Roblox Dynamic Head Migration Explained: The Animation Toggle, Head Shapes, FACS Poses, and the 17-Pose Rule

Thu Oct 22, 2026 4:29 pm

Quick Summary

On March 23, 2026, Roblox converted every Classic Head and Face into a Dynamic Head. Nothing you owned was deleted, but every old face now animates by default.[1]
There is a user-facing toggle to switch facial animation off. It sits in the Head Refinement tab of the Marketplace and Avatar Editor, and it is also settable in-game through the HumanoidDescription.StaticFacialAnimation property.[1]
When the toggle is off, the head locks into the expression of the original Classic face instead of drifting back to a blank neutral face.[1]
Your avatar keeps the head shape and the animation setting you chose. The Avatar Editor also gained a Head Shape selector so you can swap between head shapes you own on one Dynamic Head.[1]
Your API code may need work. SearchCatalog and GetInventory return empty for the legacy Face and Head asset types, and classic assets redirect to their Dynamic Head equivalent through HumanoidDescription.[1]
Marketplace validation now requires a caged model, defined eye and mouth regions, and the 17 required FACS poses, including the ones that read as Joy and Sadness.[2][3]

What Roblox Changed on March 23, 2026

Roblox's first announcement on January 27, 2026 promised the conversion of all Classic Heads and Faces into Dynamic Heads. The work shipped on March 23, 2026, and the practical effect is a default flip rather than a removal. Every head you already owned became a Dynamic Head, it can now be found in the Heads category in the Marketplace and the Editor, and it animates unless you tell it not to.[1]

The company also said it would keep the original look of those heads as close as it could, including keeping accessory attachment points in the same place relative to the facial features, and that Accessory Adjustment stays available for manual tweaks.[1]

The one category that stayed put is Limited heads. Roblox says Limited Heads are still tradable and resellable, they keep the same serial numbers and the same quantities, and the schedule for selling Limited heads is unchanged. The company did note one exception: heads with unusual shapes, the Hex Head being the example it gave, stay paired with the face they were bought with, because other faces would clip through or break the head geometry. You can still use them with the original face, but you cannot swap a different face onto them.[1]

The Animation Toggle and the Head Shape Selector

Two controls arrived with the migration, and they are the reason most players did not have to give up the look they were used to.[1]

The animation toggle lives in the Head Refinement tab of the Marketplace and the Avatar Editor. Turn it off and the Dynamic Head locks into the expression of the original Classic face. If your old face was a smirk, you keep a static smirk. It does not revert to a neutral blank face. Saved avatars retain both the head shape you picked and the state of the toggle, so you set it once.

The Head Shape selector sits on the Details screen of a converted Dynamic Head. It lets you choose between the head shapes you already own without needing a separate head asset for each one.

For creators, the toggle is reachable from a script through HumanoidDescription.StaticFacialAnimation. The creator documentation lists StaticFacialAnimation as a boolean property on HumanoidDescription.[4]

Open the Avatar Editor and go to the Head Refinement tab.
Find the facial animation toggle and switch it off.
Confirm the face still shows the expression you expect. A smirk should stay a smirk.
Check the Details screen of the head if you want to change the head shape.
Save the avatar. Both the head shape and the toggle state are remembered.
Test it in a game that lets you wear your own avatar, since some games override the player's appearance.

What Broke for Experiences That Sell Heads

If your game used AvatarEditorService to let players try on or buy heads and faces, the migration changed what your requests return.[1]

SearchCatalog and GetInventory now return empty results for the Face and Head asset types. That means a UI that filters by those types shows nothing, and it is the single most common reason a head shop went blank after March 23.

Classic assets also redirect. When a player equips a classic asset through HumanoidDescription, the request resolves to the matching Dynamic Head instead.

Roblox recommended four changes for affected experiences:[1]

Collapse separate Classic Heads and Classic Faces categories into one Heads category.
Filter SearchCatalog by Roblox as the creator to return the full set of Roblox-owned Dynamic Heads.
Call AvatarEditorService:ConformToAvatarRules() before showing a player their avatar, so legacy assets get swapped for the upgraded versions and the right head shape is applied.
Use the new GetHeadShapesAsync() method to return the Classic Head shapes the player owns, then apply them with the BodyPartDescription.HeadShape property.

BodyPartDescription.HeadShape is the piece that carries the shape. Set the body part to Head, set the asset ID to the Dynamic Head, set HeadShape to a shape ID from GetHeadShapesAsync(), and apply it with Humanoid:ApplyDescriptionAsync() or Players:CreateHumanoidModelFromDescriptionAsync().[1]

Roblox also added a SupportsHeadShapes boolean to catalog API responses, such as GetOutfitDetailsAsync and GetItemDetailsAsync, so your UI can tell whether a given Dynamic Head supports head-shape swapping or is a plain Dynamic Head.[1]

What the Marketplace Requires Now

The head policy that drove the conversion is a separate document, and it sets the bar for anything you upload today. Every new head submission must include a caged model, defined eye and mouth regions that respond to blink and mouth open and close animation, and expression capability using a minimum of 17 FACS controls that visibly express Joy and Sadness.[2]

The policy is broader than it sounds. It applies to every head on the Marketplace, including heads sold on their own and heads included in bundles, and Roblox is explicit that this does not mean every head has to look like a realistic human, or that the eye and mouth regions need to look like a real pair of eyes and a mouth.[2]

The documentation spells out the 17 poses that a head has to include, and they are the poses the validation process tests. The list is LeftEyeClosed, RightEyeClosed, EyesLookDown, JawDrop, Pucker, LeftLipCornerPuller, RightLipCornerPuller, ChinRaiser, ChinRaiserUpperLip, LeftCheekRaiser, RightCheekRaiser, LeftInnerBrowRaiser, RightInnerBrowRaiser, LeftLipCornerDown, RightLipCornerDown, LeftLowerLipDepressor, and RightLowerLipDepressor.[3]

Validation is a separate step, and it fails if the head cannot deform at the facial landmarks for five specific actions. The documentation lists them with the control values that have to be non-zero, which is the most useful debugging table in the whole system:[3]

Action unit test	Control values that must move
Left eye blink	LeftEyeClosed = 1 and EyesLookDown = 1
Right eye blink	RightEyeClosed = 1 and EyesLookDown = 1
Mouth opens	JawDrop = 1
Happy expression	Pucker = 1, LeftLipCornerPuller = 1, RightLipCornerPuller = 1
Sad expression	ChinRaiser = 1, ChinRaiserUpperLip = 1, LeftCheekRaiser = 0.85, RightCheekRaiser = 0.85, LeftInnerBrowRaiser = 1, RightInnerBrowRaiser = 1, LeftLipCornerDown = 1, RightLipCornerDown = 1, LeftLowerLipDepressor = 1, RightLowerLipDepressor = 1

A head does not need a traditional pair of eyes and a mouth to pass. It needs a cage region that defines where those areas are, and FACS controls that animate those regions. Roblox also recommends including as many poses as you can, beyond the 17, to improve expressiveness.[3]

The conversion itself ran at a scale worth noting. Roblox says it worked across tens of thousands of Classic Face and Head combinations, that its documentation site carries side by side comparisons for around 500 of roughly 700 face decals, and that it partnered with Kestrel, a long-standing studio, to review the conversions.[1][5] The comparison page states plainly that its references are not final and are subject to change.[5]

FAQ

Will my Classic face still look the same?
Mostly yes, but not identically for every asset. Roblox prioritised matching the original look and kept accessory attachment points consistent relative to the facial features, and Accessory Adjustment is still available for manual tweaks. The company says it is still refining the look of Limited heads to match the originals as closely as possible. If you are chasing an exact match, the head comparison page is the place to look, and it is the page Roblox keeps updating.[1][5]

Can I turn the blinking off?
Yes. The toggle is in the Head Refinement tab of the Marketplace and Avatar Editor. Turn it off and the head holds the original Classic expression instead of falling back to neutral. Saved avatars remember both the head shape and the toggle state. Roblox also said it was working on a free animation pack with a static idle for players who want the static look, and the March 2026 update is the toggle rather than that pack.[1]

Do I lose my Limited head or its serial number?
No. Roblox says Limited Heads stay tradable and resellable, keep the same serial numbers and quantities, and keep their transaction history. The schedule for selling Limited heads is unchanged. The exception is heads with unusual shapes such as the Hex Head, which stay paired to the face they were bought with.[1]

What is FACS?
FACS is the Facial Action Coding System, a system for describing facial movement as individual muscle actions such as LeftEyeClosed or MouthLeft. Roblox uses it as the shared pose reference for face animation, and it is what the 17 required poses and the validation tests are measured against.[3]

My game's head shop shows nothing now. Why?
SearchCatalog and GetInventory return empty for the legacy Face and Head asset types after the migration. Filter by Roblox as the creator to get the full set of Roblox-owned Dynamic Heads, collapse your separate Classic categories into one Heads category, and call ConformToAvatarRules() before showing a player their avatar.[1]

Will this delete heads from my inventory?
Not on March 23. That update converted heads you already owned into Dynamic Heads. The inventory removal is a separate step in the head policy timeline, and it is the subject of the head removal topic already on this board. The policy deadlines have moved more than once, so treat any date you read elsewhere as provisional.[2]

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