MPFB2 Character Editor Extended

Extension of the MPFB2 (MakeHuman Plugin for Blender 2)

MPFB2: This extension is based on alredy existing add-on for creating 3D characters. It allow you to create and modify 3D character in Blender using simple UI. For more information about original add-on please see oficial MPFB site (https://static.makehumancommunity.org/mpfb.html). My  extension is based on version MPFB v2.0-b1.

My extension adds following modules:
- **UE5 Rig** – creation of a rig compatible with Unreal Engine 5  
- **Skin Editor** – customization of skin materials  
- **Hair Editor** – generation and editing of hair assets  
- **UE5 Exporter** – automated export to FBX and Alembic formats  

License - CC0 - You are allow to use, modify and distribute this extension as you want without giving any attribution.

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## 1. Requirements & Installation

1. **Blender** version **4.2.1** (It is not compatible with other versions).  
2. Download the extension repository as a .zip file. It is modified version of add-on MPFB v2.0-b1. It includes also a few community asset packs.
3. In Blender, go to **Edit ▶ Preferences ▶ Add-ons ▶ Install from Disk...**, than choose downloaded .zip file.
4. Extended add-on should be now visible in right-hand panel (N-panel)

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## 2. UE5 Rig

1. In N-panel after creating Human mesh, expand **Rigging ▶ Add rig**.  
2. Select **UE5 Rig** from the list.  
3. Confirm to automatically apply a skeleton compatible with the default **SK_Mannequin** from Unreal Engine 5.  

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## 3. Skin Editor

### 3.1 Launching & Material Selection

1. In the N-panel, click **Skin Editor**.  
2. Choose one of the presets:  
- **EEVEE compatible** – optimized EEVEE
- **Complex** – Offers more controll over material. but works only with Cycles
3. Press **Apply Material**. 

### 3.2 Material editing

Once a material is applied, you can edit it from following sections:

| Section     | Description                                                      |
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Base**    | Base textures, skin tone adjustment                              |
| **Wrinkles**| Selection of wrinkle maps (eyes, forehead, etc.) and intensity   |
| **Muscles** | Normal maps emphasizing musculature details                      |
| **Others**  | Additional details (veins, calluses, etc.)                       |
| **Tattoos** | Upload custom images as stencil for tattoo diffuse & normal maps |
| **Freckles**| Hand-paint freckles with adjustable brush size and density       |

### 3.3 Texture Baking

- You can choose resolution of baked texture -- high resolutions might crash blender
- Selected categories will be baked into base category.
- Not selected categories will be baked separately as a half-transparent texture
- You can bake diffuse and normal textures either separately or together

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## 4. Hair Editor

### 4.1 Applying Hair Assets

1. In the N-panel, select **Hair Editor**. 
2. Click Setup hair 
3. Now you can add curve-based hair assets from different categories
4. After asset is added, it will show up in the UI and can be edited

### 4.2 Curve to Cards Conversion

1. Under asset editing options you can click **Convert to Cards**.  
2. If an optimized card asset exists, it is used; otherwise cards are generated with following options:
- **Scale** - scale of each individual card
- **Density** - density of cards
- **Seed** - seed in function for deleting random cards - can be used to change placement of cards unless density is set to 1
3. Choose a baking method: **Glossy** (Makes hair more natural, but creates artifacts sometimes) or **Diffuse** (more stable, lighting-independent). 
4. Choose render settings and hit Bake
5. The resulting card textures are saved and automatically assigned to the card material. Curve - based hair asset is hidden in viewport.

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## 5. UE5 Exporter Module

### 5.1 Setup

1. In the N-panel, go to **Exporter**. 
2. Make sure you have applied UE5 Rig, baked material and that there are no unbaked cards
3. Hit Setup

### 5.2 Export

- Exporter will export model and card assets as FBX and curve-based hair assets as Alembic
- You can choose, if you want to join hair cards with Human mesh and if you want to export hair assets separately or together
- If you choose not to join hair cards with Human mesh, card assets will behave same as hair assets.


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