ZenDyn Documentation / ZenDyn Quickstart

ZenDyn Quick Start Guide

This guide covers initial setup on a MetaHuman, presets, facial dynamics, Sequencer, and animation baking.

1. Enable ZenDyn

Open the Unreal Engine project.
Select Edit > Plugins.
Search for ZenDyn.
Enable the plugin.
Restart Unreal Engine if prompted.

Place a MetaHuman in the level.
Select the MetaHuman actor in the World Outliner.
Click the ZenDyn toolbar icon.

Choose how ZenDyn should be attached:

Select Yes to add ZenDyn permanently to the MetaHuman Blueprint. Every instance of that Blueprint will include the component.
Select No to add ZenDyn only to the selected actor in the current level.

Save the Blueprint or level when prompted.

ZenDyn validates the selected actor and prevents duplicate component attachment. If the selection is not recognized as a MetaHuman, the editor displays:

Please select a Metahuman Actor In the Outliner

3. Attach ZenDyn Manually

Open the MetaHuman Blueprint.
In the Components panel, select Add.
Search for ZenDyn.
Add the bundled ZenDyn Actor Component.
Compile and save the Blueprint.

Adding the component to the Blueprint makes the setup available to every actor created from that Blueprint.

4. Apply a Preset

Select the ZenDyn component.
Open the Preset category.
Assign a ZenDyn Preset asset.
Click Load.

The bundled presets provide a starting point for the selected emotion and procedural facial behavior. Each preset uses deterministic random seeds, so the same values reproduce the same result.

Use Save to write the current component values to the selected preset.

5. Main Controls

ZenDyn Enabled enables or disables the complete result.
Global Weight controls the final ZenDyn influence from 0-100%.
Face Enable enables ZenDyn facial processing.
Emotion Enable applies the selected authored emotion pose.
Facial Idle Enable adds subtle continuous facial movement.
Breathing Enable adds facial breathing behavior.
Eye Mode selects None, Random, or Input Pose eye behavior. Input Pose adds ZenDyn’s eye layers to the incoming eye direction.
Blink Enable enables procedural blinking.

Most specialist controls are grouped under Advanced sections in the Details panel.

6. Regional Control

The Control category provides independent weight and smoothing for:

Brows
Nose
Cheeks
Mouth
Jaw
Eyes

Region weights range from 0-200%:

0% neutralizes the selected region’s contribution.
100% preserves the incoming regional facial animation.
Values above 100% boost the regional expression from its neutral value.

Regional smoothing ranges from 0-100%. It softens changes in the base regional animation while Dynamics and Magic remain independently adjustable.

For dialogue, keep Mouth and Jaw weights at 100% to preserve the complete lip-sync pose. Control secondary motion with the corresponding Dynamics Strength, Damping, and Stiffness settings.

7. Add Facial Dynamics

Open Dynamics and enable Dynamics for the required facial regions. Start with a low Strength, then tune:

Damping to reduce continuing motion.
Stiffness to make the region return more firmly to the incoming pose.
Smoothing Amount to soften the resulting movement.

The regional controls can be tuned independently for brows, nose, cheeks, mouth, jaw, and eyes.

ZenDynMagic is disabled by default. It provides creative procedural motion and should be enabled deliberately for the required region.

See Facial Dynamics and Magic for the full control reference.

8. Use ZenDyn with ZenBlink

ZenBlink and ZenDyn can be attached to the same actor. Integration is automatic.

When ZenDyn detects a ZenBlink component on the same actor:

ZenBlink manages the shared Face, Emotion, Idle, Breathing, Eyes, and Blinking settings.
The corresponding duplicate categories are hidden in ZenDyn.
ZenDyn regional Control, Dynamics, and Magic remain available.

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

9. Use ZenDyn in Sequencer

Add the MetaHuman actor to a Level Sequence.
Add the required face animation track.
Add ZenDyn component properties that need to change during the shot.
Key supported strengths, blends, alphas, smoothing values, and enable controls.
Play the sequence to preview the incoming performance and ZenDyn together.

10. Bake ZenDyn Animation

Open the Level Sequence.
Right-click the MetaHuman Face track or its bound object.
Select Bake ZenDyn Animation.
Choose the output asset location and name.

The command records the evaluated face animation, including facial curves. It can also bake ZenDyn-generated animation when the Face track has no animation section.

The command appears when the selected Sequencer binding resolves to an actor with a ZenDyn component.

Although technically possible, baking ZenDyn procedural animation directly to a stock MetaHuman Control Rig is experimental and unsupported at this time. Use Bake ZenDyn Animation first, then bake the resulting animation sequence to Epic’s stock MetaHuman facial Control Rig if required.

Initial Checks

If attachment fails, select the MetaHuman actor itself in the World Outliner.
If the face is not updated, verify that Face Enable, ZenDyn Enabled, and Global Weight are enabled.
If the face mesh is not found, set Face Mesh Name to the exact component object name. The default is Face.
If dynamics do not appear, confirm they are enabled for the required region and that ZenDyn Enabled and Global Weight are active.
If lip-sync is restricted, restore Mouth and Jaw weights to 100%, then reduce their Dynamics Strength.
If a preset does not change the component, confirm a valid ZenDyn Preset asset is selected before using Load or Save.
If the bake command is missing, select a Sequencer binding owned by an actor with a ZenDyn component.