ZenDyn Documentation / Actor Component

ZenDyn Component

This document describes the user-facing ZenDyn component properties. Percentage properties use a 0-100 range unless stated otherwise.

The Details panel categories are ordered as follows:

1. Preset
2. Control
3. Character
4. Face
5. Emotion
6. Idle
7. Breathing
8. Eyes
9. Blinking
10. Dynamics
11. Global

Properties marked as interpolatable can be keyed in Sequencer where Unreal Engine supports the property type.

Preset

• Preset: Reusable ZenDyn Preset containing the emotion pose, facial settings, dynamics settings, and component options.
• Load: Applies the selected preset to the component.
• Save: Writes the component’s current user-facing values to the selected preset.

The asset picker supports creating a new ZenDyn Preset asset.

Control

Each region has a Weight and Smoothing property:

Weights support 0-200%. Smoothing supports 0-100%.

Control weights affect the base regional animation. 0% neutralizes a region’s contribution, 100% preserves the incoming regional expression, and values above 100% amplify its delta from neutral. Smoothing softens the base regional animation while Dynamics and Magic remain independently adjustable.

Character

• Metahuman: Actor controlled by the component. The editor attachment workflow assigns it automatically.

Face

• Face Enable: Enables ZenDyn facial animation. Default: enabled.
• Face Blend Mode: Selects Blend by Weight or Override for the complete facial result. Default: Blend by Weight.
• Face Movement Strength: Overall facial-animation strength. Default: 100%.
• Face Movement Blend: Blends ZenDyn facial animation with the incoming pose. Default: 100%.

When ZenDyn is used with ZenBlink, the Face category can be hidden so ZenBlink owns the shared facial pass.

Emotion

• Emotion Enable: Enables authored emotion-pose processing. Default: enabled.
• Emotion Seed: Seed used for deterministic variation. Default: 33.
• Emotion Randomization Scale: Amount of bounded variation added to the authored pose. Default: 25%.
• Emotion Blend Mode: Selects Blend by Weight or Override. Default: Blend by Weight.
• Emotion Upper Face Weight: Emotion influence across the upper face. Default: 100%.
• Emotion Mouth Weight: Emotion influence around the mouth and lips. Default: 50%.
• Emotion Jaw Weight: Emotion influence across the jaw and chin. Default: 2%.
• Emotion Tongue Weight: Emotion influence across the tongue. Default: 0%.
• Emotion Other Face Weight: Influence for remaining facial regions. Default: 100%.
• Emotion Blend: Emotion influence on incoming facial animation. Default: 100%.
• Emotion Blend Time: Time used when changing or disabling an emotion. Default: 0.5 seconds.
• Emotion Alpha: Final emotion strength. Default: 100%.

Low Mouth, Jaw, and Tongue weights help preserve dialogue and lip-sync.

Idle

• Facial Idle Enable: Enables procedural facial idle. Default: enabled.
• Facial Idle Blend Type: Selects weighted layering or override. Default: Blend by Weight.
• Facial Idle Random Seed: Reproduces the idle pattern. Default: 33.
• Facial Idle Speed: Controls idle speed. Default: 1.
• Facial Idle Random Strength: Controls variation in coordinated idle motion. Default: 60%.
• Facial Idle Amplitude Scale: Multiplies idle amplitude. Default: 4.
• Facial Idle Upper Face Weight: Upper-face idle influence. Default: 100%.
• Facial Idle Mouth Weight: Mouth and lip idle influence. Default: 47.15%.
• Facial Idle Jaw Weight: Jaw and chin idle influence. Default: 1%.
• Facial Idle Tongue Weight: Tongue idle influence. Default: 0%.
• Facial Idle Other Face Weight: Remaining facial idle influence. Default: 100%.
• Facial Idle Blend: Influence on the incoming facial animation. Default: 50%.
• Facial Idle Smoothing: Smooths the final idle result. Default: 15%.
• Facial Idle Alpha: Final idle strength. Default: 100%.

Breathing

• Breathing Enable: Enables procedural facial breathing. Default: enabled.
• Breathing Strength: Overall facial breathing strength. Default: 90%.
• Breathing Speed: Controls breathing-cycle speed. Default: 1.345.
• Use ZenBreath Curve: Uses an incoming ZenBreath curve instead of generating a signal. Default: disabled.
• Breathing Random Seed: Reproduces breath variation. Default: 33.
• Breathing Variation: Controls breath-to-breath timing and depth changes. Default: 15%.
• Breathing Inhale Ratio: Percentage of the cycle used for inhaling. Default: 36.5%.
• Breathing Mode: Selects Nasal, Mouth, or Mixed. Default: Mixed.
• Breathing Effort: Adds stronger visible breathing signs. Default: 25%.
• Enable Sighs: Enables occasional deeper breaths. Default: enabled.
• Sighs Per Minute: Average sigh frequency. Default: 0.3525.
• Sigh Strength: Additional sigh depth. Default: 51.75%.
• Breathing Asymmetry: Adds subtle left/right variation. Default: 4%.
• Drive Nose / Throat / Jaw / Mouth: Enables breathing response in each named area. Default: enabled.
• Nose Strength: Nose response strength. Default: 100%.
• Throat Strength: Throat response strength. Default: 80%.
• Jaw Strength: Jaw response strength. Default: 30%.
• Mouth Strength: Mouth response strength. Default: 60%.
• Breathing Smoothing: Smooths the breath signal. Default: 1%.
• Breathing Alpha: Final facial-breathing strength. Default: 100%.

Eyes

• Eye Mode: Selects None, Random, or Input Pose. Input Pose uses the incoming eye pose for procedural eye movement. Default: Random.
• Eye Aim Offset Left/Right: Horizontal gaze offset. Range: -20 to 20. Default: 0.
• Eye Aim Offset Up/Down: Vertical gaze offset. Range: -20 to 20. Default: 0.
• Eye Converge: Blends independent eye directions toward a shared binocular direction. Default: 5%.
• Per-eye Corrections: Independent left/right and up/down correction values. Default: 0.
• Eye Blend Type: Selects Blend by Weight or Override. Default: Override.
• Eye Random Seed: Reproduces random eye movement. Default: 33.
• Eye Random Speed: Average time between random gaze changes. Default: 1.5 seconds.
• Eye Random Strength: Controls random gaze range. Default: 80%.

Attention Saccades

• Attention Saccade Enable: Enables occasional brief gaze shifts. Default: enabled.
• Attention Saccade Interval: Minimum and maximum time between shifts. Defaults: 1.5 and 3.5 seconds.
• Attention Saccade Strength: Controls shift magnitude. Default: 80%.
• Attention Move, Hold, and Return Time: Controls the timing of each attention shift. Defaults: 0.1215, 0.3345, and 0.2625 seconds.

Micro Saccades

• Micro Saccadic Enable: Enables continuous small eye adjustments. Default: enabled.
• Micro Saccadic Horizontal/Vertical Speed: Controls movement rate. Defaults: 2 and 1.5.
• Micro Saccadic Horizontal/Vertical Strength: Controls movement amount. Defaults: 20% and 10%.
• Eye Smoothing: Smooths the main gaze target before saccades are added. Default: 2%.
• Eye Blend: Eye movement influence. Default: 100%.
• Eye Alpha: Final eye-animation strength. Default: 100%.

Blinking

• Blink Enable: Enables procedural blinking. Default: enabled.
• Reset On Disable: Clears an active blink when blinking is disabled. Default: enabled.
• Blink Blend Type: Selects Blend by Weight or Override. Default: Override.
• Blink Combine Mode: Adds blink input or takes the strongest blink value. Default: Max.
• Blink Random Seed: Reproduces blink timing. Default: 33.
• Gaze Shift Blink controls: Found under Blinking > Advanced > Gaze Shift. These require ZenBlink and remain disabled by default and read-only in ZenDyn.
• Blink Minimum/Maximum Interval: Range used to schedule blinks. Defaults: 2.3 and 5.6 seconds.
• Blink Duration: Total generated blink time. Default: 0.27 seconds.
• Blink Close Ratio: Portion of the blink used for closing. Default: 33%.
• Blink Closed Hold Ratio: Portion of the blink spent fully closed. Default: 3.45%.
• Blink Reopen Tail: Softens the end of reopening. Default: 17.8%.
• Blink Minimum/Maximum Amplitude: Generated blink depth range. Defaults: 90% and 100%.
• Blink Asymmetry: Maximum left/right amplitude difference. Default: 0.042.
• Blink Eye Time Offset: Small timing difference between eyes. Default: 0.0124 seconds.
• Drive Legacy Curves: Writes supported legacy blink controls. Default: enabled.
• Drive Pupil Narrow: Narrows pupils during a blink. Default: enabled.
• Pupil Narrow Strength: Pupil response strength. Default: 90%.
• Pupil Recovery Time: Time used to restore pupils. Default: 0.3555 seconds.
• Drive Eye Widen: Suppresses eye widening during closure. Default: enabled.
• Eye Widen Suppression: Suppression strength. Default: 80%.
• Blink Strength: Overall blink strength. Default: 100%.
• Blink Blend: Blink influence on incoming animation. Default: 100%.
• Blink Alpha: Final blink strength. Default: 100%.

Dynamics

The Dynamics category contains independent Magic and Dynamics groups for Brows, Nose, Cheeks, Mouth, Jaw, and Eyes.

Regional Dynamics

• Enable: Enables secondary motion for the region. Default: disabled.
• Strength: Secondary-motion strength. Default: 0%.
• Damping: Removes velocity from continuing motion. Default: 0.2.
• Stiffness: Returns simulated bones to the incoming pose. Default: 0.2.
• Gravity: Directional acceleration applied to the generated motion. Default: (0, 0, 0).
• Iterations: Simulation quality and stability. Higher values require more processing. Default: 2.
• Smoothing Amount: Softens generated positions. Default: 0%.
• Increasing/Decreasing Interp Speed: Controls smoothing response. Default: 10.

Regional Magic

• Enable: Enables the procedural field for the region. Default: disabled.
• Field Type: None, Sine Ripple, Ocean, Pulse, Noise Drift, Turbulence, Spiral, or Breath.
• Field Amount: Overall field strength. Default: 35%.
• Field Amplitude: Maximum local-axis displacement. Default: (0.35, 0.2, 0.15).
• Field Frequency: Pattern frequency. Default: 1.2.
• Field Speed: Playback speed. Default: 1.
• Field Spacing: Phase spacing across the hierarchy. Default: 0.6.
• Random Phase Amount: Deterministic variation between bones. Default: 65%.
• Random Seed: Reproduces the procedural field. Default: 33.

See Facial Dynamics and Magic for setup guidance.

Global

• ZenDyn Enabled: Enables or disables ZenDyn. Default: enabled.
• Enable Editor Preview Tick: Updates ZenDyn in the editor viewport. Default: enabled.
• Include Attached Child Actors in Editor Preview: Includes skeletal meshes on attached child actors. Default: disabled.
• Global Weight: Overall ZenDyn animation weight. Default: 100%.
• Face Mesh Name: Exact facial skeletal mesh component name. Default: Face.
• Debug: Enables additional diagnostic behavior. Default: disabled.

Component Events

• On ZenDyn Play / ZenDyn Play: Fired when component updates begin.
• On ZenDyn Tick / ZenDyn Tick: Fired on each component update and supplies Delta Time.
• On ZenDyn Stop / ZenDyn Stop: Fired when updates stop.
• Load: Native component action called by the Details panel Load button.
• Save: Native component action called by the Details panel Save button.

ZenBlink Integration

ZenDyn automatically detects a ZenBlink component on the same actor. During combined use, ZenBlink manages the shared Face, Emotion, Idle, Breathing, Eyes, and Blinking settings, so those duplicate categories are hidden in ZenDyn. Control, Dynamics, Preset, Character, and Global remain available.

No additional integration setup is required. Configure shared facial animation in ZenBlink and regional secondary motion in ZenDyn.