Forget “virtual beings”: the future of animation belongs to “metahumans,” at least according to Epic Games. The developer behind Unreal Engine has unveiled Metahuman Creator, a new tool that aims to facilitate the creation and animation of convincing digital humans (i.e. animated characters, but under a different name).
In a blog post, Epic described Metahuman Creator as “a cloud-streamed app designed to take real-time digital human creation from weeks or months to less than an hour, without compromising on quality.” The browser-based software will become available to select users within the next few months.
In the meantime, Epic has posted sneak peeks on Youtube, which demonstrate an impressive realism for real-time animation:
