KeenTools 2022.2: The next level of likeness in FaceBuilder, MetaHuman compatibility

In this version, we significantly raised the possible likeness level in FaceBuilder and also brought MetaHuman compatibility, offering probably the easiest way to transfer a real person to a game engine.

This release brings a groundbreaking improvement to FaceBuilder — now, when you drag pins, they affect nearby regions in a smart way, leaving the unrelated facial parts unchanged. With this improvement, pining becomes more detailed, for example, lip corners, curved noses and skin folds are not a problem now. As an outcome, 3D models resemble people from photos far better than before, increasing the variety of potential use cases for FaceBuilder.

One of them can be creating a MetaHuman out of a real person. As you must have heard, Epic Games recently released the Mesh to MetaHuman plugin which can wrap any 3D model of a human head and create a MetaHuman character based on the wrapped mesh. This of course means that you can also load a FaceBuilder into Unreal Engine and create a MetaHuman out of it. But to make the union of FaceBuilder and MetaHuman even better, in this release we added the new ‘MH’ texture map which is compatible with the texture layout of MetaHuman. It gives you a way to improve the MetaHuman texture by transferring facial features such as birthmarks or scars from photos with the help of the texture generated in FaceBuilder. The whole procedure is covered in this guide.

In conclusion, the mix of FaceBuilder and MetaHuman is perhaps the easiest way to transfer a real person to a game engine with the highest level of likeness!

Speaking about our package for Nuke, apart from the refreshed FaceBuilder, users might be pleased to find updated transform handles (aka Axis controls) in all of our 3D nodes — their reliability was improved in 3D mode, and now they can be used in 2D mode too. By the way, it’s worth mentioning that since this update, our plugins for Nuke 11 and earlier will receive only maintenance updates. All new features will be available in Nuke 12+.

The full list of features in FaceBuilder for Blender:
– FaceBuilder can reconstruct faces with finer details
– Added MetaHuman-compatible UV layout
– FaceBuilder now supports many heads in one scene
– Many minor fixes and UI tweaks

The Nuke package:
– FaceBuilder can reconstruct faces with finer details
– Added MetaHuman-compatible UV layout to FaceBuilder
– GeoTracker, FaceTracker: added transform handles in 2D
– FaceBuilder, FaceTracker: fixed automatic face alignment for anamorphic footage and translated cameras
– Nuke 11 is deprecated
– Many minor fixes and UI tweaks

Download the new FaceBuilder for Blender and the updated Nuke package from our website!