MetaEcho

Automate facial rigging from MetaHuman to any custom character — no rigging or animation skills required.

Problem

MetaHuman delivers incredible facial performance via Live Link. But most developers can't key facial animation manually — it's too difficult and time-consuming.

Solution

MetaEcho connects your cartoon/custom characters to MetaHuman rigs instantly. It empowers every developer to create high-quality facial animations without any rigging or animation expertise.

How It Works

The core engine is based on Radial Basis Function (RBF) interpolation, inspired by the classic SIGGRAPH 2000 paper "Pose Space Deformation". Unlike simple linear rigging, RBF allows for non-linear deformation — critical because facial expressions are complex, curved movements, not straight lines.

The RBF solver acts as a mathematical bridge between two different mesh topologies.

Workflow

1. Load Source & Target — Load the original MetaHuman head as Source and your cartoon face as Target.
2. Build Solver — Click Build Solver to generate a Mapping Matrix that bridges the two meshes.
3. Retarget Skeleton — Select the Source skeleton and Target, then click Retarget to generate new joints that fit your character.
4. Bind & Copy Skin Weights — Bind the target mesh to the new joints, then use Copy Skin Weights to transfer professional weight data from source to target.
5. Joint Constraint — Run the Joint Constraint logic to connect MetaHuman animation data directly to your new skeleton.
6. Done! — Use the GUI panel or Live Link Control Rig data to drive your cartoon character with smooth, perfectly synced performance.

Requirements

• Autodesk Maya (with Python support)
• numpy, scipy
• MetaHuman source project

Usage

Run in Maya's Script Editor:

import metaEcho_RunTool
tool = metaEcho_RunTool.MetaEchoFullToolbox()
tool.show()

License

© MetaEcho Team. All rights reserved.