrows and eyelashes disappear. They only show at specific angles and distances. Have you experienced this with this method? if so how'd you fix it?

[@Monoville]

Make sure the bounds scale on each of them Is set to 10, also in LODsync in the blueprint change forced LOD from -1 to 0

[@XxKherxX]

Great tutorial* Thank you so much :)

[@FeedingWolves]

This is awesome!!!

[@Monoville]

Thank you!

[@pickard1]

Adding to the comment below identifying the new location of the Face Files (Thank You!), I created a duplicate Face file and migrated only one of my Metahumans to it. This is cool if you only want certain Metahumans in your project to experiment on.

[@habibmensch7368]

Amazing tutorial!! How do I put adjustable LOD's on my bp? My character works now but has no groom in distance

[@AncientNightMareKing]

can you make new Tutorial video on UE5.2 whit what your showing on this video out date my model keep braking as in using Paragon Gideon body and try to fix the matehuman to the body both objects keep give me red error and the mesh is gone but i still have files ?? i cant use the same BP as i have to keep restart it over and over trying other ways and the software crash`s

[@conciousnessofsteel6033]

Will you make an update for the updated Metahumans neck removal

[@zentradingtech]

Awesome video - I got it working first time, now I cant repeat it lol... my metahuman neck seems stretched.. and now the head moves much more in the same animation vs the body... did I d something wrong with socket?

[@Monoville]

Don't think I've seen that happen before, but yeah it sounds like an issue with the socket, I think there are a few available for the neck so maybe try each

[@zentradingtech]

@@Monoville Thanks mate - yes wrong socket and I needed to parent it in the blueprint to get it working which I missed... working now!

[@NickRomick]

It's actually to do with a cached pose. Here's the fix - kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6qpn3yVadijd8k

[@ShuHayli]

@@NickRomick THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!!!

[@becmuda174]

Thank you for very helpful tutorial, I wanna ask, can we use this method for modular character customization system?

[@lubomiratan]

thank you mate. Verry helpfull \m/🤓

[@Monoville]

You're welcome!

[@CAG_9446]

Was wondering if this could be done more simply. I'm horrible at face modeling and Metahuman seems to be the answer for a lot of developers. +1 on this video very helpful!

[@photobrandon]

This is a fantastic tutorial, thank you so much! Quick question, do you ever have an issue with longer hair where it rest on the masked out part of the next instead of the new body mesh?

[@AnimazeOdyssey]

Thanks really helpful but my MH neck is bouncing around once i animate I don’t know what I’m doing wrong

[@Tyhros]

Not sure if im doing it wrong, but when the camera gets a certain distance from the mesh the meta head and the original are both visable, but when the camera is about 5m or closer it disappears.

[@DyenamicFilms]

I had the same problem and found what I think is a solution for those who may encounter this issue. Double click the skeletal mesh (Belica in this case). Go to LOD settings. Set "Number of LODs" to 1. Hit "Apply Changes" just below. Save and it should be good.

[@palmaurian]

While I follow every step and the animation seems to be working in the blueprint actor, when it comes to the cinematic part of it, it won't show up on the footage. Any idea why? Thanks.

[@sinanarts]

Dear Monoville, I did your steps but here is the thing I do not get facial mocap as I Begin Play. My Characters BOdy is combined with the head and Moving together but I do not have the Facial movements. How to fix.? can you please help..? Best Regards.

[@backroomss]

Can I use any body? For example a body that rigged with mixamo?

[@TheTristannn]

I didn’t get it to work what I’m I doing wrong? I follow the Same steps but when I went back the meta human neck still the same

[@wayneh7182]

It does work, BUT, when you apply an animation to the face (Face_Anim_BP) for live link use, the metahuman head and neck break and merge into each other.......I am unable to fix this, spent 2 days......any help would be appreciated. Try the same steps and try to get live link working.....cant. I did learn alot tho, still cool to walk around, but if theres a live link solution pls help.

[@wayneh7182]

Followed another one of your guides and it solved the issue, fucken eh bro. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWi2ZKmsa5JqjJI

[@AhmadFaris-p4c]

same happend to me , did you get any fix

[@ezgame-6892]

Thank you so much! Can I use mixamo animation with this tutorial?

[@filipvonhohenburg3550]

Hi! Thanks for this tutorial. How would you do it with Unreal Mannequin and Metahuman head? When I remove Mannequin's head I can't import it in UE because "no mesh was found or animation".

[@elvismorellidigitalvisuala6211]

Cool, i got a problem with LOD hairs, even if I put to 1 they vanish if zoom out, how to fix it? thanks

[@Monoville]

Have you set bounds scale for everything to 10?

[@Ledishka02]

Pivot of the head mesh attaches to neck_01 socket so that the head doesn't move the way it should. Despite everything done like in the video, the head moves in a separate way. How to fix?

[@seijuroex]

hey awesome tutorial, although Im stuck with the parent socket, Im getting an error saying select a different parent socket - cannot changer socket on inherited components, anyone please

[@SupremeMister]

Same here. Found any solution?

[@SupremeMister]

I’m stuck at the parent socket UE 5.4 says it’s impossible to change Please help me, how do I fix it?

[@nishantadventure]

Will it work on game ready, I created metahuman soldier (Only body) for my game but struggling to create soldier costume. Can I use this trick to change face of soldier pack in unreal marketplace for my game? Plz reply me

[@starcityinc4388]

Thanks for Making this tutorial. It is very helpful, To fix poke throw of neck, I used your method of opacity mask on my Metahuman Face, But I have multiple metahumans in my project and all of their neck are now invisible, How to avoid this, what are the correct steps with multiple Metahumans in the project?

[@Monoville]

You'll need to make a separate duplicate of the base material which you've applied the opacity mask to, and only apply it to the metahumans you want it to. Leave the original base material untouched

[@GameDevUE]

Would I be able to do this but instead of adding the head in the BP, I attach the head in blender and use it as a skeletal mesh?

[@Monoville]

You could probably do that but you wouldn't be able to animate the face in Unreal

[@marcogrob3899]

Hello! Thanks for that! Weirdly when I attach the MH Head to either the neck or head (or and other bone ) it completely goes off to a random position_angel or hight....what could that be? Thank you! Best Marco

[@ailanezz]

How can i add a control rig to this blueprint? with meta head and custom body? I dont see an option of control rig when i right click on a Blueprint

[@Xsamuraigame]

THANKS - YOu are true Hero

[@قصصوحكايات-خ4ل]

thank you fro your videos .can you make video about clothing for metahumen . like simukation cloth in marvelous and exporting it to UE5 or ue4

[@agmd1785]

how i can use face livelink in this case!

[@RealOffline]

Why is it that the original head still appears if you move farther back from the character?

[@DyenamicFilms]

I had the same problem. I think I found the solution. Double click the skeletal mesh (Belica in this case). Go to LOD settings. Set "Number of LODs" to 1. Hit "Apply Changes" just below. Save and it should be good.

[@sinanarts]

Hi Man, thank you for this tutorial. I did as you said but there my head is not attached to the body although I pick the head bone socket. What might be wrong.? I am trying a livelink body and face from Rokoko .

[@Monoville]

Not sure, I've never used a rokoko face. Could maybe try attaching outside the blueprint

[@sinanarts]

@@Monoville Hi Monoville I figuredout to attach the head on to body like in the tut. But now I do not get a live facial mocap response from Rokoko Mocap Suit Facial Capture. I am trying the livelink option. So please try guiding me accordingly. Thank you.

[@vladimir_vakho]

how to separate the head????? its a big problem!!!! New BL with only HEAD just NOOOOT WOOORKING!!!! (ue5)

[@ailanezz]

what if I have different characters that require different masking for neck. I should mask individual character's head materials right? common would replace it on all, i think. ?

[@Monoville]

You'll have to make a duplicate (or several) of the head material with different masks and assign them to your different metahumans

[@mikolaicgi]

​@@Monoville I made a duplicate of the head material for my another metahuman character and delete the opacity mask from material, but nothing is change. Character is still have a hole under the neck. But my first character is ok, because he has the main head material (initial). Can you please help me with any solution?

[@Kirill28465]

@@mikolaicgi Were you able to solve the problem with different characters? Now I'm also trying to apply a mask, but it applies to all the characters, I tried to duplicate all the native materials and changed the whole chain, but with this variation the mask stopped working at all ((

[@mikolaicgi]

​@@Kirill28465 Yes, I did it) I don't remember how exactly I did it, but you shoud to try a couple of things: 1. If you have 2 characters in your project, create 2 MH_Head and MH_Head Synthesized materials for each of them. Also you must to have 1 main MH_Head material. 2. Connect materials for each of characters in like in tutorial. 3. Add opacity mask in main MH_Head material and in MH_Head material of your main character. I hope it help you to solve your problem. In other case, write me again.

[@Kirill28465]

@@mikolaicgi Thank you very much, in fact I have three characters, I did as you said and everything worked, I duplicated MH_Head and MH_Head Synthesized, three times into three separate folders and assigned these materials from folders for each character individually. Then I just put the mask in the right material and everything worked, I didn't even have to touch the original MH_Head

[@alexcounsell241]

Great work! ...but I am struggling to get the face animating with the iphone...can't seem to get the anim blueprint to work...if I use the original the head offsets and stretches...?

[@Monoville]

Not sure! If you can provide a video or screenshots I might be able to figure out what's up

[@alexcounsell241]

@@Monoville thanks for replying, I solved it but not sure how, think it was a glitch or bug as all I did was restart the project and it worked...

[@Monoville]

@@alexcounsell241 no problem, glad it's working now!

[@plaknightgames4231]

@@alexcounsell241 Do you know how you fixed it now? Because I have the same problem

[@alexhoverby]

same problem too. It all worked fine live link was in the details panel and i had no issue with it. Came back to pull open the project this week and it's not there anymore and I don't know how to turn it back on or activate it @@alexcounsell241

[@AhmadFaris-p4c]

thanks a lot , However when I use animation to the face (Face_Anim_BP) for livelink , the metahuman head and neck break and merge into each other..any help would be appreciated. and thank you in advanced

[@kolibri_animation]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6qpn3yVadijd8k

[@habibmensch7368]

When I attach the facemesh to headbone, the head is floating around out of the body during animations. Not just offset, it seems like its panning aroung on a stick. What might be the problem?

[@habibmensch7368]

i tried around but can't find the solution to the problem. Anybody here who can help?

[@riotechmod]

Any hope I can get same tutorial in UE 5, idk but now I m getting frustrated by watching I can see tutorial of things which I want to do are available, but they all are in ue4 🥺.. Ue4 interface goes above my head because I started learning ue from its version 5

[@kalkutafr]

Thank you very much for this tutorial ! I don't have the M_Head material maybe it changed for something else now

[@ramacharly9516]

Thank you so much, did you find where is the M_Head material now ?

[@kalkutafr]

@@ramacharly9516 yes it's called M_Head_Baked and it's on the folder : MetaHumans/Common/Face/LookDev/Shared

[@ramacharly9516]

@@kalkutafr I do no more have LookDev folder

[@kazemedia]

Why are eyebrows disappearing when camera is not close? I changed it to Epic setting so that hair came back, but eyebrows are still disappearing.

[@Monoville]

Make sure bounds scale is set to 10 for all the different elements like eyebrows in the chatacter blueprint. And in LODSync set forced LOD to -1

[@kazemedia]

@@Monoville Thank you so much!

[@Monoville]

@@kazemedia You're welcome, glad you got it sorted!

[@TheWillskiTheory]

Great Vid Bro!! I tried making a copy of the Material and then attaching the subsequent material instances and i can't get this to work, do you have any idea why?

[@Monoville]

Hmm I'm not sure, if you can provide a video or screenshots i might be able to figure it out

[@TheWillskiTheory]

@@Monoville I figured it out. I had to force LOD to 1. it should in the preview and content as working but in the viewport it wasn't.

[@TheWillskiTheory]

@@Monoville Appreciate the speedy reply

[@Monoville]

No problem, glad you got it sorted!

[@lhmsc]

Thanks for the tutorial! The Drive's zip file with the opacity masks seems corrupted though.

[@Monoville]

I checked and it's working fine for me, give it another go!

[@lhmsc]

@@Monoville That's weird, when I try to unzip it says that it might be damaged or corrupted :(

[@lhmsc]

@@Monoville Is it possible to upload the images separated? If it's not too much trouble of course. You already did so much making this tutorial!

[@Monoville]

@@lhmsc No problem, here they are separated drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UKX6N4n1_5kjdp53oMqstxK5vxiM0u3m?usp=sharing

[@lhmsc]

@@Monoville You're amazing, just earned a new sub! Thanks a lot :D

[@alexandervanstone]

Once I copy over my hair, eyebrows, beard etc I can't seem to lock the LOD to keep them from disappearing anywhere. Any recommendations?

[@Monoville]

Try setting bounds scale for each of those elements to 10. If that doesn't work, try copying LODSync from the Metahuman blueprint to your new blueprint, Num LODs should be 8, and 1 for forced LOD.

[@ARMORHOUS3weplay]

holy shit mah pantz!!! dayum!!!!!!!!! tytytytyty!!!!!!!!

[@brillant3090]

Sooo god thanks

[@3dblam]

Do you know if I could still use Live Link Face with this setup ?

[@Monoville]

Yes you should be able to

[@trizard3940]

Does it work with every game

[@DDXDB]

Metahuman appears to have been updated. M_heda no longer exists. This method appears to have failed.

[@sayanmonk6]

The method hasn't failed but has been relocated. You go to Metahumans/Common/Face/Materials/Baked and select M_Head_Baked and follow the video from there.

[@tagrandmere0782]

Thanks for the videos , can you explain how to disable lod for hair using this method? My hair disappear from a certain distance when i put them into a new Actor BP

[@Monoville]

I'm not sure if there's a fix for that, I know that some hair pieces are marked as "work in progress" on Metahuman and have this issue. I guess either wait for them to fix them, or use one of the hair pieces that don't have the LOD issue (although there's only a few of them, like the shorter one I used in this video)

[@tagrandmere0782]

@@Monoville thanks for this it helped a lot :)

[@Monoville]

@@tagrandmere0782 you're welcome :-)

[@zcotty358]

Add a LOD sync component and set it to 0.

[@ArthurBaum]

In case anyone is still struggling with LOD issues even after copying or adding an LODSync: You need to add the variables (beard, eyebrows, fuzz etc.) manually to the LODSync under "Components to Sync".

[@imaginarymadereal4847]

When you add face animations in the sequence, the head seems to sink into the body. Is there an easy fix?

[@Monoville]

Not really, it's due to the different heights of metahuman characters, just have to adjust the position in the blueprint

[@compressedcoal]

Is there a reason that my metahuman neck is folding when I apply the face anim blueprint to my character body? Anyone else experience this?

[@NickRomick]

Maybe because of a cached pose? Try this - kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6qpn3yVadijd8k

[@tarunrohilla2089]

Great! Video, Thanks

[@nicholasagnew5036]

First!?

[@Monoville]

You betcha!

[@wikingodelaruta2083]

DISCULPA COMO LO HAGO EN UNREAL 5 ESO MISMO?

[@starcityinc4388]

@Monoville, Hello, as suggested i tried to duplicate the material but it don't allow me to make one, it is showing me this message every time as soon as i right click and choose duplicate. " The path to this asset is too long 290, maximum cooking is 260, please choose a shorter name for the asset or choose a shallower folder structure with shorter name" This is my path for Metahuman Head - Face, Facemesh, MI_Headsynthesized_baked, MI_Headsynthesized_baked, M_Head_Baked I am duplicating this one M_Head_Baked , is this right.

[@Monoville]

Yes that's the correct name. M_Head_Baked should be in content>metahumans>common>face>materials>baked. I did a test to duplicate and it's working fine for me

[@rcsmultimediallc4734]

Can you still use LiveLink Face with this?