Hey, gamers and game developers! The world of video game development is about to get a whole lot more fun and dynamic, thanks to Unreal Engine 5.2's groundbreaking new feature, MetaHuman Animator. This amazing tool allows developers to create real-time facial animations using just a phone, making high-quality character animations more accessible and user-friendly than ever before.
So, what's the big deal about MetaHuman Animator? Well, it's all about democratizing complex character technologies, allowing developers to work faster and see results immediately. Animating characters at a high level of visual fidelity has always been a challenging task, even for the most skilled studios. In the past, 4D capture was the best way to create high-quality animations, but it required specialized hardware and weeks or even months of processing time.
Enter MetaHuman Animator, a new capability in the MetaHuman product that contains the essence of the 4D pipeline but is optimized to run on a single machine. This incredible tool can use an iPhone or stereo professional systems to create high-fidelity performance animation. The process is simple, quick, and can even use audio to produce convincing tongue animation.
During a recent tech demo, the team at Unreal Engine showcased how the MetaHuman Animator works. An actress performed a short scene on stage and the performance data was captured using just an iPhone! The raw data was then processed locally on the technician's machine and it was converted into high-quality animation in less than a minute!
You can see the entire demo here: