What is the name of your tool/platform/hardware you are presenting?

unreal engine character creation metahuman

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What is the URL of the tool/platform/hardware you are presenting?

https://metahuman.unrealengine.com/mhc

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Describe the primary function and technical capabilities of the tool. How does it contribute to building the Metaverse?

The primary function of Metahuman Creator is to streamline the creation of highly realistic digital humans for use in various applications, including video games, virtual production, film, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR). Some of the technological features are high fidelity character creation, customization, realistic face animations, automated rigging, real time rendering, and cloud-based services. metahuman contributes to the metaverse by changing the way developers create characters by allowing much greater detail and animation of the characters while saving months of character development time and can be implemented directly into any existing workflow.

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What are the technical requirements to use this tool (e.g., hardware specifications, operating system compatibility)?

You will need a Windows or macOS computer with internet access and a Chrome, Edge (Chromium), Firefox, or Safari web browser. You will also need an Epic Games account. To download your Metahumans, you will need to use Quixel Bridge, which is now integrated into Unreal Engine 5.

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Provide examples or case studies of how this tool has been applied in real-world scenarios. How does it solve specific problems or enhance projects in VR, AR, or the metaverse?

Metahuman can be used to highly realistic characters for video games. Additionally, metahuman can be useful to create film and television digital doubles and characters enhancing visual effects and storytelling. Lastly metahuman can create realistic avatars and characters for vr/ar training simulations enhancing the effectiveness of their training programs and learning outcomes.

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Is the tool open-source or proprietary? Discuss the implications of its software model on development and collaboration.

Metahuman Creator is a proprietary tool developed by Epic Games, the creators of the Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine is available under a proprietary license, but it does provide access to the engine's source code for registered developers under certain conditions, allowing for customization and modification within the scope of the Unreal Engine End User License Agreement.

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What is the business model of this tool and what are the implications? (ie freemium, subscription, one-time cost). Who do you think their target market or demographic is?

Generally speaking it is free to access and use metahuman creator for any of your unreal projects. Just like others products created with unreal there is a 5% royalty for all projects that use unreal after a certain threshold of profit has been reached. I believe the target demographic is animators and developers of all kinds.

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Compare and contrast this tool with at least two similar tools or platforms. What are its strengths and weaknesses relative to its competitors?

A few similar tools are z brush a digital sculpting and painting software widely used in the creation of characters and creatures, Make Human an open-source software for creating realistic 3D human characters, and Blender a free and open-source 3D modeling and animation software that offers powerful tools for character creation. Compared to those metahuman boasts the strengths of more realistic software, a greater ease of use, integration with unreal engine and access to a cloud-based service removing computational demands experienced otherwise. Some areas of weakness are limited customization compared to z brush or blender due to a potential lack of depth or flexibility, dependency on unreal engine can also be a weakness as users are locked into the unreal ecosystem, and lastly cloud service dependency can be a weakness as it places a reliance on internet connection and epics cloud infrastructure to use.

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Based on current trends and developments, where do you see this tool heading in the future? Consider upcoming features, potential use cases, or evolving technologies.

In the future I could see metahuman being the main tool used for character creation and animation. I believe the detail and reduction in work time the tool provides creates a great opportunity for this tool to be the centerpiece of character creation going forward not only for entertainment media but also for training and simulation media as well.

 

What was your experience in using the tool?

I thoroughly enjoyed using this tool. I was completely shocked at how realistic and detailed the characters I attempted to create were. I was able to launch the creator on my regular school laptop that isn't all that powerful so that was great and it was completely free. The level of detail and customization was something I had never experienced with a character creator and I believe metahuman will lead the way for character creation not just for video games but in general.

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Created by: Mikyle Troy