Meta Humans are only supported in Unreal Engine version 4.26 or higher.
# Import MetaHuman Model
The [MetaHuman Creator](https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/digital-humans?sessionInvalidated=true) is a tool, with which you can form your own human character models called "Meta Humans". These models can then be imported into Unreal Engine using the application "Quixel Bridge". After importing a folder "MetaHumans" is created containing the data for all imported characters. You can find a blueprint for spawning a Meta Human in the folder with the corresponding character's name.
# Using Meta Humans with the Character Plugin
Clone the blueprint of the Meta Human you want to use with the character plugin (or work on the original blueprint if you want to). Open the blueprint and in the menubar select "File"->"Reparent Blueprint" to reparent the blueprint to the "VirtualHuman" class of the character plugin.
Then, in the Details panel, locate the property "Body Type" under the category "Virtual Human" and change it to "Meta Human". Changing this property automatically transforms the model to fit into it's Capsule Component and assigns the character plugin animation blueprints for the body and face of Meta Humans.
Now your own Meta Human is ready to be used as a Virtual Human from the Character Plugin!
## Face Animation
In the plugin content folder in "Characters/MetaHuman", you can find Pose Assets to be used in the face animation methods described in [Face Animation](https://devhub.vr.rwth-aachen.de/VR-Group/unreal-development/character-plugin/-/wikis/Components/FaceAnimation).
# Retargeting CC3 data onto Meta Humans
In case you want to use animation assets (like an animation sequence or blueprint), which refer to the skeleton of a Character Creator 3 model, with a Meta Human, you need to retarget the assets onto the skeleton of the Meta Humans. All Meta Humans share one common skeleton, so once retargeted, animation assets should be applicable to all Meta Humans. Although the retargeting is already described in [the Unreal docs](https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.26/en-US/Resources/Showcases/MetaHumans/RetargetingAnimationsOntoMetaHumans/), there are some tricks, which are not obvious, so the following text contains a short instruction on how to retarget onto MetaHumans from CC3 models.
Open the "metahuman_base_skel" asset located in the character plugin content in "Characters/MetaHuman". Furthermore, open the skeleton, to which the animation data you want to retarget points. For both skeletons, go to the skeleton tab and select "Show Retargeting Options" under "Options". Right click on the root bone and select "Recursively Set Translation Retargeting Skeleton". Again for both skeletons navigate to the "Retarget Manager" tab (or open it by clicking the button at the top) and map the bone names under "Set up Rig" onto the Humanoid rig (described in the Unreal docs). When mapping the bone names for the Meta Human, you just need to change the mappings "spine1 -> spine2", "spine2 -> spine3", "spine3 -> spine4" and under advanced, delete (press the X button) all the mappings, in which "ik" (short for Inverse Kinematics) appears. For the Retarget Base Pose select the pose "Retargeting/RetargetPoseMetaUE4Mannequin" in the plugin content for both skeletons. Save both skeletons.
Now everything is set up and you can go back to the Content Browser, right click the animation asset you want to retarget and select "Retarget Anim Assets" and choose the MetaHuman skeleton from the Character Plugin content.
# Currently untested
- Foot ik
- models different from the Male Medium Size type
- including of variables skelcontrol head, ... for e.g. face resetting after face animation
