ZenDyn Emotion System
ZenDyn emotions use authored MetaHuman Control Rig pose assets. Procedural variation enhances the selected pose without replacing its emotional intent.
Included Emotions
ZenDyn includes 51 base Control Rig poses:
Affection, Alertness, Amused, Amusement, Anger, Anxiety, Anxious, Aversion, Boredom, Concentration, Concern, Concerned, Confusion, Contempt, Cruelty, Crying, Dejected, Determination, Disdain, Disgust, Embarrassment, Ewww, Fatigue, Fear, Fear 02, Frustration, Grief, Happy, Indignation, Joy 02, Laughter, Melancholy, Neutral, Outrage, Pain, Pleading, Proud, Rage, Raging, Relief, Revulsion, Sadness, Satisfaction, Shock, Skepticism, Stern, Surprise, Suspicion, Terror, Wonder, and Yuck.
Each emotion is supplied as a MetaHuman-compatible Control Rig Pose Asset under:
/ZenDyn/ZenDynEmotion/Poses
The component’s Emotion Pose property accepts one of these poses or a compatible pose created for the same MetaHuman facial rig. This direct pose selection is the standard ZenDyn workflow and can be changed in the Details panel, Blueprint, or Sequencer.
Applying an Emotion
- Select the ZenDyn component.
- Assign a Control Rig Pose asset to Emotion Pose.
- Enable Emotion Enable.
- Tune Emotion Blend, Emotion Blend Time, Emotion Alpha, and the regional weights.
ZenDyn Preset assets can store the selected pose with the component’s facial and dynamics settings.
Transitions
Emotion Blend Time controls transitions between poses and the release back to the incoming animation when emotion processing is disabled. The default is 0.5 seconds.
The transition starts from the live facial state. This allows speech, idle, blinking, and other incoming facial animation to continue without briefly returning to a neutral pose.
Deterministic Variation
Emotion Randomization Scale adds bounded variation while preserving the structure and direction of the authored expression. Emotion Seed reproduces the same variation.
Defaults:
- Emotion Seed:
33 - Randomization Scale:
25%
Variation preserves coordinated facial relationships and does not replace the authored pose with unrelated random controls.
Regional Controls
- Upper Face Weight controls brows and upper-face expression.
- Mouth Weight controls lips and mouth.
- Jaw Weight controls jaw and chin.
- Tongue Weight controls tongue influence.
- Other Face Weight controls remaining mapped regions.
The defaults protect dialogue while retaining a readable expression:
- Upper Face:
100% - Mouth:
50% - Jaw:
2% - Tongue:
0% - Other Face:
100%
Tune Mouth and Jaw with the final voice and lip-sync animation when a performance needs more or less dialogue authority.
Blend Modes
- Blend by Weight protects stronger incoming facial animation. It is the default and is recommended when dialogue is active.
- Override gives the emotion priority according to Emotion Blend and Alpha.
Interaction with Other Systems
Emotion works alongside facial idle, breathing, eye movement, blinking, regional controls, Dynamics, and Magic. Use the regional emotion weights to protect speech-critical areas, and use Blend by Weight when the incoming performance should retain priority.
Presets
ZenDyn Preset assets store the emotion pose alongside the user-facing facial, regional, dynamics, and component settings. Use the component’s Load and Save actions to apply or update the selected preset.