Unreal Metahuman Creator was announced four years ago as Epic Games' effort to make it easier for video game studios to produce realistic-looking characters. Various updates have been given since its launch and it is now used for film production, TV series, animation and video game visuals that are difficult to distinguish from the real world.
At the State of Unreal event earlier this morning, the Metahuman update was announced and it is now fully integrated into Unreal Engine 5.6. Metahuman assets are easier to use in games using the Unreal Engine from now on. After focusing on realistic-looking faces for a long time, Metahuman has been updated with tools to better change the character's body shape.
Various body parameters can be changed according to the user's needs with the clothes you want to use will automatically match your body size. As an animator in university, the process of dressing a 3D character without merging polygons was one of the most time-consuming processes. With this new feature, animators and 3D model artists can spend more time refining their work instead of solving the problem of overlapping polygons.
The most exciting update is that 3D character facial and body animation can now be done in real time using a regular webcam. Actors don’t have to put dots on their faces or wear gimp suits with balls tracking their body movements. In a demo shown on stage, the resulting real-time animations can be produced with a time delay of just a few milliseconds.
Two years ago, for the Metahuman demo used in the video game Senua’s Saga, the Face ID camera on an iPhone that scans faces in 3D was needed to produce the same animation.