For those who don’t know the tool: Character DNA, from Poly Hammer, brings MetaHuman DNA import, face-board animation and export into Blender, linking MetaHuman Creator DCC exports with Unreal Engine workflows through OpenRigLogic.
Free base edition
Character DNA’s base edition is now free. For Blender artists working with MetaHuman characters, the useful bit is plain: import head.dna and body.dna, animate the face board and skeleton, bake data, and write changes back to the DNA format. The public code is GPLv3. Installation runs through a Poly Hammer Portal account and extension server. One more account in the toolchain, naturally.
What the free edition covers
The free feature set includes rig instances, viewport options, the face board, animation and output. Facial curves from MetaHuman Animator can be imported onto the face board. Body animation can be imported onto the MetaHuman skeleton. Baking stores face-board and RBF-driven data as Blender scene data for simulations or export.
What stays paid
Pro keeps the advanced DNA editors: Backup Manager, automatic LOD Calibration, Shape Key Editor, Raw Editor, Bone Matching Solver, DNA Auto-Fitting and RBF Editor. The separate Character Control Rig add-on requires Character DNA and generates Rigify control rigs for MetaHumans in Blender. Pricing for Pro is $79 for an individual perpetual license, with team licences starting at $259.
Current compatibility
Release 0.10.3 adds Blender 5.2 support. Its release checks list Blender 4.5, 5.1 and 5.2 from blender.org, plus Unreal 5.6, 5.7 and 5.8. Platform support covers Windows, ARM macOS and Linux. The add-on is still marked as being in the final stages of open beta. Test it on duplicate DNA files and a throwaway Unreal branch before production use.
Why the plumbing changed
The MetaHuman DevKit starts with OpenRigLogic, which contains DNA and RigLogic libraries. The libraries are native C++ with Python bindings and use an MIT licence. For rigging teams, the useful part is the same runtime rig evaluation used by Unreal Engine, exposed outside the engine.
MetaHuman licensing currently places MetaHuman under the standard Unreal Engine licence: free below $1 million USD in revenue, with standard terms above that threshold. It also allows MetaHuman characters and animation in any engine or creative software.
https://www.polyhammer.com/character-dna-addon
https://github.com/poly-hammer/character-dna-addon
https://github.com/poly-hammer/character-dna-addon/releases/tag/0.10.3
