MetaHuman Creator, the groundbreaking tool that allows anyone to create realistic digital humans in minutes, has just released a new feature set that takes facial animation to the next level. MetaHuman Animator is now available for all users of Unreal Engine, the world’s most open and advanced facial animation tool.
A showcase of MetaHuman Animator: Blue Dot
One of the most impressive examples of what MetaHuman Animator can do is Blue Dot, a short film created by Epic Games’ 3Lateral team in collaboration with local Serbian artists, including renowned actor Radivoje Bukvić, who delivers a monologue based on a poem by Mika Antic. The performance was filmed at Take One studio’s mocap stage with cinematographer Ivan Šijak acting as director of photography.
Blue Dot demonstrates the level of fidelity that artists and filmmakers can expect when using MetaHuman Animator with a stereo head-mounted camera system and traditional filmmaking techniques. The team was able to achieve this impressive level of animation quality with minimal interventions on top of MetaHuman Animator results. You can watch the short film here:
How does it work?
MetaHuman Animator enables you to capture an actor’s performance using an iPhone or a stereo head-mounted camera system (HMC) and apply it as high-fidelity facial animation on any MetaHuman character, without the need for manual intervention . With it, you can capture the individuality, realism, and fidelity of your actor’s performance, and transfer every detail and nuance onto any MetaHuman.
MetaHuman Animator is designed to be easy to use, fast, and accurate. You can record your performance using the Live Link Face app on your iPhone, or use a compatible HMC system such as Faceware or Dynamixyz. Then, you can stream the data directly into Unreal Engine via Live Link, and see your MetaHuman character come to life in real time. You can also record the data and edit it later using Sequencer, Unreal Engine’s cinematic editing tool.
What can you do with it?
MetaHuman Animator is not only a powerful tool for creating realistic facial animation, but also a flexible and creative one. You can mix and match different MetaHumans and performances, and even blend them with other animation sources such as motion capture or keyframes. You can also adjust the intensity and timing of the facial expressions using curves and sliders. The possibilities are endless.
MetaHuman Animator is a game-changer for anyone who wants to create high-quality digital humans for games, films, TV shows, or any other project that requires realistic facial animation. It is also a great way to experiment with different emotions, personalities, and styles of acting. Whether you are a professional animator, a hobbyist, or a student, MetaHuman Animator will help you bring your vision to life.
How to get started?
MetaHuman Animator is now available for free for all Unreal Engine users. To get started, you need to download Unreal Engine 5 Early Access or Unreal Engine 4.27 Preview from the Epic Games Launcher, and sign up for MetaHuman Creator at https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/metahuman-creator.
You can also find more information and tutorials on the Unreal Engine website .
Resources:
- New MetaHuman Animator feature set to bring easy high-fidelity performance capture to MetaHumans – Unreal Engine
- Delivering high-quality facial animation in minutes, MetaHuman Animator is now available! – Unreal Engine
- MetaHuman Animator is now available – ProVideo Coalition
- Meta Human Animator – fxguide
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