Using MPFB Blender extension with TalkingHead

[met4citizen]

This issue is used to track updates and to find best practices for using the MPFB Blender extension to create TalkingHead-compatible 3D avatars.

The up-to-date documentation lives here:

👉 MPFB with TalkingHead

Use comments to share tips or workflows, ask questions, and/or suggest improvements. Or just subscribe to this issue if you want to be notified when the MPFB doc is updated in a meaningful way.

[met4citizen]

Status update:

• I updated my previously auto-generated ARKit, Microsoft, and Oculus viseme shape keys and contributed them as targets to the MakeHuman/MPFB community (CC0). They have already been published as MakeHuman asset packs, but ARKit+Oculus are also still available in this repository as a ZIP file.
• I implemented a new bone roll strategy in the MPFB2 project so that the existing TalkingHead poses and animations work better with MPFB characters. The current TalkingHead rig definition file (.mbfbskel) already includes the required configuration, but the code support will be included in the next MPFB release.
• In the MPFB2 project, at least two new features are being implemented that will, once completed, improve export to TalkingHead. One will enable the creation of a separate export copy without breaking the original design, and the other will allow refitting to the custom rig without any additional hacks.

Some of the above features are already in the MPFB2 main branch but will be officially released as part of their next release. I will update the main MPFB documentation in this project after the release.

Additional notes:

• One of the remaining issues involves materials. In many places, MPFB uses Blender-specific features, which prevents procedural materials from exporting and the fallback option is often not optimal. For example, the exported "GameEngine" eyes appear somewhat dull. A better shader configuration for GLB/Three.js is needed.

[ejjboon]

Indeed, shortly after your message, on 2026-02-25 version 2.0.14 has been released: https://static.makehumancommunity.org/mpfb/releases/release_2014.html with the Export Copy operation. And I also noticed the Visemes and FaceUnits blend shapes in the asset packs. Nice work and just what I need! It would also be great if MPFB2 could include the TalkingHead rig as a standard but perhaps in a next release?

[met4citizen]

I actually didn't notice that new MPFB release, so thank you @ejjboon for the heads-up. I have now updated the instructions based on the latest v2.0.14 release.

The TalkingHead rig will probably not be included among the standard rigs by default, but the maintainer of the MPFB project has already made several improvements to custom rig support. In the next MPFB release, the TalkingHead rig and weights will need to be installed only once, after which the rig can be used like any standard rig without additional hacks.

[ejjboon]

The new MPFB version 2.0.15 is has been released: https://static.makehumancommunity.org/mpfb/releases/release_2015.html