The studio behind Fortnite has unveiled a new character creation tool named MetaHuman Creator, and here are the results.
Epic Games has put together a new character creator tool to help developers bring their ideas to life, essentially speeding up the process of crafting individual humans in video games. It’s called MetaHuman Creator, and the faces that it can produce are so lifelike that you might have to rub your eyes and pinch yourself to believe what you’re seeing.
As far as we can tell, the only real giveaway is that the teeth don’t quite reflect light in the same way as the real thing, but other than that it’s incredible to watch such realistic characters come to life before your eyes.
Speaking to IGN, Vladimir Mastilovic, vice president of Digital Humans Technology at Epic Games, explained the designers’ approach: “We aimed for photo-real, but not strictly photo-real. With these assets, we’re not claiming to have crossed the uncanny valley. We are kind of targeting that sweet spot of being stylized just enough. So for example The Last of Us 2, they’re not fully photo-real but they’re appealing digital characters.”
According to Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri the characters are heavily customisable, as “users are free to change the textures, change the shading, exaggerate proportions, change the hair from strand-based hair to some crazy anime-style.” And best of all, it’s not just reserved for the professionals; he goes on to say that “if you have an iPhone and basic knowledge of Unreal Engine you should be able to use this.”
The realism of the character models, and the fact that the software seems relatively straightforward for developers to use, makes us excited to see the new tech in action across more and more video games in the coming years.
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