Table of Contents
Highlights
- MetaHuman 5.7 delivers true cross-platform power, bringing Windows, macOS, and Linux support for a smoother, studio-ready digital human workflow.
- MetaHuman 5.7 enhances mesh accuracy and automation, offering advanced parametric body controls and full Python/Blueprint automation for scalable character creation.
- MetaHuman 5.7 upgrades grooming and facial capture, with improved hair tools, external camera support, and better calibration for highly realistic digital humans.
Epic Games has now officially launched MetaHuman 5.7, an impressive upgrade that represents one of the significant advancements in any digital-human ecosystem in recent years. In an effort to have high-quality character creation be more accessible, flexible, and pipeline-friendly, the 5.7 release represents substantial changes with respect to the support of platforms, automation capabilities, performance-capture workflows, and real-time grooming tools. For creators who work across the spectrum of games, film, virtual production, and research environments, this concept represents more than a version increment—it is an evolutionary step.
Cross-Platform Creator Access Becomes Life
As one of the significant features of the MetaHuman 5.7 release, patrons and users of MetaHuman Creator will now have expanded platform accessibility to MetaHuman Creator, as the system is now officially supported on macOS and Linux for the first time. The long-awaited update finally disassociates the MetaHuman Creator workflow solely from Windows, and this is monumental news for many studios and creators who have been functioning on Linux for production pipelines, rendering farms, and/or VFX toolchains.
Epic has launched a migration guide as well to assist you in moving existing MetaHuman Creator content from the legacy web-based version into the newly updated workflow. The addition will allow artists who have been laboring in the browser Creator to be confident that their project is prepared for the future.
Improved Mesh Editing and Conformation
MetaHuman 5.7 also improves the way you edit and conform the body meshes, reducing one of the major pain points that has been a long-standing complication for sprites. This release includes:
Support for a wider variety of poses during mesh conformation
- UV-space vertex pairing between conform templates and models
- More intuitive parametric body controls
These improvements lead to a cleaner, more predictable mesh deformation process with substantially less manual clean-up. Best of all, the new parametric system encourages anatomically accurate results, which is critical to creating believable digital humans.
Automation Takes Center Stage
Another likely biggest change for studios is the depth of automation support in the update. In MetaHuman 5.7, almost all the major processes—including sculpting, rigging, wardrobe changes, texture setup, mesh conformation, and character assembly—can be performed with Python scripts or Blueprint workflows.
This opens possibilities for:
- Integration into large-scale production pipelines
- Automated mass character generation
- Background compute-farm processing
- Consistent and repeatable batching for episodic and high-output series/projects
For smaller teams, this gives them the ability to now be competitive for higher-end production quality without the manual workflow of labor-intensive production.
Enhanced Groom Tools For Better Hair Creation
Hair and groom systems are probably one of the most difficult elements to achieve digital realism. MetaHuman’s version 5.7 updates Unreal Engine’s Groom Plugin by providing adjustment and control through a joint-based groom workflow. Artists now have the ability to create and art-direct more specific behaviors of hair, while seamlessly blending that with the simulation for realistic movement. This has greater importance in cinematic sequences where the slightest motion can create or break realism. And now supports full compatibility of MetaHuman grooms in Houdini, providing even greater interoperability experience between Unreal Engine and VFX pipeline industry standard tools.
More Accurate Facial Capture Improvements with LiveLink
Facial performance capture improves greatly in this release. The LiveLink Face app from iOS and Android in this release now supports external cameras on a select number of devices – allowing creators to capture even higher quality footage with all the enhanced depth, light, and stabilization capture capabilities.
An important development is the MetaHuman Animator Calibration Diagnostics plugin. This tool is in an experimental stage and is designed to assist an artist in checking their calibration results against reference footage directly. This gives riggers and artists some assurance that their calibration of the face has been reliable, with a cleaner solve, and resulted in fewer takes- something very important to studios that need performance-related storytelling.
Houdini and Maya Pipelines | Linux Support
Epic continues to solidify cross-software compatibility. MetaHuman 5.7 now includes Linux support for:
MetaHuman for Houdini
MetaHuman for Maya with compatibility for Maya 2026
This will provide studios that are using Linux-optimized VFX environments a more seamless workflow and smoother experience across applications.
Why MetaHuman 5.7 is Important
MetaHuman 5.7 is not just a technical update, but is indicative of where digital humans will be created and used in the future. Cross-platform access is made possible through the new support. Automated pipelines will allow for possible scaling. Improved grooming and precision of facial capture will improve realism.
Integration of industry-standard software will guarantee creators advance every production stage of some type of digital human in a cohesive manner. As digital humans continue to grow across games, virtual influencers, simulation, education, and virtual production, MetaHuman 5.7 provides a strong underpinning for next-generation characters.
