The developer of the Unreal Engine has presented a tool that allows you to make a realistic digital model of a person in a few minutes — MetaHuman Creator. The technology is not yet without the effect of the “sinister valley”, but it is free. We chose the main thing about the Epic Games project and gathered the opinion of the gaming community.
What is MetaHuman Creator?
The launch of the new tool became known from the official Unreal blog. As the authors of the engine noted, creating plausible digital human models has always taken a lot of time and effort. Epic Games’ new cloud-based tool should make the process easier.
MetaHuman Creator is designed to create realistic models in a few minutes. Now it can take from several weeks to months for CG artists to work on one model.
The tool will work on the basis of a data library, where variants of a person’s appearance and movements will be loaded. MetaHuman Creator users will be able to change the facial features and skin color of the model, as well as choose the right body type, hairstyle, clothes and even teeth.
In fact, Epic Games offers a constructor in the spirit of The Sims, but not for players, including game developers.
After creating the character, it can be downloaded via Quixel Bridge to Unreal for further animation. Additionally, developers will receive the source code of the model, including the skeleton, textures and much more.
MetaHuman Creator will be available in Early Access mode within a few months. It will be free for engine users (as long as they earn less than $ 1 million per project, otherwise – a royalty of 5%). However, two models created with its help are already available for review. Both can be edited and used in Unreal Engine projects.
Public reaction
The gaming community warmly accepted Epic’s initiative. Most Twitter users were laconic. Their comments most often consisted of one word: amazing. For example, Elon Musk wrote exactly one phrase:
It’s getting real
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2021I’m not a game dev – but this tool will be insanely helpful for me.
Но были и те, кто развернуто оценил нововведение. По мнению многих, с помощью MetaHuman Creator компания сделала огромный шаг в сторону новой эры. Дескать теперь, создавать по-настоящему реалистичные цифровые модели людей сможет практически каждый без больших вложений.
? | #MetaHumans and Dynamixyz
A new era has come for real-time digital character creation with the MetaHumans Creator platform by @3Lateral for @UnrealEngine. We are looking forward to showing you those MetaHumans brought to life with Dxyz facial motion capture technology. https://t.co/Ti9NJ21BMr— Dynamixyz (@Dynamixyz) February 10, 2021
Incredible – digital humans are here! With tools like this – will we really need AAA studio's anymore? #UnrealEngine4 #realtime https://t.co/74HxFAkRUN
— Sam Ibbitson (@samibbitson) February 10, 2021
Нашлись также люди далекие от индустрии игр, которые заявили — эта технология пригодится и им.
I’m a #fantasy #indieauthor and occasionally, I make my own book covers, promotional material, images and more. This program has the possibility to save me a ton in photo licensing fees and to be able to (ctd)
— Joshua Smith (@SagaDMW) February 10, 2021Seems you can only do very symetrical faces and movie-like acceptable characters.
Немало было тех, кто без воодушевления отреагировал на MetaHuman Creator. Большинство из них отметили, что инструмент не так уж и хорош. Лица у людей получаются слишком симметричными и пугают своей неестественностью.
Real humans aren’t as symetrical and aren’t as beautiful. Even old faces are fabulous in this tool.
These fantasized too-good-to-be-true models are quite unatural and creepy actually.— Nausicaa (@Nausipoule) February 10, 2021I mean, I think this will put the chase for realism to rest.
Некоторые предположили обратное — сервис Epic настолько удачен, что способен приблизить момент, когда людям надоест чрезмерная реалистичность в играх. Более того, воспользоваться им могут и люди с не самыми благими намерениями. Например, для подделки видео.
I wouldn’t say it will be particularly breathtaking personally, but it will be the end goal of the push for deeper realism. Once anyone can make deep realistic projects, it will lose its appeal.
— Crim Lust (@Cr1ms0n_lus7) February 10, 2021Okay, but I don’t have to use this.
I was thinking the same. And this have nothing to do with videogames or films, but imagine some kind of fake video that goes viral, like a crime, and people believe it is real. Or a person is actually in a video doing something bad and says that is fake.
— Quesvi (@Quesvi2) February 11, 2021
Встречались и высказывания, что идея пусть и хороша, но ничего радикально нового не приносит. К тому же, не всем разработчикам нужен этот инструмент.
I can model my characters as before.
It is a great achievement, but like all things in art, it’s just another tool in the toolbox.
Not all tasks are nails and the hammer is not the only tool one can use.— Marco Krieger (@MarcoKrieger1) February 11, 2021 I bought a Hyprsense studio specializing in capturing facial animation in real time.
Напомним, Epic и раньше активно интересовалась технологиями для создания реалистичной графики. В прошлом ноябре компания And in March 2020, she acquired Cubic Motion, a technology startup that also works with facial animation.