Sculpt Link documentation

Requirements

• Windows, Unreal Engine 5.8, editor only. Nothing ships in a packaged game.
• The MetaHuman Creator plugins enabled in the project (MetaHumanCharacter; the engine plugins it depends on are turned on by the .uplugin).
• For the round trip, one or both of:
  • ZBrush 2022 or newer with GoZ installed and used once (press GoZ on any tool so ZBrush has written its shared folders under C:\Users\Public\Pixologic). Sculpt Link never registers itself as the GoZ target; your existing setup is untouched.
  • Blender 4.2 or newer with the bundled add-on installed.
• Wrap From Sculpt needs neither: any closed OBJ or FBX head or full figure works.

Install

1. Fab: add to your library, install to the engine from the Epic Games Launcher, then enable Sculpt Link in Edit → Plugins for your project. Gumroad: unzip into your project's Plugins/ folder so you have Plugins/MetaHumanWrap/MetaHumanWrap.uplugin, then enable it the same way.
2. Restart when asked. The two tools appear in MetaHuman Creator's Import palette when a MetaHuman Character asset is open.
3. Blender only: Preferences → Get Extensions → the drop-down at the top right → Install from Disk… and pick Plugins/MetaHumanWrap/Resources/Blender/metahuman_wrap_bridge.zip. The add-on's Exchange folder must match the plugin's (Editor Preferences → Plugins → MetaHuman Wrap → Sculpt App Bridge); both default to Documents\MetaHumanWrap\Exchange.
4. Check the version: the Sculpt Link panel's last line reads MetaHumanWrap 0.3.0-beta, built …, and Blender's MetaHuman panel header shows the add-on version. The plugin tells the add-on when a newer zip ships.

Sculpt Link — the round trip

1. Open the character, Import palette, Sculpt Link.
2. Press Enable Listen Mode. It stays on across characters until you turn it off.
3. Choose the target app (ZBrush / Blender) and what to send. Combined Mesh is the default: head and body as one welded mesh, MHW_<Character>_full, with head and body as two polygroups / face sets. Tick Eyes / Teeth to send those too.
4. Press Send. In ZBrush the SubTools appear; in Blender the objects appear on their own.
5. Sculpt. Keep the topology: sculpt on subdivision / Multires levels only. DynaMesh, ZRemesher, Decimation Master, Delete Hidden, Groups Split, Mirror And Weld and deleting lower subdivision levels all break the link.
6. Send it back: GoZ in ZBrush (from the lowest subdivision level), Send to MetaHuman in Blender.
7. Unreal applies it as shape, one undo step. Apply automatically is on by default. The Return status reads e.g. Applied · head + body · seam 0.00 cm.

Options worth knowing

• If changed: Apply as changes (default) — a character edited in Creator after a send gets the return as current + (returned − sent), so your sculpting survives the Creator change. Replace the shape is the alternative.
• Head follows body (default) — a return keeps the head attached; resize and blend in Creator afterwards.
• Masked areas stay put on return (off by default) — the mask that protected the clavicle while you sculpted the neck protects it here too.
• Normal map BETA — ZBrush: Tool → Normal Map, Tangent on, Flip switches off, Create NormalMap at the lowest level, then GoZ. Blender: keep Bake normal map on send ticked (needs a Multires modifier).
• Color BETA — tick Include skin color before sending to get the character's own skin as a painting base. Return's Normal and Base color rows decide what a hand-back does with a map; Clear takes ours off again.

Wrap From Sculpt

1. Import your sculpt as a Static Mesh (OBJ or FBX). One closed head; a full body works too.
2. Open or create a MetaHuman Character, Import palette, Wrap From Sculpt.
3. In Sculpt & view pick the sculpt asset and a placement preset if it arrives lying down (an OBJ from Blender is usually "OBJ, Y up, meters").
4. Click a spot on the MetaHuman head, then the matching spot on the sculpt: that is pair 1. Keep going — eye corners, nostrils, mouth corners, ear points. Symmetry places the mirrored twin.
5. Press S for splines (lip lines, eyelid edges, the jaw). Enter finishes a spline, Backspace removes the last point, Delete removes the whole pair. Shift-click on the head grabs an edge loop.
6. Auto-place projects the enabled template curves onto the sculpt once you have three drawn curves, as a starting point to correct.
7. A pair that looks wrong turns magenta and says why in its row — usually two numbers swapped.
8. Optional: place points on the body the same way to conform the MetaHuman body to a full-body sculpt.
9. Press Apply. One undo step. Iterate: fix a curve, Apply again.

Grooms to Blender and back BETA

1. Sculpt Link, target app Blender, Listen Mode on.
2. In the Send block's Grooms row tick Hair, Brows, Beard, Mustache, Lashes as needed. A box is enabled only when something is worn in that slot.
3. Press Send. Each groom arrives as a Curves object sitting on the head. Switch to Sculpt Curves mode and style it. Keep every root on the head (Curves → Snap to Nearest Surface if the send warns).
4. Send to MetaHuman with Send grooms ticked. In Unreal, Apply.
5. The first return makes your own groom: a new wardrobe item named after the style plus "(Blender 01)", worn in the slot, keeping the color you dialed on the original.
6. Every later return updates that same asset in place: same tile, same color, one Ctrl+Z to go back a version. Epic's original stays in the Wardrobe, never modified.

Epic's MetaHuman groom content must not leave your Unreal projects. The exchange .mhg files and any .blend saved with the hair in it contain it. Keep them on your machine.

Known limitations (0.3 beta)

• The topology must not change. Vertex and face counts and the face order must be exactly what was sent. A mesh that comes back changed is refused, with a sentence saying why, and taken in as a plain sculpt asset instead.
• Feet stay on the floor. MetaHuman always puts the lowest point of the body on the floor. Sculpt shape, not placement. Blender draws a ground disc where the floor is.
• A sent MetaHuman sits lower than your original ZTool by its own floor offset (about 4.7 cm on one test character). Expected; it does not affect the shape that comes back.
• A ZBrush hand-back carries one texture map per SubTool, so a Combined Mesh brings back the head's map only. For body detail, send the body on its own, or bake in Blender, which writes both UV tiles.
• The body color that goes out is approximate. The head's color is exact.
• Eyes: small moves only (about 2 mm). The eye's rotation pivot stays where Creator's face model puts it; Sculpt Link warns above 0.5 cm. Teeth take large edits happily.
• A body base color override switches the body off Creator's Skin tone sliders, as Epic's own Texture & Material Overrides tool does. Clear puts the sliders back in charge.
• Grooms are strands only. No hair cards and no helmet meshes; "Always use hair cards" shows nothing for a returned groom.
• A returned groom binds to a small snapshot of your character's face (<Character>/Grooms/Faces/…, about 9 MB, shared). Do not delete it while a groom uses it.
• Changing the eyelash type in Creator replaces the eyelashes in that slot, a returned set included. Pick the type first, then send.
• Peach fuzz is not offered. Big styles are big (about 75,000 strands for a long hairstyle).
• Material features (normal map, base color, painting) and grooms are beta, calibrated on one machine.

Reporting a problem

Email support@hauntedostrich.com with, in one message:

1. A screenshot or two of what you see, including the panel.
2. <Project>/Saved/Logs/<Project>.log (everything from the plugin is on LogMetaHumanWrap).
3. The files in the exchange folder from that hand-off (the .GoZ files and any _norm.png / _color.png beside them). Not the .mhg or .blend files.
4. The build stamp from the Sculpt Link panel's last line and the Blender add-on version.
5. What you did, in order, especially any Ctrl+Z on either side.