Epic Games, the developer of the Unreal Engine, has announced the launch of a new software tool (cloud-based and accessible through a web browser) for the creation of ‘photorealistic’ avatars.
The creators of Unreal Engine present MetaHuman Creator
But what is exceptional about MetaHuman Creator, as this tool is called, is that it promises to generate these avatars by reducing their creation time from the current “weeks or months” to “less than an hour”, without compromising quality.
These avatars will be manipulable in real-time from MetaHuman Creator, which will be able to work in conjunction with motion capture and animation techniques used today in the field of film and video games.
From Unreal Engine, they claim to be working to offer support for animation tools such as ARKit, DI4D, Digital Domain, Dynamixyz, Faceware, etc. Also, they assure that it will be possible to download models in Maya format.
In the words of Vladimir Mastilovic, vice president of digital human technology at Epic:
Until now, one of the most arduous tasks in 3D content creation has been building truly convincing digital humans. Even the most experienced artists require significant amounts of time, effort, and equipment, just for one character.”
“After decades of R&D, and thanks to having companies like 3Lateral, Cubic Motion and Quixel within the Epic family, that barrier is being erased by Unreal Engine.”
The examples shown so far of MetaHuman Creator in operation are striking for the quality of the characters generated, although any definitive verdict will have to wait for this tool to be made available to third parties sometime later this year.
If you are a designer or developer interested in receiving updates on the release of this tool, you can sign up on their website.
