MetaHumans

Photos to MetaHuman

Scan-accurate head geometry delivered straight into your character pipeline.

Shortcut character creation – deliver MetaHuman topology straight into your character pipeline.

A cloud REST API that turns standard photos into a scan-accurate 3D head mesh in native MetaHuman topology – ready to drop straight into the Conform from Template Mesh workflow in MetaHuman Creator.

Try in Playground Read the docs

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The API

REST API, cloud-hosted. Output delivered directly to your destination URL or storage.

POST /v1/head

input:  3–7 photos (URLs or upload)
output: 3D head mesh in MetaHuman topology + projected texture
time:   minutes

What You Get

Geometry: Scan-accurate head mesh in native MetaHuman topology – identical vertex layout to the MetaHuman Conform Topology archetype. No retopology, no UV rebuilding, no surprises in the Conform workflow. Neutral pose, ready for MetaHuman Creator's Conform from Template Mesh.
Texture: Projected and blended from the input photos. Accurate skin tone and facial features – base colour included.

3 photos recommended minimum (front + 45° angles)
Up to ~7 photos for full 360° coverage
Any camera: smartphone, DSLR, mirrorless, production photography rig
No depth sensor, no calibration, no proprietary hardware

Applications

Photoreal Digital Doubles

Create a scan-accurate MetaHuman likeness of a real person from a standard photo reference set – no 3D scanning booth, no photogrammetry rig, no manual sculpting from scratch. Feed photos, receive a mesh, conform in UE. Done.

Automated Character Pipelines

For productions that need many unique characters – games, film, animation, XR – the API accepts batched input. Feed reference images; receive back a batch of production-ready MetaHuman-topology heads. Every output is in the same vertex layout, ready for downstream automation.

Selfie-to-MetaHuman Player Avatars

Let players generate a MetaHuman likeness of themselves from 2–3 selfies. The API handles reconstruction; you handle the Conform step and drop the result into your character creator. No scanning hardware, no app install – just photos from the phone already in the player's pocket.

Why It Fits the MetaHuman Workflow Natively

Epic's Conform from Template Mesh workflow requires an input mesh in MetaHuman topology. Until now, getting a mesh into that topology from a real person's reference required either:

a dedicated 3D scanning rig, or
manual sculpting and retopology, or
MetaHuman for Maya

KeenTools Cloud API delivers the mesh in MH topology directly from photos – removing every step between “I have photo reference” and “I have a MetaHuman-topology mesh ready to conform.”

Privacy

Photos never have to be retained on KeenTools servers. The ephemeral pipeline pulls photos from your URLs, pushes the completed mesh to your destination, and deletes everything immediately. GDPR-compliant by design.

How it works

Feed in a few photos from different angles. The API returns a scan-accurate head mesh with clean MetaHuman topology and projected texture – ready to plug into Unreal Engine's Conform from Template Mesh workflow.

No scanning session. No retopology. No cleanup. The geometry lands in your pipeline in the exact vertex layout MetaHuman Creator expects.

Use it as a scan-accurate base mesh for sculpting your own unique characters, or plug it into an automated batch process for a completely hands-free pipeline.

# 1. Open a session — returns an avatar id and photo upload URLs
curl -X POST https://api.cloud.keentools.io/v1/avatar/init \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "image_count": 5 }'

# 2. Upload each photo to its pre-signed URL
curl -X PUT "$UPLOAD_URL" \
  -H "Content-Type: image/jpeg" \
  --data-binary @photo-1.jpg

# 3. Start reconstruction on the session
curl -X POST https://api.cloud.keentools.io/v1/avatar/$AVATAR_ID/process \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "focal_length_type": { "focal_length_type": "estimate_common" } }'

# 4. Download the result — OBJ + texture, delivered as a ZIP
curl -L -X GET "https://api.cloud.keentools.io/v1/avatar/$AVATAR_ID/get-3d-model?mesh_format=obj&texture=jpg" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
  -o head.zip

Generate a MetaHuman-ready head

Try in Playground Talk to us about your pipeline

No hardware. No subscription. Start with a free credit allocation. Questions about batch processing or pipeline integration? Reach the team directly.