Epic’s new MetaHuman tool allows for realistic and creepy digital faces to be created

This new generation of gaming has given us a layer of realism we’d never experienced before. It’s not just good at providing ultra-high-definition animation, but also a level of photorealism that is that much closer to being practically indistinguishable from the real thing.

Epic Games showed off some of its new technology which it calls Metahuman Creator, that will allow users to create life-like humans and in photorealistic detail that is so close to the real thing, it’s practically scary. In fact, I dare you to watch this trailer and tell me that you’re not convinced that there could be human actors behind these apparently very digital creations:

That is an impressive technology that looks almost too good to believe. This comes after Epic has invested incredible resources into trying to understand what it will take to reproduce true human facial features in its graphics engines, as shared by Vladimir Mastilovic, Epic’s vice president of digital humans technology:

Up until now, one of the most arduous tasks in 3D content creation has been constructing convincing digital humans. Even the most experienced artists require significant amounts of time, effort, and equipment, just for one character. After decades of research and development, and thanks to bringing companies like 3Lateral, Cubic Motion, and Quixel into the Epic family, that barrier is being erased through Unreal Engine, and we’re thrilled to introduce MetaHuman Creator

There is no doubt that this is going to be the future of both animation and gaming, and could even revolutionise movies and other forms of entertainment in the way they can use visuals to create humans that otherwise might not exist. We could be seen the likes of Andy Serkis star as absolutely every character in a movie with technology like this masking him as an entire film’s cast. I’d watch that.

It may take a while for most machines to catch up to this kind of visual processing, but it’s clear that the uncanny valley gap is gradually becoming smaller. Perhaps that’s what the robot overlords have envisioned all along, taking over the world without us even noticing the difference.

Last Updated: February 12, 2021