The more lifelike computer characters become, the more uncanny the resemblance.
With Epic’s upcoming Unreal Engine, game developers will be able to create and customize lifelike character models of people using software called MetaHuman Creator – which allows developers to fine-tune facial features and complexion of the skin and build from preset body types, clothes, hair and even teeth.
Some may find the MetaHuman Creator preview scary, but still, the uncanny valley of resemblance to real people is worth the drive.
With the new Unreal Engine you can create lifelike digital people
Unreal’s sneak peek video resembles another game called “Sims 4” and allows players to adjust specific points of a digital face, manipulate cheekbones or lips, or change the shape of the nose.
You can lift or drop the eyebrows and change the shape of the jaw and the height of the ears. Make-up is there for a reason, and even lash length can be changed. The program also includes a slider to manipulate the size and depth of facial wrinkles.
While many of these features are also available on ‘Sims 4’, the Unreal Engine breaks with its doppelganger by enabling cloud-based storage – meaning you can build realistic virtual people right in your browser, without the need for independent software ( such as a game disc or a premium computer processor).
Unreal Engine’s new character design pushes into the eerie valley
When you’re done, you can export your creation and download it directly to the Unreal Engine desktop app – and see how it looks self-aware. This is because the lifelike creations are ready to animate and work with motion capture in movies, games and a handful of other visual media.
And you don’t have to be a game developer to understand how much time this can save.
This new technology is so good at mimicking people’s facial movements that it almost slips into the eerie valley – a perception where humanoid robots or computer-generated faces look so nearly identical to the real thing that you’re about to be deeply disturbed by the experience.
The next decade could change the nature of face-based identification
If this sounds like your ideal night out, Unreal Engine has prepared two fully prepared character samples for potential MetaHuman Creator users. The fully loaded program is still in development, but should be released later this year.
Recent leaps forward in AI and deep learning technology are responsible for this new realistic facial modeling software, but AI also leads to better animation of whole-body movements – so subtly that a character’s lips can utter a sentence as compelling as a real. life of people.
Along with a recent graphics breakthrough – enabling developers to build CGI skin (and pores) – it wouldn’t be wrong to think that the deepfakes of the next decade could change the nature of facial recognition for goalkeepers.