Mastering MetaHuman with Quixel and Unreal Engine

Explore Quixel, a collection of 3D assets that makes creating video games, scenes, and characters more enjoyable, and see its integration with Unreal and its cinematography possibilities.

Learn to use Quixel face expressions to animate a character, switching from idle to varied expressions—happy, sad, fear, anger, surprise—and posing the body in artistic or fashion stances.

Test diverse lighting setups in Quixel to shape MetaHuman appearances for cinematic or game environments, adjusting studio, indoor, outdoor, moonlight, and color with Unreal previews.

Explore how medium, high, and epic light qualities shape MetaHuman rendering, revealing more detail as light interacts with the character, surfaces, and camera setups.

Control the level of detail by camera distance in Unreal, using levels of detail from zero to seven, hide hair for distant views, and use clay material for study.

Mix three character presets with the blend tool to sculpt facial features using control points around the nose, lips, eyes, and cheeks, creating a unique MetaHuman.

Sculpt the MetaHuman character using the sculpt tool and clay material to adjust facial features like cheeks, lips, nose, chin, and ears, creating a unique, expressive character.

Explore skin textures and freckles in metahuman with quixel and unreal engine, adjusting skin tone, contrast, roughness, and freckles density and saturation for varied characters.

Choose eye presets and fine-tune iris and sclera to craft unique eyes with base color, iris size, saturation, limbus, sclera tint, rotation, and vascularity for expressive character design.

Adjust teeth parameters—size, separation, color, and plaque—and experiment with gum tones and jaw openness to craft a zombie style MetaHuman smile.

Explore the makeup process for MetaHuman characters, adjusting freckles, skin tone, and complexion layers. Experiment with eye color, blush, lips, roughness, and transparency to create diverse, expressive looks.

Explore hair style options in MetaHuman with Quixel and Unreal Engine, adjust colors, roughness, lightness, and hombre transitions to craft a unique character.

Choose eyebrow styles in metahuman, using presets or custom colors, adjust roughness, replace imperfect scan eyebrows, and test layers with hair on or off to refine the final look.

Adjust eyelashes on a MetaHuman character by selecting presets, testing curl lengths, and fine-tuning color and roughness to design a customized eye look.

Explore body shape design by adjusting proportions and variations, from the default character to male and female variants, and test head scale for cinematic sizing in Unreal Engine.

Explore top design for MetaHuman by selecting shirt styles—sweater, hoodie, or tee—then customize colors, fabric styles, and logos to craft a realistic, game-ready character.

Explore bottom clothing design for the character by selecting pants styles, colors, and primary and secondary accents, then adjust fabrics, shading, and details while evaluating cargo and yoga pants options.

Explore shoe design for metahuman using quixel, selecting casual sneakers, adjusting primary and secondary colors, saturation, and value, and testing different styles to enhance movement and character style.

Duplicate metahumans to test similar character variations and build a portfolio for directors. Keep an original copy while experimenting with changes without risking the original work.

Import a Metahuman from Quixel into Unreal Engine, download at medium quality, then add and enable it in your project while planning level of detail for performance.

Fix hair visibility issues in metahumans by understanding level of detail (LOD) settings in Unreal Engine, and adjust LOD sync in Blueprints to control hair rendering at various distances.

Explore blueprints and skeletal meshes in Unreal Engine, comparing the third-person character with a MetaHuman blueprint, and learn how to swap the skeletal mesh and align bones for animation.

Translate a Metahuman into a playable game character by swapping the third-person skeletal mesh to the Fmt and RW Buddy, assigning the SRC mannequin skeleton, and rebuilding the setup.

Assign the cargo pants skeletal mesh to the mannequin, assign the skeleton, compile, and play to see the pants respond; feet issues remain to be solved in the next lesson.

Adjust blueprint animation parameter, modify the control rig and full body IK pelvis via the animation graph, then compile, save, and play to ensure feet move with the character.

Configure the load sink in the blueprint to reveal the hair on the third-person character, animate it during movement and jumping, and explore metahuman detail parameters.

Add a city-style scenario to your metahuman scene by importing a free downtown west environment from the marketplace, then test the default character in the new level.

Adjust the camera boom's target arm length in the third-person blueprints to bring the camera closer to the MetaHuman character, revealing more detail and improving player view.

Package your MetaHuman project by setting the demo environment as the default scene and packaging for Windows, then share the .exe with friends.