The MetaHuman Creator from Epic Games is now available in early access.
MetaHumans are Epic’s attempt to bring lifelike humans into video games. As of today, the MetaHuman Creator is now available as part of an Early Access program, meaning that anyone can create their own create their own 3D human avatar for use in Unreal Engine.
Epic unveiled the MetaHuman Creator in February, which presented fully rigged, high fidelity virtual character models that can be used in real time in Unreal Engine. The character models, of which there were two available in the announcement demo, are incredibly high detail and look stunningly realistic.
The hair is a particularly impressive element — in many video games, realistic hair presents quite the challenge due to its complex and dynamic nature. The hair, including the facial hair, on the Epic MetaHumans looks much closer to real life than most standard video games models.
Shortly after the announcement, YouTuber ETR VR added VR support for the sample models released by Epic, allowing us to get up close and personal with the MetaHumans in VR. The models do take a bit of a fidelity hit in VR due to performance, but it’s still incredibly impressive. You can check out some footage captured back in February embedded above.
In addition to the two sample models that were available back in February, Epic is now providing 50 ready-made MetaHumans for anyone to download and use in Unreal Engine. They are available through Quixel Bridge, which should now have a dedicated MetaHumans section.
Will you be creating your own MetaHuman? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
