Designing life-like humans in a video game can be a time-consuming process for video game developers, but the new MetaHuman Creator for Unreal Engine can make it a much simpler process. According to Epic Games, the cloud-based application presents a number of different options for creating “MetaHuman” characters, including hair styles and body types. Users start by selecting the predefined faces and then make adjustments. Once the user is finished, the creation can be downloaded via Quixel Bridge for use in Unreal Engine. MetaHuman Creator will be free with Unreal Engine, providing this technology to a much larger group of potential users.
A trailer for the app can be found in the embedded Tweet below.
Introducing MetaHumans – the next generation of digital humans. # UE4
Animation and ready to mocap, #MetaHumans will be created by you, using the new easy to use MetaHuman Creator.
Take a peek at this innovative tool: https: //t.co/oF9yUcNByn
– Unreal Engine (@UnrealEngine) February 10, 2021
Users will be able to animate these MetaHumans using a variety of different tools, including Unreal’s Live Link Face iOS app. Epic Games is also working to enable support from vendors like ARKit, Digital Domain and others. Animations created using MetaHuman can be used for additional projects, saving even more time for developers. An early access version of the program is currently under development, but a release date has not yet been announced.
If MetaHuman Creator really works as advertised, it can be of great benefit to developers and publishers. The development of video games has become increasingly expensive over the years, and the new generation of console is generating higher expectations from players. MetaHuman Creator can save an immeasurable amount of time, allowing developers to shift their focus to other priorities.
There are potential disadvantages, however. In responding to the Unreal Engine’s Tweet, some noted their concern that this could lead to some games having exactly the same human characters. This can quickly become tedious and lead to less creativity. It remains to be seen whether this will be the case or not, but it will be up to each developer to ensure the creation of models that really stand out.
What do you think of MetaHuman Creator so far? Do you think this will be of great benefit to developers? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk about games!