Automatically generate MH DNA bone driven expressions from Morph Targets

Sculpting an expression is intuitive. Translating it into the bone movements a MetaHuman DNA rig expects is not - a MetaHuman head has close to a thousand bones, and defining expressions purely with morph targets on such a mesh wastes memory and fights the rig (morphs on DNA heads are meant for correction, not definition). Mesh Morpher closes the gap: sculpt the expression as a morph target, and it automatically generates the bone-driven DNA expression that matches it.

What the generator does

1. You provide a sculpted shape - a morph target of the expression, made with the sculpt tools, the RBF Deformer or imported from an external sculpting package.
2. Mesh Morpher solves the bones - it fits the DNA expression bones so their movement reproduces your sculpt as closely as bones can.
3. It generates correctives for the rest - whatever detail the bones cannot express becomes a corrective morph, so no detail is lost.

You can modify existing DNA expressions this way or define new ones from scratch. The result bakes into the DNA like any other expression.

▶ Watch the video on YouTube

▶ Watch the video on YouTube

Why bone-driven beats morph-only

• Memory: bones are transforms; morphs are per-vertex deltas on a dense mesh. Bone-driven expressions are dramatically lighter.
• Compatibility: bone expressions work wherever DNA works - including UEFN, which strips morphs from optimized MetaHumans.
• Blending: the DNA rig logic blends bone expressions naturally with the rest of the facial system.

Tips

• Sculpt on the neutral pose so the solver attributes all movement to the expression.
• Review the generated correctives - a large corrective means the bones could not reach your sculpt; simplifying the shape often produces a cleaner rig-level result.
• Refine bones manually if needed. The generated expression is editable like any other - see editing DNA bone expressions.

Where this fits

This is the bridge between sculpting and rigging on MetaHumans: artists work in shapes, the DNA gets bones. It ships in Mesh Morpher Classic and Mesh Morpher Studio, and pairs with custom DNA assets when the target is not a stock MetaHuman at all.