Epic Games Launches MetaHuman Creator to Generate Hyperrealistic Virtual Humans
Epic Games has released a new software platform for creating very realistic virtual humans. The MetaHuman Creator uses the Unreal Engine to make the faces and bodies seem more lifelike, combined with standard modern motion capture and animation tools, as can be seen in the video above.
Epic Unreal
The MetaHuman Creator can generate realistic virtual humans within a few minutes, each coming with its own hairstyle and clothing for further adjustment as needed. Real-time adjustments with the tool can keep the illusion of a real person going, whether in a film, video game, or another context. The whole process happens on a browser-based app to speed up the development process, and the characters can be collaboratively built online with Unreal Engine Pixel Streaming. Instead of programming, the process is more like sculpting clay. The results are not perfect but are notably more realistic than most seen on the marker. Right now, MetaHuman Creator is still undergoing tests, but it should be released at some point this year.
“Up until now one of the most arduous tasks in 3D content creation has been constructing truly convincing digital humans. Even the most experienced artists require significant amounts of time, effort, and equipment, just for one character,” the vice president of digital humans technology at Epic Vladimir Mastilovic said in a statement. ” After decades of research and development, and thanks to bringing companies like 3Lateral, Cubic Motion, and Quixel into the Epic family, that barrier is being erased through Unreal Engine, and we’re thrilled to introduce MetaHuman Creator.”
Virtual Being
MetaHuman Creator is just the latest player in the virtual being space, albeit one focused on the physical aspects, not the AI. The creations are way more realistic than what CoCo Hub or other virtual human creators are doing. CoCoHub offers a platform for people to build their own digital conference attendees by merging a vocal chatbot with computer-generated images on CocoHub’s platform. They are more cartoony in appearance, through with an AI powerful enough to engage and help real people trying to reach a call center. That said, an AI made with MetaHuman Creator might look realistic enough to fool at least some people for a while. That may be the route LG chooses to go next year with Reah Keem, a virtual influence LG showed off at CES this year by having her perform part of the keynote speech for the company’s upcoming products.
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