All language subtitles for CustomMetahuman_2.3.mp4

After finishing the sculpting process,

there are two things we need to do:

First, separate the body and head mesh again,

so we can exploit them separately.

Just go into edit mode,
select the body by pressing L,

and then press P to separate it.

As usual,

let's keep things tidy
and rename our objects.

And second, we need to fix the border
between body and head mesh,

so we don't get a visible gap in the model.

Since we are not allowed to merge
vertices, we need to move them

into a position where each border vertex
from the head mesh

and the corresponding vertex on the body
mesh are in exactly

the same location.

To do this, turn on the vertex snapping

and then select any Body vertex
on the border of the mesh.

Presse G to move

and snap it to its counterpart on the head.

It's a bit of cumbersome manual work,

but there are only 92 vertices, so

it's manageable.

Now we can export our meshes.

Those will be used as our morph targets.

So, select the mesh and go to export as OBJ.

So, select the mesh and go to export as OBJ.

I will add an "_morphtarget" to the file name.

I will add an "_morphtarget to the file name.

For the export we tick Selection Only

and we have to set the transform
to -X forward and Z up.

(again, you can save these settings as a preset),

then export the head as well.

We also need a Morph Base
for the Mesh Morpher

so it knows what the original mesh is.

So let's export the original head
and body meshes as well.

Same export settings as before.

And I will add
an "_morphbase" to these files.

So we now have four files:

The Morph Base and Morph Target for the head

and the Morph Base
and Morph Target for the body.

We are done in Blender and can now
go back to the Unreal Engine project.

Now comes the magic of the Mesh Morpher plugin.

Pro-tip: Before you do anything to the character,

duplicate the skeletal mesh for the body
and also for the face first,

so we keep the original
in case something goes wrong,

or you just simply want to revert
to the original character for any reason.

Maybe you want to render the old
and new versions side by side.

And then open up the Mesh Morpher plugin.

Select your new body mesh
and go to tools and "Create from OBJ files".

Now we select the Morph Base,

that we just exported from Blender
and the Morph Target,

and give the Morph any name you prefer.

I call it "HeroMorph".

When creating the Morph Target,
I usually leave

all other settings on default,
but there are two things to be aware of:

Number one, if your sculpt is symmetrical,
it doesn't matter.

But if you have asymmetrical features
like my cut-off left ear and scars,

you will have to set the scaling
on the X-axis to -1.

Otherwise your Morph Target will be inverted.

And second, there is a smoothing option here.

If you leave it on default,
it might result in a gap

between the body and head meshes,

since the smoothing option
will slightly move vertices around.

So you might want to set this all to zero,

and then you are good to go.

Repeat the same process for the head.

Select your new face mesh,

choose the Morph Base and Morph Target,

give it a name and click OK.

Right...

Let's see what we actually created here.

If you open up the hero body asset,
you will notice that a new Morph Target

has been added with the name
that you assigned to it in Mesh Morpher.

In my case, it's called HeroMorph.

You can now use the slider to check

that the morph has been correctly applied.

The same thing for the head.

If you open the hero head asset and scroll all the way down,

you should see
your new morph target there.

Check if everything is fine.

However, even if we set the Morph Target

to one, our character
still looks the same in the viewport.

So what we have now is still the original
metahuman mesh with the morph target.

What we want, however, is a new mesh
with the changes applied.

So in order to apply the Morph Target
to your character,

you have to bake it.

Go to Bake, set the morph target to 1

and then click Bake.

Repeat the whole thing
for the body as well.

Select the body,

go to bake, set more target to 1 and click Bake.

The result is a new skeletal mesh
for the head and for the body.

Just reassign the new meshes
in the character blueprint,

and you are done.

And the good news is:

We now have a customized character mesh
without having broken anything.

The new character
still has all its metahuman abilities.

The control rig works.

The face blend shapes are all there, so

we good. ;-)

Next, we want to customize the textures as well.

Like, for example,
actually texturing the scars on the face

and maybe adding some body
tattoos and blood

and dirt, to make him look more like a warrior.

In chapter 3,
I will show you the texturing workflow

using Substance Painter.

You will learn
how to texture the full character,

including head and body mesh,
at the same time.

How to export the textures
and set them up in Unreal Engine,

and I will also show you
how to modify the wrinkle maps

so we can keep the original normal details
while introducing

an additional layer of our own texturing
work to the normal and base color maps.

See you there!